RSS Output Mod & Icon

The code modifications make a simple change to external.php to explode a list of child forums in addition to some quick template changes to provide a common button for users to click to see the RSS feed.

1) at the Forum Home level, the xml link when clicked, produces an RSS feed for all threads in all forums. No changes made to external.php for this to work.

2) at the Sub-Forum level, the xml link when clicked, produces an RSS feed for all threads in the listed sub-forums. external.php is changed to explode the list of child forums.

3) at the Forum level, the xml link when clicked, produces an RSS feed only to threads in the that forum. No changes made to external.php for this to work.

I’m using this on an internal forum and have not had any problems. But your mileage may vary. Let me know what you think and if it works for you or not.

I've uploaded the rss.gif file that I'm using.

-paul

[7 June 2004 - re uploaded - small doc changes - no code changes]
[8 June 2004 - re uploaded - Natch's code changes, two options now available]

[Acido]

Excellent

*Clicks install*

Thanx

[Vivi Ornitier]

so confused, how about a screenshot lol?

[MediaHound]

Cool, do you have the images too?
Or do I have them already in my working dirs?
If not, do you have any nice ones?
Anyway, I'm going to install it now, it seems like what I was looking for... I'll report back
Many thanks,
MH

****
Self edit - images now added. Kindly disregard this post.

[MediaHound]

Welahhh

1. Looks like a table on my homepage index got thrown off slightly. The other forum pages (forumdisplay) look ok though.
2. So when I click the rss image I used, I get XML Parsing Error: syntax error

XML Parsing Error: syntax error
Location: http://forum.free-templates.com/external.php?type=RSS2
Line Number 1, Column 31:<?xml version="1.0" encoding=""?>
------------------------------^


For what it's worth, thats the first time XML Parsing Error: syntax error was typed here!
Beam me up Scotty!

Any suggestions?

Thanks man,

MH

[MediaHound]

I'm no expert but I think a colspan needs to be fixed on the forum home. If you know where it goes, that'd be great.

still trying to find out why I get the parsing error.

[MediaHound]

I'm getting close.
And only continuing to post here because I know this will be a hot one as the years fly by. If it happened to me, maybe I can help the ones after me..

So, I think I need to roll some dice and pick a charset. This is what I came up with after a very quick search:
I like international standards. But it's not up to me. Is there a best choice out of this list for what I'm doing here? I'm really no expert, I keep telling people.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="windows-1252"?>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16"?>

I'll be back!

[MediaHound]

Here's whats going on over there:
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=106696

[MediaHound]

Fixed it.
I went into my admin and simply pasted
ISO-8859-1
in my
HTML Character Set
This is the value of the 'charset' attribute for the HTML content type setting in the 'headinclude' template.<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" />

For some reason, this was missing in my board.
A developer at vbulletin.com said this has happened a few times now.
My installed hacks include the arcade hack and the new user welcome PM. Maybe something along the lines fudged it up.

So for anyone considering this hack, its a great hack and no worries.
Hope it goes smoothly for you.

Many thanks

[fluent]

I get back to the office this morning and all this activity took place

@ Vivi Ornitier

Screen shot uploaded


@ MediaHound

I figured, there were a ton of RSS icons available all over the net. Some have rounded corners, some are square, and not everyone might like the one I picked.

Here are some resources for free XML icons:

http://www.graphicpush.com/archives/000035.shtml
http://www.antipixel.com/blog/archiv...e_buttons.html

As for the XML error, I'm glad you found the fix, I had the same error and forgot to mention it in the install docs. I figured it was one of those things that I should have read the manual on

I'll add this to the install docs:
Add this to in the admincp if you get XML encoding errors:

Language Manager -> Edit -> HTML Character Set -> ISO-8859-1

[MediaHound]

We're in it together.

So the XML error is taken care of on my site. Good for that.

But my forumhome is still a bit skewed.
Adding a new column above the forums, where the xml icon goes, altered the columns of the page.
Take a look at http://forum.free-templates.com and see what I mean.

If you know the fix would be great to post it here as others will need it too.
If you cant see it, post here and let me know I'll provide a screenshot with an arrow pointing at it.

Many thanks,

Jarred

[Natch]

I actually decided to alter this for my own benefit ...

Look for:

	<td class="thead" width="100%" align="$stylevar[left]">$vbphrase[forum]</td>

Re-place with the following:

	<td class="thead" width="100%" align="$stylevar[left]">$vbphrase[forum]
	<!-- RSS ICON -->
		<a href="external.php?type=RSS2" style="float:right">
			<img src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/rss.gif" alt="Subscribe to XML RSS for all Threads in all Forums" border="0" />
		</a>
	<!-- / RSS ICON -->
	</td>

And apply the same change to all other cells - what you are doing is moving the RSS image into the previous cell, and retaining the Forum spacings ...

Example - http://www.mobileforces.org/forums/

[fluent]

Thanks for the corrections! I'll update and upload the changes in a little bit, but here is what I've ended up going with.

[MediaHound]

Fluent, could you give those of us that installed it already a step by step to fix the problem?

[MediaHound]

Ahh its fine now.
All I did was remove the new td, and moved the existing closing td tag to after the image, and its fine.
Added natches style="float:right" to the image and it looks great.

I'm really no expert.
Anyway, thanks for everything.