RSS feed issue in Joomla 1.5.15

[darinh]

I upgraded from Joomla version 1.5.14 to 1.5.15 and my RSS feed stopped working and is giving me the error "ERROR LOADING FEED DATA". I am using the module Slick RSS to handle the RSS parsing.

I have been researching the issue on the following forum posts,
http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?f ... d#p1966942
http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?f=430&t=458848

I did the following:
-Removed Slick RSS module and uninstalled the module completely from the site.
-Insured there were no other RSS feed components or modules enabled/published. The only RSS feed module available is the mod_feed module.
-Created a new module using mod_feed module, as noted in the forum post, and the error appears.
-Removed the module with the RSS url not working.
-Created a new module using mod_feed module, using a new test URL noted below, and no error appears and the RSS data displays.

I am trying to figure out why the RSS feed worked in Joomla version 1.5.14 but does not work in version 1.5.15, and or what I need to do to resolve this and get my RSS feed to work.

RSS feed URL no longer working - http://marshallindependent.com/page/syn ... adline.xml
Test RSS feed URL that works - http://www.startribune.com/index.rss2

Current version levels
Joomla - 1.5.15
Php - 5.28
MySQL - 5.0.85
XML Lib - 2.7.3

[infograf768]

I confirm this specific feed does not work with the library Simplepie which was updated in 1.5.15 to cope with php 5.3 issues.

If you do not use php 5.3, you can safely change the whole library to the one used in 1.5.14.
see libraries/simplepie/

[darinh]

Thank you, switching out the Simplepie libraries from the 1.5.15 version to the 1.5.14 version from Joomla package as resolved the issue and the RSS feed information now displays.

Thanks again for the help.

[infograf768]

I posted a patch on tracker to solve this issue.
See http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/joomla ... m_id=18672

[Mtif]

This may be a dumb question, and I apologise in advance if it is ... but how and where is this patch to be applied?

[darinh]

I went and downloaded the Joomla 1.5.14 version to my pc and unziped the package. I then went the "libraries/simplepie" directory on my pc and uploaded the "simplepie.php" file to the website server in the "libraries/simplepie" directory. This replaced the Joomla 1.5.15 version of the file with the 1.5.14 version of the file and my RSS issues were resolved.

Prior to uploading the 1.5.14 version of the simplepie file I backed up the website and the individual "libaries/simplepie" directory in case something didn't quite work I needed to put the 1.5.15 files back.

Hope this helps.

[infograf768]

Replacing the simplepie library to the version we had in 1.5.14 will work ONLY if one is not using php 5.3

@Mtif
Just open libraries/joomla/factory.php in a text editor and add the line

Code: Select all

$simplepie->force_feed(true);

just before the line

Code: Select all

$simplepie->handle_content_type();

[topwebs]

I have also had a problem where a WordPress feed suddenly stopped showing up in mod_feed in Joomla 1.5.15. The sudden change probably indicates some server upgrade that caused SimplePie to stop working with the feed.

Further investigation revealed that WordPress category feeds (www.example.com/category/categoryname/feed) are incorrectly given Content-Type=text/html by WordPress. The above SimplePie fix does not work with text/html. The only solution is to input the feed into FeedBurner which converts it to the proper Content-Type=text/xml.

More investigation showed that the following types of WordPress urls give the proper Content-Type=text/xml (www.example.com/feed/?category=categoryname). So, bottom line is that at least on some servers with feeds of Content-Type=text/html, mod_feed won't work. The best way to determine the Content-Type is to look at the headers with Firebug in Firefox.

[mdourou]

I thought the problem had to do with feeds that do NOT have <ttl tag (time to live). All Feedburner feeds have ttl so they work. That was my issue with Joomla 1.5.15.. and spent many many hours trying to figure out the solution with no help.

See this site..
http://ghostspook.[URL banned].com/2009/07/ ... -data.html

Anyways.. i'm gonna try your fix, and hopefully it will solve my issue.

Thanks,
Mo

[mdourou]

Hi,

I made sure I'm running PHP 4 on server.

I still do have the module Slick RSS installed (but not used). I have a module with mod_feed that has an RSS that is showing blank.

If I do make your change you below in factory.php, then I get a blank page when i refresh (if module is enabled). If I disable this module, then site works, but no feed

Is it something that has to do with ttl (time to life), cause all RSS feeds work (except the ones with ttl! It's driving me crazy!

Mo

Replacing the simplepie library to the version we had in 1.5.14 will work ONLY if one is not using php 5.3

@Mtif
Just open libraries/joomla/factory.php in a text editor and add the line

Code: Select all

$simplepie->force_feed(true);

just before the line

Code: Select all

$simplepie->handle_content_type();

[infograf768]

This change has been committed since and the last Joomla verson is 1.5.18.
It is suggested to upgrade as some vulnerabilities have been correcetd since 1.5.15

(I do not say that this will solve that specific feed issue)

[ddmobley]

I have been researching this issue on a Joomla 1.5.20 site where the news modules for DOCMan 1.5.8 and JCE will not work, it just presents part of the page with the various components home page icons on them and the rest of the page breaks with the Simple Pie error codes listed:

Code: Select all

Fatal error: Call to undefined method SimplePie::force_feed() in libraries/joomla/factory.php on line 334

I tried downloading an old full copy of the Joomla 1.5.14 distribution and installing just the simplepie directory, but it did not solve the problem when I published either of the news modules for JCE and DOCman's RSS news feeds.

[infograf768]

I have been researching this issue on a Joomla 1.5.20 site where the news modules for DOCMan 1.5.8 and JCE will not work, it just presents part of the page with the various components home page icons on them and the rest of the page breaks with the Simple Pie error codes listed:

Code: Select all

Fatal error: Call to undefined method SimplePie::force_feed() in libraries/joomla/factory.php on line 334

I tried downloading an old full copy of the Joomla 1.5.14 distribution and installing just the simplepie directory, but it did not solve the problem when I published either of the news modules for JCE and DOCman's RSS news feeds.

No error here with
http://www.joomlacontenteditor.net/inde ... d&type=rss
in a default mod_feed module.

[reddove]

You may want to use a Feedburner from say google.com and copy the RSS feed info from that and Place it into an RSS reader module. Not a full page layout like most of use intended. It's one of them "buggy" issues for Joolma.

[peter4u]

Hello,

Since I upgraded to Joomla 1.5.17 the RSS component stopped working for a specific URL. It bothered me but because I couldn't get it solved I preferred to go on without RSS. I hoped that it might be corrected in future versions. Right now I have Joomla 1.5.22 but it is still not working. I googled around again but found no real solution. I tried the old 1.5.14 files as mentioned earlier but I did not help. The php-version is 5.2.12.0.

The RSS feed I tried to use is "feed://www.npo.nl/welkom-bij-de-npo/RSS". The Feedvalidator tells me that is it valid but Feedburner tells me that it couldn't find a valid feed at that address. There must be something special about it.

I tried several RSS readers on my testsite but none of them is working. When I enable the RSS module in the backend and check the results at the frontend I see the following messages in the error_log:

PHP Notice: A feed could not be found at http://www.npo.nl/welkom-bij-de-npo/RSS in /home/afdeling8gou.nl/public_html/cmstst/libraries/simplepie/simplepie.php on line 1683, referer: http://www.afdeling8gou.nl/cmstst/admin ... s&client=0

PHP Notice: XML error: Not well-formed (invalid token) at line 1, column 1 in /home/afdeling8gou.nl/public_html/cmstst/libraries/simplepie/simplepie.php on line 1801, referer: http://www.afdeling8gou.nl/cmstst/admin ... s&client=0

On the frontend I don't get any errors but the module just keeps empty. I have no idea what to do next. Does anybody have some clue about what is going on? Is it something about Joomla or is something about the feed?

Best regards,
Peter.

[reddove]

Hello,

Since I upgraded to Joomla 1.5.17 the RSS component stopped working for a specific URL. It bothered me but because I couldn't get it solved I preferred to go on without RSS. I hoped that it might be corrected in future versions. Right now I have Joomla 1.5.22 but it is still not working. I googled around again but found no real solution. I tried the old 1.5.14 files as mentioned earlier but I did not help. The php-version is 5.2.12.0.

The RSS feed I tried to use is "feed://www.npo.nl/welkom-bij-de-npo/RSS". The Feedvalidator tells me that is it valid but Feedburner tells me that it couldn't find a valid feed at that address. There must be something special about it.

I tried several RSS readers on my testsite but none of them is working. When I enable the RSS module in the backend and check the results at the frontend I see the following messages in the error_log:

PHP Notice: A feed could not be found at http://www.npo.nl/welkom-bij-de-npo/RSS in /home/afdeling8gou.nl/public_html/cmstst/libraries/simplepie/simplepie.php on line 1683, referer: http://www.afdeling8gou.nl/cmstst/admin ... s&client=0

PHP Notice: XML error: Not well-formed (invalid token) at line 1, column 1 in /home/afdeling8gou.nl/public_html/cmstst/libraries/simplepie/simplepie.php on line 1801, referer: http://www.afdeling8gou.nl/cmstst/admin ... s&client=0

On the frontend I don't get any errors but the module just keeps empty. I have no idea what to do next. Does anybody have some clue about what is going on? Is it something about Joomla or is something about the feed?

Best regards,
Peter.

Greeings;

There are some ways around this you can try:
1. RSS feeds directly to your board.
2. Using an RSS Feeder, but this requires an agitator.
3. Finding a widget that has your news provider.

[pearlcaviar]

My feedburner on Joomla 1.5.22 is also stop working now. Would be appreciate if any solution available to check it.

[reddove]

Greetings;
There are several programs you may want to try but some of them have outcomes you may or may not like.
1. Feed Gator RSS news feed aggregator component for Joomla!
Feed Gator imports RSS feeds into your Joomla! Database as regular content items, so you can get more control of the syndicated content on your site. Display RSS content in blog format, or any other method supported by Joomla! Turn your site into a sophisticated news reader.
This component (or derivatives) is what drive the news section of many Joomla! websites. Feed Gator has lots of features to give you the power to manipulate the imported content in useful ways.

http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/feedgator/frs/

2. My RSS Reader
Or you can setup an account on Google Feed burner, create an account and plug the feed into where it asks for. When you create your News feeds and plug all the feeds given to you by your news site RSS directory. I may seem like a chore to do, but if you want them all, then this is what you have to do. After you have saved your feed burner RSS link (http://www.feedburner.com/.................. info from Google feed burner into RSS feed URL. That tends to work for stubborn sites.
3. Other wise you will need to play with what is available to you on the extensions directory or go to Google and search for RSS readers there.

[pearlcaviar]

Thanks for sharing reddove. I'll look around what best suit to me. Regards,

[peter4u]

Reddove,

The Feed Gator also doesn't find a valid RSS feed in the URL "feed://www.npo.nl/welkom-bij-de-npo/RSS".

Also Google Feed Burner is negative: We could not find a valid feed at that address.

At the same time, the Feed Validator is telling: This is a valid RSS feed.

So I'm lost. When I paste the URL into my RSS-reader program it's working. But that's not what I need, I need it to be working on my website.

Does anybody have some idea? Is there something special in the RSS feed?

Regards,
Peter.

[reddove]

Well, then you have to figure it out yourself, just like I did. As with any thing you want to do in Joolma, if you don't succeed then keep trying different ways, different approaches.

Anyway, good luck.

[gbernardo]

Did you ever discover a fix?

[peter4u]

Just last week my hostingprovider found that the server I was asking the RSS from was blocking my server (error 403). So I asked them to remove the block. I suppose that for some reason my server was on the blacklist. I still didn't hear from them but this should do the trick. If it turns out to be something else I will post it here.

Regards,
Peter.