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Very good script indeed, thanks. Extended it to actually go and fetch the whole article to import (instead of just the summary) and it was a breeze! - just a few minor edits to make. You can see it working on my sites (see sig below). A self-publishing website that adds pages automatically - what more could a webmaster ask for

Look forward to this one day becoming a full mambo component as the need is definitely there.

Thanks again.

Hi haydn
Could you share your trick to get the whole article would be quite useful indeed 
Does anybody managed to fetch the whole article of an RSS (ex a yahoo RSS) and would be willing to share his hack ?

i am getting a blank screen but content is not being added ..  ..  my rss url is news.bbc.co.uk/rss/newsonline_world_edition/front_page/rss.xml , is this the problem ?

help plz

Well, I finally got this working, and I love it.  I scheduled via cron jobs, and now, like someone else, have a web site full of content which I don't create.  I love that.

However, now, I have too much of a good thing.  Is there a way in Joomla to auto-expire the content after, say, two weeks, or something I can put in the script to define an expiry date for each new content item?

Thanks in advance!

and now another question:

The automatically created content all has an order code of 99.  But, if you look at your content in the backend, or reorder anything, the backend renumbers things, but, seems to put the newest content last.  I want the newest content first.  Any way to do this?

I thought I would just say thank you for creating this.  I too had troubles at first, but really, you just need to read the instructions and edit about 8-10 lines.

I created a domain to test it on, www.NewsNabber.com I created six content sections for my test. They are Google News, Health News, Joomla News, Hosting News, Mambo News, and More Feeds.

I've done nothing else, it really is just a demo at the time of this post.

I may want to develop this site in the future.  If you have any ideas, let me know.  The domain name is perfect for this script.

hey hospital, you have got only the title. where is the intro text and the "read more " link ?

As I started, I noticed that too.  I read through this topic, and found 2 lines that needed to edited Thanks to Sylvain for the help,

Around line 88
      $link = addslashes($item['link']);


Around line 130, replace
            '". $maintext ."',
with

            '". $maintext . "

Read more...',

Hosting News, Mambo News and More feeds should be working fine.

Yep everything is fine. you can visit my site also . its http://www.lugnm.org  on joomla 1.0.5.
Suggetions are welcomed

It's a great script, works perfectly for me, though as always, I have a couple of questions.

A few people have asked wheather it is possible to auto-import to the front page, through the setting of an attribute or something.

Also, I am trying to use this script with http://steampowered.com/rss.xml that feed, though it is formatted differently, and uses RDF in some places. By default, the script gets the title and date fine, but what about the content ? I cant get it to work...

Thanks.

I don't know for sure, but I believe that the amount of content that is pulled in the feed is controlled by the webmaster of the site you are pulling from.  This is a setting that you can set within Joomla under syndication.  This allows you to control the feeds that maybe you provide.

manipul8or,
you can always check what the site is actually providing. using some feed reader (like sage for firefox)
and compare with what you are getting at your site.

Yes, I have. They use a tag for their content, and I can't seem to get the script to accept this instead of a description.

I've done a bit more research, and the script really isn't all that compatible with many feeds at all. It will accept only a description tag for the content, while many RSS feeds today use a tag, which enables them to embed HTML within the field, providing you with hyperlinks and such.

What I haven't been able to figure out, is how to use this content field within the script. There must be a way to import all the HTML in the content:encoded field into Joomla, as Joomla does support HTML (duh...). I just can't figure it out. 

I always have to click publish for each article inserted by this script. Is there anyway to make this automatic?

Can you share with us how you did this? I actually just want half or 1/4 of the article fetched. Thanks

Berlin, there is a way to automate the process.  Depending on how your server is set up, it may be very easy.  You need to set up Cron Jobs.  Do a seach for it.  If your host allows you do have cron jobs, there is probably some kind of documentation on how to create one.

Usually you just enter the command to run and the frequency you want it run.  That is it.

Thanks. I have no problem with cron, but when the article is inserted, it's marked as unpublished. I want it published as soon as it's inserted into my database.

THanks

Ok I still can't figure it out. I want it to publish automatically once it gets inserted into the database. I thought it was access but I was wrong.

Also I get double entries. The script doesn't check if the same article has already been fetched.

Berlin:  I had a look at your site and noticed that you are running Mambo not Joomla.  I can't say for sure but is it possible that this is an issue because you are using Mambo not Joomla?

I have had the script running for several days and pulled in hundreds of articles with no problems.  All articles are inserted into the database only once, and published right away.

I would try starting fresh.  Maybe you have made a minor edit that is affecting the whole script.

Does your article show up automatically in the frontpage or do you have to click publish?

Anyway thanks for your time. I'm tired of repeating myself here. This project is dead. What I'll do instead is hire someone to fix this and include an option whether to import the entire article or not. I'll let you know once it is finished.

OK, hire someone. Money makes the world go arround ... but learning something about how the script is working and a little bit about how Joomla! is storing articles into the database may earn you money.

You have to learn or you have to hire someone. Your decision. I feel sorry, but there is no Scotty who beams up your brain with knowledge.

Best regards,

Joern

Berlin:  I am willing to try to help you out a little further with this.  You can use my contact form on Mambothemes.com to get ahold of me.  I will not charge you a penny.  Please note that this script was not meant to add content on the front page of your site.  This is a task that you still need to select manually.  Although I think that there may be a way to have a pre selected content section show up instead of the normal front page.

Cheers

Quick update from the author 

I am still planning to turn this into a component to eliminate the user errors with script edits. At this stage hoping to do that within the next month or so.

For the record, the script does work quiet well (personally I am fetching 40+ articles/day) so please do not bother with it unless you have php/mysql skills.

Cheers,
Max

My demo page is also pulling several hundred feeds.

I look forward to the day that this becomes a component.  If there is any way I can help, please let me know.

Thanks for the offer, dont want to do a half ass job so want to make sure I have enough time to do it well.

Cheers,
Max

I'm not sure what you mean by not wanting do do a half ass job.  I do hope that it is just a time issue.

When I offered to help in anyway, it was just that.  If you wanted a tester I am willing to try it.  If you wanted help with documentation I was willing to help.

All in all, I was just trying to give back to the community.  As you can see from a post that I made earlier today I stated that I wouldn't even charge for helping berlin if it was wanted.

typera, I believe that you have come up with a fantastic idea.  I can't wait to see it fill my server full of data.

thanks hospital. I agree this is a good start of what will be a great component. whether the mods to this script were paid for or given for free, what matter most is that people give back to the community. (i guess i was spoiled by the vb / smf community) my soon to be joomla site has an existing 2.5k plus members. sometimes you just have to so you can focus on getting new members --something I do better than php. I have several sites and i've been with elance.com for 5 years and i do share my modified scripts.

Great script.

Does anyone know the answer to this php scripting question: 

I want to add in the main section or intro section a link to a specific url each time a content item is created.

For example, each content item would have in the main or intro section:  "Please visit our affiliate", and the word "affiliate" would be a link.

This would add great power to each content item.

Thanks.

Check around line 128 in the script -

'". $titletext ."',
'". $introtext ."',
'". $maintext . "

And add the link you want.