How did you generate/display multiple feeds....(9) ?

I have an "after posts" container, and I just slapped 9 widgets in it ;)

¥

So does that mean you installed the plugin/widget 9 times, as it only has a single input field for the feed url?

:|

Sheesh, I really need to teach you about widgets huh? :P

Ok, a widget is pretty much the same as a plugin except it has it's *own* settings for every single install.

This means that 2 widgets in the same container, or different containers in the same skin, or on different blogs etc, all have their own settings

This allows you to choose a unique set off settings for each install of the widget ( note: you only install the plugin once, the widgets are *copies* ), so you can choose different url, title, number of feed items, cache time, per feed ;)

¥

note: you only install the plugin once, the widgets are *copies*

Thanks, that line explains everything with rare clarity :)
You can learn something everyday.

lol, that's the first time I've ever been accused of clarity ;)

¥

OK -- I'll bite. Where did the "after post" container come from? I'd love to put some Free HTML after every post.

@texasag90
This is an example for the "related Posts" widget by Yabba
In index.main.php a Post Bottom container following the tags

<?php
// List all tags attached to this post:
$Item->tags( array(
'before' => '<div class="bSmallTags">'.T_('Tags').': ',
'after' => '</div>',
'separator' => ', ',
) );
?>
<?php
skin_container( NT_('Post bottom'), array(
// The following params will be used as defaults for widgets included in this container:
'block_start' => '<div class="$wi_class$">',
'block_end' => '</div>',
'list_start' => '<ul>',
'list_end' => '</ul>',
) );
?>

Cool. I get it now. Thanks much.

Hangin' with you guys is like drinking from a firehose.

Sorry friend, but the interface is not easy to use. Too geeky yah? Can you "dumb it down" to where I get to include the rss URL I want without having to know what $whatever$ means?

Also, the plugin itself isn't capable of providing the totally cool page you showed as an example. I wish it was because that's a cool way to show what feeds you're into following. Or maybe I'm too stupid to figure it out?

I do tend to make things a bit geeky huh? I'll have a play at making them a tad more "human". There will be a major redesign of widgets and settings in version 3.0 of the core, part of this could be a kinda simple/expert settings which would help tremendously .... guess I need to prod the FG down the right path for that one ;)

Technically the widget is fully capable of producing the example page ( obviously, because it already does ) it's your skin that's not capable ;)

Here's how I achieved it though, because just saying "my skin is cooler than an arctic wind and yours sucks more than a $2 whore" isn't helpful :roll:

In my skins index.main.php I added a new container, similar to my "post bottom" container that John mentioned, after the whole of the post loop :

		// ------------------------- END OF MAIN CONTENT TEMPLATE ---------------------------
	?>

<?php
		skin_container( NT_('After Posts'), array(
			) );
?>

</div>

<?php
// ------------------------- HTML FOOTER INCLUDED HERE --------------------------

Then I created a brand new blog, because I wanted to keep all my feeds separate from my main blogs, which I called "feeds" in a total imaginative and non-geeky way. I unticked all the bits required to keep it out of my bloglist ( not that I have a typical bloglist, but I like to future proof myself ), killed pings and trackbacks and stuff, picked my normal skin and hit save.

Then I made a post in the blog so I didn't have to read "there is nothing to display" everytime I wanted to read my feeds.

With that all setup I "reloaded" my skin ( global settings > skin install > hit the reload icon next to the skin ) so that the container was available and then meandered over to the widget settings for my brand new, superbly named, feeds blog and slapped in multiple copies of the widget ,1 for each feed I wanted. The rest of the layout is just a bit of css to limit the width and float the lists so they (mostly) stack nicely at my res, which is the only res my feeds need to work in ;)

/* RSS Feeds */
.widget_plugin_am_rssreader{
width:32%;
float:left;
border:1px solid #cc9;
margin:0 1px 4px 1px;
}

.widget_plugin_am_rssreader h3{
margin:0;
padding:0;
text-align:center;
}

.widget_plugin_am_rssreader ul{
margin:4px 0 8px 0;
padding:0 1em;
list-style:none;
}

Since I've set it up though, I've been considering changing all the cache lifetimes to odd values so that all (10) don't expire at the same time which leads to a fair delay whilst all the feeds are refreshed.

¥

I was waiting for this since a long time.
Thank you very much.

Just an update, SimplePie just released version 1.1 of their API and they advise you upgrade :-/

Unfortunately my blog is currently undergoing a dns change so you'd need to download the new version from their site ( [url=http://simplepie.org/downloads/] download 1.1[/url] ). The only file you need to upload is simplepie.inc

¥

ooop's , what fine mess that got me into :)

Notice: Undefined variable: url in /home/mysite/plugins/am_rss_reader_plugin/simplepie.inc on line 5463

*Edit* But the previous one back and no errors

ok, that's weird, I'd already uploaded it to my own webspace and had no errors, mind you, it's a tad tough to test when yer dns is bouncing back and forwards across the pond ;)

If you really wanna be upset, view the latest version of my feeds demo ( work in progress ) on my new home ( that'd be the version without the big banner that says "I'm moving dns" ). You aussies may get up earlier, but yer still playing catchup ;)

¥

Yep, saw that impressive hover stuff and said to myself, "what a clever bloke, for a blonde"

Don't know what screwed up the new version. It did display the feed's but there were 20 or so lines of the reported error before each feed link!

lol, now yer just sweet talking me ;)

Once my dns settles I'll take a look at the error logs and see what's what. It may just be a bad download.

¥

Damn, now that was a load of errors!

SimplePie have released a fix in their svn so I grabbed the working copy and added it to the plugin zip.

I've also added a fair few new parameters, although hopefully the settings page is a tad more human than it was ;)

You can grab the updated zip from the link in my first post. The readme has been updated to include the new parameters

¥

Great update.
No errors and some very user friendly additions.

lol, I'll consider it "user friendly" when that grumpy EdB bugger comes back and say "wow, that's so user friendly I can install it for my sister to use for her urm ... errr .... well, it's a religious blog, but she's my sister ya know? .... guys? ........ guys? ......... aww" ;)

I can't wait to get him so pissed ( "drunk" to all you gun toting members ) he spells his name BeD :|

¥

Them's fighting words... and very butch for a blonde :)

For the Feed Html, as you have made the <h3> a link I reduced the clutter a bit by making the $feed_description$ a tooltip.

<h3><a href="$feed_url$" title="$feed_description$">$feed_title$</a></h3>
$feed_items$

Bugger, I never thought of title text ( although " scott " will nag yah to add a space before and after the text so it looks better :-/ ), my visitors will be so disappointed seeing as the ones in the know, know that half the fun is the title text ;)

guess you got up extra early huh? :P

Fighting words are reserved for when the opponent is a challenge huh? I mean, a bloody drinking contest, I ordered my first round before I could walk ... the only magnums he can handle are empties ;)

¥

Yes I've noticed that Scott is a bit of High Detail kind of guy.
Early... nah. 10.30 am in the land of OZ.

yay, I'm only 11 hours behind yah, that's no challenge ;)

I assume "high detail" is aussie for " a real anal bitch about detail" ? :roll:

¥

Yes, you most likely have hit the nail on the head, but I'm staying out of that :)

When I add the code posted by John above, do I expect the widget container to show up in the widget panel in the admin interface?

<?php
skin_container( NT_('Post bottom'), array(
// The following params will be used as defaults for widgets included in this container:
'block_start' => '<div class="$wi_class$">',
'block_end' => '</div>',
'list_start' => '<ul>',
'list_end' => '</ul>',
) );
?>

I guess I am a little lost here....I was expecting the skin_container tag to be "seen" but the backoffice.

Once you add a container to a skin you need to reload the skin before it's *seen* ( admin > global settings > skin install. Click the reload icon next to your skin )

¥

Duh. Thanks.

Is there are primer on widget writing?

Thanks,
Mark

Not that I can know of, but if you need any help then just create a thread in the "plugin development assistance" forum and I'll help you there ;)

¥

Oh, I need help alright. The "professional kind."

Let me get stuck first, then I will bother you.

Thanks!
Mark

¥åßßå;

A belated thanks for the alert on the SimplePie error. I upgraded and the bug was driving me bonkers, until I found your post on the SimplePie Forum.

I'm interested in using this widget, but I'm using version 1.10.2. I've done a lot of customisation on my site - mainly to the skins - and am wondering whether the upgrade to the 2.0s is worth it. Would I have to redo all my customisations?

Or if it's too tricky, is there some sort of feed plugin for my version?

Thanks,

Na3

The chances are that you'd need to redo some of your customisation, some of it may already be covered by the core.

It is possible to convert this widget to a normal "plugin" for < 2.x, I just didn't bother because most of the really cool people already use 2.x :roll:

You'd basically need to move all the widget settings into plugin settings and then call it in your skin like the rest of your plugins.

¥

Hmm, ok... I'll have to think about it. It's not necessary for me to use this, so I may just leave it for a while; meanwhile the customisations that I've done are necessary, and too fiddly for me to play with without a lot of work.

Thanks Yabba!

You could try posting all your "how do I convert this modification" to the skins forum, chances are that most of them are easy conversions ;)

when/if I get a chance I'll have a look at degrading the widget to a sub-standard platform .... hmmm, that'd be wp :roll: ... I mean 1.10.x, it's really not a shedload of work ( of course I'll have to find a 1.10.x install to test it on :P )

¥

Eh, like I said, it's not urgent. I was just toying with the idea of increasing SEO by hosting some feeds of other blogs on my site. It's probably more work than I can afford to give, time-wise, right now.

But I'll definitely come back to it when I do have the time.

If you do degrade it, let me know, I'll be the first to test it out!

No problem ;)

¥

Thanks!

Thanks for the great plugin. My only comment is that I wish I could have multiple copies of the widget running on my page.

I tried embedding two copies of the RSS plugin. One on the top and one on the right sidebar but the plugin seems to take the style from the first instance. Even if I type a style under the CSS Class text box, it doesn't take it.

Is this something you can fix?

another idea would be to have this plugin display items from multiple feeds. Great job other wise.

The chances are that if you download the plugin again then you'll find the css stuff is cured ;)

SimplePie does have the ability to combine multiple feeds into a single feed, but I'd need to have a play to see if this is still possible whilst using the database instead of files to cache the feeds.

¥

You might try Yahoo! pipes to combine and filter feeds before you send them to your reader.

Is there some way to display images?
I'm trying to get my feed from ffffound into my blog, and it will only display links instead of the image itself
this would be the message:

<title>Stills Gallery - Narelle Autio</title>
</head>
<body class="feedEntryBody">
<div class="feedEntryContent">
<p><a href="http://ffffound.com/image/29192e6e7f8907ac867497249563601af9d16c2e?c=805394"><img src="http://img.ffffound.com/static-data/assets/6/29192e6e7f8907ac867497249563601af9d16c2e_m.jpg" alt="View Image" border="0"></a></p><p>via <a href="http://www.stillsgallery.com.au/artists/autio/index.php?obj_id=folio&amp;image=8&amp;nav=5">http://www.stillsgallery.com.au/artists/autio/index.php?obj_id=folio&amp;image=8&amp;nav=5</a></p>
</div>
<div class="feedEntryLinks">
<hr>
<h1>Article:</h1>
<ul class="feedEntryAlternateLinks">
<li><a href="http://ffffound.com/image/29192e6e7f8907ac867497249563601af9d16c2e?c=805394">http://ffffound.com/image/29192e6e7f8907ac867497249563601af9d16c2e?c=805394</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</body>
</html>

thanks for any help

Do fffffffound.com prevent hot-linking? because I have no problem with images

¥

I wouldn't think so, because you can see the images in the rss reader (although that might be different?)
Maybe it's just a setting that's wrong in my config?
The feed is http://ffffound.com/home/yodasz/found/feed if you want to try yourself?
Thanks anyway for the reply

See my feeds page ( hover over the titles ), I see the images from fffffffffffooooound.com http://innervisions.org.uk/feeds/

¥

I see, looks okay that way. My skin doesn't do any hovering preview http://www.betz.lu/index.php?blog=16 . It should be possible though to simply see the images instead of the links, right? Would this mean editing the plugin, the inc or the skin?

Anyhow, I tried this only as I wanted to do a new blog that gets feeded by rss and I didn't know any other way.

The only stuff I have different ( for the fancy hover shit ) is widget settings, try this in the "item html" setting

<div class="feed_content">
<div class="feed_wrap">
<h4 class="feed_title"><a href="$url$">$title$</a></h4>
$content$
</div>
</div>
<a href="$url$">$title$</a> <span class="rss_date">( $date$ )</span>

It should show you the feed content ( complete with images ) .... the "show on hover" stuff is just some fancy css

¥

fantastic, that did the job. Thanks a lot

I really should do a full write up of the available params sometime :P

Glad it's sorted ;)

¥

Great plugin; Thanks ¥åßßå

Freakin awesome!!! Today i decided I wanted to add the rss feed from my other blogs to my main blog and as always you guys are 5 steps ahead of me!

i used this page as a guide and i put the rss reader into a skin.

http://blog.stellamarie.net/blog5.php

1. upload skin to b2evo
2. download the am rss widget
3. install the widget into the post bottom container
3. put a rss feed into the widget
4. post a blog item (you need at least 1 post for the feeds to show)

your feeds should start showing on the page

let me know what you think, and maybe qa? :)

is this still the latest copy of the plugin http://waffleson.co.uk/pastel-palace/call_plugin.php?plugin_ID=98&method=download&am_plug=am_rssreader?

I lost my copy and need to get a new one...

also the help link from inside the plugin doesn't work anymore. it is pointing here:
http://manual.b2evolution.net/Am_rss_reader_plugin

p.s. I most had had a really old copy of the plugin. Just installed this 1.1 version and Help link works. Thank you. I also noticed that my old plugin was called "am_audio_player_plugin" and this new one shows up as: AM RSS reader

I'm set.

This plugin looks really interesting, but the download links (in the initial or any other posts) not longer work. Does anyone know of a new link or where I could get this plugin?

Much appreciated!
Allan

I've been using this on a few of my websites now. The only thing on my wish list would be a way to truncate or shorten feed titles.

Has anyone got any suggestions, even if its just a quick hack to force all titles to a certain length?

Limit feed titles :

			echo $this->disp_params[ 'block_start' ]."\n";
// change line below
			$this->disp_params['title' ] = substr( ( empty( $this->disp_params[ 'title' ] ) ? $SimplePie->get_title() : $this->disp_params[ 'title' ] ), 0, 40 );

Limit feed item titles

				$items_output .=  format_to_output( $this->disp_params[  'item_start' ].
					str_replace( array(
						'$url$',
						'$title$',
						'$date$',
						'$content$',
						'$author$',
						 ), array(
							$feed_item->get_permalink(),
// changed line below
							substr( $feed_item->get_title(), 0, 40 ),
							$feed_item->get_date( $this->disp_params[ 'date_format' ] ),
							$this->limit_content( $feed_item->get_content(), $feed_item->get_permalink() ),
							$author,
							 ),
							$this->disp_params[ 'item_html' ] )
							).$this->disp_params[  'item_end' ]."\n";

Change the 40's to the length of your choice.

¥

would someone mind posting a new one to this?