RSS Feed for YaBB 2 version 1.0 beta 1

This mod allows the Admin to set up an RSS Feed showing recent forum posts. This version works with YaBB 2 RC1. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a protocol for distributing frequently updated information from your website (in this case from your YaBB forum) to readers.

Please read this entire file before installing and using this mod. Back up your YaBB files before installing any mod.

Installation:

Apply mod using BoardMod or manually. If you don't know how to install a mod, please visit the BoardMod website for assistance before attempting to install this mod, a short time spent reading the FAQ file there will save you a great deal of frustration here.
Load modified ModSettings.pl and SubList.pl files in ASCII mode.
Load RSS_Feed.pl to the Sources directory in ASCII mode. Load RSS_Feed.lng to the Languages/English directory in ASCII mode.
Load the rssfeed.txt file to your Variables directory in ASCII mode and chmod 666.

RSS Feed Settings:

On the Admin Center>>Installed Mod Settings Page are the settings needed to use the RSS Feed.

Number of Recent Posts to Display in RSS Feed - This sets the number of posts to provide in the RSS Feed. Some RSS readers are limited to accepting 15 posts at a time. The default is 10.
Description of RSS Feed Content - This is the description of your RSS feed, not an individual post.
Enter Server time offset from GMT in hours (examples: +05:00 or -10:00 ) - Enter offset of your server time from Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) Use negative numbers for west of GMT (Canada, US, Argentina) or positive numbers for east of GMT (Poland, Kenya).
- Use the format described here.
- Use a + or - sign.
- Enter the offset as +hh:mm or -hh:mm
- Be sure to use the leading 0 where needed: +07:00 not +7:00
- Don't simply enter -5 or +6, it won't work, trust me.
Number of characters to show in RSS content description - This is the number of characters to show starting from the beginning of each post in the description. Default is 150.
RSS Feed Logo URL - This is the complete URL of the small logo that will appear for the feed on some RSS readers.
RSS Feed Categories and Boards - A list of all categories and boards in your forum is provided here. Next to each is a checkbox. Placing a check in the box for a particular category or board makes posts from that category or board available for viewing via the RSS feed. For a board to be made available for viewing, the category containing that board must also be checked. Note that RSS readers don't store YaBB user information. Allowing a category or board to be viewed via the RSS feed opens viewing of the posts to all RSS users regardless of membership status in your forum. Therefore only place checks next to those categories and boards that you want the general public to be able to access. Further note that this setting overrides any viewing access restrictions on the category or board you might have set in the Admin Center. It is not recommended that you allow RSS reader access to restricted categories or boards as many of the links (reply, quote, modify, etc.) on the thread view will produce access errors, frustrating the user.

Using the RSS Feed:

Once you have installed the mod and have saved your RSS Feed settings you are ready to access your forum's new RSS Feed via a RSS reader (aggregator). The basic URL for your RSS Feed is in the form:

http://www.mysite.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?action=rss

This URL will feed posts from all the categories and boards which are checked in the RSS Feed Settings.

http://www.mysite.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?action=rss;feedcat=mycategory

This URL will feed posts from all the boards checked in the category "mycategory". To use it, "mycategory" must be checked in the RSS Feed Settings. Note that "mycategory" is a Category ID, not the Category Name. For convenience, the Category ID for each category in your forum is listed in () after the Category Name in the RSS Feed Settings.

http://www.mysite.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?action=rss;feedcat=mycategory.category2

This URL will feed posts from all the boards checked in the categories "mycategory" and "category2". To use it, "mycategory" and "category2" must be checked in the RSS Feed Settings. The posts from any non-checked boards in the two categories will be ignored.

http://www.mysite.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?action=rss;feedboard=myboard.anotherboard

This URL will feed all the posts in boards "myboard" and "anotherboard" if the two boards are checked in the RSS Feed Settings.

Many boards or categories that can be added to a single URL, each separated by a period (.) character. Do not mix categories and boards in a single feed URL.

http://www.mysite.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?action=rss;feedcat=mycategory;feedboard=myboard

This URL will produce no results.

The mod was tested using SharpReader 0.9.4.1. and output was validated using rss.scripting.com's validator. Many RSS readers are available. A simple web search should provide a RSS reader compatible with your operating system.

Note that the mod uses the Dublin Core (dc:) library for certain xml definitions. It is possible that from time to time the host server for the Dublin Core library may be down, causing feed validation errors.

Included with the mod is an RSS logo, rss_button.gif, that might be useful for putting links to your feed on your site.

Known Issues in this version:

The server time offset from GMT needs to be set manually. The reason is that the Time module used by YaBB overrides perl's default gmtime function and I haven't found a way to get at the gmtime index.

Credits:

Author: Ironwing
Website: http://www.mineralarts.com/cgi/yabb2a/YaBB.pl

A largish hunk of code in this mod came straight out of the Recent.pl file produced by the YaBB 2 Development Team.

Thank you to "macprime" (Stefan Rechsteiner) for alpha testing, suggestions, and for the german translation.