PHP to RSS

[exhaler]

hi,

i recently added a RSS section for a website. i did this using PHP:

 

<?php
    header("Content-Type: application/rss+xml; charset=windows-1252");
    
    // title of the rss feed
    $rssfeed = "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"windows-1252\"?>\n";
    $rssfeed .= "<rss version=\"2.0\">\n";
    $rssfeed .= "<channel>\n";
    $rssfeed .= "<title>domain.com Featured </title>\n";
    $rssfeed .= "<link>http://www.domain.com</link>\n";
    $rssfeed .= "<description>A professional directory. Looking for a restaurant? Find it easily, search by name & even street location.</description>\n";
    $rssfeed .= "<language>en-us</language>\n";
    $rssfeed .= "<copyright>Copyright (C) 2009 domain.com</copyright>\n";
    
    // image for the rss feed
    $rssfeed .= "<image>\n";
    $rssfeed .= "<title>domain.com</title>\n";
$rssfeed .= "<link>http://www.domain.com</link>\n";
$rssfeed .= "<url>http://www.domain.com/images/rssicon.jpg</url>\n";
$rssfeed .= "<width>144</width>\n";
$rssfeed .= "<height>45</height>\n";
$rssfeed .= "<description>A professional directory. Looking for a restaurant? Find it easily, search by name & even street location.</description>\n";
$rssfeed .= "</image>\n";
    
    $query_critics = "SELECT * FROM featured ORDER BY id DESC";
    $result_critics = mysql_query($query_critics);

    while($row_critics = mysql_fetch_array($result_critics)) {
    	$rest_name = stripslashes($row_critics['name']);
    	$description =  stripslashes($row_critics['part_desc']);
    	$id = $row_critics['id'];
    	$link = "http://www.domain.com/readfeatured.php?id=$id";
    	$date = stripslashes($row_critics['date']);
    	$pic = stripslashes($row_critics['pic']);	
    	
        $rssfeed .= "<item>\n";
        $rssfeed .= "<title>" . "New Featured Restaurant: " . $rest_name . "</title>\n";
        $rssfeed .= "<guid>" . $link . "</guid>\n";
        
        if (!empty($pic)) {    	
    		$image = "&#60;p>&#60;a href=\"$link\">&#60;img src=\"http://domain.com/$pic\" align=\"left\" height=\"80\" width=\"80\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" />&#60;/a>";	
    		$rssfeed .= "<description>" . $image . $description . "&#60;/p>&#60;br clear=\"all\"/></description>\n";
    	} else {
    		$rssfeed .= "<description>" . $description . "</description>\n";
    	}  
        
        $rssfeed .= "<link>" . $link . "</link>\n";
        $rssfeed .= "<pubDate>" . date("D, d M Y H:i:s O", strtotime($date)) . "</pubDate>\n";
        $rssfeed .= "</item>\n";
    }

    $rssfeed .= "</channel>\n";
    $rssfeed .= "</rss>";

    echo $rssfeed;

// Close connection
mysql_close($connection);
?>

 

the above code works perfectly, but i was wondering if i can make PHP write to rss file. Most of the websites don't have a RSS that ends in .php but ends in .rss. having it in .rss reduces the load on the server to compile the php file agian.

 

any ideas how to make the code above write to an rss file?

thanks

[ozestretch]

I do know a lot of sites allow .rss to read .php, so simply naming your file would make it appear as .rss only

 

That said, you can always look at using fopen() , fwrite() etc..

[exhaler]

thanks ozestretch, i'll try renaming the file from .php to .rss. but is there a better way to do this in PHP, like using a RSS parser?

[ozestretch]

thanks ozestretch, i'll try renaming the file from .php to .rss. but is there a better way to do this in PHP, like using a RSS parser?

 

you will need to make an exception so your server reads the php in the .rss. Usually done with .htaccess

 

in your .htaccess

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

 

but it will still be dynamic (which is good if it is being updated regularly)

 

 

[raccoon]

I heard PHP MagpieRSS is one of the most simple, easy, robust php classes for RSS.

 

http://magpierss.sourceforge.net/

 

I haven't used it myself yet, but apparently it's great.