Rss feed display of my website featured articles ?

[fabio42]

Hello there !
Well, I've been looking for the answer but could not find it anywhere. I must be missing out on something.
I would like to create an RSS feed of my website for users to grab the url of my joomla featured articles on an RSS page like here : http://feeds.joomla.org/JoomlaAnnouncements
I have created a module "syndicate" and published it on my page (home page, the one where the featured articles are shown), assigned this module to the page where the featured articles are published (home).
Then, I created a category with the feeds component (actually, I followed a tutorial not knowing exactly the use of this ... why create a category ?) with the rss feed, then, I published a feed with the joomla feed component and chose the category I had created. Next, I inserted the following link :

Code: Select all

https://mywebsite/index.php?option=com_content&view=featured&format=feed&type=rss

(is the syntax ok ?? I found websites saying that just

Code: Select all

https://mywebsite/index.php?option=com_content&view=featured

was ok ?)
Now, when I go on my website and I click on the feed icon, the browser forces me to download a php file which, once opened, contains "computer" language which is definitely not user-friendly !! I once had a 1.5 joomla webiste in which I had managed to publish the rss icon and once clicked upon, a page opened in the browser with the featured articles (content + images) and I don't remember using any special plugin for that... how come I can't do that anymore ? Did I forget anything ??
Thanks for helping !
Fabio

[harperlala]

can use more extension: https://extensions.joomla.org/category/ ... syndicate/

[fabio42]

Hi there !
Unfortunately, those plugins are there to display feeds (of other websites) on your joomla site, not to create a rss feed of your own website ...
To be continued then
Fabio

[Per Yngve Berg]

1) The Feeds Component is for showing feeds on your site with source from other sites.

2) The link in the Sydicate module should show the feed, just the way it worked in J1.5.

[sozzled]

See also https://docs.joomla.org/Help39:Componen ... eeds_Feeds and https://docs.joomla.org/Help39:Componen ... er_Options

[fabio42]

See also https://docs.joomla.org/Help39:Componen ... eeds_Feeds and https://docs.joomla.org/Help39:Componen ... er_Options

Thanks Sozzled ! I had already read all of this before coming to this forum. This does not address my original post as :
"1) The Feeds Component is for showing feeds on your site with source from other sites." (thanks for the confirmation Per Yngve Berg !)

So I am left with this annoying problem for the moment ...
Fabio

[sozzled]

Oh well, I'm sorry and I'll leave it to someone else to fill in the gaps. I've used the feed component once or twice ... and I haven't had any problems with it. I guess I must be lucky.

[fabio42]

Well, so everyone can see what I mean ...
On the same official website (https://www.joomla.org/rss-news-feeds.html), I found 2 different behaviours of the feeds system.
1/ for joomla announcements, it opens a page with all the articles inside the category mentioned (http://feeds.joomla.org/JoomlaAnnouncements) and this is what I hope to reach
2/ for reports in the volunteers portal, when you click on the feeds link, it opens a php file (https://volunteers.joomla.org/reports?f ... d&type=rss) and this definitely not what I want !!!

How were those 2 feeds links conceived ... I have no idea, but the result is relatively different !
Thanks for enlightening me !
Fabio

[Per Yngve Berg]

Look at the bottom of the page, you will see that it's driven by "Feedburner".

[fabio42]

Well, actually, feedburner is a google service that has nothing to do with Joomla basically.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FeedBurner
It allows visitors to subscribe to the published feeds and allows the webmaster to get statistics concerning the feeds flow ... so, I don't think that's the type of tools that will allow me to just have a feed page ....
And anyway, I tried to visit the feedburner website ... I'm not allowed to use it (I suppose it's pay ... but I have no idea how to use that)

[sozzled]

Well, actually, feedburner is a google service that has nothing to do with Joomla basically.

Correct.

I may have used—I still have an account with—Feedburner (https://feedburner.google.com).

[fabio42]

Actually, the point is that when I had my 1.5 joomla website, I never resorted to third party plugins to display a beautiful feed page. How come this does not work anymore ? This is beyond me. I tried to adjust the url by starting with feeds.mysitename but to no avail. Got a 404 error, which is the expected result when no category is attached to the url. What has changed in the joomla way that makes it harder to create a great feeds page ?

btw, sozzled, I tried to connect my feed to feedburner and this is the message I got :
"The feed URL you entered is:

Code: Select all

www.mysitename/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=featured

We could not find a valid feed at that address." ... so, back to one of my questions .... is this the right feed url ?? nothing can be found in the joomla documentation for featured articles feed ...

[sozzled]

Thank you for your question, @fabio42.

Actually, the point is that when I had my J! 1.5 website, I never resorted to third party plugins to display a beautiful feed page.

Neither did I [resort to third-party extensions, that is]. Even when J! 1.6/1.7/2.5 arrived on the scene, the Feed component and Syndicate module continued to work just like they did with J! 1.5. However, from about the time of the release of J! 3.0, cracks appeared with using the Feed Display menu item and I reported those problems to the J! development team. Those problems were fixed (see https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/issues/19919).

How come this does not work anymore?

I don't know what are the specific problems you are having. Up to this point in the discussion, you have referred to the official newsfeed generated (via FeedBurner) from http://feeds.joomla.org/JoomlaAnnouncements and that one works.

I looked at https://volunteers.joomla.org/reports but I can't find a newsfeed [button/link] for it. Where did you obtain the information that a newsfeed exists with the URL https://volunteers.joomla.org/reports?f ... d&type=rss. Perhaps you could show me (with a screenshot) where you obtained that information.

As a general comment, it doesn't necessarily follow that anyone can take a URL like www.example.com and append the query string

Code: Select all

 ?filter_category=&format=feed&type=rss?filter_category=&format=feed&type=rss

to it ... and expect it to work.


Are we talking about the official newsfeed(s) from the joomla.org site(s), are we discussing Feedburner, or are we trying to resolve a problem with your website?

I tried to adjust the URL by starting with feeds.mysitename but to no avail.

Did you read that somewhere? Can you point to me where, in any documentation, this might be useful?

What has changed in ... Joomla ... that makes it harder to create a great feeds page?

Again, as @Per observed, the Syndicate module for J! 3.x should display a feed link for your website, just as it worked in J1.5. I don't know if that answers your question, but it's the best answer I can offer.

[sozzled]

Ooops ... apologies ...

There is a RSS Feed button at the foot of the page https://volunteers.joomla.org/reports. I'm sorry for doubting you.

Obviously it doesn't work!

Suggest that you report this to the management team of the Joomla! Volunteers Portal™ website.

[fabio42]

Hi there !

There is a RSS Feed button at the foot of the page https://volunteers.joomla.org/reports. I'm sorry for doubting you.

no worries ! this happens to the best of us !

are we talking about the official newsfeed(s) from the joomla.org site(s), are we discussing Feedburner, or are we trying to resolve a problem with your website?

Well, actually, it seems that these are all intimately connected. The newsfeed that works on the joomla.org sites has been correctly adjusted, and the one that doesn't seems to get the same result as mine ... That would be interesting for me to know what is so different between the two. As for Feedburner, I tried to connect my website, and WHATEVER address I type in (whether it be the address of my website or the address of the supposedly-working feed url), I systematically get the same message from Feedburner :

Your feed filesize is larger than 1024K. You need to reduce its size in order for FeedBurner to process it. Tips for controlling feed file size with Blogger can be found in Tech Tips on FeedBurner Forums, our support site.
Identify Feed Source
Back to My Feeds

The feed URL you entered is:

https://www.mywebsite.com/joomla/index. ... w=featured

We could not find a valid feed at that address. Here are some possible reasons this might have happened:

Is the feed valid? Confirm its validity now.

The feed your site already creates needs to be “valid enough” to work with FeedBurner. This post from the FeedBurner Help Center explains why technical validity matters.

Are you using the URL of the web page or the URL of the feed?

FeedBurner is usually able to "auto-discover" your feed from a web page, but in this case we didn't find any related feeds. You may want to enter the URL of the feed directly.

Is the URL is misspelled or a copy+paste action didn't work?

If that's the case, please try again.

The link I used for feedburner is a combination of :
- my website address : https://mywebiste.com/joomla/
- the url I found on the homepage menu link in the "integration" tab

So, I am left dumbfounded as it seems I have done everything on the joomla side to get feed to work :
1/ Created a syndication module
2/ Completed the assignment requested (all categories, homepages where the featured articles are published)
3/ published the module on a position .... and voilà !
Did I miss out on something else ?
(mention : I did not use the feed component as it is only to create feeds from other sources to display on my website)

fabio42 wrote: ↑
Fri Aug 23, 2019 9:40 pm
I tried to adjust the URL by starting with feeds.mysitename but to no avail.

Did you read that somewhere? Can you point to me where, in any documentation, this might be useful?

Well, I have come up to the point that I am willing any address to fit in and as you said,

As a general comment, it doesn't necessarily follow that anyone can take a URL like www.example.com and append the query string and expect it to work

, so I am ready to try absolutely anything ... out of despair !
Because it seems that the fundamental question here is : where do I get the url to my feed for featured articles ??

Thanks for your long answer anyway.
To be continued.
Fabio

[Per Yngve Berg]

This is the URL of the Featured article html blog layout. You have to add "&format=feed&type=rss"

[fabio42]

Hello !

This is the URL of the Featured article html blog layout

Where do you find this ?
In my browser, I just have www.mysitename/joomla/ for the homepage where my public featured articles are published. (a friendly url because I have SEF on)
Thanks
Fabio

[Per Yngve Berg]

Have you published the Syndicate Module? It will supply the link.

[sozzled]

Thank you, @fabio42. I may have some useful information on the subject.

1. With many of the recent releases to the most popular web browsers, RSS newsfeeds are something of a thing of the past and it's no longer possible to subscribe to (and display) the RSS newsfeeds within the browser as a default feature. See these announcements:

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1244312
• https://forums.opera.com/topic/26280/rss-reader
• https://www.ricksdailytips.com/cant-rea ... th-chrome/
• https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/ins ... 9350f4c958

2. This is not the final word on RSS newsfeeds: there are other ways to subscribe to, and display, RSS newsfeeds (e.g. http://www.rss-specifications.com/15-wa ... ad-rss.htm or http://rss-tutorial.com/rss-how-to-subs ... -feeds.php).

3. As far as J! is concerned, the RSS Syndication module does not have many settings (as we can see by looking at the documentation)

4. There are three different issues discussed in this topic:

1. the official newsfeed(s) from the joomla.org site(s);
2. Feedburner (in general); and
3. resolving a problem with a user's website.

Let's not focus too much on (a) and (b) because we can't control what happens there. In other words, they're "different" to what happens with the RSS Syndication module in J! 3.x and using the examples in (a) to generalise about RSS doesn't really help. Our focus should be on (c).

5. I have a couple of websites that use the RSS Syndication module. Those newsfeeds do not "automatically" do anything more than provide a content stream to people who subscribe to them. In other words, people have to subscribe to those feeds and they need a news reader application to subscribe to them. How people subscribe to RSS newsfeeds differs, depending on the news reader application. For example, if people use Microsoft Outlook to subscribe to a RSS feed, they need to read something like this: https://support.office.com/en-us/articl ... f9c1e74b97

6. Remember that most browsers do not have a "Subscribe to an RSS feed from your web browser" feature as standard. Therefore, most visitors to a website need to use a different method such as installing a RSS subscription/reader add-on for their browser or manually add the RSS feed URL to their news reader program.

7. As far as I can tell, J! 3.x generates good RSS feeds with the RSS Syndication module. It's what people do with the RSS link (created by the module and displayed on your website) that may be the problem.

8. As far as generating newsfeeds with the RSS Syndication module, like we did back in the days of J! 1.5 and what may have happened in the ten or more years since then, nothing has significantly changed in Joomla! It's the rest of the world that has changed.

[fabio42]

woaw ! so many interesting things to read.
On the "subscribe" part, I knew how things worked. But this is enlightening as to what you can do according to your browser as well.

7. As far as I can tell, J! 3.x generates good RSS feeds with the RSS Syndication module. It's what people do with the RSS link (created by the module and displayed on your website) that may be the problem.

What do you mean by "do" because as you say it well, the syndication module does not have a lot of parameters and nothing about the url in particular. Next, once you have published the module, Joomla is supposed to care for the rest (according to documentation, the module "gets" the url provided by the page(s) you have the feed assigned to and that's it).
So, in fact, I still am stuck for now... and I am talking about

resolving a problem with a user's website

...
Thanks for time spent !
Fabio