As hinted, I have just posted an updated version of the RSS to JavaScript service/code we created in April 2003.
The new one is now called Feed2JS and features a number of enhancements- primarily an adoption of the open-source Magpie RSS parser, to replace the unsupported OnysRSS parser previously used. Magpie allows us to provide this support for Atom feeds. We have also added options to allow you to truncate the item descriptions by a specified number of characters as well as a new parameter to set links from the feeds to open in either a new browser window or the same window. Also, to make things simpler, we can generate the HTML version form the same script (for noscript tags, so we do not leave the JavaScript-less out in the cold).
For anyone using the older version, now archived at http://feed2js.org/rss2js2003.html, it will continue to run and the code will remain available from there.
Hopefully you will find the new site more usable, with my own new cheap graphic, as well as broken into subsections- examples of use of Feed2JS, basics of finding RSS feeds, the web tool to build your own feed using our server, a new section on styling your feeds with CSS, and the prized item, download and installation instructions.
You will have to get the Magpie RSS parser from its own source and set that up. It is not all that hard, and no more complicated then the older OnyxRSS parser.
Finally, since Google found hundreds of examples of other sites using our first version (RSS2JS), most that never contacted us, we ask that if you make use of our free service/code, to just share a URL we can post as an example.
Okay, it is out there. Now help me find the bugs!
Alan,
Line 154 in feed2js.php is missing the ; at the end
define(‘MAGPIE_DIR’, ‘./cached/’)
Also, in build.php I had to add all the _GET stuff, because register_globals is off on my server and any new php installation.
David
Alan,
This page doesn’t appear to be quite working
http://jade.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/feed/index.php?s=examples
David
A great service, Alan — thanks. (Found via the folks at MVCC, an example I’ve been using to show our own library folks what blogging+RSS can do for us).
One tiny suggestion, though: a feed which doesn’t insist on starting so far to the right in a given area, especially when list settings are essentially null, would be much more useful, design-wise. How’s about a default setting which aligns the list at (or nearer to) the left margin, for those of us who don’t want our feed to align so far over?
(for an example of this in action, see the “tinyblog” section on the right sidebar at http://mediakit.blogspot.com)
Joshua,
There are not formatting specifications in our feeds that dictate the alignment or placement, it is all how you set up your own stylesheets- it can be left, right aligned, and fat or skinny, big font, little font, blue font, read font, bullets, no bullets…
See:
http://jade.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/feed/index.php?s=style
Figured it out with some off-blog help from Alan — thanks Alan!
But for posterity’s sake, did want to point out that what threw me was that this very nifty feed-producer automatically puts out its feed in list format (ul). Most of the previous tools I’ve used (like Feedroll, for example) don’t…and in our case, at least, it’s more work to integrate a list into one’s design than a simple series of text lines.
Glad you got it figured out.
However I still think a UL list is the best *structural* entity for a feed. You are thinking of lists as they are normalled formatted, but you easily achieve the design you want by using
.rss_items {
list-style:none;
}
which removes bullets, and setting margins and paddings correctly gets you the “look”.
A series of text lines does not convey anything about the meaning of the information- to a screen reader or someother type of display device, it just becomes run on text.
define(‘MAGPIE_DIR’, ‘./cached/’);
should be
define(‘MAGPIE_CACHE_DIR’, ‘./cached/’);
Yikes, Ken, you are right. Some of the first releases had that the variable mis-defined.
Trying to clean up these messes, thanks.