Setting up a RSS Feed

[Jammerious]

Hello,

I've sort of extended the install instructions with this blog entry, hope somebody finds it usefull. A little bit less formatted copy-paste:

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In order to display a feed somewhere on the net, you need to set up a RSS formatting source. Today's contribution of choice is RSS Feed 2.1 with two up to this date available fixes.

1. So, we should apply the first fix: Small fix for 2.1. This is pretty straightforward and requires you to change only one line in rss.php. The instructions are included in the zipped package on the above link. What it does is that it fixes some possible errors when a text feed uses & (amps, or ampersands).

2. The second fix is: Adding both Category and Manufacturers Filtering. By the words of the author, this is a slight modification of step 6 of the install process enabling the correct filtered feed to be auto detected by the browser. This requires you to copy and replace the step 6 in the installation instructions.

 

Installing RSS Feed 2.1 is quite a big piece of cake and requires both changes to the files and the database (well, small ones really, but still, don't be lazy 8) ). So it is imperative that you do a total backup, both of files and the database. You would rather do this when the site is not getting a lot of customers. Preferably you would also not do this on a live store. I have a home server with OsC installed for experimentation, but you could also use a free hosting service just for OsC "development".

RSS Feed from some point in time also includes the eCommerce RSS format, which is optional (called by an URL parameter), but is included in the package. If I am not mistaken, it's an initiative to create a standard that enables better parsing of eCommerce specific feeds, which in some cases are used not just to display but also format and work with the data. More about it here.

So you should basically just follow the instructions. However, let me have a few words on...

 

STEP 6 (Modified) - This doesn't seem very right, opening lots of files and editing them.... But well, what can you do. (I did not ponder about it too much :) )

 

STEP 7 - Adds a small RSS button in the footer, thus editing footer.php.

Note this: The first pic shows the state before the edit, the second with the edit from the install instructions and the third with the edit how I prefer it.

This was the altered <td> field:

<td class="footer" style="text-align:center; width:16px; padding-left:5px"><a href="<?php echo FILENAME_RSS, '?language=' . $lang_code; ?>" title="<?php echo BOX_INFORMATION_RSS; ?>">

It just occured to me, OsC is really old-fashioned, still using lots of CSS2.0 non-compliant stuff, like <td align=".."> . But hey, everything works!

 

STEP 8 (Optional) - Adding a smart button, that sets the feed source, narrowing it to the current category or manufacturer you are looking at.

 

STEP 9 (Optional) - Adding a menu link in the "Store information" box.

Before:

After:

 

STEP 10 - Modding the categories.php file (if you didn't overwrite it in step 2 - I couldn't, since I had the AJAX attribute manager and FCKeditor mods). This a pain in the arse. However, you can ease that pain with a good text editor. Also, I changed my approach to the matter - I modded the categories.php (that was included in the RSS package) with the two mentioned contributions. I noticed that the underlying categories.php was a bit outdated (seems the author that started writing the contribution used an older source), so I included those changes too (there were not many and they were rather small, like typecasts and such).

As for the editor and how most effectively do it: use an editor that allows file comparing. One of those is Notepad++, a free text editor packed with functionality. You would open both categories.php files (the RSS one and your modded one) and press "Alt+D". Nice, ain't it? You should also click "Plugins -> Compare -> Align matches". Now you have a much better view of what needs to be done.

 

So that it is, hopefully this clears any doubts about setting up the feed. I am not a genius but you are welcome to ask for help :)

[web-project]

pointless to have icon on the website, as in Firefox & IE browser you can get the same icon in the address bar of your website.

[Jamez]

pointless to have icon on the website, as in Firefox & IE browser you can get the same icon in the address bar of your website.

Pointless? No. It is informing the user in addition to whats in the address bar.

Superfluous (sp) maybe but not pointless.

[Jammerious]

This is a small mod that adds an option to the product listing which makes it possible to quickly change the RSS status of a product. In the same manner as setting it on or off stock/availability.

 

Screenshot:

 

Backup the admin folder and follow the included instructions.

 

http://addons.oscommerce.com/info/1513