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

[Slapyo]

is your scheduled task is set up like this?

filename: ./rss.php

the other fields depend upon you, whatever you want to call it and whenever you want the script to run. but the file name should look like that.

[SnowBot]

Yep

[Slapyo]

wow, that's weird. it looks like it is just printing out part of the code from class.RSS.php and from rss_update.php ... but i don't know why it is doing this. lemme look some more.

[SnowBot]

Just a note, if i try and run the upgrade script i get this error

 Database error in vBulletin 3.0.0:
Invalid SQL: ALTER TABLE rss_settings DROP forumid, DROP userid, DROP source
mysql error: Can't DROP 'forumid'. Check that column/key exists
mysql error number: 1091
Date: Tuesday 13th of April 2004 07:30:18 PM
Script: http://www.synergyforums.com/forum/rss_upgrade.php
Referer: 
Username: Snowy

How would i unistall the script and then try running it again ? Maybe that may fix it ? ? I dunno, i guess im just guessing here now

[Slapyo]

delete these tables:
vb3_rss_settings
vb3_rss_user

modify the vb3_thread table, delete these 2 fields:
rss_feed
rss_date

** Note: the table prefix might be different for you, but my table prefix is vb3_

remove these files:
rss.php
rss_install.php
rss_upgrade.php
/admincp/rss_admin.php
/includes/RSS/class.RSS.php
/includes/RSS/rss_update.php

then download the newest version, 1.22, and install it. hopefully this works.

[ConqSoft]

Well, I just installed for the first time, using the latest 1.22 ZIP and I have a couple of issues.

1) I'm getting duplicates. Any ideas? (Using the Yahoo! News Oddly Enough feed only, for now.)

2) If a " is in the title, it shows up as &quot;

[Slapyo]

you shouldn't get duplicates. the newest version checks for duplicates. check your vb3_thread table and see if the bot posts have entries in the rss_feed and rss_date fields. i am using a yahoo news feed myself and don't get the duplicates. another person using the BBC news feeds was getting duplicates, but then says that problem is gone with the new version.

the function in the rss hack checks to see if the title & pubDate are the same. if both are the same, it is considered old.

PHP Code:

$rss_title = html_entity_decode($rss_title, ENT_NOQUOTES);
$rss_description = html_entity_decode($rss_description, ENT_NOQUOTES); 


that SHOULD take care of converting the &quot; to ". that is the purpose of the function according to PHP. however, if that doesn't work then you can insert this code just below the code i posted above.

$rss_title = str_replace(""", "\"", $rss_title);
$rss_description = str_replace(""", "\"", $rss_description);

[ConqSoft]

Ok, that fixed the quote problem. Thanks!

I'll let it run for a while again now and see if the dupes show up.

Thanks again.

[ConqSoft]

Ok. I verified that the rss_date field is being updated.

So, I went to the RSS manager and deleted all news.

Then I manually ran the cron job using the Run Now button in my scheduled task manager.

And it pulls in several copies of each message for some reason. The duplicates aren't right next to each other in the list. It's just like it pulled the RSS feed twice for some reason, and didn't catch the dupes. I dunno...

I tried it a couple of times with the same results...

[SnowBot]

OK i did all that, i run the task again and this time i DIDNT get that error but no post hehe it just dont like me i guess

[ConqSoft]

Nevermind. I think it's just the feed itself repeating articles.

Thanks!

[SnowBot]

Well the user i set up still has NOT appeared on whois online or posted

No db errors

Nothing, i have rechecked my install / file edits and everything is correct as far as i can see, just nothing is happening.

Any ideas?

Want me to set up an admin login so you can check ?

[dethfire]

I have my cron set to every 20 hours, however once that 20 hours comes around the script seems to run 3 times creating 3 sets of duplicated

[rocket98]

Originally Posted by Slapyo

ok, i have fixed the duplicate post problem. it now inserts the data into the rss_feed and rss_date fields. it should check the post and not post it if it is a duplicate.

also, i have included in the rss_update.php file a section of commented code. if you use a version of PHP prior to 4.3.0 you will need to uncomment this section out, and then comment the 2 lines above it.

I will try this, thank you Slapyo !!!!

rocket98

----------------------------------------

I am at a complete loss ... I was playing and playing and then I uploaded the attached file and for some reason I got a BBC feed immediately after doing a manual run, no dups nothing just a BBC feed with 30 threads.

I think this was from the original hack. I found it on hotscripts today when i was looking around at all things RSS.

I honestly don't know what is different from your edits to the original hack. No PHP problems to speak of. Not sure if this works for others but i tried it and it seems to go ...

Here is my forum

[SnowBot]

over an hour later and still nothing..... im at a loss now