php script to create RSS-feed

sgthayes · #1 Oct 9th 2005, 2:56 pm

I use this piece of code to create the rss-feeds on my sites. I want to share this with you all as I have learned a lot from these boards and want to give something back.

the code :

php Code:

class RSSFeed {
// VARIABLES
    // channel vars
    var $channel_url;
    var $channel_title;
    var $channel_description;
    var $channel_lang;
    var $channel_copyright;
    var $channel_date;
    var $channel_creator;
    var $channel_subject;   
    // image
    var $image_url;
    // items
    var $items = array();
    var $nritems;
    
// FUNCTIONS
    // constructor
    function RSSFeed() {
         $this->nritems=0;
        $this->channel_url='';
        $this->channel_title='';
        $this->channel_description='';
        $this->channel_lang='';
        $this->channel_copyright='';
        $this->channel_date='';
        $this->channel_creator='';
        $this->channel_subject='';
        $this->image_url='';
    }   
    // set channel vars
    function SetChannel($url, $title, $description, $lang, $copyright, $creator, $subject) {
        $this->channel_url=$url;
        $this->channel_title=$title;
        $this->channel_description=$description;
        $this->channel_lang=$lang;
        $this->channel_copyright=$copyright;
        $this->channel_date=date("Y-m-d").'T'.date("H:i:s").'+01:00';
        $this->channel_creator=$creator;
        $this->channel_subject=$subject;
    }
    // set image
    function SetImage($url) {
        $this->image_url=$url;  
    }
    // set item
    function SetItem($url, $title, $description) {
        $this->items[$this->nritems]['url']=$url;
        $this->items[$this->nritems]['title']=$title;
        $this->items[$this->nritems]['description']=$description;
        $this->nritems++;   
    }
    // output feed
    function Output() {
        $output =  '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>'."\n";
        $output .= '<rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" xmlns="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" xmlns:taxo="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/taxonomy/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:syn="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:admin="http://webns.net/mvcb/" xmlns:feedburner="http://rssnamespace.org/feedburner/ext/1.0">'."\n";
        $output .= '<channel rdf:about="'.$this->channel_url.'">'."\n";
        $output .= '<title>'.$this->channel_title.'</title>'."\n";
        $output .= '<link>'.$this->channel_url.'</link>'."\n";
        $output .= '<description>'.$this->channel_description.'</description>'."\n";
        $output .= '<dc:language>'.$this->channel_lang.'</dc:language>'."\n";
        $output .= '<dc:rights>'.$this->channel_copyright.'</dc:rights>'."\n";
        $output .= '<dc:date>'.$this->channel_date.'</dc:date>'."\n";
        $output .= '<dc:creator>'.$this->channel_creator.'</dc:creator>'."\n";
        $output .= '<dc:subject>'.$this->channel_subject.'</dc:subject>'."\n";

        $output .= '<items>'."\n";
        $output .= '<rdf:Seq>';
        for($k=0; $k<$this->nritems; $k++) {
            $output .= '<rdf:li rdf:resource="'.$this->items[$k]['url'].'"/>'."\n"; 
        };    
        $output .= '</rdf:Seq>'."\n";
        $output .= '</items>'."\n";
        $output .= '<image rdf:resource="'.$this->image_url.'"/>'."\n";
        $output .= '</channel>'."\n";
        for($k=0; $k<$this->nritems; $k++) {
            $output .= '<item rdf:about="'.$this->items[$k]['url'].'">'."\n";
            $output .= '<title>'.$this->items[$k]['title'].'</title>'."\n";
            $output .= '<link>'.$this->items[$k]['url'].'</link>'."\n";
            $output .= '<description>'.$this->items[$k]['description'].'</description>'."\n";
            $output .= '<feedburner:origLink>'.$this->items[$k]['url'].'</feedburner:origLink>'."\n";
            $output .= '</item>'."\n";  
        };
        $output .= '</rdf:RDF>'."\n";
        return $output;
    }
};

You would use it like this :

php Code:

$myfeed = new RSSFeed();
$myfeed->SetChannel('http://www.mysite.com/xml.rss',
          'My feed name',
                  'My feed description',
          'en-us',
          'My copyright text',
                  'me',
          'my subject');
$myfeed->SetImage('http://www.mysite.com/mylogo.jpg');
$myfeed->SetItem('http://www.mysite.com/article.php?id=bla',
                'name',
                'description');
....
echo $myfeed->output();

I have a cron script that runs every now and then that writes the output to a an xml file. I ran it through a feed validator and it validates.

I hope this might be useful to somebody. Do with it what you will.

netaddict · #2 Oct 10th 2005, 12:51 pm

It looks impressive

Can we have a live example using this script?

Dread · #3 Oct 10th 2005, 5:51 pm

I'll certinly give it a go.

Connect · #4 Oct 11th 2005, 4:22 am

This is cool. Have been looking for something like this. Thanks for sharing.

sgthayes · #5 Oct 18th 2005, 2:11 pm

Quote:

Can we have a live example using this script?

My cooking site uses this script to generate it's feed. Have a look at http://www.zucchini.be/rss.xml (it's in dutch)

webdesigners123 · #6 Oct 26th 2005, 2:43 am

we will try it also ! very impressive !!!

Shoemoney · #7 Oct 26th 2005, 2:44 am

I highly recomend magpie rss. It has built in cacheing and other neato tools

webdesigners123 · #8 Oct 26th 2005, 2:57 am

where it can be found ?

sgthayes · #9 Oct 26th 2005, 3:07 am

Magpie can be found at http://magpierss.sourceforge.net/
It is used to parse an rss-feed. It does not create rss feeds.
I use it on my news site. It is indeed very good.

Shoemoney · #10 Oct 26th 2005, 3:27 am

ahhhhh sorry maybe magpie is not the solution here... my bad

webdesigners123 · #11 Oct 26th 2005, 3:27 am

Thank you for the link

onedollar · #12 Oct 26th 2005, 3:43 am

sgthayes,

how does a static website create a rss feed from your code above ?

smo · #13 Oct 28th 2005, 5:06 am

I think you have to add titles , description etc manually in the second part of the script.

sgthayes · #14 Oct 28th 2005, 8:09 am

Yep, if your site is static you'll have to add the items manually OR you could make a script that parses the directory where your static files are, then open each file and use the <title> tag for instance as the title of the feeditem and add them this way. Depends on how much static files there are and how frequently you create new ones.

smo · #15 Oct 29th 2005, 6:04 am

I use mysql table and add title, url , desc and date by using a form. So when ever I add content to my site I use that form and store these info in the table. Then another page creates the rss.xml page out of this table info by taking the last 5 new entries, it also creates another JavaScript feed with the records.

As I don't add more than 4 or 5 pages in a week so easy for me to handle this way.

DPTony · #16 Oct 29th 2005, 8:02 am

Looks nice my friend.

bingbong · #17 Nov 7th 2006, 1:23 pm

hi, I'm not taht good with php yet, can you post these files to download please? can how did you write the corn job? it will be very very helpful!

thanks