Views RSS module

This might be an interesting future feature, tho I'm not sure how it'd work since the translation from a field to an RSS item is not quite straightforward.

It would need to be a different plugin type to function. I'd like to see a real use-case where something like this would actually be beneficial. At the moment I'm not certain that it would.

Ok, I am convinced of the utility.

I don't have the bandwidth to do it; it'd make a nice plugin for the bonus pack or maybe even all by itself.

could someone post some sample XML for comment RSS or uploads so we can get a feel for whats imagined here? ideally, you will also lis tthe Fields that active in the corresponding View. I think I get it, but want to confirm.

And another example, with a file-enclosure constructed from a textfield that contains a URL. Actual node attachments are basically the same (see upload_nodeapi())

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<rss version="2.0" xml:base="http://localhost/drupal51" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">
<channel>
 <title>My Test Feed</title>
 <link>http://localhost/drupal51/testfeedrss</link>
 <description></description>
 <language>en</language>

<item>
 <title>Test Lesson 1</title>
 <link>http://localhost/drupal51/node/1</link>
 <description>Test Lesson 1 Body</description>
 <comments>http://localhost/drupal51/node/1#comments</comments>
 <enclosure url="http://some.where/over/the/rainbow" type="application/x-bittorrent" />
 <pubDate>Sun, 18 Mar 2007 11:51:58 +1100</pubDate>
 <dc:creator>simon</dc:creator>
 <guid isPermaLink="false">1 at http://localhost/drupal51</guid>
</item>

</channel>
</rss>

I got this working by adding the fields in hook_nodeapi (see http://drupal.org/node/104875#comment-212259), but it would nice to be able to do this in the UI.

A used case for this in the case of Flash widgets. I want to create an RSS view of an image gallery so I can feed it to a Flash image rotator (http://www.jeroenwijering.com/?item=Flash_Image_Rotator). I also need to do this for MP3s in the near future and can think of other cases where it would be invaluable:

- podcasting
- torrent servers
- etc

Basically, being able let to represent any collection of a node type as a specialised RSS feed should be in core as RSS is where its all going. I've looked around and think that, in the combination with the power of views, could open Drupal up int a whole new world of uses.

I will have to hack it in the short term but it should certainly be useful to have a standard way to do this in the long run via the UI perhaps.

A used case for this in the case of Flash widgets. I want to create an RSS view of an image gallery so I can feed it to a Flash image rotator (http://www.jeroenwijering.com/?item=Flash_Image_Rotator). I also need to do this for MP3s in the near future and can think of other cases where it would be invaluable:

- podcasting
- torrent servers
- etc

Basically, being able let to represent any collection of a node type as a specialised RSS feed should be in core as RSS is where its all going. I've looked around and think that, in the combination with the power of views, could open Drupal up int a whole new world of uses.

I will have to hack it in the short term but it should certainly be useful to have a standard way to do this in the long run via the UI perhaps.

I've just written a views style plugin that does this.
Field labels are used to make the XML elements.
Labels "title", "body", "link" are special and used to make the title, link, description in the XML.

Could do with a validator to check that that those three labels exist.

/**
 * Views style theming function for list RSS view.
 * Field labels are used as XML element names; if the label is missing the (ugly!) queryname is used.
 * Set which fields to use for title, description, and link by giving them labels
 * "title", "body", "link" respectively
 */           
function theme_view_list_rss($view, $nodes, $type) {
  global $base_url;

  $channel = array(
    // a check_plain isn't required on these because format_rss_channel
    // already does this.
    'title'       => views_get_title($view, 'page'),
    'link'        => url($view->feed_url ? $view->feed_url : $view->real_url, NULL, NULL, true),
    //'description' => $view->description,
  );

  $namespaces = array('xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"');
  
  $item_length = variable_get('feed_item_length', 'teaser');
  
  $fields = _views_get_fields(); 

  #dsm($view->field);
  // Set up some primary fields, eg title and body and link
  // we should only have ONE candidate for each of these
  // if not, bad stuff happens
  // primary fields are marked by having a label that is one of:
  // "title", "body", "link"
  // This takes care of removing them from other processed fields
  // and giving them special status in the call to format_rss_item.
  foreach ($view->field as $id => $field) {
    //if (in_array($field['id'], array('rss:title', 'rss:body', 'rss:link'))) {
    if ($field['label'] == 'title') {
      $field_special['title'] = $field;
      $field_special['title']['options'] = 'nolink'; // force no link on title.
      unset($view->field[$id]);
    }
    if ($field['label'] == 'body') {
      $field_special['body'] = $field;
      unset($view->field[$id]);
    }
    if ($field['label'] == 'link') {
      $field_special['link'] = $field;
      unset($view->field[$id]);
    }
  }  
  
  #dsm($view->field);
  foreach ($nodes as $node) {    
    #dsm($node);
    
    if (isset($field_special['title'])) {
      $title = views_theme_field('views_handle_field', $field_special['title']['queryname'], $fields, $field_special['title'], $node, $view);
    }
    if (isset($field_special['body'])) {
      $body =  views_theme_field('views_handle_field', $field_special['body']['queryname'], $fields, $field_special['body'], $node, $view);
    }
    $link = url('node/'. $node->$field_special['link']['queryname'], NULL, NULL, 1);
    
    $extra = array();
    foreach ($view->field as $field) {
      if (!isset($fields[$field['id']]['visible']) && $fields[$field['id']]['visible'] !== FALSE) { 
        // use $field['field'] as the XML key unless there is a label.
        if (isset($field['label'])) {
          $key = $field['label'];
        }
        else {
          $key = $field['field'];          
        }
        
        $extra[$key] = views_theme_field('views_handle_field', $field['queryname'], $fields, $field, $node, $view);
      }
    }
    
    /*
    // test zone:
    $item = format_rss_item($title, $link, $body, $extra);
    dsm($item);
    */
    
    $items .= format_rss_item($title, $link, $body, $extra);
  }

  // test
  // return $items;

  $channel_defaults = array(
    'version'     => '2.0',
    'title'       => variable_get('site_name', 'drupal') .' - '. variable_get('site_slogan', ''),
    'link'        => $base_url,
    'description' => variable_get('site_mission', ''),
    'language'    => $GLOBALS['locale'],
  );
  $channel = array_merge($channel_defaults, $channel);

  $output = "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\"?>\n";
  $output .= "<rss version=\"". $channel["version"] . "\" xml:base=\"". $base_url ."\" ". implode(' ', $namespaces) .">\n";
  $output .= format_rss_channel($channel['title'], $channel['link'], $channel['description'], $items, $channel['language']);
  $output .= "</rss>\n";

  drupal_set_header('Content-Type: text/xml; charset=utf-8');
  print $output;
  module_invoke_all('exit');
  exit; 
}

A very old thread and still survives. Subscribing. Thanks.

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subscribing

I'm not sure if this is the correct thread to post this but, by putting together info from posts all over the place, I was able to add whatever fields from my node as elements in the RSS XML. The trick was to use the view templates for and RSS feed in Views. The trick, was that the variables available in the template are from the feed not the node but, the one thing that you do have is the node id which can be used to get the node as a variable which can then be used to inject whatever variables from the node you want. In my case, I created a template file called "views-view-row-rss.tpl.php" in my theme directory with the following content.

// This is used to control extra data being added into the RSS feeds. 
// This makes it possible for RSS readers to grab an 'image' element which 
// can be used for dynamic rss readers

<?php 
$node = node_load($id);
$result = $view->result;
$node = node_load( $result[$id-1]->nid );
$filepath = $node->field_image[0]['filepath']; 
// I needed to do some url tweaking to get a proper URL to the file
global $base_url;
$path = split('files', $filepath);
$image_url = $base_url.'/files'.$path[1]
?>

<item>
    <title><?php print $title; ?></title>
    <link><?php print $link; ?></link>
    <description><?php print $description; ?></description>
    <image><?php  print $image_url; ?></image>
    <view><?php print $node->title ?></view>
    <?php print $item_elements; ?>
</item>

cheers

-Dan

is this by any chance possible in D6 already? I doubt this will ever get committed to D5 anyway as that is pretty much dead now.

The Views RSS module adds an RSS Feed - Fields option to the Styles attribute of a Feeds View. Very handy and no coding required.

http://drupal.org/project/views_rss

A tip: I had to make the guid field a full link rather than just a node id to make the read more link work in my RSS reader. Figured the reader would pick up the link field but it uses the guid instead.