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18

Mar

2008

RSS feeds in Joomla: DS-Syndicate bug fix
Written by David Towers   

Ds-Syndicate RSS Feeds Joomla Having attractive RSS feeds is really important. If your feed is dull and unattractive, you are unlikely to get many subscribers and the click-through rate from your subscribers runs the risk of being low.

The best way to have good looking RSS feeds in Joomla 1.0.1 is to use the DS-Syndicate component.

In this post we will talk briefly about why DS-Syndicate is great choice for creating RSS feeds in Joomla. We will then share with you how to solve two very irritating bugs in DS-Syndicate: (1) The component adding open and closed brackets (parentheses) to the feed title and (2) the component outputting the author's email address in the news feed.

Why DS-Syndicate is a good option

With DS-Syndicate you can render images and HTML in the news feed and select which sections and categories to include in the feed. There is also an extensive list of feed types DS-Syndicate can output including RSS 2.0 and Atom. Another important function that DS-Syndicate offers is being able to add a read more link to each item in the feed.

Two bugs with DS-Syndicate

After downloading, installing and configuring DS-Syndicate, we experienced two problems:

1. Feed titles were followed by open and closed parentheses: ()
2. The author's email address was included in the RSS feed

How to resolve these bugs

We resolved these two issues by changing the components PHP files. The simple solution we found was to prevent the author tag from being outputted and to delete the code which was adding the () to the end of the feed title.

If after downloading and installing DS-Syndicate you too are experiencing these problems, you can resolve them by simply overwriting two files in the DS-Syndicate component directory. Follow these steps:

  • Download this file and extract the files
  • Replace ds-syndicate.php in http://www.yoursite.com/components/com_ds-syndicate/ with ds-syndicate.php included in the zip
  • Replace feedcreator.class.php in http://www.yoursite.comcomponents/com_ds-syndicate/includes/ with feedcreator.class.php included in the zip

Changing these two files should enable you to output a RSS 2.0 feed without the author email tag, and without () being attached to the RSS feed title.

It works here at Good Web Practices, just click here to see our news feed which is generated by DS-Syndicate in action!

Comments (47)Add Comment
0
bob
March 28, 2008
68.252.4.29
Votes: +0
...

The two files pretty much blew out my feed "No Feed Available". I will reinstall my two original files.

How about indicating the lines of code you changed so I can changes those lines in the original files.

This has nothing to do with your fix, but I also have an issue with a blank line being generated in the xml file so that I can't use Feedburner. Seems to work in Google Reader.

David Towers
David T
March 28, 2008
205.167.7.18
Votes: +0
...

Hi bob!

Thanks for your feedback. What feed were you trying to output? RSS 2.0? Which version of Ds-Syndicate are you using?

The fix has worked on other installation, I'm curious to know it hasn't worked for you. I'll try and route out the lines of code I changed for you Bob.

0
bob
March 28, 2008
68.252.4.29
Votes: +1
...

Version 1.1.1

RSS 2.0

David Towers
David T
March 28, 2008
205.167.7.18
Votes: +1
...

Bob, the changes made to the two php files can be seen here:

http://www.goodwebpractices.com/downloads/ds-syndicate-changes.txt

0
bob
March 29, 2008
68.252.4.29
Votes: +0
...

David

Thank you very much. Those fixes worked. I have no authors, author emails, or (). Great work.

I was hoping these fixes would solve my other problem with not creating a valid feed for feedburner. I get the message: XML parsing error: :2:0: xml declaration not at start of external entity. I know the problem is the blankline at the beginning of my code. I've search forum and the recommended fixes but still have not been able to validate a feed. Are you aware of a fix. The feed on your site looks very nice.

David Towers
David T
April 01, 2008
205.167.7.18
Votes: +1
...

Bob, delighted the changes worked for you.

I don't know a fix to address the XML parsing error, but how about try changing your feed output from RSS 2.0 to RSS 1.0?

0
andy
April 08, 2008
79.68.52.249
Votes: +0
...

How do you add the little feed icon to the address bar? I thought ds syndicate was like the original joomla syndicate module, you had to have published on the site. So all you actually have to do is use the component and ignore the module? Where do u get the RSS subscribe module you have?

Im pretty confused about RSS feed to be honest Its not something i ever thought about using before.

0
miskairal
April 09, 2008
116.90.61.54
Votes: +0
...

Just wanted to say a big THANKYOU for this little gem. It is really nice to get things all tidied up and how I wanted them.

Cheers

0
andy
April 10, 2008
79.68.114.61
Votes: +0
...

Im pretty confused about RSS feed to be honest Its not something i ever thought about using before.

David Towers
David T
April 10, 2008
80.192.241.139
Votes: +0
...

Hi Andy - RSS feeds are really useful you should definately consider adding one to your site.

You can get the RSS icon in the address bar by adding this code in your template:

< link rel="alternate" type="application/rss xml" title="RSS 2.0" rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/goodwebpractices" />

Just check out our source code to see how we did it!

Miskairal glad you found these tips useful and that they tidied up your RSS feed :-)

0
Jonathan
April 11, 2008
41.210.20.70
Votes: +0
...

Good Fix, Thanks a lot

0
ultrabeast
April 14, 2008
218.111.15.160
Votes: +0
...

Hi there...

I see that this site (goodwebpractices.com) has an excellent RSS feed page generated (displayed when you click that "RSS Subscribe" link on the upper right part of this page... with the same template and display style as the rest of this site.

Apart from that, the article order there follows exactly the article order of the articles on the main page.

I'm trying to use ds-syndicate on my site too, and the display is really nothing like the way that I would like it to be; that is, how it is for this site.

Am I missing something? What are the things that I should do or look out for?



Next is the URL that I keep on getting from ds-syndicate. Whenever I've done something wrong in creating the feed and I delete it from the administration interface to start over...

The URL I get is incremented by 1
http://virtualestate.org/ultra...&feed_id=5

as in feed_id=1, then =2, ...

But in feedburner, the URL that I submit is =1 ... how do I force DS-syndicate to just create a certain URL with a certain ID?

If anyone could please take a look at my site. I'm facing a lot of problems from time-to-time specifically with file and folder writable permissions.

0
Mark
April 17, 2008
76.103.26.82
Votes: +0
...

I have the problem with DS-Syndicate that it orders content by Modified Date, not by Create Date.
So every time you update a story, even if it's 1 year old, it goes back to the top of RSS feed list.
Is there a way to change this?

Jason Boyette
GreatGatsby
May 15, 2008
199.178.199.254
Votes: +1
...

Do you have a recommendation for RSS on Joomla 1.5? It appears that this component only works with Joomla 1.0.X, right?

0
glen
May 15, 2008
202.162.100.117
Votes: +0
...


"I have the problem with DS-Syndicate that it orders content by Modified Date, not by Create Date. So every time you update a story, even if it's 1 year old, it goes back to the top of RSS feed list. Is there a way to change this?"

we have the same problem - has anyone found a fix for this ?

David Towers
David T
May 15, 2008
205.167.7.18
Votes: +0
...

GreatGatsby - DS-Syndicate is for Joomla 1.0 yes. For Joomla 1.5, you could try Rss Factory: http://extensions.joomla.org/c...Itemid,35/ I haven't used it yet, however I have heard good things about it. If you give it a go, please let me know how you get on with it. smilies/smiley.gif

Glen - Sorry I haven't seen anyone mention a fix for that issue.

Jason Boyette
GreatGatsby
May 15, 2008
199.178.199.254
Votes: +0
...

David,

Is RSS Factory used to syndicate my site's articles to others, or as a RSS reader inside my site?

Jason Boyette
GreatGatsby
May 15, 2008
199.178.199.254
Votes: +0
...

Also, have you used the standard Joomla 1.5 RSS Syndication and Feeds modules?

0
depika
May 19, 2008
85.74.15.219
Votes: +1
...

Hi I applied your changes and the feed works fine in firefox but in IE6 and IE7 I see plain text and the html is not rendered.

What may be wrong? You can check it here
http://www.kolonaki-press.com/index2.php?option=ds-syndicate&version=1&feed_id=1

0
Alin
May 22, 2008
79.118.196.155
Votes: +0
...

Hi,
Anybody has any idea why my images do not appear in rss page? they are added with {mosimage} in article but do not appear:
http://www.webcms.ro/index2.php?option=com_ds-syndicate&version=1&feed_id=1

Many thanks in advance.

0
Rafael
June 09, 2008
75.66.241.179
Votes: +0
...

I added the code to include the RSS link in the address bar:

< link rel="alternate" type="application/rss xml" title="RSS 2.0" rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/nabaima" />

But I still do not get the RSS link in the address bar... (see nabaima.com) any ideas on why it might not be working?

Thanks,

Rafa

David Towers
David T
June 09, 2008
205.167.7.18
Votes: +0
...

Hi Rafa, you missed a plus sign between the rss and xml, so it should be:

rss[PLUS-SIGN]xml

That will make it work!

(The plus sign doesn't format with in the comments section...)

0
Jimmy
June 11, 2008
72.198.118.234
Votes: +0
...

The "modified date" issue mentioned by Mark and Glen is a real issue. Anybody have a recommendation on where to look in the code to fix this?

David Towers
David T
June 11, 2008
205.167.7.18
Votes: +0
...

Hi Jimmy! Sorry I still haven't come across a fix for the modified date issue.

David Towers
David T
June 18, 2008
87.90.44.16
Votes: +0
...

Here is a great article about RSS feeds in Joomla 1.5:

http://blog.joomlatools.org/2008/06/leveraging-feeds-in-joomla-15.html

0
Kaz
July 04, 2008
58.165.236.38
Votes: +0
...

Will this work if the RSS feeds are valid but no feeds are going through? I'm not techy enough to understand what adding the brackets actually causes to the feeds. Does it stop the feeds from working?
My feed URL is http://money-magnets.net/index...&feed_id=1
Thanks for any help.

Kaz

David Towers
David T
July 04, 2008
87.90.44.16
Votes: +0
...

Sorry Karen I don't really understand your question. Maybe you should try putting some articles through the feed so we can see how the feeds are formatted.

0
Kaz
July 04, 2008
58.165.236.38
Votes: +0
...

I guess I don't understand your initial problem with the brackets to know if that's my problem. Did the problem with the brackets mean that the feed didn't show the articles?

I have feeds and I have articles on my website. I have checked the feed with a feed validator and it says its okay. However when I click on the RSS and go into google reader nothing is loaded. When I click on this sites RSS all the articles are loaded, so I'm unsure why I'm not getting the same thing with my website.

I hope that is clearer and thanks for replying so quickly!

David Towers
David T
July 04, 2008
87.90.44.16
Votes: +0
...

You're welcome.

The problem that we had with the brackets was that the was a set of open and closed brackets with nothing in them. I see that on your site the RSS feed has (Property Investment) in the brackets so that's not a worry.

Google Reader can take a few minutes to update so it might just be a matter of time. The feed that you showed us here: http://money-magnets.net/index...&feed_id=1 is just for the property investment section...

0
Kaz
July 04, 2008
58.165.236.38
Votes: +0
...

Okay maybe I'm being a little impatient.
I'll wait awhile and see what happens.
Thanks again for your reply!

0
Kaz
July 05, 2008
58.165.236.38
Votes: +0
...

I waited and you were right that the feeds did appear. However only the public ones so now I'll research how to do RSS feeds with registered articles
:-).

Thanks.

0
Graham
July 17, 2008
58.104.186.50
Votes: +0
...

There appears to be a fix for the () problem on line 171 of ds-syndicate.php of the current version, but it's still not quite right. I'm not sure exactly what's supposed to go within the parentheses so I'm not sure what the proper fix should be.

0
Jim
August 01, 2008
66.66.76.114
Votes: +0
...

Could there be an update version for Joomla 1.5? It seems to be a very popular request now.

0
Tiago
August 14, 2008
80.95.253.194
Votes: +0
...

My Feeds take forever to be published (the articles are instantly). Is that a common problem to you guys? Checked all my cache parameters (seconds only).
Help, anyone?

0
Catalin
August 27, 2008
81.12.246.129
Votes: +0
...

Hey guys

I can't get SEF Url inside my feeds...
I've been looking in the sources, there's a sefRelToAbs call, but link just gets turned into classical /content/view/x/y, not into actual OpenSEF url.
Any idea about this one?
Thanks
C

0
Alberto
September 06, 2008
89.96.237.196
Votes: +0
...

Thanks!
Thanks!!
Thanks!!!

It Works smilies/cheesy.gif

0
Jesse
September 24, 2008
125.24.208.143
Votes: +0
...

Hello,
Thanks for the great run-down of this component and the fix to this issue.. one question for you.. We are currently finishing several new clients sites that require RSS feeds,.. I have searched everywhere! Do you know of a component that would allow us to produce an RSS for Joomla! 1.5+?? Preferably with the ability to syndicate a section.
Thanks again,
Looking forward to your reply.
Jesse

0
Orion
September 24, 2008
84.97.233.130
Votes: +0
...

Hello, unless I missed something I didn't fix the 2 issues (parenthesis and email) the way it is described.

For the parenthesis, I just chose the following option in my feeds :
Include category names in title = No
(for category-specific feeds you might want to leave it to Yes, as the parenthesis won't be empty).

The email issue required a change in admin.ds-syndicate.php . A bug keeps the author format option from being displayed in the feed settings.
admin.ds-syndicate.php, line 481, change :
$lists['$renderAuthorList'] = ....
to :
$lists['renderAuthorList'] = ....

Then the option appears, which lets you select the author format :
- Name (what one might want)
- Email
- Name&Email
(it appears between "Fulltext" and "Render HTML" options).

Regards,
Orion

0
Jason
September 30, 2008
98.224.83.71
Votes: +0
...

Hello,

I tried your files in hopes that my image issue would be resolved. I use feedburner and get the following image url http://feeds.feedburner.com/st...9_moby.jpg instead of http://www.stuffonmycat.com/im..._moby.jpg. I see your feedburner images come through fine. What am I missing?

Also, google reader does show the images but also the email address. I checked that I put the altered files to the server and they are the correct files.

Any ideas???

Thanks,
Jason

0
Jason
October 01, 2008
98.224.83.71
Votes: +0
...

SOLVED

It was relative image pathing caused by JCE Editor. Had to switch the option off in the backend, and all began to work

0
Leo
October 07, 2008
118.136.197.26
Votes: +0
...

I'm REALLY love this component. Do you have any idea how to install DS-Syndicate in Joomla 1.5.
Cause i dont find any RSS Syndication powerful as this for J1.5

0
Domingo
October 15, 2008
85.49.83.38
Votes: +0
...

hello, I have the same problem that rafael please someone can explain in detail how to do so that my pictures come out in the RSS ...

Thank you.

0
GBY
October 22, 2008
82.216.43.167
Votes: +0
...

Have you read this news :
A vulnerability is confirmed in version 1.1.1 with manipulation of data

http://secunia.com/advisories/32321/

David Towers
David T
November 28, 2008
193.23.120.250
Votes: +0
...

If you're looking for a RSS Syndicator for Joomla 1.5, please check out this post: http://www.goodwebpractices.co...la-15.html

0
Dr2
February 02, 2009
207.148.202.254
Votes: +2
...

where do I change CSS-HTML code so that the output of my feed will have a black background?

www.detroitrockreview.com/index2.php?option=ds-syndicate&version=1&feed_id=1

0
dont
July 12, 2009
92.28.156.32
Votes: +0
...

don't use this component, hackers can hack it, there is exploit for it!

0
westfirebirds
June 05, 2010
65.26.152.170
Votes: +0
...

I am having trouble getting any rss output from my joomla 1.0 site. i am using rd rss. is there something i need to change in the admin settings?
my rss feed is
http://lakotawebdesign.com/index.php?option=com_rd_rss&id=2

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