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Neotrope
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Sep 28, 2004, 12:45 PM
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Re: [Mike4172] The importance of RSS
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I'm starting over from scratch, which is often a good idea in these "weird" instances.
Not logical for the search.cgi to be overloaded last night unless I was getting a DDoS or something. Dual Xeons with 2GB RAM and Ultra320SCSI RAID, and 1GB bandwidth is supposed to insulate me from these kinds of things.
Something whacky there. Doing the search2.cgi thing just to cover all the bases, since all the permissions, line breaks, paths, etc. were solid, and the template for rss.xml and the publishcron.ini - and the AM category set correct. (Hopefully those of you who follow this thread down the road will find this of interest in doing this yourself, and pardon my restating the obvious in places).
One question, just to make sure I'm not doing something dopey at the final starting line,
is the correct way to ping the publishcron.cgi script via a browser, via the web, like so:
1) www.kewlsiteabcd.com/path/exec/publishcron.cgi
or
2) www.kewlsiteabcd.com/path/exec/publishcron.cgi?page=1
Again - just trying to make sure I'm doing it all right, and can publish a readable news.xml page, before I go and hack the AM admin file for the update on publish button.
Man, this is why forums are so valuable for tech support!
(Now, my "murhpy's law" hope is that by the time I get all this working, the php/mysql/rss next generation version of AM will be done or in beta, so I can put that on the "big" site, since this thing I'm doing now is for the "little" site.) 
NeotropeŽ is a brand identity and marketing communications solution provider founded 1983. Neotrope is a reg. trademark and service mark.
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Neotrope
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Sep 28, 2004, 1:19 PM
Post #54 of 80
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Re: [Mike4172] The importance of RSS
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Heh. You would think so, wouldn't you. I got everything done in 15 min. now that I know how :) And once I have lunch will be back to it, to test it. Thanks for clarifying the right url to use (although it does say to use that one in the "docs" - just wanted to check with you since you're the one who has it down).
Yes... on my old Cobalt RaQ4s I could install ANYthing in 5 minutes. This RedHat Enterprise 3, Apache2, Plesk7.04 environment is a lot more quirky. It's so weird to set something at 755 that would normally be higher, and have it still work, or something really simple, that doesn't work at all (we have mod-perl with apache2 you see ... which even with it turned "off" by domain, still has many security things running with Apache2).
So, we're nicely "prepped" for the next version of AM, but anything else has to be approached VERY thoughtfully or it won't work at all. I had to hack a few things just to run scripts outside the cgi bin or with .pl extensions, for example.
I installed my first ecom solution in March 1995 ... so it's not like I'm a dolt :) It just is not as "easy" as you might think to get things like this to WORK on this damn "super server."
Blood sugar dropping ... food .. then .. pulishcron fun with, meesa shall have...
ALMOST there ...
(You should see the pain I went through to get ComCart to run on this server after the publisher tried it and couldn't and basically told me ... "your server can't run it..." HAH!)
NeotropeŽ is a brand identity and marketing communications solution provider founded 1983. Neotrope is a reg. trademark and service mark.
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Neotrope
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Sep 28, 2004, 2:51 PM
Post #55 of 80
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Re: [Neotrope] The importance of RSS
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Next step in the adventure failed miserably ... "forbidden" errors and no joy.
Then if i try to access the search or search2 script directly in browser (which should bring up advanced_search template page), I also get forbidden error.
Now, it turns out I checked all the server settings, and "mod_perll" support was still **ON** in Plesk7 (d'oh), and deativating that did not kill or impair anything normally running in AM, which is a good sign on pesky RHES3/Apache2 based (read "21st century linux") servers. Since only other big thing on this site is the phpbb bulletin board (not conected, separate thing), and doesn't need mod_perl either, so far so good.....
With mod_perl off, I can now ping my search script directly ..
oddly the search has been working fine the past month, but I think a security patch under Redhat ES must have tweaked something in httpd to make it sensitive -- and if anybody read the AM config info, knows it is *not* compatible with mod_perl.
So... for all you PLESK7.04 (not "reloaded" 7.1 rev) users, running Red Hat Linux, either the "pro" ES3 version I'm running, or a variant of Fedora, and you have similar problems, perhaps this will help you.
NOW... I can do my 15-min. re-setup of the publishcron, and point it back at search.cgi and not search2 (why be redundant). SHEESH! As I like to say "welcome to the Internet."
The soap opera will continue in a moment ... and when I'm done, I'm going to post the whole freakin' how to once I have it working properly!!!!
NeotropeŽ is a brand identity and marketing communications solution provider founded 1983. Neotrope is a reg. trademark and service mark.
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Neotrope
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Sep 28, 2004, 3:58 PM
Post #56 of 80
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Re: [Neotrope] The importance of RSS
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Okay....
SUCCESS PART ONE!
For all you Plesk7, Apache2, Red Hat Linux (ES, fedora) users . . .
turn off "mod_perl" in the control panel (Plesk), since when you run updates, it may go back to being "on" like mine did (argh). Site ran perfectly the past month ... and then suddenly the past week (post RedHat "errata" fixes) it has been hiccupping.
Obviously, if something isn't working to start with - adding a new element like a rss hack sure isn't going to work on TOP of that ...
next step to validate the output three news.xml, news2.xml, and news3.xml files ... and go from there...
THANKS MIKE! All your help has been wonderful... if my test files validate (keeping in mind I did NOT go back and edit all my articles to add an author email, although the field is there right now ... and in the latest article I posted the other night ...), then I can try doing the hack on the AM admin.cgi for the rss publish hax.
YAY!
NeotropeŽ is a brand identity and marketing communications solution provider founded 1983. Neotrope is a reg. trademark and service mark.
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Mike4172
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Sep 29, 2004, 4:45 AM
Post #57 of 80
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Well we just tried using the Ipowerweb virtual server. Lasted all of 2 weeks...their support is the worst we've ever gotten from anyone on the web concerning anything. It's horrendous..we just opted out of the lease of the server and recouped all the money we invested into that.
I'd strongly discourage anyone who is thinking about a dedicated/virtual server with IPowerWeb.
Regards,
Michael
NEW!Logo and Website Design
Auto Post Date and Expiration
GoForum 2.02
http://www.amscripts.net
SKYPE - michael.amscripts
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Neotrope
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Sep 29, 2004, 10:57 PM
Post #59 of 80
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Re: [Mike4172] The importance of RSS
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argh - actually it is working just great now (haven't done the hax to the admin panel yet)
I found in doing the verification we had some issues with nonstandard characters in some of the summaries which were pasted in from the "big site" -- where there might have been a or a non-breaking space.
Also very hard to remove formatting (font=arial) from the summary once it's embedded in there. So have been cleaning that stuff up to make sure we fully understand the limitations of pasting in content with AM so it will pass verification (sigh).
A "remove formatting" option would be cool in the WYSIWYG font drop-downs in the AM create article fields. Turned off the auto-format and the allow html in articles, but didn't clear up things that pre-existed.
Looks like we have to make sure to remove double spaces so they don't convert to nonbreaking spaces which are illegal in the RSS feed.
Heh... boy, anybody who gets through this thread is going to have an education...
NeotropeŽ is a brand identity and marketing communications solution provider founded 1983. Neotrope is a reg. trademark and service mark.
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Neotrope
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Sep 30, 2004, 11:01 AM
Post #61 of 80
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Re: [Mike4172] The importance of RSS
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timestamp issue came up ...
I have my config.ini file like so:
date_format = %b %e, %Y
# time_format = %H:%M %Z
time_format = %a, %e %b %Y %H:%M
datetime_format = %b %o, %Y - %H:%M:%S
time stamps are perfect in the news.xml etal, but now look wonky on my republished article pages which are static (.shtml) and the headline, index pages...
example:
Sep 25, 2004, Sat, 25 Sep 2004 08:20
Sep 3, 2004, Fri, 3 Sep 2004 09:56
whoops... what did I miss on this ?
NeotropeŽ is a brand identity and marketing communications solution provider founded 1983. Neotrope is a reg. trademark and service mark.
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Mike4172
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Sep 30, 2004, 2:35 PM
Post #62 of 80
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Re: [Neotrope] The importance of RSS
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When you changed the time_format to %a, %e %b %Y %H:%M . This altered the $art_time$ tag. Thus the the repeat when you have $art_date$,$art_time$ in your /templates/article/default.html file. This simplest solution is just to delete the $art_date$ out and leave the $art_time$ command so it'll appear Sat, 25 Sep 2004 08:20.
Other solution will be to delete $art_time$ (keeping $art_date$ in default.html), and edit the date_format (this equals $art_date$) so it prints how you want it to appear. If your wanting it to appear how it was previous you would do it this way:
date_format = %b %e, %Y %H:%M %Z
Regards,
Michael
NEW!Logo and Website Design
Auto Post Date and Expiration
GoForum 2.02
http://www.amscripts.net
SKYPE - michael.amscripts
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Neotrope
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Sep 30, 2004, 3:28 PM
Post #63 of 80
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Re: [Mike4172] The importance of RSS
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hmmmmmmmm...
so, actually this change would also need to be made to template/index/default and the like since this timestamp error also appears on all category indexes and home page under the summary in the headline lists ...
or for those playing along at home, this would mean altering pretty much *all* instances of this: <span class="summary_date">$art_date$, $art_time$
sheesh o rama ...
or am I missing something ... isn't there a note from the start of this thread about simply deleting one of the fields out of the .ini file or some such, so that it basically prints blank?
and how does this impact the date/time selector at the top of the create article form in the AM admin ? Or the sort records by reverse date order in headline lists, found in the AM setup panel?
Just want to make sure I don't hack things that don't really need hacking?
In theory, to me, it would seem to make the most sense to keep $art_date$ as the field that prints in both the articles, category indexes, and the rss.xml template, leave the $art_time$ blank, and then it prints a blank space in all the existing templates .... or ?
(Yes, i was the annoying kid who sat in the front of the class and asked why letters didn't have their definitions in the dictionary .... ) 
NeotropeŽ is a brand identity and marketing communications solution provider founded 1983. Neotrope is a reg. trademark and service mark.
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Theo
Project Manager
/ Moderator
Sep 30, 2004, 4:21 PM
Post #64 of 80
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Re: [Neotrope] The importance of RSS
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Neotrope,
Why don't you try changing your INI keys to this:
date_format = %a, %e %b %Y
# time_format = %H:%M %Z
time_format = %H:%M
datetime_format = %a, %e %b %Y %H:%M
Then in your RSS template, just use $art_date$ $art_time$ instead of just $art_time$.
Theo Wiersma
Project Manager
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Mike4172
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Sep 30, 2004, 4:26 PM
Post #65 of 80
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Re: [Neotrope] The importance of RSS
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this would mean altering pretty much *all* instances of this: <span class="summary_date">$art_date$, $art_time$
**EDIT**
Try Theo's way...that might be an easier solution for you.
and how does this impact the date/time selector at the top of the create article form in the AM admin ? Or the sort records by reverse date order in headline lists, found in the AM setup panel?
No impact, as the ART commands are simply for printing purposes only, and are not parlayed deep inside AM for internal instructions.
Just want to make sure I don't hack things that don't really need hacking?
If you want the date/time articles were uploaded to the server, this alteration is a MUST. Without doing this, the time will simply reflect the time the user for the newsreader last uploaded the RSS links.
Regards,
Michael
NEW!Logo and Website Design
Auto Post Date and Expiration
GoForum 2.02
http://www.amscripts.net
SKYPE - michael.amscripts
(This post was edited by Mike4172 on Sep 30, 2004, 4:37 PM)
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Neotrope
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Sep 30, 2004, 4:57 PM
Post #66 of 80
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Re: [Theo] The importance of RSS
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thanks, theo! (and Mike)
I figured it was something like that ans was prepared to go baaaaaak to the start of these threads and try that, but it's nice to get the word from the wise.
I'll give it a go!
Cheers,
Christopher
@ NeotropeŽ
[Neotrope is a U.S. reg. tm and sm]
NeotropeŽ is a brand identity and marketing communications solution provider founded 1983. Neotrope is a reg. trademark and service mark.
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Neotrope
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Oct 1, 2004, 10:56 AM
Post #67 of 80
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Theo-
worked like a charm. I had to tweak a little to add the AM/PM and the PDT -- for some reason the %Z variable doesn't do anything (doesn't "print" - so not sure if a server thing, or not recorded in AM when saving files). Might be nice to save that info someplace (ie., GDT - 7 = PDT in the setup control panel).
So, we end up with this in the config.ini file
date_format = %a, %e %b %Y
time_format = %H:%M %p PDT
datetime_format = %a, %e %b %Y %H:%M %p PDT
and removed the PDT/EDT from the rss.xml template date/time field
So, now we get the full string in the heads of the category indexes, the headline lists per category, and in the actual article and printer friendly versions -- and, of course, in the RSS printouts to static files.
(WHEW!)
Next will be the hack to the AM panel for the publishcron task, and then we're cookin' with gas, baby! Once this is all done, I promise to post a post-mortem on the process for those who are following along with our home audience in the game show that is AM+RSS=JOY
:-) Chris
NeotropeŽ is a brand identity and marketing communications solution provider founded 1983. Neotrope is a reg. trademark and service mark.
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Neotrope
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Oct 2, 2004, 7:55 AM
Post #68 of 80
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Re: [Theo] The importance of RSS
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HI, Theo, Mike, and everyone ...
In the home stretch on this ... but now I have validation error on the date I've setup in the rss.xml feed ... for smart people you'll see the error right away ... it has to be either EST or GMT, and since the time is printing as 16:16 we know it has to be GMT, or I have to tweak the .ini file to use 12 hr. time, and use EST Since I added the AM/PM variable to my .ini already, it would be a snap to fix.
to wit. here's how it prints in the "news.xml" output pages
<pubDate>Wed, 8 Sep 2004 16:16 PM PDT</pubDate>
but then on validation, I get the error
Change the date format to comply with RFC822
<pubDate>Wed, 8 Sep 2004 16:16 PM PDT</pubDate>
so, for those who might make the same mistage as me, here is the "official" info on RFC822 legal time stamps:
Solution
Change the date format to comply with RFC822. Here are examples of valid RFC822 dates:
<pubDate>Wed, 02 Oct 2002 08:00:00 EST</pubDate>
<pubDate>Wed, 02 Oct 2002 13:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<pubDate>Wed, 02 Oct 2002 15:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
-
so this means, I need to modify my .ini time setup like so:
ORIGINAL
date_format = %a, %e %b %Y
time_format = %H:%M %p PDT
datetime_format = %a, %e %b %Y %H:%M %p PDT
FIXED
date_format = %a, %e %b %Y
time_format = %I:%M %p EST
datetime_format = %a, %e %b %Y %I:%M %p EST
(note the %I value replaced the %H value for 24hr 01-12 time vs. 00-23 time
and EST replaced PDT)
-------------------------------
For those who want a complete list of the variables, since we're getting mroe into the nuts and bolts of making the rss.xml compatible with our "normal" day to day static pages on the web .... here you go
%% - %
%a - Wed: Day of the week abbreviation
%A - Wednesday: Full name of day of the week
%w - 3: Number of day of the week; Sunday is day 0 (0-6)
%b - Oct: Month abbreviation
%B - October: Full name of month
%d - 29: The day of the month (01-31)
%e - 29: The day of the month (1-31)
%H - 19: Hour of day (00-23)
%I - 07: Hour of day (01-12)
%j - 302: Day in the year (001-366)
%M - 37: Minute (00-59)
%p - PM: AM or PM
%S - 44: Second (00-61); watch your leap seconds
%y - 97: Last two digits of the year (00-99)
%Y - 1997: The year
%Z - PST: The time zone
however, note the %Z tag doesn't work with AM, at least on my server running Apache2, RedHat ES3 Linux, etc. so you have to hard code the EST into the .ini file if you're doing it the way I've been setting it up.
These are actually the standard server side includes (XSSI) date/time codes and are not unique to AM.
-----------------------------------------
ARGH! I need a vacation so bad.
Obviously I'm not awake... this is the required time stamp
<pubDate>Wed, 02 Oct 2002 08:00:00 EST</pubDate>
and I have the AM/PM in there
so, now we try it THIS way... (remove %p from time_format )
date_format = %a, %e %b %Y
time_format = %I:%M EST
datetime_format = %a, %e %b %Y %I:%M %p EST
NeotropeŽ is a brand identity and marketing communications solution provider founded 1983. Neotrope is a reg. trademark and service mark.
(This post was edited by Neotrope on Oct 2, 2004, 10:07 AM)
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Neotrope
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Oct 2, 2004, 8:07 AM
Post #69 of 80
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Re: [Mike4172] The importance of RSS
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Kind of off topic, so I'll only post one out of my two cents...
nicest company ever worked with = worldwidemart (cofounded w/Matt Wright)
most reliable and service oriented for class-B datacenter colo = Dialtone Internet (prior to Interland buyout)
most inconsistent = Interland (lost client over unrelaible windows hosting, and billed me for three months of hosting after they "lost" my cancellation, even though I got email from pres. of company saying sorry to see me go as a reseller)
most flakey and *bleep* = Communitech (prior to Interland buyout, these were the type of folks advertising "unlimited bandwidth" then would secretly tell you, oh... we really mean 20GB capped)
currently happy with colo two boxes = ThePlanet (big server), RaQShaQ (little server)
others shall not be named to protect the innocent
NeotropeŽ is a brand identity and marketing communications solution provider founded 1983. Neotrope is a reg. trademark and service mark.
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Neotrope
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Nov 16, 2004, 7:05 AM
Post #71 of 80
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Re: [Mike4172] The importance of RSS
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So far so good.
My tips are:
1) use firefox in place of IE because it allows you to check/uncheck the auto-formatting per input box; so you can have it off for your summary, but on for your article; otherwise one might introduce html into the summary that xoks up the RSS
2) articles prepared in advance in MS Word should be "save-as" to plain text, with UTF-8 formatting, and character substitution turned on; or, take a plain text file and open in something like Textpad (www.textpad.com), then resave as Unix line breaks, with UTF-8 format (assuming unix line breaks if one is on a unix/linux box); then check for double spaces, replace "&" with "and" -- anything like a double space, curly quotes, bullet, long dash (em dash), &, or html will fail the RSS in some cases.
Been away a month because it took me a month to create a custom field for a major news aggregator in the "windows" business, to dump the entire article in, and I toyed with alternate RDF templates, all sorts of things before simply adding another textarea on the editor, then adding the extra field to a second template. So, now my template runs two fulls sets of feeds for each topic, every time I publish an article.
The mod/hack for auto update worked well (I posted a note how the two fields to edit were reversed in the description), and it seems to be chirping along well.
Thanks to everybody, and Mike :-), for their help!!!!
Christopher
NeotropeŽ is a brand identity and marketing communications solution provider founded 1983. Neotrope is a reg. trademark and service mark.
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MikeB
Staff
/ Moderator
Nov 16, 2004, 1:19 PM
Post #72 of 80
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Re: [Neotrope] The importance of RSS
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Hi Neotrope,
Thanks for the tips!
I'm sure that anyone who is trying to set up an RSS feed will find these details to be quite valuable. I'm glad to hear it seems to be working for you.
If you have any other questions feel free to let me know! 
Cheers,
Mike Briggs - Product Specialist
support@interactivetools.com
Hire me!
Save time by getting our experts to help with your project. Template changes, advanced features, full integration, whatever you need. Whether you need one hour or fifty, get it done fast with Priority Consulting.
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Neotrope
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Dec 3, 2004, 12:09 PM
Post #73 of 80
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Re: [MikeB] The importance of RSS
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Mike-
one final question ...
I'm running into a problem with one news source not pulling my stuff because there needs to be a date in the file name or directory for each news item or article ...
so, my question would be, how could I setup the date to automatically be inserted at start of article name ...
ie.,
120304-article-0099.shtml
is this possible?
Yahoo news (current feeds work great with "My Yahoo!" - but not the "Yahoo News" site) keeps "rejecting" my RSS feeds, and I read someplace they need the date in there .... soooooooo....
just when you think you're done :-)
Any tips on doing this automatically?
THANKS!!!!!
NeotropeŽ is a brand identity and marketing communications solution provider founded 1983. Neotrope is a reg. trademark and service mark.
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MikeB
Staff
/ Moderator
Dec 3, 2004, 3:46 PM
Post #74 of 80
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Re: [Neotrope] The importance of RSS
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Hi Neotrope,
Thanks for the post!
While I can't think of a way that you would be able to automatically add the date to the beginning of the filename there are a couple of workarounds you may be able to use.
Your first option is to turn on the setting in Article Manager that will enable you to name each article yourself. This means when you add an article you would have a "Filename" field. In this field you could add "120304-article-0099" as the name for the file.
The other option is to add a dummy date to the file names. In Article Manager's Setup Options you can specify the prefix that all of your articles will have when they are published (by default it is "article_"). You could change this to some kind of dummy date so that every article would have the prefix "120304-article_". This date wouldn't be relevant but theres a chance that when your news source looks for a date in the file name it will find this one. The actual date will be in the file and most users won't even notice the numbers at the beginning of the file name.
I hope this helps and if you have any other questions feel free to let me know!
Cheers,
Mike Briggs - Product Specialist
support@interactivetools.com
Hire me!
Save time by getting our experts to help with your project. Template changes, advanced features, full integration, whatever you need. Whether you need one hour or fifty, get it done fast with Priority Consulting.
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