• Registered: 2009-06-25
  • Posts: 3

Topic: disapperaring content in RSS feed after alteration of post date

I am using punbb on my webpage merely as a Blog and create a RSS feed with RSS.php. After that I display the latest topics with a widget called FeedSweep on the entry page as a sort of "news" section. Most topics only have one post, (i.e like a Blog).

Sometimes I need to change the post date of the posts in order to insert a post respectively topic between two preexisitng posts, since in my widget they appear in chronological order. Because I did not find how to modify the post date directly within the punbb - interface, I do that directly in the SQL database of punbb (which forces me to translate the date into integer (10). In punbb that works nice and if I display the index of topics the result is as expected.

However the RSS feed I collect from RSS.php "looses" the message of the post and only displays the post date (as modified), the author, the subject. Again, this does not happen if I leave the post date as generated automically by punbb.

I may add that I slightly modified the RSS.php in order to avoid truncation of the message, because I want this to be done by my widget (Feedsweep). For this in line 200 I inserted the same as in line 204 so that the test regarding the length of the message is useless. I know this is not very elegant, but having no PHP programming knowledge I thought this to be the safest method.
So instead of:

if (pun_strlen($message) > $maxchars)
    {
        $message = '<![CDATA[ '.$lang_feed['Author'].$author.'<br/>'."\n\t\t".$lang_feed['Topic created'].$topic.'<br/>'."\n\t\t".$lang_feed['Topic updated'].$post.'<br/>'."\n\t\t".parse_message(pun_htmlspecialchars(truncate($message, $maxchars)), $cur['hide_smilies']).$lang_feed['Truncated'].' ]]>';
    }
    else
    {
        $message = '<![CDATA[ '.$lang_feed['Author'].$author.'<br/>'."\n\t\t".$lang_feed['Topic created'].$topic.'<br/>'."\n\t\t".$lang_feed['Topic updated'].$post.'<br/>'."\n\t\t".parse_message(pun_htmlspecialchars($message), $cur['hide_smilies']).' ]]>';
    }

I have:

if (pun_strlen($message) > $maxchars)
    {
        $message = '<![CDATA[ '.$lang_feed['Author'].$author.'<br/>'."\n\t\t".parse_message(pun_htmlspecialchars($message), $cur['hide_smilies']).' ]]>';
    }
    else
    {
        $message = '<![CDATA[ '.$lang_feed['Author'].$author.'<br/>'."\n\t\t".parse_message(pun_htmlspecialchars($message), $cur['hide_smilies']).' ]]>';
    }

Any idea why the message of the post disappears?
The forum is located at http://www.zoara.ch/forums/viewforum.php?id=2.

The widget showing the RSS feed at http://www.zoara.ch/

  • Slavok
  • PunBB Developer
  • Offline
  • From: Russia
  • Registered: 2008-06-11
  • Posts: 1,238

Re: disapperaring content in RSS feed after alteration of post date

As I can understand from your explanation, there are two possible reasons why the message could disappear: because of post's date or truncating message. Please, post more information about how your RSS is created.

Slavok's Website

  • Registered: 2009-06-25
  • Posts: 3

Re: disapperaring content in RSS feed after alteration of post date

Slavok wrote:

As I can understand from your explanation, there are two possible reasons why the message could disappear: because of post's date or truncating message. Please, post more information about how your RSS is created.

The code of the file creating the RSS feed is the following:

<?php

define('PUN_ROOT', './');
define('PUN_QUIET_VISIT', 1);
require_once PUN_ROOT.'include/common.php';
require_once PUN_ROOT.'include/parser.php';
require_once PUN_ROOT.'include/user/feed_functions.php';
require PUN_ROOT.'lang/'.$pun_user['language'].'/feed.php';

//------------------------------------------------------------//

// Make sure guests have permission to read the forums
$result = $db->query('SELECT g_read_board FROM '.$db->prefix.'groups WHERE g_id=3') or error('Unable to fetch group info', __FILE__, __LINE__, $db->error());

if ($db->result($result) == '0')
{
    exit('No permission');
}

//------------------------------------------------------------//

// Turn off magic_quotes_runtime
set_magic_quotes_runtime(0);

$show = 'topic';
$postslimit = '25';
$maxchars = '250';
$forumuri = $pun_config['o_base_url'].'/';
$modsdir = $pun_config['o_base_url'].'/';
$imagedir = $pun_config['o_base_url'].'/img/icons/';

//------------------------------------------------------------//

if (isset($_GET['cid']) && trim($_GET['cid']) != '')
{
    $feedreq = ' AND c.id='.intval($_GET['cid']);
    $add = '?cid='.intval($_GET['cid']);
}
else if (isset($_GET['fid']) && trim($_GET['fid']) != '')
{
    $feedreq = ' AND f.id='.intval($_GET['fid']);
    $add = '?fid='.intval($_GET['fid']);
}
else if (isset($_GET['pfid']) && trim($_GET['pfid']) != '')
{
    $feedreq = ' AND f.parent_forum_id='.intval($_GET['pfid']);
    $add = '?pfid='.intval($_GET['pfid']);
}
else if (isset($_GET['tid']) && trim($_GET['tid']) != '')
{
    $feedreq = ' AND t.id='.intval($_GET['tid']);
    $add = '?tid='.intval($_GET['tid']);
}
else
{
    $feedreq = '';
    $add = '';
}

if ($show != 'post')
{
    $result = $db->query('SELECT t.last_post, t.id, t.posted AS tposted, t.subject, t.poster, p.message, p.hide_smilies, p.posted AS pposted, f.forum_name AS forum, c.cat_name AS category FROM '.$db->prefix.'topics t LEFT JOIN '.$db->prefix.'posts p ON (p.topic_id=t.id AND t.posted=p.posted) INNER JOIN '.$db->prefix.'forums AS f ON f.id=t.forum_id LEFT JOIN '.$db->prefix.'categories AS c ON f.cat_id=c.id LEFT JOIN '.$db->prefix.'forum_perms AS fp ON (fp.forum_id=f.id AND fp.group_id=3) WHERE (fp.read_forum IS NULL OR fp.read_forum=1) AND t.moved_to IS NULL'.$feedreq.' ORDER BY last_post DESC LIMIT '.$postslimit) or error('Unable to fetch forum topics', __FILE__, __LINE__, $db->error());
}
else
{
    $result = $db->query('SELECT t.last_post, p.id, p.message, p.poster, p.posted AS pposted, p.hide_smilies, t.posted AS tposted, t.subject, f.forum_name AS forum, c.cat_name AS category FROM '.$db->prefix.'posts p LEFT JOIN '.$db->prefix.'topics t ON p.topic_id=t.id INNER JOIN '.$db->prefix.'forums AS f ON f.id=t.forum_id LEFT JOIN '.$db->prefix.'categories AS c ON f.cat_id=c.id LEFT JOIN '.$db->prefix.'forum_perms AS fp ON (fp.forum_id=f.id AND fp.group_id=3) WHERE (fp.read_forum IS NULL OR fp.read_forum=1) AND t.moved_to IS NULL'.$feedreq.' ORDER BY last_post DESC LIMIT '.$postslimit) or error('Unable to fetch forum posts', __FILE__, __LINE__, $db->error());
}

//------------------------------------------------------------//

list($lastpost) = $db->fetch_row($result);
//pg_result_seek($result, 0);
mysql_data_seek($result, 0);

$x = '0';
$servertag = isset($_SERVER['HTTP_IF_NONE_MATCH']) ? trim($_SERVER['HTTP_IF_NONE_MATCH']) : '';

ob_start();

if (!$lastpost)
{
    makeheader($none, $add);
    noposts($none);
}
else if ($servertag != $lastpost)
{
    while ($cur = $db->fetch_assoc($result))
    {
        if ($x == '0')
        {
            makeheader($cur, $add);
            $x++;
            $tag = $cur['last_post'];
        }
        makeposts($cur, $show, $maxchars);
    }
    echo '</channel>'."\n";
    echo '</rss>'."\n";
}

$feed = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();

//------------------------------------------------------------//

if ($x == '0')
{
    header('HTTP/1.1 304 Not Modified');
    header('Last-Modified: '.gmdate('D, d M Y H:i:s', $lastpost).' GMT');
    header('Date: '.gmdate('D, d M Y H:i:s').' GMT');
    header('Content-Length: 0');
    header('Etag: '.$lastpost);
}
else
{
    header('Etag: '.$lastpost);

    if (stristr($_SERVER["HTTP_ACCEPT"], "application/xml"))
    {
        header ('Content-Type: application/rss+xml; charset='.$lang_common['lang_encoding']);
    }
    else
    {
        header ('Content-type: text/xml; charset='.$lang_common['lang_encoding']);
    }
    echo $feed;
}

//------------------------------------------------------------//

function makeheader($cur, $add)
{
    global $pun_config, $lang_common, $lang_feed, $modsdir, $imagedir, $forumuri;

    $language = strtolower(substr($pun_config['o_default_lang'], 0, 2));
    $script = basename($_SERVER['PHP_SELF']);
    $board_title = pun_htmlspecialchars($pun_config['o_board_title']);

    echo '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="'.$lang_common['lang_encoding'].'"?>'."\n";
    echo '<rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="'.$lang_feed['Atom uri'].'">'."\n";
    echo '<channel>'."\n";
    echo '<title>'.$board_title.' '.$lang_feed['RSS feed'].'</title>'."\n";
    echo '<link>'.$forumuri.'</link>'."\n";
    echo '<generator>'.$lang_feed['RSS generator'].$lang_feed['Version'].'</generator>'."\n";
    echo '<description>'.$board_title.'</description>'."\n";
    echo '<language>'.$language.'</language>'."\n";
    echo '<docs>'.$lang_feed['RSS uri'].'</docs>'."\n";
    echo '<atom:link href="'.$modsdir.$script.$add.'" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/>'."\n";
    echo '<copyright>'."\n";
    echo "\t".$lang_feed['Copyright']."\n\t".$board_title."\n\t".$forumuri."\n";
    echo '</copyright>'."\n";
    echo '<ttl>60</ttl>'."\n";
}

function noposts($none)
{
    global $pun_config, $lang_common, $lang_feed, $modsdir, $imagedir, $forumuri;

    echo '<item>'."\n";
    echo "\t".'<title>'.$lang_feed['No posts'].'</title>'."\n";
    echo "\t".'<link>'.$forumuri.'</link>'."\n";
    echo "\t".'<guid isPermaLink="false">'.$forumuri.'</guid>'."\n";
    echo "\t".'<description>'."\n";
    echo "\t\t".$lang_feed['No posts info']."\n";
    echo "\t".'</description>'."\n";
    echo '</item>'."\n";
    echo '</channel>'."\n";
    echo '</rss>'."\n";
}

function makeposts($cur, $show, $maxchars)
{
    global $pun_config, $lang_common, $lang_feed, $modsdir, $imagedir, $forumuri;

    if ($show != 'post')
    {
        $link = $forumuri.'viewtopic.php?id='.strval($cur['id']);
    }
    else
    {
        $link = $forumuri.'viewtopic.php?pid='.strval($cur['id']).'#p'.strval($cur['id']);
    }

    $author = pun_htmlspecialchars($cur['poster']);

    if (strpos($cur['message'], '[video]') !== false || strpos($cur['message'], '[mp3]') !== false)
    {
        $message = str_replace(array('[video]', '[/video]', '[mp3]', '[/mp3]'), array('[url]', '[/url]', '[url]', '[/url]'), $cur['message']);
    }
    else
    {
        $message = $cur['message'];
    }

    $post = gmdate('d M Y H:i:s', $cur['last_post']);
    $topic = gmdate('d M Y H:i:s', $cur['tposted']);

    if (pun_strlen($message) > $maxchars)
    {
        $message = '<![CDATA[ '.$lang_feed['Author'].$author.'<br/>'."\n\t\t".parse_message(pun_htmlspecialchars($message), $cur['hide_smilies']).' ]]>';
    }
    else
    {
        $message = '<![CDATA[ '.$lang_feed['Author'].$author.'<br/>'."\n\t\t".parse_message(pun_htmlspecialchars($message), $cur['hide_smilies']).' ]]>';
    }

    echo '<item>'."\n";
    echo "\t".'<title>'.pun_htmlspecialchars($cur['subject']).'</title>'."\n";
    echo "\t".'<link>'.pun_htmlspecialchars($link).'</link>'."\n";
    echo "\t".'<guid isPermaLink="false">'.strval($cur['id']).'@'.$forumuri.'</guid>'."\n";
    echo "\t".'<pubDate>'.strval(date("r", $cur['tposted'])).'</pubDate>'."\n";
    echo "\t".'<category>'.pun_htmlspecialchars($cur['category'].' : '.$cur['forum']).'</category>'."\n";
    echo "\t".'<description>'."\n";
    echo "\t\t".$message."\n";
    echo "\t".'</description>'."\n";
    echo '</item>'."\n";
}

//------------------------------------------------------------//

?>
  • Registered: 2007-09-27
  • Posts: 32

Re: disapperaring content in RSS feed after alteration of post date

The specified code works correctly. The problem you have described above appears when you change creation date of the topic in the table "topics" and don't change creation data of post in the table "posts". That's why this 

$db->query('SELECT t.last_post, t.id, t.posted AS tposted, t.subject, t.poster, p.message, p.hide_smilies, p.posted AS pposted, f.forum_name AS forum, c.cat_name AS category 
    FROM '.$db->prefix.'topics t 
    LEFT JOIN '.$db->prefix.'posts p ON (p.topic_id=t.id AND t.posted=p.posted) 
    INNER JOIN '.$db->prefix.'forums AS f ON f.id=t.forum_id 
    LEFT JOIN '.$db->prefix.'categories AS c ON f.cat_id=c.id 
    LEFT JOIN '.$db->prefix.'forum_perms AS fp ON (fp.forum_id=f.id AND fp.group_id=3) 
    WHERE (fp.read_forum IS NULL OR fp.read_forum=1) AND t.moved_to IS NULL 
    ORDER BY last_post DESC 
    LIMIT '.$postslimit)

can't get post message.

  • Registered: 2009-06-25
  • Posts: 3

Re: disapperaring content in RSS feed after alteration of post date

Dear Kowalski  Thanks a lot!

That solved the problem.