Question

RSS feed in PHP

Asked by: cuttone

Hi,

I am trying to create a feed to submit to Google news. The code is below. What I get is an error message, where the PHP code starts to parse the data base information.

The character '>' was expected.
Line: 13 Character: 41

Any help in getting this working is appreciated.

<? require("config.php"); ?>
 
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
        xmlns:news="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-news/0.9">
 
 
<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>My Site</title>
 
 
<?
 
                        $select="SELECT article_id, headline, sub_headline, created, keywords FROM $table_articles ORDER BY created DESC LIMIT 20";
 
                        $result=mysql_query($select);
 
                        while($sub_articles=mysql_fetch_array($result)) { ?>
                      echo" <item>\n"; 
                      echo" <loc><http://www.mysite.com/"article.php?article_id=<?echo $sub_articles['article_id']; ?>"></loc>\n";
                   echo"   <title> <?echo stripslashes($sub_articles['headline']);?> <?echo stripslashes($sub_articles['sub_headline']);?></title></font><br />\n";
echo" <news:news>\n";
echo" <news:publication_date><?echo stripslashes($sub_articles['created']);?></news:publication_date><br />\n";
echo" <news:keywords>Sports,  <?echo stripslashes($sub_articles['keywords']);?></news:keywords><br />\n";
                        <br /><br />  <? } ?>        </news:news>\n";
    </url>
</urlset>
 
</body>
</html>

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Asked On: 2008-12-15 at 16:20:43ID23987138
Topic: RSS
Participating Experts: 2
Points: 250
Comments: 34

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Answers

by: hibridassassinPosted on 2008-12-15 at 16:38:25ID: 23179789

I looked at the code and other than me recommending that you don't use short tags, it looks properly syntaxed. Is the error on your config file?

by: cuttonePosted on 2008-12-15 at 16:42:56ID: 23179824

I dont think there is an error in the config file, since that is included in all the other pages on the site and they run fine

by: hibridassassinPosted on 2008-12-15 at 16:44:03ID: 23179833

I take that back, I took a closer look (before I ran it through a validator) and I see that on line 19, 20 and others, you are using echo outside of the php tags

by: cuttonePosted on 2008-12-15 at 16:49:24ID: 23179893

What is the propper code for those lines?

by: hibridassassinPosted on 2008-12-15 at 16:53:37ID: 23179921

Here give this a try and let me know if it works.

<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
        xmlns:news="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-news/0.9">
 
 
<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>My Site</title>
 
 
<?php
 
                        $select="SELECT article_id, headline, sub_headline, created, keywords FROM $table_articles ORDER BY created DESC LIMIT 20";
 
                        $result=mysql_query($select);
 
                        while($sub_articles=mysql_fetch_array($result)) { ?>
                        
                      <?php echo" <item>\n"; ?>
                      
                    <?php  echo" <loc><http://www.mysite.com/article.php?article_id={$sub_articles['article_id']} ></loc>\n";?>
                <?php   echo" <title> ". stripslashes($sub_articles['headline']);?> <?php echo stripslashes($sub_articles['sub_headline']) . "</title></font><br />\n"; ?>
<?php "<news:news>\n"; ?>
<?php echo "<news:publication_date>" . stripslashes($sub_articles['created']) . "</news:publication_date><br />\n"; ?>
<?php echo "<news:keywords>Sports,  " . stripslashes($sub_articles['keywords']) . "</news:keywords><br />\n"; ?>
                        <br /><br />  <?php } ?>        </news:news>\n";
    </url>
</urlset>
 
</body>
</html>

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by: hibridassassinPosted on 2008-12-15 at 16:56:13ID: 23179936

don't forget to include your config file

by: cuttonePosted on 2008-12-15 at 17:02:19ID: 23179963

When the page is published as a .php file, all that shows in the browser is the line with the date and time, and the keywords.

Looking in the source code, all the other information is there, just not visible in the browser.

When saved as a .xml file, it returns this error:

Whitespace is not allowed at this location.
Line: 1 Character: 3

<? require("config.php"); ?>

by: hibridassassinPosted on 2008-12-15 at 17:06:17ID: 23179984

You can't save it as an XML file because it has PHP code in it. In order for the server to process that code, it has to have the extension of php...That being said, I highly recommend that you read this article that explains how to create the XML code you want with PHP:

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-5035149.html

by: hibridassassinPosted on 2008-12-15 at 17:07:34ID: 23179993

In other words you will use the PHP file to create a separate XML file which is what you will give to Google. All the instructions are there. Enjoy!

by: hibridassassinPosted on 2008-12-15 at 17:10:12ID: 23180011

One last thing, if you want to use the PHP file and give that to Google (Not sure if Google will take it) but if you do, please post the code of the source of the page you are seeing.

by: cuttonePosted on 2008-12-15 at 17:36:15ID: 23180201

Very bizarre

I changed the site name in the file and republished the page and it gave me the same original error message.

I copied the code exactly as a above, the only change is the url is the actual name of the web site.

by: hibridassassinPosted on 2008-12-16 at 08:47:21ID: 23185306

ummm...The other thing could be whatever data is being pulled from the database...if it has quotes or something like that, that's why I was asking to for the source of the blank page you were getting.

by: Ray_PaseurPosted on 2008-12-17 at 04:36:55ID: 23192616

Looking at this code:

<? require("config.php"); ?>

<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
xmlns:news="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-news/0.9">

I think the effect of what you have there is to produce a line of whitespace at the top of your script. You probably want to eliminate that. Also, I've done a lot of RSS and I've never seen a urlset tag done that way before. You might want to use something more like the code snippet.

Finally, I think hibridassassin is steering you in the right direction by suggesting that the PHP script needs to create the XML, and that the output of the script must contain only XML. You may find it's best to let the PHP script just generate the XML and use some other mechanism to get the XML to Google. Or you may need to have your server parse files named like .xml through the PHP processor.

Best regards, ~Ray

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
   <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/</loc>
   <lastmod>2008-12-17</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.8</priority>
   </url>  
</urlset>

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by: cuttonePosted on 2008-12-22 at 17:23:16ID: 23230905

hibridassassin:

This is what is being returned in the page as published from the baove code.

The character '>' was expected.
Line: 13 Character: 34

I am not sure specifically what is in the information being pulled from the data base, but that can not be changed, since it is part of the content.

Ray_Paseur:
The set tags are according to Google for submitting a news feed.

The PHP script should output the RSS feed.

by: Ray_PaseurPosted on 2008-12-22 at 17:27:02ID: 23230913

Well, if Google wants it that way, then try it that way.

In order to get a handle on the message about The character '>' was expected. Line: 13 Character: 34, it would be helpful if you could post the output of the script so we can see what is being generated on line 13. You can plug that into the code snippet.

Thanks, ~Ray

by: cuttonePosted on 2008-12-22 at 17:32:07ID: 23230932

All that shows in the web page is the error message.

This is what is outputted in the source code:
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
xmlns:news="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-news/0.9">

<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>My Site</title>

<item>

<loc><http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id=17008 ></loc>
<title> TAKING OVER THE CREW Warzycha gets nod in Columbus</title> 
<news:publication_date>2008-12-22 16:41:45</news:publication_date> 
<news:keywords>Sports, Major League Soccer, Columbus Crew</news:keywords> 
 
<item>

<loc><http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id=17007 ></loc>
<title> HAPPY CHANUKAH To the Jewish soccer community</title> 
<news:publication_date>2008-12-21 21:25:35</news:publication_date> 
<news:keywords>Sports, BigAppleSoccer.com</news:keywords> 
 
<item>

<loc><http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id=17005 ></loc>
<title> GROWTH DURING TURBULENCE RSL adds jobs during trying economic times; Dynamo and Real increase sponsors</title> 
<news:publication_date>2008-12-21 21:05:25</news:publication_date> 
<news:keywords>Sports, Real Salt Lake, Houston Dynamo</news:keywords> 
 
<item>

<loc><http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id=17004 ></loc>
<title> SOMETIMES LESS IS MORE Unlike other sports leagues, MLS hasn't made any league office cutbacks</title> 
<news:publication_date>2008-12-21 21:01:52</news:publication_date> 
<news:keywords>Sports, Major League Soccer, Don Garber</news:keywords> 
 
<item>

by: Ray_PaseurPosted on 2008-12-22 at 17:35:55ID: 23230948

Could you please post that using the "attach code snippet" checkbox - it will give us the line numbers. Thanks.

by: cuttonePosted on 2008-12-22 at 17:38:13ID: 23230955

<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
        xmlns:news="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-news/0.9">
 
 
<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>My Site</title>
 
 
                        
                       <item>
                      
                     <loc><http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id=17008 ></loc>
                 <title> TAKING OVER THE CREW Warzycha gets nod in Columbus</title></font><br />
<news:publication_date>2008-12-22 16:41:45</news:publication_date><br />
<news:keywords>Sports,  Major League Soccer, Columbus Crew</news:keywords><br />
                        <br /><br />                          
                       <item>
                      
                     <loc><http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id=17007 ></loc>
                 <title> HAPPY CHANUKAH To the Jewish soccer community</title></font><br />
<news:publication_date>2008-12-21 21:25:35</news:publication_date><br />
<news:keywords>Sports,  BigAppleSoccer.com</news:keywords><br />
                        <br /><br />                          
                       <item>
                      
                     <loc><http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id=17005 ></loc>
                 <title> GROWTH DURING TURBULENCE RSL adds jobs during trying economic times; Dynamo and Real increase sponsors</title></font><br />
<news:publication_date>2008-12-21 21:05:25</news:publication_date><br />
<news:keywords>Sports,  Real Salt Lake, Houston Dynamo</news:keywords><br />
                        <br /><br />                          
                       <item>
                      
                     <loc><http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id=17004 ></loc>
                 <title> SOMETIMES LESS IS MORE Unlike other sports leagues, MLS hasn't made any league office cutbacks</title></font><br />
<news:publication_date>2008-12-21 21:01:52</news:publication_date><br />
<news:keywords>Sports,  Major League Soccer, Don Garber</news:keywords><br />
                        <br /><br />                          
                       <item>

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by: Ray_PaseurPosted on 2008-12-22 at 17:45:49ID: 23230975

Thanks, I think the culprit is this line:

<?php echo" <loc><http://www.mysite.com/article.php?article_id={$sub_articles['article_id']} ></loc>\n";?>

It is line 20 in hibridassassin's last post.

Could you try changing it to something like the code snippet? I think the extra < and > around the URL are causing the issue.

<?php echo" <loc>http://www.mysite.com/article.php?article_id={$sub_articles['article_id']}</loc>\n";?>

1:

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by: cuttonePosted on 2008-12-22 at 18:07:32ID: 23231027

Now we get this error message:

End tag 'news:news' does not match the start tag 'item'.
Line: 150 Character: 36

</news:news>\n";

<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
        xmlns:news="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-news/0.9">
 
 
<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>My Site</title>
 
 
                        
                       <item>
                      
                     <loc>http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id=17008</loc>
                 <title> TAKING OVER THE CREW Warzycha gets nod in Columbus</title><br />
<news:publication_date>2008-12-22 16:41:45</news:publication_date><br />
<news:keywords>Sports,  Major League Soccer, Columbus Crew</news:keywords><br />
                                                 
                       <item>
                      
                     <loc>http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id=17007</loc>
                 <title> HAPPY CHANUKAH To the Jewish soccer community</title><br />
<news:publication_date>2008-12-21 21:25:35</news:publication_date><br />
<news:keywords>Sports,  BigAppleSoccer.com</news:keywords><br />
                                                 
                       <item>
                      
                     <loc>http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id=17005</loc>
                 <title> GROWTH DURING TURBULENCE RSL adds jobs during trying economic times; Dynamo and Real increase sponsors</title><br />
<news:publication_date>2008-12-21 21:05:25</news:publication_date><br />
<news:keywords>Sports,  Real Salt Lake, Houston Dynamo</news:keywords><br />
                                                 
                       <item>
                      
                     <loc>http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id=17004</loc>
                 <title> SOMETIMES LESS IS MORE Unlike other sports leagues, MLS hasn't made any league office cutbacks</title><br />
<news:publication_date>2008-12-21 21:01:52</news:publication_date><br />
<news:keywords>Sports,  Major League Soccer, Don Garber</news:keywords><br />

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by: Ray_PaseurPosted on 2008-12-22 at 18:17:56ID: 23231054

Seems like it issues error messages one line at a time like the PHP parser. Grrmphff. Any chance you could post all the way through (and past) line 150 ? Thanks.

by: cuttonePosted on 2008-12-22 at 19:48:32ID: 23231269

Here's everything to the bottom of the page

Thanks

<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
        xmlns:news="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-news/0.9">
 
 
<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>My Site</title>
 
 
                        
                       <item>
                      
                     <loc>http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id=17009</loc>
                 <title> THE YEAR'S BEST -- NO. 9 25 years later Pancyprians rise to the top</title><br />
<news:publication_date>2008-12-22 21:33:41</news:publication_date><br />
<news:keywords>Sports,  N.Y. Pancyprian Freedoms, Cosmopolitan Soccer League</news:keywords><br />
                                                 
                       <item>
                      
                     <loc>http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id=17008</loc>
                 <title> TAKING OVER THE CREW Warzycha gets nod in Columbus</title><br />
<news:publication_date>2008-12-22 16:41:45</news:publication_date><br />
<news:keywords>Sports,  Major League Soccer, Columbus Crew</news:keywords><br />
                                                 
                       <item>
                      
                     <loc>http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id=17007</loc>
                 <title> HAPPY CHANUKAH To the Jewish soccer community</title><br />
<news:publication_date>2008-12-21 21:25:35</news:publication_date><br />
<news:keywords>Sports,  BigAppleSoccer.com</news:keywords><br />
                                                 
                       <item>
                      
                     <loc>http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id=17005</loc>
                 <title> GROWTH DURING TURBULENCE RSL adds jobs during trying economic times; Dynamo and Real increase sponsors</title><br />
<news:publication_date>2008-12-21 21:05:25</news:publication_date><br />
<news:keywords>Sports,  Real Salt Lake, Houston Dynamo</news:keywords><br />
                                                 
                       <item>
                      
                     <loc>http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id=17004</loc>
                 <title> SOMETIMES LESS IS MORE Unlike other sports leagues, MLS hasn't made any league office cutbacks</title><br />
<news:publication_date>2008-12-21 21:01:52</news:publication_date><br />
<news:keywords>Sports,  Major League Soccer, Don Garber</news:keywords><br />
                                                 
                       <item>
                      
                     <loc>http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id=17003</loc>
                 <title> THE YEAR'S BEST -- NO. 10 Vicki DiMartino finds a silver lining</title><br />
<news:publication_date>2008-12-21 20:56:36</news:publication_date><br />
<news:keywords>Sports,  </news:keywords><br />
                                                 
                       <item>
                      
                     <loc>http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id=17002</loc>
                 <title> REMEMBERING MOOCH U.S. Soccer Foundation has Myernick fund</title><br />
<news:publication_date>2008-12-21 09:34:20</news:publication_date><br />
<news:keywords>Sports,  Glenn "Mooch" Myernick</news:keywords><br />
                                                 
                       <item>
                      
                     <loc>http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id=17001</loc>
                 <title>  </title><br />
<news:publication_date>2008-12-21 08:34:34</news:publication_date><br />
<news:keywords>Sports,  </news:keywords><br />
                                                 
                       <item>
                      
                     <loc>http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id=17000</loc>
                 <title> SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE ENYYSA: For H.S. seniors in 2009</title><br />
<news:publication_date>2008-12-21 00:03:48</news:publication_date><br />
<news:keywords>Sports,  Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association</news:keywords><br />
                                                 
                       <item>
                      
                     <loc>http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id=16999</loc>
                 <title> FANTASTIC FOUR Grecco, Rodriguez, Friedman, Turchi are inducted into ENY Soccer Hall of Fame</title><br />
<news:publication_date>2008-12-21 00:01:56</news:publication_date><br />
<news:keywords>Sports,  Eastern New York Soccer Hall of Fame, Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association, Eastern New York State Amateur Soccer Association</news:keywords><br />
                                                 
                       <item>
                      
                     <loc>http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id=16997</loc>
                 <title> ROAD KILL Ironmen lose at Ignition in OT, 16-14</title><br />
<news:publication_date>2008-12-20 23:56:09</news:publication_date><br />
<news:keywords>Sports,  New Jersey Ironmen</news:keywords><br />
                                                 
                       <item>
                      
                     <loc>http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id=16996</loc>
                 <title>  </title><br />
<news:publication_date>2008-12-20 18:22:46</news:publication_date><br />
<news:keywords>Sports,  </news:keywords><br />
                                                 
                       <item>
                      
                     <loc>http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id=16995</loc>
                 <title> THE RANDY VOGT FILE Facts about his officiating career</title><br />
<news:publication_date>2008-12-20 12:15:12</news:publication_date><br />
<news:keywords>Sports,  Long Island Junior Soccer League</news:keywords><br />
                                                 
                       <item>
                      
                     <loc>http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id=16993</loc>
                 <title> THE AMAZING RANDY Some 7,000 games and 30 years as a referee, Vogt is still alive and whistling</title><br />
<news:publication_date>2008-12-20 11:49:09</news:publication_date><br />
<news:keywords>Sports,  Long Island Junior Soccer League</news:keywords><br />
                                                 
                       <item>
                      
                     <loc>http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id=16992</loc>
                 <title> SECOND TEAM NCC's Alaja junior college All-America</title><br />
<news:publication_date>2008-12-19 14:08:23</news:publication_date><br />
<news:keywords>Sports,  Nassau Community College, National Soccer Coaches Association of American</news:keywords><br />
                                                 
                       <item>
                      
                     <loc>http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id=16991</loc>
                 <title> ON SALE SOON Tickets for Sky Blue opener -- on Dec. 29</title><br />
<news:publication_date>2008-12-19 13:58:04</news:publication_date><br />
<news:keywords>Sports,  Sky Blue FC, Women's Professional Soccer</news:keywords><br />
                                                 
                       <item>
                      
                     <loc>http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id=16990</loc>
                 <title> ABOUT THIS WEBSITE The ins and outs of BigAppleSoccer.com</title><br />
<news:publication_date>2008-12-19 13:20:58</news:publication_date><br />
<news:keywords>Sports,  BigAppleSoccer.com</news:keywords><br />
                                                 
                       <item>
                      
                     <loc>http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id=16989</loc>
                 <title> LIJSL SPORTSMANSHIP Plaques can be picked up through Dec. 23</title><br />
<news:publication_date>2008-12-19 08:51:21</news:publication_date><br />
<news:keywords>Sports,  Long Island Junior Soccer League</news:keywords><br />
                                                 
                       <item>
                      
                     <loc>http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id=16988</loc>
                 <title> OFFSIDE REMARKS Some soccer games for holiday gifts</title><br />
<news:publication_date>2008-12-19 08:28:51</news:publication_date><br />
<news:keywords>Sports,  Michael Lewis</news:keywords><br />
                                                 
                       <item>
                      
                     <loc>http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id=16987</loc>
                 <title> TOP HONORS Howard, Sacha U.S. Soccer players of year</title><br />
<news:publication_date>2008-12-18 19:00:45</news:publication_date><br />
<news:keywords>Sports,  Tim Howard, U.S. Soccer, Sacha Kljestan</news:keywords><br />
                                 </news:news>\n";
    </url>
</urlset>
 
 
</body>
</html>

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by: Ray_PaseurPosted on 2008-12-23 at 14:14:02ID: 23237238

Regarding this thing on line 150:

</news:news>\n";

That looks like spurious junk. I would suggest you just cut it out of the script - it's an ending tag with no opening tag.

But that raises an important question, namely, where are the </item> tags that are required to close each <item> declaration?

If you would, please post the PHP script that you are using to generate the XML file, and I'll see if there is a quick fix.

Best regards, ~Ray

by: cuttonePosted on 2008-12-23 at 19:11:03ID: 23238333

Below is the entire code as it is now.

Also, here is the information from Google in what they require in a news feed.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap/0.84" xmlns:news="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-news/0.9">
<url>
<loc>http://example.com/article123.html</loc>
<news:news>
<news:publication_date> 2006-08-14T03:30:00Z </news:publication_date>
<news:keywords>Business, Mergers, Acquisitions</news:keywords>
</news:news>
</url>
</urlset>

<? require("config.php"); ?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
        xmlns:news="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-news/0.9">
 
 
<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>My Site</title>
 
 
<?php $select="SELECT article_id, headline, sub_headline, created, keywords FROM $table_articles ORDER BY created DESC LIMIT 20";
 
                        $result=mysql_query($select);
 
                        while($sub_articles=mysql_fetch_array($result)) { ?>
                        
                      <?php echo" <item>\n"; ?>
                      
                    <?php  echo" <loc>http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id={$sub_articles['article_id']}</loc>\n";?>
                <?php   echo" <title> ". stripslashes($sub_articles['headline']);?> <?php echo stripslashes($sub_articles['sub_headline']) . "</title><br />\n"; ?>
<?php "<news:news>\n"; ?>
<?php echo "<news:publication_date>" . stripslashes($sub_articles['created']) . "</news:publication_date><br />\n"; ?>
<?php echo "<news:keywords>Sports,  " . stripslashes($sub_articles['keywords']) . "</news:keywords><br />\n"; ?>
                         <?php } ?>        </news:news>\n";
    </url>
</urlset>
 
 
</body>
</html>

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by: Ray_PaseurPosted on 2008-12-24 at 07:29:11ID: 23240409

From the look of that Google code, their news feed is not "strictly speaking" RSS, so we'll try to give them what they want, following the template above.

by: Ray_PaseurPosted on 2008-12-24 at 07:43:24ID: 23240487

This may work a little better. I cannot test it, so feel free to correct any typos or parse errors.

Best of luck, ~Ray

<? require("config.php"); ?>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap/0.84" xmlns:news="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-news/0.9">
<?php 
// SELECT THE INFORMATION
$select="SELECT article_id, headline, sub_headline, created, keywords FROM $table_articles ORDER BY created DESC LIMIT 20";
if (!$result=mysql_query($select)) die( mysql_error() );
 
// ITERATE OVER THE RESULT SET, GENERATING THE GOOGLE STUFF
while($s=mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) 
{ 
 
// REFORMAT DATE AS SHOWN IN GOOGLE EXAMPLE
	$sdate	= date('Y-m-d\TH:i:s', strtotime($s['created'])) . 'Z';
	
// SPEW THE INFORMATION GOOGLE WANTS FOR EACH NEWS ITEM	
	echo "<url>\n";
	echo "<loc>http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id={$s['article_id']}</loc>\n";
// THIS <title> LINE IS NOT SHOWN IN GOOGLE EXAMPLE - ??
	echo "<title>{$s['headline']} {$s['sub_headline']}</title>\n";
	echo "<news:news>\n"; 
	echo "<news:publication_date>$sdate</news:publication_date>\n";
	echo "<news:keywords>Sports, " . $s['keywords'] . "</news:keywords>\n";
        echo "</news:news>\n";
    	echo "</url>\n";
} // END ITERATOR
?>
</urlset>

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by: Ray_PaseurPosted on 2008-12-24 at 07:44:19ID: 23240499

Oops, correct that first line as shown below. And never plan to use short tags if you are also using XML!

<?php require("config.php"); ?>

1:

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by: cuttonePosted on 2008-12-24 at 11:15:05ID: 23241556

I ran it as above, and now i am geting this:

Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_STRING in /usr/home/sites/www.bigapplesoccer.com/web/sitemap-news.php on line 2

The error seems to be in parsing the XML in line 2.

by: Ray_PaseurPosted on 2008-12-24 at 13:29:44ID: 23242003

I'll give you a slightly different version. PHP and XML are having a syntax collision!

by: Ray_PaseurPosted on 2008-12-24 at 13:31:54ID: 23242012

Try this and see if it helps...

<?php
// BRING IN THE COMMON DATA ELEMENTS
require_once("config.php");
 
// WRITE THE XML HEADERS
echo "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>\n";
echo "<urlset xmlns=\"http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap/0.84\" xmlns:news=\"http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-news/0.9\">\n";
 
// SELECT THE INFORMATION
$select="SELECT article_id, headline, sub_headline, created, keywords FROM $table_articles ORDER BY created DESC LIMIT 20";
if (!$result=mysql_query($select)) die( mysql_error() );
 
// ITERATE OVER THE RESULT SET, GENERATING THE GOOGLE STUFF
while($s=mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) 
{ 
 
// REFORMAT DATE AS SHOWN IN GOOGLE EXAMPLE
	$sdate	= date('Y-m-d\TH:i:s', strtotime($s['created'])) . 'Z';
	
// SPEW THE INFORMATION GOOGLE WANTS FOR EACH NEWS ITEM	
	echo "<url>\n";
	echo "<loc>http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id={$s['article_id']}</loc>\n";
// THIS <title> LINE IS NOT SHOWN IN GOOGLE EXAMPLE - ??
	echo "<title>{$s['headline']} {$s['sub_headline']}</title>\n";
	echo "<news:news>\n"; 
	echo "<news:publication_date>$sdate</news:publication_date>\n";
	echo "<news:keywords>Sports, " . $s['keywords'] . "</news:keywords>\n";
        echo "</news:news>\n";
    	echo "</url>\n";
} // END ITERATOR
 
echo "</urlset>\n";
?>

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by: cuttonePosted on 2008-12-24 at 14:06:41ID: 23242110

It's not putting out the XML.

Here's a link to the page, so you can see what is happening

http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/sitemap-news.php

I really appreciate the help with this.

by: Ray_PaseurPosted on 2008-12-24 at 15:05:04ID: 23242223

Earlier, you posted this:

Also, here is the information from Google in what they require in a news feed.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap/0.84" xmlns:news="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-news/0.9">
<url>
<loc>http://example.com/article123.html</loc>
<news:news>
<news:publication_date> 2006-08-14T03:30:00Z </news:publication_date>
<news:keywords>Business, Mergers, Acquisitions</news:keywords>
</news:news>
</url>
</urlset>

And that appears to be what the script is producing. Can you give me the link to the Google page that describes the format? Maybe I can find something if I read Google's instructions.

by: cuttonePosted on 2008-12-24 at 15:11:03ID: 23242229

Maybe I am missing something. When I look at the page, it is not showing the formating, however it does in the source code.

Here is the Google help page

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=74288

by: Ray_PaseurPosted on 2008-12-24 at 15:23:48ID: 23242257

The Google help page describes the Google News sitemap, a a file that allows you to have more control over the content you submit to Google News. It also helps speed up the discovery of your pages, an important first step in the article crawling and indexing processes.

This is not an RSS file, and the format of the information we are producing appears to be correct and in consonance with the instructions.

Have you tried submitting this to Google?

I am posting a new script here - it looks like you have somehow gotten slashes into your data base, possibly through the collision between magic_quotes and addslashes. This change will take them out of the title tags. However you will need to read the Google man pages carefully and determine whether the title tags are appropriate in the Google News sitemap. I can't make that decision for you.

Best of luck, ~Ray

<?php
// BRING IN THE COMMON DATA ELEMENTS
require_once("config.php");
 
// WRITE THE XML HEADERS
echo "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>\n";
echo "<urlset xmlns=\"http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap/0.84\" xmlns:news=\"http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-news/0.9\">\n";
 
// SELECT THE INFORMATION
$select="SELECT article_id, headline, sub_headline, created, keywords FROM $table_articles ORDER BY created DESC LIMIT 20";
if (!$result=mysql_query($select)) die( mysql_error() );
 
// ITERATE OVER THE RESULT SET, GENERATING THE GOOGLE STUFF
while($s=mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) 
{ 
 
// REFORMAT DATE AS SHOWN IN GOOGLE EXAMPLE
	$sdate	= date('Y-m-d\TH:i:s', strtotime($s['created'])) . 'Z';
	
// SPEW THE INFORMATION GOOGLE WANTS FOR EACH NEWS ITEM	
	echo "<url>\n";
	echo "<loc>http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id={$s['article_id']}</loc>\n";
 
 
 
 
// NOTE THIS ISOLATED SEGMENT OF CODE
// THIS <title> LINE IS NOT SHOWN IN GOOGLE EXAMPLE - ??
	$headline	= stripslashes($s['headline']);
	$sub_headline	= stripslashes($s['sub_headline']);
	echo "<title>$headline $sub_headline</title>\n";
	
	
 
 
	
	echo "<news:news>\n"; 
	echo "<news:publication_date>$sdate</news:publication_date>\n";
	echo "<news:keywords>Sports, " . $s['keywords'] . "</news:keywords>\n";
        echo "</news:news>\n";
    	echo "</url>\n";
} // END ITERATOR
 
echo "</urlset>\n";
?>

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