How To: RSS Feed for TDT.com

**funky dredd** · 10-15-2007 09:29 AM

Hopefully this is in the right discussion area, if not please move it.

Are there any plans on implementing RSS feeds here? I was looking around and didn't see anything so I thought I would ask.

**Matt** · 10-15-2007 09:32 AM

I had a cute little mod going for current news Funky--it was pretty cool but then it caused an error and stop being supported so I had to remove it.

The forum itself has a way to set up RSS feeds in a forum, but I don't know much about it. I would love to use them though and this is the perfect spot to discuss it.

**funky dredd** · 10-16-2007 04:49 AM

I was thinking more for forums and not news. Have a look at this.

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=205960

Plus you can subscribe to any forum/subforum if you use multiple feeds.

**Mike Beck** · 10-16-2007 05:21 AM

what is this....RSS feed?

is it dangerous?

**Darkthoughts** · 10-16-2007 05:22 AM

I was just about to ask the same question

Well...almost the same

**Mike Beck** · 10-16-2007 05:31 AM

Whatever it is, I don't trust it.

Darkthoughts, you think it might be dangerous too??

**Darkthoughts** · 10-16-2007 05:42 AM

Not just dangerous but downright vicious!!

**Matt** · 10-16-2007 05:49 AM

Here is what it is you guys. There is a way (in vbulletin) for us to set up forum for live feeds from other places on the internet. They don't have to be news but can be stuff like entertainment, book reviews--basically whatever is broadcast. So its kind of a robot that posts relevant stuff from the net in real time.

I was thinking more for forums and not news. Have a look at this.

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=205960

Plus you can subscribe to any forum/subforum if you use multiple feeds.

I read that thread funky and it looks like what the person is asking is how he can use his forum to broadcast an RSS feed which is the same thing in reverse.

**funky dredd** · 10-16-2007 06:19 AM

Originally Posted by Matt

Here is what it is you guys. There is a way (in vbulletin) for us to set up forum for live feeds from other places on the internet. They don't have to be news but can be stuff like entertainment, book reviews--basically whatever is broadcast. So its kind of a robot that posts relevant stuff from the net in real time.

I was thinking more for forums and not news. Have a look at this.

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=205960

Plus you can subscribe to any forum/subforum if you use multiple feeds.

I read that thread funky and it looks like what the person is asking is how he can use his forum to broadcast an RSS feed which is the same thing in reverse.

I was looking at doing feeds from here though, not pulling feeds in. That way if I wanted to setup my client to monitor the collectors forum I could do that.

**Matt** · 10-16-2007 06:21 AM

Yep, that is what I was thinking you meant. I have been considering setting up the forum to generate a feed for the rest of the net and this would be a great test.

Let me research it a bit and I will see what I can do.

**funky dredd** · 10-16-2007 06:27 AM

Thanks Matt!

**Matt** · 10-16-2007 06:42 AM

Welp, the thing looks pretty easy. I have enabled the option for XML and RSS (weren't sure if we needed Java)

Here is the documentation on it, hopefully actually using it is easy

Enable RSS Syndication
This setting allows you to enable/disable the RSS 0.91, 1.0, and 2.0 content syndication system.

If you set this option to 'yes', you can call it by going to:
http://www.example.com/forum/external.php?type=rss
http://www.example.com/forum/external.php?type=rss1
http://www.example.com/forum/external.php?type=rss2

(example) There is a news-plugin, 'Good News', for Trillian which lets you use RSS feeds to get the latest information posted in your Trillian program.
Enable Podcasting (RSS Enclosure)
This option includes the first attachment of each thread as an enclosure within RSS 2.0 feeds. If the feed is requested with &lastpost=1 appended to the url then the first attachment of the last post in the thread will be included. This is the method by which Podcasting is enabled for your forum. iTunes specific settings are configures per forum in the Forum Manager.

The iTunes specific features will be only included if a specific forum is specified via the addition of &forumids=X where X is the forumid.

Enable XML Syndication
This setting allows you to enable/disable the XML content syndication system.

If you set this option to 'yes', you can call it by going to:
http://www.example.com/forum/external.php?type=xml

Thread Cutoff
This value controls how many days in the past that updated threads will be chosen from. Busy forums will want a smaller number. The smallest valid value is 1 day; the default is 30 days.

Cache Lifespan
This setting controls how long thread content will be cached. Valid settings are 1 to 1440, anything else will be treated as the default value of 60.

vBulletin uses a an internal cache system as well as a http cache to lessen the load of calls to external.php.

**funky dredd** · 10-16-2007 09:00 AM

Now you just need to seperate them so you can pick and choose which forums you want to be RSS enabled.
I had to fool with the link to get it to work so here it is.

Code:

http://www.thedarktower.org/palaver/external.php?type=rss

**Matt** · 10-16-2007 09:11 AM

Holy hell Funky, that looks cool as shit.

Great job man, I may have to look into other ways we can use this.

I believe I enabled the entire site so we should be able to pull any thread we like (I would think). I really have no idea how this thing works, but is seriously cool.

**funky dredd** · 10-16-2007 09:29 AM

The code that I posted above looks just to grab the latest new threads. You see older threads because this is the first time I did a sync. But if you seperate them then you can subscribe to just the ones you want (Calvin's Corner, Path of the Beam etc.). It would make it easier that way, just so you don't get flooded with everything from the board.

**Matt** · 10-16-2007 09:34 AM

Hmmm...I will have a look. Thanks for the PM funky.

It looks like we can do it by forum meaning "Calvin's Corner" --would we only want one thread from that forum displayed or the whole thing? Or say...first 5?

**funky dredd** · 10-16-2007 09:46 AM

Well it would be done by new threads, so any new thread would be pushed to the RSS. So if there are 5 new threads it would push those 5.

**Matt** · 10-16-2007 09:51 AM

That sounds pretty easy, I can do that--I am not sure I can boil it down to a thread but we can get it to only do the top five

**funky dredd** · 10-16-2007 09:56 AM

No I mean if I subscribed to Calvin's Corner and there was 5 new threads in Calvin's Corner on my next poll on my RSS Reader I would pick up those 5 new threads. Does that make sense?

**Matt** · 10-16-2007 10:10 AM

Kind of, I have a learning curve here.

So if you subscribe to Calvin's Corner, you get the 5 newest threads.

What I can't do, I believe, is feed from one specific thread...is that right?

**funky dredd** · 10-16-2007 10:21 AM

Correct on both.

**Matt** · 10-16-2007 10:35 AM

Great! I changed some settings see what you can do with it now and if that is what we are looking for.

**funky dredd** · 10-16-2007 10:43 AM

Do you have the forum id's for those that are enabled?

**funky dredd** · 10-16-2007 10:46 AM

Got it...give me a minute and I will post a couple.

**funky dredd** · 10-16-2007 10:59 AM

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