RSS Feed...

This may sound stupid, but how can I make an RSS feed work on my html site. I tried putting a code on my index page, but it shows the code as text on the page... Any help and/or step by step instructions on how to set this up would be much appreciated.

 

im not sure how to do this this but you might need to do the feed in xml somehow.

 

I posted php code that does the trick some time ago. Its cut and paste so really easy.

I will post the link to the thread if I am able to find it
Edit*

Here you go mate:

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=7354

 

Thanks, and do I just copy it directly into my html??

 

Get Carp RSS Reader for free and you can have an RFC complient RSS reader that is going to cache the feeds. You can use the carp php reader on an HTML page by putting this in your .htaccess file.

AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .html

 

Just ask your hosting company to enable PHP for that site (if it isnt already), then yes you can

I am guessing that you are a newbie, which if thats the case, I would be careful messing with your .htaccess file like the previous poster suggested. You may be better off telling your host you want to use a piece of php code and have them make the changes for you.

 

Ok, so we'll get technical.

The app the gentleman published above is not RSS compliant and should not be used under any circumstances. It's rude to hit someones newsfeeds everytime someone hits your page. The RSS server can ban you from their services for abusing their feeds with apps like this. Further more, the app uses fopen and there is no timeout function to insure the user is not just sitting there watching their browser spin if the feed is unavailable for some reason. I could go on and on, but you should read the RSS Spec instead.

Editing your .htaccess file will be necessary to run carp, a properly coded and RFC compliant RSS reader, or the home grown example that is being mentioned which is not RCF compliant.

The publisher of the code did not bother to code the app properly and did not answer your question correctly when he failed to recognize that you asked for this to be on a HTML page. The .htaccess edit would be necessary in either case for php code to run in an HTML page. :/

There are many many free Spec compliant RSS readers available. There is no need to use a home grown half baked non compliant reader.

RSS 2.0 Specification

RSS Feed States

 

I use a very useful and free tool for rendering RSS feeds as simple JavaScript for easy syndication. You just have to give your RSS feed URL and select few options (like number of posts you want, complete description or only title etc.)...I would like you to help you out by directing to that rss feed tool page .. let me know if it helps.

It helped me a lot. I used the same tool for my http://stockmarket.cjb.net website about stocks. I write two blogs about different topics at http://stockmarketindia.blogspot.com and http://dalaalstreet.blogspot.com ... I update those blogs and the website picks up those posts... It really really helped me a lot. Because I have my site blocked by websense in office (cause its under webhosting category due to cjb.net and blogspot is open.. so updating blogs helps me to update my website )

 

That's nice, puts the load of caching on the other guy. The benefit to them is a link to them if ya use it.

Carp can make javascript for ya on your server. Still need the php hook however.

The post makes a good point that there are good options available though.

 

Thanks for all of your suggestions.... I really appreciate the help and not treating me like "just another noob"! Very helpful info... and I was wondering exactly how to edit the .htaccess file. I checked that link, and maybe I don't know what I'm looking for, but I couldn't find what I needed to do to the code. Great tool you found Maverick... that sure makes it easy for a noob like me....

 

If you have not configured any options for your site, your may not have a .htaccess file. You can put one in the folder of the html file your want treated like a php file by doing this...

http://www.washington.edu/computing/web/publishing/htaccess.html

http://www.rocketsupport.com/index.php?page=index_v2&id=133&c=19

http://www.freewebmasterhelp.com/tutorials/htaccess/

You need a one line file with this in it. I'm pretty sure apache web server is assumed.

AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .html

Code (markup):

Or to just add that one line to any existing .htaccess file.

 

Thank you guys so much for your help!! I just got the RSS feed up.. let me know what you think.. http://www.dontoverspend.com Oh, Maverick... I love that tool you put a link to... it's great! This is slightly off topic, but since I started the thread I can probably get away with it, I was wondering if with an affiliate banner, if I take all the code other than the image and put the code as a text link (a href...) will I still get the affiliate credit even though they did not click on the banner?? I think it should work...
Thanks!

 

Hello, further to the matter, I read the above post and went for it.
Actually I approached rss feeds before, but I was put off by the technical difficulties.
CaRP is actually provided free and with a great step by step guide, and guess what, I made it!
It works!
I am now waiting to see the page in the SEs, as I was looking for fresh and related content.

I ahve to say that in CPanel it was easy to temporarily set that read/write/execute option (777), otherwise I would have felt insecure and prob not get it to work.

I temp recommend it!

 

That's great news. If you would like any help or code examples, just holler. I'd be glad to post them, it may help someone.

As for file permissions, you can set them with some FTP clients too. Though cpanel is just fine.

As for the SE's, they love my newsfeed pages.

 

Cool... not trying to get hits, but will someone go to my site and make sure the feeds are showing up and looking good? www.dontoverspend.com Thanks for your help!

 

The about.com feed on the main page? Looks great to me. Nice job.

 

Yes, I like it too.
In the next few days I'll have to work on the format and I hope it's as easy as it was setting it up. But I'm optimistic!