Construct a Dynamic RSS Feed With PHP and MySQL

Observe: Wherever you see [url] make sure you insert your websites url in place of [url].

All over the place I search I can locate tutorials but seldom are they complete. The tutorial I am about to write is intended to be a full tutorial. Positive you can incorporate more solutions to the RSS file by itself but what I imply by complete is that it will perform for any person if the principals that are outlined here are followed. Devoid of even more delay lets bounce appropriate into make a dynamic RSS feed working with PHP and MySQL

To start off our PHP based mostly RSS feed we have to have to do one particular very little matter first. Acquire a appear at your “.htaccess” file which is commonly located in the root listing of world wide web server. It is the file that is utilized for doing URL rewrites, 301 redirects etcetera. Each individual Apache server must have it so glance for it. If you are working with dreamweaver an simple to get the file is to develop it in the web-site supervisor, i.e. proper-simply click and generate a new file. Rename the file “.htaccess” and then correct click on your recently made file and click “Get”. Once again this is only for end users of Dreamweaver. I am generating this extra intricate than it should be. Search for.htaccess in your net server root. Enough explained

At the time we have our.htaccess file identified we have to have to make a transform. Since our RSS file will be of the PHP extension i.e. rss.php and not of the xml sort. We need to have.htaccess to know that documents with the kind.xml shoule be interpreted as.php files. To do this we enter the following in our.htaccess file:

AddType application/x-httpd-php.xml

With our.htaccess file ready to go we now need to have to start creating the PHP for our RSS feed. Our file will be broken into four sections. The initially is the header which tells the browser that the file is of form XML. The second portion is the head of our RSS file. Its every little thing that you could make static about the channel, i.e. the essential information similar to the RSS feed. Our 3rd sections is where by it gets nifty. We build a databases relationship and use it to develop our RSS feed. We then will need to loop by way of each individual of the products we want in our database and output them as xml. Finally our fourth component is all the output that is expected to shut the channel. There is tiny to it apart from a few echo commands but it is a independent area in its have small way.

To start with we have to have to create a new php file, I chose to identify mine rss.php, you can identify yours no matter what you like. When we have our file open we start with our initial section:

//Set XML header for browser

header(‘Content-type: text/xml’)

Before we do everything we want to deliver a information to the browser that informs it that it is dealing with an XML file. If we did not move this information and facts to the browser our dynamic RSS feed would not function. As basic as it sounds that is it for our very first aspect of our RSS file.

In our up coming area we have to have to start out developing the construction of our XML file. There are handful of methods to do this. One is with the echo command. The other is via the use of variables. I have utilised each and individually prefer the variable technique considering that it appears simpler in my intellect. Hence that is the strategy I will show. Below is our code (it consists of the code from our initial area):

//Set XML header for browser

header(‘Content-kind: textual content/xml’)

//Make the heading/channel facts for RSS Feed

$output = ”

$output.= ”

$output.= ‘Your RSS Feed Description’

$output.= ‘ [url]’

In this article is what we did with the second section. To start with we designed a variable $output. We set it equivalent to. On the other hand at the time we have the price established we do not overwrite it. We instead use the operator “.=” which indicates basically add to the current price. So for instance if we said that $some-variable = “a string”. We then applied our “.=” operator to increase to the price like so $some-var.= ” like some var”. Up coming if we were being to echo our variable $some-variable it would read through “a string like some var”. We are getting our variable and introducing all of the xml tags to it to generate a person contiguous xml document stored in a person variable, $output. One particular other matter to take note is that for the title, description and link tags you must add in your web-sites info. While I you should not imagine anyone would intentionally use the data I had amongst the tags it is uncomplicated to forget small things like that, which is why I point out it.

For our third segment we get down to the meat and bones of our php created RSS page. What we are likely to do is hook up to a MySQL database and seize all the pertinent details we have to have. Then we are heading to generate person xml things for each and every of the new entry or post that we have. This is all accomplished when the user accesses the RSS web site. Not prior to. The site is dynamic not static. For intents and needs we don’t have an RSS web page till somebody accesses it. Now allows get to the code:

//Set XML header for browser

header(‘Content-form: textual content/xml’)

//Generate the heading/channel info for RSS Feed

$output = ”

$output.= ”

$output.= ‘Your RSS Feed Description’

$output.= ‘ [url]’

//Individual Objects of our RSS Feed

//Link to a databases and and display screen every single new item in our feed

//Hook up to DB

$host = “localhost” //Title of host

$user = “cmsuser” //Consumer identify for Databases

$pass = “mypass” //Password for Database

$db = “my_database” //Identify of Databases

mysql_link($host,$consumer,$move)

mysql_find_db($db)

//Generate SQL Query for our RSS feed

$sql = “Pick `title`, `link`, `description`, `date` FROM `articles`ORDER BY `date` DESC Limit , 15”

$outcome = mysql_question($sql) or die (“Question couldn’t be executed”)

//Develop Loop for the specific factors in the RSS product area

whilst ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))

$output.= ”

$output.= ‘ ‘.$row[‘link’].”

$output.= ”.$row[‘description’].”

$output.= ‘

‘.$row[‘date’].”

$output.= ”

Now a good offer has happened in this section so permit me check out and describe everything plainly. Initial allows start with the comment “Join to DB”. Below we want to connect to a databases. Generally I create a purpose earlier on and basically contact it when I want to hook up to a databases and run a question. Even so I can not presume that you have previously composed a person so we will go by means of creating one particular collectively. Initially we determine variables that will household the required info for the “mysql_join” and “mysql_decide on_db” functions. The info we need to retail store is our hostname, usually its “localhost”, our consumer name for the databases, our password, and the title of the database. The moment we have that saved we use it in the perform “mysql_link” which is utilized to make a link a mysql databases, when we establish the connection we then want to pick out a databases with the “mysql_pick_db” assertion. Now that we have connected to our databases lets study how we go about having the data we have to have.

Now that we are connected we must run a query to get the facts we will need. For the example I have created a few assumptions the initial remaining that the identify of the databases is content and that it contains the four columns: `title`, `link`, `description`, `date` and that they are named as these. I also constrained the final result to 16, by making use of the assertion “…Limit ,15” which suggests only demonstrate rows to 15. You can established it to regardless of what you would like or you can eliminate it absolutely and have no limit on the amount of entries in your RSS feed. All right for compact websites, dreadful for huge types. Use your discretion in this article. Now that we have the question created I want to issue out a person issue. Generally you see people today making use of the “Pick *…” statement when they operate queries. Not only do I assume its terrible observe but why get more info that you require, it will take extended and will make your website operate just at any time so slightly slower. As a result I advocate that when you variety your sql queries you implicitly state which fields you want instead than applying a “Pick *…” assertion. Now that we have our question we want operate it by applying the command “mysql_question” and pass the final results into a variable, cleverly identified as $consequence. If you observe that soon after our “mysql_question($sql)” assertion I have “or die(…)”. What that statement does is if there is an mistake it kills the query and terminates the function then echoes what ever mistake information you spot in the brackets. Helpful for figuring out wherever issues may possibly go erroneous.

So far we have related to a database and operate a question outputting the benefits into a variable, $outcome. Now we will need to put this all into a neat minimal RSS product. To do this we want to create a loop, What our loop will do is go by way of our query row by row and pull the information and facts from each individual row and do regardless of what we want with it. In this situation we want to retail store it. To do so we create a whilst loop which basically reads while there are rows nonetheless remaining in our outcome variable. We require to do whatever code is between the brackets … . There are other strategies to have shaped this loop but for now the most immediate approach is the one I have outlined. Now that we have our rows in a variable $row we will need to include them to our xml file. To do that we use our good buddy “.=”and in essence increase in the information for every single product we would like to generate. There are many far more tags you can use with your RSS feed. I have only preferred to use the “title”, “url”, “description”, “pubDate” given that that was all I felt like i essential and this is not an post on the structure of RSS but how to create them dynamically.

We have completed three of our four steps. Given that we have all of our goods created, we did it formerly with the whilst loop that will cycle through every result in the database and include it to our variable with the suitable tags, we want to end off our file and screen it to the person. To do this we use the adhering to code:

//Set XML header for browser

header(‘Content-variety: text/xml’)

//Develop the heading/channel info for RSS Feed

$output = ”

$output.= ”

$output.= ‘Your RSS Feed Description’

$output.= ‘ [url]’

//Personal Products of our RSS Feed

//Hook up to a databases and and display every single new product in our feed

//Hook up to DB

$host = “localhost” //Identify of host

$user = “cmsuser” //Consumer identify for Databases

$move = “mypass” //Password for Database

$db = “my_databases” //Title of Databases

mysql_hook up($host,$consumer,$go)

mysql_select_db($db)

//Make SQL Question for our RSS feed

$sql = “Decide on `title`, `link`, `description`, `date` FROM `articles`ORDER BY `date` DESC Restrict , 15”

$result = mysql_question($sql) or die (“Question could not be executed”)

//Generate Loop for the specific components in the RSS product section

when ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))

$output.= ”

$output.= ‘ ‘.$row[‘link’].”

$output.= ”.$row[‘description’].”

$output.= ‘

‘.$row[‘date’].”

$output.= ”

//Near RSS channel

$output.= ”

//Display output in browser

echo $output

Listed here is our concluded code in all its glory, all we have extra is two extra statements that append our variable with the adhering to tags “” and “” which closes our channel and RSS tags respectively, that we opened previously. Soon after that we need to screen the information and facts so that the internet browser can see it. To do this we only use the echo command and echo our variable $output that we employed to keep all the info beforehand. You should now be equipped to see what I meant earlier in the posting when I suggested that just one could use echo rather of including the information and facts to a variable, but that is apart from the stage. What matters now is that you bought a entirely working RSS feed that you in no way have to toy with once again except if its to include far more details. Hope you appreciate it and can put it to excellent use!