PHP CodeIgnitor: RSS reader

An RSS Reader is used to read RSS Feeds.

AJAX RSS Reader

The following example will demonstrate an RSS reader, where the RSS-feed is loaded into a webpage without reloading:

Example Explained - The HTML Page

When a user selects an RSS-feed in the dropdown list above, a function called "showResult()" is executed. The function is triggered by the "onchange" event:

<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
function showRSS(str)
{
if (str.length==0)
{
  document.getElementById("rssOutput").innerHTML="";
return;
}
if (window.XMLHttpRequest)
{// code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari
xmlhttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
}
else
{// code for IE6, IE5
xmlhttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
}
xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=function()
{
if (xmlhttp.readyState==4 && xmlhttp.status==200)
    {
    document.getElementById("rssOutput").innerHTML=xmlhttp.responseText;
    }
}
xmlhttp.open("GET","getrss.php?q="+str,true);
xmlhttp.send();
}
</script>
</head>
<body>

<form>
<select onchange="showRSS(this.value)">
<option value="">Select an RSS-feed:</option>
<option value="Google">Google News</option>
<option value="MSNBC">MSNBC News</option>
</select>
</form>
<br />
<div id="rssOutput">RSS-feed will be listed here...</div>
</body>
</html>

The showResult() function does the following:

Check if an RSS-feed is selected
Create an XMLHttpRequest object
Create the function to be executed when the server response is ready
Send the request off to a file on the server
Notice that a parameter (q) is added to the URL (with the content of the dropdown list)

The PHP File

The page on the server called by the JavaScript above is a PHP file called "getrss.php":

<?php
//get the q parameter from URL
$q=$_GET["q"];

//find out which feed was selected
if($q=="Google")
  {
  $xml=("http://news.google.com/news?ned=us&topic=h&output=rss");
  }
elseif($q=="MSNBC")
  {
  $xml=("http://rss.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032091/device/rss/rss.xml");
  }

$xmlDoc = new DOMDocument();
$xmlDoc->load($xml);

//get elements from "<channel>"
$channel=$xmlDoc->getElementsByTagName('channel')->item(0);
$channel_title = $channel->getElementsByTagName('title')
->item(0)->childNodes->item(0)->nodeValue;
$channel_link = $channel->getElementsByTagName('link')
->item(0)->childNodes->item(0)->nodeValue;
$channel_desc = $channel->getElementsByTagName('description')
->item(0)->childNodes->item(0)->nodeValue;

//output elements from "<channel>"
echo("<p><a href='" . $channel_link
  . "'>" . $channel_title . "</a>");
echo("<br />");
echo($channel_desc . "</p>");

//get and output "<item>" elements
$x=$xmlDoc->getElementsByTagName('item');
for ($i=0; $i<=2; $i++)
  {
  $item_title=$x->item($i)->getElementsByTagName('title')
  ->item(0)->childNodes->item(0)->nodeValue;
  $item_link=$x->item($i)->getElementsByTagName('link')
  ->item(0)->childNodes->item(0)->nodeValue;
  $item_desc=$x->item($i)->getElementsByTagName('description')
  ->item(0)->childNodes->item(0)->nodeValue;

  echo ("<p><a href='" . $item_link
  . "'>" . $item_title . "</a>");
  echo ("<br />");
  echo ($item_desc . "</p>");
  }
?>

When an RSS-feed is sent from the JavaScript, the following happens:

Check which feed was selected
Create a new XML DOM object
Load the RSS document in the xml variable
Extract and output elements from the channel element
Extract and output elements from the item element

PHP CodeIgnitor

Monday, 11 July 2011

AJAX :: RSS Reader

AJAX RSS Reader

Example Explained - The HTML Page

The PHP File