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Creating an RSS feed with PHP/Mysql

I am trying to create an RSS feed. I am following this example at http://www.webreference.com/authoring/languages/xml/rss/custom_feeds/

I am getting this error:

XML Parsing Error: not well-formed
Location: http://localhost/rss/
Line Number 1, Column 3:<?
--^

Not sure what's going on.

Thanks.

Ray Paseur

Uhh, how would you expect us to help? Can you post the code that you are using and the RSS feed that it generated? We are experts but not mind-readers ;-)

awarraic

ASKER

@Ray, use common sense and let's see if you can find the code first before you can solve this issue.

awarraic

ASKER

@Ray, by the way, I loved this web site, always been very helpful and encouraging attitude. But, lately, it seems like bunch of people sitting and 'll just google and fight with each other and 'll try to accumulate some points instead of helping someone. Sorry, didn't mean to be rude/mean but just come constructive thought/feedback. As far as code, here's the code if you didn't find it on the link that I provided:

Index.php:
-------------
<?php
 header("Content-Type: application/xml; charset=ISO-8859-1");
 include("classes/RSS.class.php");
 $rss = new RSS();
 echo $rss->GetFeed();
?>

RSS.class.php
----------------
<?php

echo "test";
class RSS
{
 public function RSS()
 {
 require_once ("mysql_connect.php");
 }

 public function GetFeed()
 {
 return $this->getDetails() . $this->getItems();
 }

 private function dbConnect()
 {
 DEFINE ('LINK', mysql_connect (DB_HOST, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD));
 }

 private function getDetails()
 {
 $detailsTable = "webref_rss_details";
 $this->dbConnect($detailsTable);
 $query = "SELECT * FROM ". $detailsTable;
 $result = mysql_db_query (DB_NAME, $query, LINK);

 while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
 {
 $details = '<?php xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?>
 <rss version="2.0">
 <channel>
 <title>'. $row['title'] .'</title>
 <link>'. $row['link'] .'</link>
 <description>'. $row['description'] .'</description>
 <language>'. $row['language'] .'</language>
 <image>
 <title>'. $row['image_title'] .'</title>
 <url>'. $row['image_url'] .'</url>
 <link>'. $row['image_link'] .'</link>
 <width>'. $row['image_width'] .'</width>
 <height>'. $row['image_height'] .'</height>
 </image>';
 }
 return $details;
 }

 private function getItems()
 {
 $itemsTable = "webref_rss_items";
 $this->dbConnect($itemsTable);
 $query = "SELECT * FROM ". $itemsTable;
 $result = mysql_db_query (DB_NAME, $query, LINK);
 $items = '';
 while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
 {
 $items .= '<item>
 <title>'. $row["title"] .'</title>
 <link>'. $row["link"] .'</link>
 <description><![CDATA['. $row["description"] .']]></description>
 </item>';
 }
 $items .= '</channel>
 </rss>';
 return $items;
 }

}

?>

Ray Paseur

Thanks for posting that. It looks like something from a PHP 4 time-warp, and it is probably not worth relying on old code like that. Example: No class constructor. And it uses this deprecated function (wrongly, I might add) http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.mysql-db-query.php. The query could have failed, and you would never know it - the script would just create garbage output.

Can you please post the output you got from running that (the XML from index.php)? Thanks.

awarraic

ASKER

Output from index.php is:
-------------------------------
XML Parsing Error: not well-formed
Location: http://localhost/rss/
Line Number 1, Column 3:<?
--^

Code for index.php
----------------------
<?php
 header("Content-Type: application/xml; charset=ISO-8859-1");
 include("classes/RSS.class.php");
 $rss = new RSS();
 echo $rss->GetFeed();
?>

I think you are right, it's seems really old code. I had to add "php" along with <? to render it properly, not sure what else is broken in there.
Do you know of any other good examples where I can create a RSS feed using mysql/php?

Thanks.

Ray Paseur

Please do a "view source" on the output from index.php and show us what that looks like. There should be some XML statements. I'd like to see what that looks like.

Is your data base set up with these named columns in the two tables referenced here?

awarraic

ASKER

<?

DEFINE ('DB_USER', 'root');
DEFINE ('DB_PASSWORD', 'xxxxx');
DEFINE ('DB_HOST', 'localhost');
DEFINE ('DB_NAME', 'db_rss');

// Make the connnection and then select the database.
$dbc = @mysql_connect (DB_HOST, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD) OR die ('Could not connect to MySQL: ' . mysql_error() );
mysql_select_db (DB_NAME) OR die ('Could not select the database: ' . mysql_error() );

?> 
Notice: Use of undefined constant DB_HOST - assumed 'DB_HOST' in C:\wamp\www\rss\classes\RSS.class.php on line 17 
 
Notice: Use of undefined constant DB_USER - assumed 'DB_USER' in C:\wamp\www\rss\classes\RSS.class.php on line 17 
 

Notice: Use of undefined constant DB_PASSWORD - assumed 'DB_PASSWORD' in C:\wamp\www\rss\classes\RSS.class.php on line 17 
 
Warning: mysql_connect() [<a href='function.mysql-connect'>function.mysql-connect</a>]: php_network_getaddresses: getaddrinfo failed: No such host is known. in C:\wamp\www\rss\classes\RSS.class.php on line 17 

 
Warning: mysql_connect() [<a href='function.mysql-connect'>function.mysql-connect</a>]: [2002] php_network_getaddresses: getaddrinfo failed: No such host is kn (trying to connect via tcp://DB_HOST:3306) in C:\wamp\www\rss\classes\RSS.class.php on line 17 
 
Warning: mysql_connect() [<a href='function.mysql-connect'>function.mysql-connect</a>]: php_network_getaddresses: getaddrinfo failed: No such host is known. in C:\wamp\www\rss\classes\RSS.class.php on line 17 

 
Notice: Use of undefined constant DB_NAME - assumed 'DB_NAME' in C:\wamp\www\rss\classes\RSS.class.php on line 25 
 
Warning: mysql_db_query() expects parameter 3 to be resource, boolean given in C:\wamp\www\rss\classes\RSS.class.php on line 25 
 

Warning: mysql_fetch_array() expects parameter 1 to be resource, null given in C:\wamp\www\rss\classes\RSS.class.php on line 27 
 
Notice: Undefined variable: details in C:\wamp\www\rss\classes\RSS.class.php on line 44 
 
Notice: Use of undefined constant DB_HOST - assumed 'DB_HOST' in C:\wamp\www\rss\classes\RSS.class.php on line 17 

 
Notice: Use of undefined constant DB_USER - assumed 'DB_USER' in C:\wamp\www\rss\classes\RSS.class.php on line 17 
 
Notice: Use of undefined constant DB_PASSWORD - assumed 'DB_PASSWORD' in C:\wamp\www\rss\classes\RSS.class.php on line 17 
 

Warning: mysql_connect() [<a href='function.mysql-connect'>function.mysql-connect</a>]: php_network_getaddresses: getaddrinfo failed: No such host is known. in C:\wamp\www\rss\classes\RSS.class.php on line 17 
 
Warning: mysql_connect() [<a href='function.mysql-connect'>function.mysql-connect</a>]: [2002] php_network_getaddresses: getaddrinfo failed: No such host is kn (trying to connect via tcp://DB_HOST:3306) in C:\wamp\www\rss\classes\RSS.class.php on line 17 

 
Warning: mysql_connect() [<a href='function.mysql-connect'>function.mysql-connect</a>]: php_network_getaddresses: getaddrinfo failed: No such host is known. in C:\wamp\www\rss\classes\RSS.class.php on line 17 
 
Notice: Constant LINK already defined in C:\wamp\www\rss\classes\RSS.class.php on line 17 

 
Notice: Use of undefined constant DB_NAME - assumed 'DB_NAME' in C:\wamp\www\rss\classes\RSS.class.php on line 52 
 
Warning: mysql_db_query() expects parameter 3 to be resource, boolean given in C:\wamp\www\rss\classes\RSS.class.php on line 52 
 

Warning: mysql_fetch_array() expects parameter 1 to be resource, null given in C:\wamp\www\rss\classes\RSS.class.php on line 54 
</channel>
</rss>

Ray Paseur

Yeah. Looks like that script isn't worth much. Is your data base set up with these named columns in the two tables referenced here?

awarraic

ASKER

Yes, I have db_rss with the same columns/tables.

Ray Paseur

That's good news. Then we can probably use at least a part of that script, if we bring it into the 21st Century. I'll see what I can do with it (but I cannot test - you will have to do that part).

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Ray Paseur

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Ray Paseur

Have you tested the script yet?

awarraic

ASKER

Yes, I tried the script, didn't work or maybe I missed out something.

Ray Paseur

Is that the error message you got, "Didn't work?"