I looked at the RSS feed for the first time and tried to submit it to Feedburner. The problem is that while I can view the feed like it is (link-lounge.com/thelinks/rssfeed.php?type=links&number=25&field=time&ascdesc=descending) just fine it won't work through Feedburner and when I run it through feedvalidator.org it tells me that the feed is not valid. And also it tells me this:
Now obviously I tried to change the RSS template accordingly, but I have no idea what the variable for the email address should be (since {AUTHOREMAIL} doesn't seem to be working).
Also, how would I make more changes to the RSS template when I have to use very specific variables? Where do I get those? I.e. I'd like to add the shrinktheweb.com thumbnails I'm using on the site and I'd also like to have the link point to the link URL instead of the details page since I'm not using those. In the manual it says to pass &usedetails=1 to have it point to the details page, so I tried the opposite, but that didn't seem to work.
ETA: after resolving the URL rewrite issue it seems like the feed works through Feedburner, but I still haven't figured out how to modify the template.
According to the validator the author field can only contain email addresses. I'll have to remove author then, since it'd be bad to expose emails to spam.
To use specific variables with RSS, you need to use a custom template that you're only going to apply on feeds of a specific type -- link, category, etc. Then you can use link, category, etc variables as normal. Don't modify the generic template because you'll break other uses of it.
Before I forget, I noticed that using rssfeed.php?type=listings&number=5&field=time&ascdesc=descending like you wrote in the manual doesn't work. I have to replace listings with links to make it work.
This feed works fine, but looks a bit boring: feed://link-lounge.com/thelinks/rssfeed.php?type=links&number=5&field=time&ascdesc=descending
when I now add &custom=yes&TID=custom-feed (which is based on my linkbit) I get an error. I think the page is unable to render the variables.
To do rss you have to base off your rss template, not off your link bit. Your link bit is not feed-formated, it's not an xml document, it doesn't have the same <!-- BEGIN ROW --> <!-- END ROW --> control structures, and in general couldn't have much less in common. I don't know what sort of feed you might expect it to parse into.
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Comments on Trouble with RSS feed validation
Forum Regular
Usergroup: Customer
Joined: May 11, 2003
Total Topics: 64
Total Comments: 199
I looked at the RSS feed for the first time and tried to submit it to Feedburner. The problem is that while I can view the feed like it is (link-lounge.com/thelinks/rssfeed.php?type=links&number=25&field=time&ascdesc=descending) just fine it won't work through Feedburner and when I run it through feedvalidator.org it tells me that the feed is not valid. And also it tells me this:
<span style="font-size: smaller; ">line 12</span><span style="font-size: smaller; ">, column 13: <span class="message" style="background-color: yellow; color: black; ">Invalid email address: <code style="font-size: larger; ">Jenny</code></span> (25 occurrences) [</span><span style="font-size: smaller; ">help</span><span style="font-size: smaller; ">]</span>
<span style="font-size: smaller; "><author>Jenny</author></span>
Now obviously I tried to change the RSS template accordingly, but I have no idea what the variable for the email address should be (since {AUTHOREMAIL} doesn't seem to be working).
Also, how would I make more changes to the RSS template when I have to use very specific variables? Where do I get those? I.e. I'd like to add the shrinktheweb.com thumbnails I'm using on the site and I'd also like to have the link point to the link URL instead of the details page since I'm not using those. In the manual it says to pass &usedetails=1 to have it point to the details page, so I tried the opposite, but that didn't seem to work.
ETA: after resolving the URL rewrite issue it seems like the feed works through Feedburner, but I still haven't figured out how to modify the template.
developer
Usergroup: Administrator
Joined: Dec 20, 2001
Location: Diamond Springs, California
Total Topics: 61
Total Comments: 7868
According to the validator the author field can only contain email addresses. I'll have to remove author then, since it'd be bad to expose emails to spam.
To use specific variables with RSS, you need to use a custom template that you're only going to apply on feeds of a specific type -- link, category, etc. Then you can use link, category, etc variables as normal. Don't modify the generic template because you'll break other uses of it.
Direct links are the default, you can see they're in use at http://links.webmastersite.net/rssfeed.php .
Forum Regular
Usergroup: Customer
Joined: May 11, 2003
Total Topics: 64
Total Comments: 199
Before I forget, I noticed that using rssfeed.php?type=listings&number=5&field=time&ascdesc=descending like you wrote in the manual doesn't work. I have to replace listings with links to make it work.
This feed works fine, but looks a bit boring:
feed://link-lounge.com/thelinks/rssfeed.php?type=links&number=5&field=time&ascdesc=descending
when I now add &custom=yes&TID=custom-feed (which is based on my linkbit) I get an error. I think the page is unable to render the variables.
developer
Usergroup: Administrator
Joined: Dec 20, 2001
Location: Diamond Springs, California
Total Topics: 61
Total Comments: 7868
To do rss you have to base off your rss template, not off your link bit. Your link bit is not feed-formated, it's not an xml document, it doesn't have the same <!-- BEGIN ROW --> <!-- END ROW --> control structures, and in general couldn't have much less in common. I don't know what sort of feed you might expect it to parse into.