Author Topic: Can you enable your RSS feed? (Read 51343 times)

Gecko_R7 · « **Reply #15 on:** 22 Mar 2009, 02:03:33 am »

Quote from: John37309 on 22 Mar 2009, 02:00:42 am

Quote from: Gecko_R7 on 22 Mar 2009, 01:55:27 am
Try this:

http://lunatics.kwsn.net/index.php?action=.xml;type=rss;sa=news;limit=15;board=15

Gecko,
You done a wonderful job, its working great with that url! , well done!

You just need to post news items as new messages when you have a new release. I suppose tomorrow you can try add the rss icon to the front page and the extra bit of code for the browser auto detect if you like!

Looks good!

John.

Thanks John!!! Couldn't have done it w/o your help & "step by steps".

Yes, let's pick-up on the rest of this tomorrow if that's OK. I would like to complete the remaining tasks as you suggested.
Thanks again & until tomorrow.

Cheers!

arkayn · « **Reply #16 on:** 22 Mar 2009, 08:52:24 am »

I got it to work by copying an existing rss feed that I have in my bookmarks and then changing the feed URL to the new one., now I have a list of the last 7 releases.

Gecko_R7 · « **Reply #17 on:** 22 Mar 2009, 10:26:40 am »

John, I added a RSS feed announcement to home page. Would like to "pretty-up" w/ RSS feed Icon etc.

Let's finish other remaining items this eve.
Can use your help for sure

.
Thanks!

John37309 · « **Reply #18 on:** 22 Mar 2009, 10:45:26 am »

OK, just a quick question Gecko. Can you edit php files? Are you confident enough to edit them? I can give you instructions for where to put the link into your forum <head> tags.

If you are confident enough to edit the php files yourself, you can follow the instructions i give you here. If you are not confident with editing the php files, i can do it for you and email the updated php files to you!

Instructions to install the "Browser auto-detect rss feed" code if you are fimilar with php;

1. Find out what "Theme" you are using for this forum, i'm not sure, i'm not fililar with SMF.

2. When you know the "Theme", go to the directory;
YOUR-FORUM-FILES/Themes/YOUR-THEME/index.template.php

SMF comes with 3 themes, classic, babylon and default, so the directory might be;
YOUR-FORUM-FILES/Themes/default/index.template.php

3. Edit the index.template.php file and find a line of code that is similar to this;

Quote

<title>', $context['page_title'], '</title>

That line is about line 79 of the index.template.php . Just after that, add the following code;

Quote

<link href="http://lunatics.kwsn.net/index.php?action=.xml;type=rss2;sa=news;limit=15;board=15" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS 2.0" />

See how you get on with that much!

John.

John37309 · « **Reply #19 on:** 22 Mar 2009, 11:04:09 am »

Quote from: Gecko_R7 on 22 Mar 2009, 10:26:40 am

John, I added a RSS feed announcement to home page. Would like to "pretty-up" w/ RSS feed Icon etc.

Let's finish other remaining items this eve.
Can use your help for sure .
Thanks!

Here are 3 nice rss icons you can use. Copy them to your images folder on this website;

16x16 -

24x24 -

32x32 -

John.

Gecko_R7 · « **Reply #20 on:** 22 Mar 2009, 11:05:42 am »

Quote from: John37309 on 22 Mar 2009, 11:04:09 am

Quote from: Gecko_R7 on 22 Mar 2009, 10:26:40 am
John, I added a RSS feed announcement to home page. Would like to "pretty-up" w/ RSS feed Icon etc.

Let's finish other remaining items this eve.
Can use your help for sure .
Thanks!
Here are 3 nice rss icons you can use. Copy them to your images folder on this website;

16x16 -

24x24 -

32x32 -

John.

Ahhh.....images folder. That explains my trouble.

Now.....gotta search for the folder location.....

Gecko_R7 · « **Reply #21 on:** 22 Mar 2009, 11:34:46 am »

Quote from: Gecko_R7 on 22 Mar 2009, 11:05:42 am

Ahhh.....images folder. That explains my trouble.

Now.....gotta search for the folder location.....

John: Not having much luck. Know where I can find the right area on the site to upload these images? FYI. I don't have direct access to server directory this site is hosted. I'd have to be able to upload the image via forum/site admin controls.

John37309 · « **Reply #22 on:** 22 Mar 2009, 12:52:14 pm »

Hmmmm....

I have the rss images hosted for free in photobucket, your welcome to just use them as they are, it won't cost me anything.

The url for the 24x24 rss image is; http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n46/john502/rss/Feed_24x24.png

So i take it that you don't have access to edit the php files for this forum? If that's the case, then you can't add the browser auto-detect rss feed code.

So then you just need to play around with formatting your announcement message to add the rss image to make the message look fancy. The browser auto-detect is just an optional thing. As long as you always have your nice rss image on the front page, linked to the feed, people will see it and use the feed if they want it.

This is the BB code to use in forum messages to add the rss image linked to your feed. Click reply to this message to see the BB code;

*****************************

****************************

John.

Gecko_R7 · « **Reply #23 on:** 22 Mar 2009, 02:50:08 pm »

This sucks.
The RSS feed announcement I set-up on Home page is done via block comments.

Portal Controls > Block Mgt > Block Contents

From googling/reading I see that in block contents, one can only use block level tags?
Soo...anyone know image specific related tags, or a way to bring-in an image via block tags?

The typical methods that work via posts, aren't working @ block level.

Gecko_R7 · « **Reply #24 on:** 22 Mar 2009, 04:38:32 pm »

FIgured out a work-around : > )

Gecko_R7 · « **Reply #25 on:** 22 Mar 2009, 05:05:40 pm »

Quote from: John37309 on 22 Mar 2009, 10:45:26 am

3. Edit the index.template.php file and find a line of code that is similar to this;
Quote
<title>', $context['page_title'], '</title>

That line is about line 79 of the index.template.php . Just after that, add the following code;

Quote
<link href="http://lunatics.kwsn.net/index.php?action=.xml;type=rss2;sa=news;limit=15;board=15" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS 2.0" />

John.

I actually found this & have access to the index.template.php.

BTW...the rss I designated is "RSS", not RSS 2.0 in the previous set-up.

What is the major difference, or will work for most users?

arkayn · « **Reply #26 on:** 22 Mar 2009, 06:43:25 pm »

From what I can tell, it looks like it is working just fine.

Once I changed the FF applications in preferences for web feed to FF instead of it opening in iTunes.

John37309 · « **Reply #27 on:** 22 Mar 2009, 09:30:09 pm »

Quote from: Gecko_R7 on 22 Mar 2009, 05:05:40 pm

Quote from: John37309 on 22 Mar 2009, 10:45:26 am

3. Edit the index.template.php file and find a line of code that is similar to this;
Quote
<title>', $context['page_title'], '</title>

That line is about line 79 of the index.template.php . Just after that, add the following code;

Quote
<link href="http://lunatics.kwsn.net/index.php?action=.xml;type=rss2;sa=news;limit=15;board=15" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS 2.0" />

John.

I actually found this & have access to the index.template.php.

BTW...the rss I designated is "RSS", not RSS 2.0 in the previous set-up.

What is the major difference, or will work for most users?

If you have edited the index.template.php and added the browser auto detect code, i'm not seeing it or my browser is not picking it up in FF or IE!

Also, i don't know what "Block tags" are. But either way, if you are writing the announcement message on the front page in html, you need to add this to the <img> tag;
border="0"

You need border zero to remove the border from the rss image. I see a blue border.

The rss feed is fine.

John.

Gecko_R7 · « **Reply #28 on:** 22 Mar 2009, 09:51:03 pm »

Here's the current entry in block contents

<h3><a href="index.php?action=.xml;type=rss;sa=news;limit=15;board=15">

RSS Feed for New Optimized Applications Release News[/url] - Receive the latest release notifications as they happen!</h3>

The border="0" needs to fit where?

John37309 · « **Reply #29 on:** 22 Mar 2009, 09:52:01 pm »

Now for the next thing to improve the rss feed!

If you read the news content of the rss feed, the news is cut very short, the rss software chops the length of each news item to 255 charictors, or about 30 to 40 words. But you can change this in the forum admin panel.

If you read the very start of the SMF explaination message - http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=25009.0 , one of the first things it says;
"The "Maximum post length" value determines how many characters of a post are output in the feeds. The default value is (255)"

So in the admin panel you should change this value to something much higher, maybe 1500 characters or 2000 characters might be better to output the majority of the news announcement to the rss feed. You need to play with how many characters looks best.

The SMF message says you can ajust the setting like this;
Admin -> News and Newsletters -> Settings
The "Maximum post length" value determines how many characters of a post are output in the feeds!

Try change this!

John.

Author Topic: Can you enable your RSS feed? (Read 51343 times)

Gecko_R7

Re: Can you enable your RSS feed?

arkayn

Re: Can you enable your RSS feed?

Gecko_R7

Re: Can you enable your RSS feed?

John37309

Re: Can you enable your RSS feed?

John37309

Re: Can you enable your RSS feed?

Gecko_R7

Re: Can you enable your RSS feed?

Gecko_R7

Re: Can you enable your RSS feed?

John37309

Re: Can you enable your RSS feed?

Gecko_R7

Re: Can you enable your RSS feed?

Gecko_R7

Re: Can you enable your RSS feed?

Gecko_R7

Re: Can you enable your RSS feed?

arkayn

Re: Can you enable your RSS feed?

John37309

Re: Can you enable your RSS feed?

Gecko_R7

Re: Can you enable your RSS feed?

John37309

Re: Can you enable your RSS feed?