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NEW Modified RSS News Feed Hack · **Released**: 04-12-2004

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 " 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

mirdin · #12 04-13-2004, 07:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PranK

The last one sent my server load through the roof - is this likely to happen with this one?

Thanks!

Christian

Not likely. I believe the old hack would fetch the rss feed every time someone would enter the forum.

For this one you have to set a cronjob.

jluerken · #13 04-13-2004, 07:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rocket98

Hi,

Very interesting hack. I have installed it but got this error when I ran it to see what it would pull down.

Fatal error: Call to undefined function: html_entity_decode() in /homepages/23/d95339147/htdocs/public_html/forum/includes/RSS/rss_update.php on line 70

Thanks

I get the same error
Fatal error: Call to undefined function: html_entity_decode() in /home/www/web1/html/forum/includes/RSS/rss_update.php on line 70

mirdin · #14 04-13-2004, 07:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jluerken

I get the same error
Fatal error: Call to undefined function: html_entity_decode() in /home/www/web1/html/forum/includes/RSS/rss_update.php on line 70

This function is only present in PHP 4.3.0 and later, which version are you running?

http://www.php.net/manual/en/functio...ity-decode.php

jluerken · #15 04-13-2004, 08:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mirdin

This function is only present in PHP 4.3.0 and later, which version are you running?

http://www.php.net/manual/en/functio...ity-decode.php

I am running PHP Version 4.2.2

And what now?

mirdin · #16 04-13-2004, 10:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jluerken

I am running PHP Version 4.2.2

And what now?

You'll have to ask your host to upgrade to a more recent version of PHP.

Or if you follow the link to the php function I posted before, it shows this code:

PHP Code:


			
// For users prior to PHP 4.3.0 you may do this:

function unhtmlentities($string) 

{

   $trans_tbl = get_html_translation_table(HTML_ENTITIES);

   $trans_tbl = array_flip($trans_tbl);

   return strtr($string, $trans_tbl);

}



$c = unhtmlentities($a);



echo $c; // I'll "walk" the <b>dog</b> now



?>

If upgrading PHP is not possible for you then you could try to replace the html_entity_decode function using this example.

By the way, has anyone managed to fix the double post issues? I have these issues with both yahoo and bbc feeds.

Acido · #17 04-13-2004, 11:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slapyo

http://www.sportsbabble.net/showthread.php?t=570

there is a link to a post made by my news bot and it has ' in it ... but without the leading \, what is the link to the rss feed you are using?

i just uploaded a new version that fixes the bot subscribing to the threads. it should no longer subscribe to threads. the change was in rss_update.php so you can upload just that file if you want.

i can't see what is causing the problem with stories being posted multiple times. on mine i don't get the multiple stories, but every once in a while. the original author included a check in the program, but it is obviously not working properly. the code for this is in rss_update.php. i will look at it more.

I'm getting multiple Stories too. The feed that i'm using is :

Quote:

http://www.lanacion.com.ar/herramientas/rss/index.asp?origen=2

If help, the fields: rdd_feed and rss_date in the thread table, are always empty :ermm:

I'll apreciate if you can help me to avoid duplications, triplications, etc... using the bot. I think that the filter most be based in the title of the feed only, but i dont know how fix it.

Thanx in advance !

Slapyo · #18 04-13-2004, 01:27 PM

ok, i think i have solved the problem with the duplicate posts. after acido mentioned that there were blank fields for the rss_feed and rss_date i realized that the vB function doesn't insert the new data.

so, to fix it i have uploaded v1.22 ... this includes the following changes:
- one more modification to functions_newpost.php (edit and upload)
- one fix to rss_update.php (just upload new one)

mharmon · #19 04-13-2004, 01:33 PM

On the Yahoo feeds located at:

http://news.yahoo.com/rss

Is there anyway to specify a variable in the URL so you can limit the amount of headlines it grabs? I don't want 40-50 news items appearing in a forum -- I'd rather limit it to 5-10 a day..

Slapyo · #20 04-13-2004, 01:40 PM

that would be up to the feed itself if they were to accept something like that. i mean i guess you could go into the code and change the loop so that it didn't loop from:

0 -> # news articles
to
0 -> 10 (or 5)

mharmon · #21 04-13-2004, 01:42 PM

Slapyo -- Where would I change that? Can you find where that it is and shoot it over to me?

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