RSS as js variable

[slyi]

Hi All,
I was playing with the idea of getting an RSS feed as js
variable from one server http://www.geocities.com/sly_i/rssvar.js and
then parsing it via js on another server
http://www.myjavaserver.com/~slyi/myrss.htm. But i cant find any site
that provide the raw RSS as a js variable.

I asked the guys who make the great feed2js
http://jade.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/feed/ but they dont believe the idea
of providing rss in a raw format in worth pursuing.

Do you know of any site that would provide this?
I dont mind if it contains google ads as long as you can specify the
rss url and recieve it as a js variable.

thanks for your help

slyi

[fox]

Re: RSS as js variable



slyi wrote:[color=blue]
> Hi All,
> I was playing with the idea of getting an RSS feed as js
> variable from one server http://www.geocities.com/sly_i/rssvar.js and
> then parsing it via js on another server
> http://www.myjavaserver.com/~slyi/myrss.htm. But i cant find any site
> that provide the raw RSS as a js variable.
>
> I asked the guys who make the great feed2js
> http://jade.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/feed/ but they dont believe the idea
> of providing rss in a raw format in worth pursuing.[/color]

there's no real advantage... many newer mail and news clients will read
rss files.

If you want the feeds available to JS for development purposes, with a
very little bit of help from php you can simply:


<offtopic>

<?php //4.30 or better

if(isset($_REQU EST) && isset($_REQUEST["url"]))
{
$contents = file_get_conten ts($url);

// remove all return and linefeed characters!
$contents = preg_replace("/\r|\f/","",$contents) ;

}
?>

<script ...>

// convert newlines to literal \n so they can be restored
// and add slashes to quotes
var rss = "<?=addslashes( preg_replace("/\n/","\\n",$conten ts));?>";

.....

</script>

If you do not need to preserve newlines, then you can remove them with
the returns and linefeeds (regex: "/\n|\r|\f/") and simply use
<?=addslashes($ contents);?> above. However, you might find it easier if
the rss is broken down into chunks (you can rss.split("\\n" )...). For
displaying in the textarea, i used rss.split("\\n" ).join("\n");

This script gets into serious trouble very quickly if the content is not
rss/xml... your script should control which feeds are available to the user.

I have an example at:

http://fxmahoney.com/demo/rss_to_js.htm?url=http://nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Arts.xml

[if your reader wraps lines -- make sure you copy and paste the entire
url in the location bar]

it loads the contents of the rss/xml into a javascript variable which is
loaded into a form textarea upon onload. (View Source)

As far as i can tell, RSS 2.0 (0.91 tested also) feeds should do well
enough with this script. HTML will not!! [not ANY site i tested]

If all you have access to is php 3.x, I don't think you'll be able to do
this (fopen_wrappers required) -- if php >=4.0 and < 4.3, then use:

if($f = fopen($url, "r"))
{
while(!feof($f) )
$contents .= fread($f, 8192);

fclose($f);
}


</offtopic>[color=blue]
>
> Do you know of any site that would provide this?
> I dont mind if it contains google ads as long as you can specify the
> rss url and recieve it as a js variable.[/color]

.... bandwidth issues ... better to do it yourself[color=blue]
>
> thanks for your help
>
> slyi
>[/color]

[slyi]

Re: RSS as js variable

Thanks fox. Your answer was most useful, i do know a bit of php and
have the server access
But i was hoping that someone knew of a service available on the web
for this
As this could be a workaround for the x-site scripting restrictions
client side RSS.

[fox]

Re: RSS as js variable



slyi wrote:[color=blue]
> Thanks fox. Your answer was most useful, i do know a bit of php and
> have the server access
> But i was hoping that someone knew of a service available on the web
> for this
> As this could be a workaround for the x-site scripting restrictions
> client side RSS.
>[/color]

if you have the bandwidth for it -- or want to get involved in
"subscripti ons" for the service (or free if the demand is not high),
then the easiest thing to do is use the php to generate a *.js file from
the rss feed as illustrated.

One way is to set *.js files to be pre-processed by php by adding the
file type to .htaccess:

AddType application/x-httpd-php .js

users would directly access the php disguised as js served from your domain.

[**i'm pretty sure you can simply use <script src=myscript.ph p... just
as easily without messing with htaccess]

<script
src="http://yourdomain.com/scripts/rss.js?feed=htt p://somedomain.com/rss.xml"
type=text/javascript></script>

//-------rss.js:

<?

if(isset($_REQU EST) && isset($_REQUEST["feed"]))
{
$contents = file_get_conten ts($feed);
$contents = preg_replace("/\r|\f/","",$contents) ;
}

?>

var rss = "<?=addslashes( preg_replace("/\n/","\\n",$conten ts));?>";

// -------end rss.js

[ a lot of people don't realize that .js files can be passed
location.search (aka, GET) data just like any other URL ]

Add some parsing functions and your ready to serve RSS via JS yourself.


I'm not familiar with x-site, so I really couldn't make any further
recommendations about possible workarounds.

fox