NEW Modified RSS News Feed Hack

Hack originally posted by: Xyphen - RSS News Feed Hack
Modified by: wolfstream - Modified RSS News Feed Hack

I am posting this up as a new hack because of the major changes made to how the script works. Also, I didn't want people to get confused as to which one to download since there were 3 different versions on the original post.

Xyphen released the original version, then wolfstream modified the script and corrected some errors. After that, I modified wolfstreams version to change how posts were inserted. Now the post count will increase, posts will be able to be searched, and similiar threads will work.

RSS News Feed Hack for vB 3.0.x. As long as vBulletin doesn't change the database structure much, this should be good for the next release also, and those to come.

Allows you to have a live RSS news feed (such as one from Google or CNET) in a forum. The user that posts it will basically be a bot, which *should* only be used for posting the news, but you can even make it for a regular user.

Comments are welcome! Support provided through this thread.

Latest Version:
- 1.26 - for PHP 4.3.0 & above
- 1.26a - for PHP prior to 4.3.0

vBulletin Versions:
- 3.0.0
- 3.0.1

PHP Versions:
- > 4.3.0
- < 4.3.0

Installation Overview:
- Files to edit: (2) /admincp/index.php, /includes/functions_newpost.php
- Files to upload: (4) rss.php, admincp/rss_admin.php, includes/RSS/class.RSS.php, includes/RSS/rss_update.php
- Queries to run: (4) in rss_install.php

History:
Version 1.26 (23 June 2004 - Slapyo, Natch)
- listing of bot's more intuitive (Natch)
- hopefully fixed duplicate problem (Slapyo)
- stripped html tags from title and description (Slapyo)

Version 1.25 (12 May 2004 - Slapyo)
- fix for &quot; showing up
- logs action in scheduled task log if turned on

Version 1.24 (20 April 2004 - Slapyo)
- posts now deleted with delete_thread function
- post counts updated when using delete all news

Version 1.23 (14 April 2004 - Slapyo)
- added ability to delete bots
- cleaned up includes
- fix for PHP versions prior to 4.3.0 calling html_entity_decode()

Version 1.22 (13 April 2004 - Slapyo)
- duplicate posts problem fixed
- fix for problem with ' appearing as \'

Version 1.21 (12 April 2004 - Slapyo)
- bot will not be subscribed to posts now

Version 1.2 (11 April 2004 - Slapyo)
- posts now inserted with build_new_post function

Version 1.1 (28 March 2004 - wolfstream)
- file edits taken down to 1
- cron script included

Version 1.0 (28 January 2004 - Xyphen)
- original release

Common RSS Feeds:
- Yahoo!
- CNET.com
- BBC
- Wired News
- The Register
- Ars Technica
- All Headline News

[rsuplido]

Anyone having the problem of the last entry getting added again and again?

[Intex]

Yep, I'm having that problem but only with some RSS feeds that I pull into certain forums. I think it might be something to do with the website itself and the way they are presenting the information. For instance, if they update the date of a particular news heading, it's classed as new by the RSS hack script.

Slapyo - I know you built some form of checking into your script. Is this based on thread title, date or both. I would recommend it's changed to search for the title, so a search is done beforehand on existing forum threads. That way, dupilcation could be avoided. Maybe when you've finished your studies .

[rsuplido]

Originally Posted by Intex

Yep, I'm having that problem but only with some RSS feeds that I pull into certain forums. I think it might be something to do with the website itself and the way they are presenting the information. For instance, if they update the date of a particular news heading, it's classed as new by the RSS hack script.

Slapyo - I know you built some form of checking into your script. Is this based on thread title, date or both. I would recommend it's changed to search for the title, so a search is done beforehand on existing forum threads. That way, dupilcation could be avoided. Maybe when you've finished your studies .

well, I tried changing that line to just check for the title and still I'm getting duplicates whenever the script runs. I was going to put this rss feature on live at my site but this bug just hinders me from doing so.

[Slapyo]

Originally Posted by Deimos

Hmm i've got a problem here
After it's all installed, no errors show up, but when I goto Enable the mod, every user (Including me) who accesses the forums shows logged in AS the news bot? And the forum listing doesn't show up AT ALL
If I disable the mod, it returns to normal................!?

did you make sure that you modified the files like noted in the installation file? i haven't noticed this problem with the script myself.

[Slapyo]

Originally Posted by Intex

Yep, I'm having that problem but only with some RSS feeds that I pull into certain forums. I think it might be something to do with the website itself and the way they are presenting the information. For instance, if they update the date of a particular news heading, it's classed as new by the RSS hack script.

Slapyo - I know you built some form of checking into your script. Is this based on thread title, date or both. I would recommend it's changed to search for the title, so a search is done beforehand on existing forum threads. That way, dupilcation could be avoided. Maybe when you've finished your studies .

the rss script which goes through and checks for old posts checks for the title and the date. i haven't touched this from the original script. but i do know that it checks the title and the date.

[Deimos]

Originally Posted by Slapyo

did you make sure that you modified the files like noted in the installation file? i haven't noticed this problem with the script myself.

Yep, I went through it all step by step.

[Deimos]

Ok hmm, I removed all the database entries, reuploaded all the files and tried again
When I enable the RSS Feed, I get this error

Fatal error: Call to undefined function: build_new_post() in /home/deimos/public_html/forums/includes/RSS/rss_update.php on line 103

Any ideas? heh

[Slapyo]

hrm ... i'm not sure. i'm sure that you did edit the files and upload everything to where it needs to go. but the only thing i could say is to double and triple check it.

also, do you have any other hacks installed? a while back someone installed this on 2 instances of vB. one was clean and one was hacked. he had a problem with the hacked one that we were never able to solve, and it was installed properly.

[rsuplido]

I decided to modify the program instead. I added a 'rss_url' in the threads table so I can use that as the key for comparing. I then changed the loop code in rss_update.php to compare each record via an SQL call, comparing the rss_url field. I also wanted a url column so I can easily do a news listing on my main page and have the link ready.

It's all working now. Thanks for this hack.

[andyhodges]

I am getting duplicates again... very annoying.. it's adding and adding... is there a fix for this? If so, can somebody post the instructions?

-Andy

[killervette]

me 2 ^

[Slapyo]

what news feeds are you using? the requirement from the news feed is there has to be a field <pubDate> in it ... otherwise it won't grab the date and it won't be able to check for duplicates since it checks for the title & the date.

post your news feeds that you are using.

[Bobby S]

Slapyo: awesome hack many thanks

I have a couple of problems:

with the feed from:

http://www.masshibsteria.com/home/in..._rss&no_html=1

I get duplicates. Viz your comment above is it because the feed lacks a pub date?

Also from this feed:

http://sport.scotsman.com/football_h...cfm?format=rss

some of the stories have an apostrophe "Hibees' strike stars will be battling it out for Riordan's crown"

and these stories are repeating and the ' is being replaced by

"Hibees&#x27; strike stars will be battling it out for Riordan&#x27;s crown"

Any ideas?

[Bobby S]

I should add, I've added 3 other newsfeeds without any problem

[andyhodges]

Originally Posted by Slapyo

what news feeds are you using? the requirement from the news feed is there has to be a field <pubDate> in it ... otherwise it won't grab the date and it won't be able to check for duplicates since it checks for the title & the date.

post your news feeds that you are using.

I am using: http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/celebrity

And it does have a <pubDate> in it. It's grabbing the same top story over and over again.

-Andy