Rss Forum Posts Problem

Hi,

on my homepage at http://www.truckbuddies.com/ the Forum Post Rss Feed Just keeps showing loading but when I change the rss url to my other sites orca forum it shows rss feeds and the same on my other site http://www.w3date.co.uk it will show feeds from Truck Buddies ??? Why will Truck Buddies or w3date not show their own feeds??

Any one have any answers, will be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Try open
http://truckbuddies.com/get_rss_feed.php?ID=19&member=0
I got here
< b > Warning < / b >: readfile(http://www.truckbuddies.com/orca/?action=rss_all) [ < a href = 'function.readfile'>function.readfile < / a > ]: failed to open stream: Connection refused in < b > /home/sites/truckbuddies.com/public_html/get_rss_feed.php< / b > on line < b >23< / b>< br / > ^

so your server configuration don`t allow readfile .. or maybe your server really refuse such connection? :)
recheck

Hi Andrey,

Why can I show other orca rss feeds from other sites and why can other sites show my orca feeds?

You can check my php info here http://truckbuddies.com/phpinfo.php

Thanks again

I get the same problem

James

Ok I have found a work around.... sorted!

what is the work around?

Yes, please describe your solution to alls, be useful

Ok I found that it would display feeds from other websites but not from its own server so I adapted a rss script to display my feeds from TruckBuddies on a different domain I then put that url into the forum posts module.

I will tidy up the script and add instructions and will post soon.

Ok here is the script

http://rapidshare.com/files/136905998/orcafeed.zip

Please note you will need to host this script on a seperate domain than your dolphin installation.

One way to do this for people with only one domain is to help each other by hosting for one another.

I will do for those who are struggling... Just send me the link to your forum.

Just FYI.. this is a problem with the built in Dolphin rss function, it isn't just limited to Orca. If you have a phpbb3 setup on your server sometimes it won't read the rss out from that either, but it will always read it from other sites??

This mod will also work with phpbb3.

I tested a different rss reader and that did the same as dolphin when trying to read rss from the same server... Must be down to server capabilities readfile etc...

In any case this workaround has the required result. Even if just as a temp measure.

Hey!

I got all excited and then I realised that you temp fix does not work for me.  As you are the only one here who has Attempted to solve this problem then I am inclined to look to you for help!

The orcafeed.php does work for me in an RSS reader and other places, and has been correctly placed on another domain, but will not show on the Dolphon Site. http://tvchatfriends.com. All my domains are with the same Hst but not the same server so could this be an issue?

My forum is at http://tvchatfriends.com/orca.

I would be grateful for any help you can offer and wuld be happy to reciprocate the favour!

Mickey

EDIT:  It does work now! Thanks!

But this does not work with the groups forums the urls are /orca/?action=rss_user&user={NickName}. I have found a way to use a FREE RSS feed generator which returns a script that can be placed in a html block. How does one place an html block in the groups?

Phew!

Download link changed to http://rapidshare.com/files/136905998/orcafeed.zip

Ok, so I am using another domain to place this script.

Here is what I've done.

Changed the script as follows in orcafeed.php:

$XMLfilename = "http://www.yoursite.com/orca/?action=rss_all";

to

$XMLfilename = "http://news.google.com/news?q=coffee&rls=com.microsoft:*:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7DKUS&um=1&tab=wn&resnum=0&cd=2&nolr=1&output=rss";

Changed the script as follows in rsstemplate.html:

<link>http://www.yoursite.com/orca/</link>

<link>http://news.google.com/news?q=coffee&rls=com.microsoft:*:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7DKUS&um=1&tab=wn&resnum=0&cd=2&nolr=1&output=rss</link>

The files have been uploaded to the Root Dir of another domain.

The feed still does not show on homepage...this is a Google News Feed.

What am I doing wrong?

~~ L

You don't need to do all that for a googlefeed  .....  just add the googlefeed to a new rss block = no problem  .....

It doesn't work....

Here is my feed that I plugged in.

http://news.google.com/news?q=coffee&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=

firefox-a&um=1&tab=wn&resnum=0&cd=3&nolr=1&output=r

HA!  .....  it was working when I posted that and now for unknown reason it's not  .....  as well as a couple other feeds that were working and now are not . ..... 

I have come to the conclusion after messing with rss feeds that WORK in all kinds of formats that VALID feeds are working with no problems everywhere EXCEPT when used within the dolphin "HTML, RSS and PHP builders blocks"  ..... 

There is something very screwy going on with the blocks but haven't pinpointed it  ..... 
.

I do wish that lancashiredates would check in on the workings of this script with a Google or Yahoo news feed...

don't know if it might help but instead of doing a loop around to get back to your site , try http://localhost/orca/?action=rss_all to see if it works?

question for the big guys? looking at that file "get_rss_feed.php" is there a reason that in the begining of the file there is a <?  - but no closing php tag ?> at the end of the file?

I ask this because I am not very fluent with php but thought there was always an opening tag and closing tag to every file?

Edit: Ok try this go into the get_rss_feed.php file and place a closing tag at the bottom of the file if yours does not have it, I tested this before and after and got possitive results, let me know if you do too?  Using - http://www.truckbuddies.com/get_rss_feed.php?ID=19&member=0

I don't really think so sammie  ..... 

That wouldn't explain how you can take the exact same feed that won't display in dolphin
and it displays with no problems in a static page in the same directory.
.

Tried adding the closing quotes....feed still doesn't appear.

linksys7 what do ya think?

What do we need sammie outside of the installation requirements?  What is missing?

What new protocol do we now need to display an rss feed that has worked fine since it first came out?

.

Sammie, that is fine, I'm sure Dolphin does work great on your servers, but it is not very scientific to just say it is "configured for" or "optimized for" Dolphin.  Since I have been using these forums, there have been a half dozen times at least where I have been told that some problem must have been caused by my hosting service.  Everytime I dig into it though, and write technical support telling them that something doesn't work because of them, they come back at me everytime with convincing evidence that the issue had nothing to do with them at all, and the problem gets fixed some other way that has nothing to do with the host.  I'm not saying it is never going to be their fault, but I've lost face with my host several times because of this, so the next time I claim something is their problem, I will want to make sure I know what I am talking about.

Rob 

-

p.s.  RSS feeds not working properly for me either.  Maybe it is my host this time, but this time I would want to know specifically why since they match the specs in all other areas.

Caltrade I do agree with you but Sammie makes a valid point. I have a reseller account (which is a hosted account) and the servers are setup specifically for programs such as Dolphin. A lot of the problems I see posted on these forums I do not have. In that sense I am very fortunate, but I did make a point of finding a server that would do what I want to do. Some hosts out there (such as my previous host) whilst they don't exactly lie to you don't tell the whole truth either. Too busy, whatever. All the best. Stuart

But Stuart....

There have been no specifics given on what exactly needs to be configured for the RSS feed to work. I, like Caltrade, have been told several times that it is my server....when in fact it turned out to be something else...not how they have configured the server.

If you can state exactly what it is that is not configured properly...then I could agree with you and Sammie. But I would like to see some hard coding that is causing this,

I am hoping that we can have a resolution to this RSS feed issue.

Thanks for your input...always.

~~ L

The point Sammie is making is simple, you may well have set your sites up correctly But is the host server upto the job, has that been set up correctly. The host company may not be 100% honest with you because then they could lose a paying customer.

Stewart- you still have given absolutely NO information.  I realize you have a reseller account, and I appreciate your honesty in disclosing this, but whenever people are real vague and say they are "configured for Dolphin" (like Host4web does by the way) they almost alway own or represent a hosting service.  So right now, my RSS feeds are not working properly.  Should I write my host and tell them it is not working because "they aren't configured properly"?  They ARE honest- and if they don't tell me to kiss off, then they will write back and tell me to be more specific.  What should I tell them?

Rob

I appreciate what your saying. I am not a programmer otherwise I would be more helpful. What I am saying is, I do not have a lot of these problems. The only reason I can figure is because my host has configured his servers for programs like Dolphin. They even have ffmpeg.exe as an option. I was just trying to clarify the point Sammie was making. Sorry for the confusion.

Stuart

Well Stewart, I just went through some of your forum posts and it seems that you have had your fair share of problems also.  Let's call it a stalemate and move on.  I just know I can't go back to my host still again and tell them they aren't "configured properly" without having better information.

Rob

WHY is it that THIS WHOLE COMMUNITY is so stuck up on dealing with problems by just blaming the server and no longer helping... OH, maybe you have an interest in getting someone to change to YOUR server company?

You act like everyone has the money to start right away on a VPS or dedicated, HELL, maybe the next dolphin,   or poisden or whatever they think of next, will need you to go buy a $7500 server and t1 it to the net - maybe you have to click your heels twice and pray it will work - THAT IS CRAP.

The SERVER requirement list from boonex IS matched by most shared hosting companies, with exception of the cron jobs (although some shared do allow this).  If it is some php quirk or some special setting, THOSE should be listed as requirements.

I've been doing this since before dolphin 5.  I stay to myself and only recently have started posting again.  I am tired of the idea this is all about community, all about unite people, when every version of dolphin makes you re-buy every mod, cause this community doesn't give members upgrade mods (a few do, most NO).  So you spend more.  Now, reworked completely, new best thing... great.

The more I am here, the more I realize why I quit coming here.  And it always comes to this - those WHO THINK they know downing those WHO WANT TO LEARN - the names change, but the attitude resides.

If your frustrated, STOP POSTING.

Chris

www.convictionscommunity.com

I have had coding problems and they were largely to do with Mod upgrades. This is an excellent forum for improving on the original code. I do not offer hosting services for Dolphin, I want my community website working at max. I do not want to slow my server down by hosting other demanding community sites. I bought a reseller account because it was more affordable than a VPS or dedicated server.

So...we all are in agreement to disagree on the server point. But what I am looking for is a solutions to this RSS issue. There must be a coding workaround. Someone be using RSS feed for content on their Dolphin site...are you out there?! Boonex?!

Ok Im going out on a limb here and ask what versions of PHP is everyone using? I currently use PHP 5.2.6 , I use the RSS feed  and the Forum feed with no problems.

I do have my own servers and do not use vhosting.

I did some investigating and did notice that there were a lot of bugs in the PHP 4 versions with [function.readfile] , Please note though Im NOT saying this is the cause of the issue, but it could be due to the randomness of this prob.

Recently I had an older version of PHP5 even and had issues with it on my server (a memory leak issue) and had to restart the server everytime it crashed. Well I updated to the newer version and now have no issues. 

Disclaimer: This post is intended to be informative only and not directions for use.

Apache/2.2.9 (Win) DAV/2 mod_ssl/2.2.9 OpenSSL/0.9.8h mod_autoindex_color PHP/5.2.6

Build Date: May 2 2008 18:01:20

phpMyAdmin 2.11.7

Mysql Server version: 5.0.51b-community-nt

I agree Sammie, The hosting companies need to do periodic evalutations of their servers software and support requests, check for updates (and review changelogs) for updates to conclude if an update is warrented. Understanding that virtual hosting has more than one client to contend with but can review the information to see what is best for all.

We are stuck between a rock and a hard place on the hosting issue, because not everyone can afford dedicated and the virtual hosting companies might not do anything to remedy any issues you might have unless there are support request comming out there ying yang about the same problem from all their clients.

The best we can do is try to help each other to the best of our ability to come to a posible resolution or work around.

I am using PHP v5.2.3; Build Date Jan 31 2008 05:14:31;Apache 1.3.37; mySQL 5.0.45.

One thing you can try to see if its a php memory issue is add this:

ob_end_flush();

on line 21 in the get_rss_feed.php file directly above header( 'Content-Type: text/xml' );

this will clear the memory if its a memory issue, and the output buffering is set to "on" in your php config.

You can try this to see if it is the issue and if not remove it.

readfile() tends to pull the entire file into memory which can cause problems if there is a low memory allocation.

You can try this if you want its up to you.Good luck

Thanks Sammie for the update...

I will be doing a mod within the next couple of days (maybe tonight)  that will require a simple html block add - either  index, wherever... it will be a generic version of the spy, refreshing every 10-25 seconds (its up to you).

I know mine will work, and it will also update in real time.  No static RSS feed.

And, it WILL be FREE.

I'll post when it's done, with the link for the mod and the site I designed it for :)

Til then,

Chri

Sammie wrote:

there are issues with shared hosts that do not update, and if they do they change PHP defaults. (like HFW Caltrade register_globals on when the default is off, that my friend is not configured for dolphin no matter what they claim, its in the dolphin required specs to be set to off. Hosts lie.)
-

Sammie, as I said before, this is not a debate I want to have.  When the issue about register_global came up, I wrote my shared hosting service www.alterhosting.com and they got back with me within a few hours with the message below.  This is the second time on this thread someone has implied that my hosting company may not be honest.  I didn't want to discuss this anymore but I need to express that I have never experienced dishonesty from this company.

Rob

--

Hi Rob,

I have added the following line into the .htaccess file to turn off
the "register_globals" for caltrade.com:

php_flag register_globals off

If you need to turn it off for other sites, please let me know.

I have been very happy with the service provided by www.alterhosting.com - and YES THEY ARE HONEST.  I wish you would stop saying otherwise.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/rss

These three feeds work fine  ..... 
.

Yes Stuart I kind of took this thread a little off track...instead of using the Orca Forum as a feed for the Homepage, I wanted to use Google News RSS feed.

Here is what I have discovered:

The Google News Feed does not work.

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=coffee&ie=UTF-8&nolr=1&output=rss

Any feed ending in XML DOES work.

http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk/rss/newsonline_world_edition/americas/rss.xml

And Yahoo News Feed DOES work.

http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/rss?p=coffee&ei=UTF-8&fl=0&x=wrt

The Google News feed appears not to work in Dolphin for some reason. Any ideas?

All three work for me  ..... 

NOTE: I have the three blocks there at the same time.  lrepton, try all three at same time  ..... 

INTERESTING NOTE: The stock forum feed WORKS when a WORKING XML is on the page at the same time  ..... 

ANOTHER INTERESTING NOTE: When I place a PHP block on the same page, ALL the RSS feeds FAIL!
.

My forum spy modification is done, check the post about it!! 

http://www.boonex.com/unity/forums/#topic/FREE-Orca-Forum-Spy-Feed.htm

This might be slightly off topic, but for the longest time I have been looking for a tool that I thought would be readily available, but I have never been able to find it.  What I would like is a RSS feed aggregator - something that takes multiple feeds and turns them into one big feed.  So far so good - those are out there, but I have never been able to find a tool that then lets you edit those feeds- delete items you don't want and perhaps categorize them further, and then allows you to republish that edited feed as a new feed.  Does this kind of thing exist?

Rob

yeah cal, slightyly off key, but good idea. the problem with that though is since so many off us use the technology RSS, to be able to edit somebody elses rss could be dangerous, or to even have yours edited by multiple users of what you have described. so where it was a good thought for something locally written, but dont know why you wouldnt just set those up yourself as categorized as you would want them on your machine. but to think that you would be able to pull in a feed, and be able to edit it. well you know where that would lead.


regards,
DosDawg

It is a little off key, but not totally - several content management systems have aggregators, and maybe Dolphin will someday.  I don't see what would be so horrible about being able to edit the items, or at the very least deleting ones you don't want in the aggregated feed.   In my case, I plan on using this for trade opportunity data, not news - so I really woundn't be changing anyone's written work.  I'd like to then be able to add other category fields to this - such as "country" and "industry".  Wouldn't there be some way to aggregate a bunch of RSS feeds into a mysql database? - and then have some kind of tool to republish as a new RSS feed?  It is such a simple idea I'm suprised I haven't been able to find a tool for it yet.  Since this might not be directly Dolphini related, please drop me a PM if you have any thoughts on this.

Thanks

Rob

The new term is mashup (A mashup is a web application that combines data from more than one source into a single integrated tool) Cal  ..... 

rss feed aggregators mashup google search  ..... 
.

I know I've seen a post or 2 about the forum feed just spinning but I can't seem to find it anywhere.

The way php is compiled maybe has a little to do with it.

If you have a file that blocks access sort of to the forum or feed could to it as well. Such as only a member has permsission to view or do some forum related things.

Also if you add any code to any page that is making reference to or expecting a file such as an include once related to the forum it could do this.

Such as you add code to a page with member authority to only allow members to view a particular page that is related to the fourms this could happen.

And also if you are for some reason redirecting the forum in your .htaccess to another page temp or permanent this can also happen. This one is probably not the case. But I temp redirect the forum to another page while I was setting up topics and changing fonts and colors. And it just spun the whole time until I removed the redirect. Which makes sense why in this case it would do it.

gameutopia

Very interesting  Rumpy...but what if you don't want all three feeds...I only want to use the Google feed. (sigh)

Thanks gameutopia for the extra input. Helpful.

Well my latest Yahoo feed just stopped working and started spinning....argh!

-

I tried Rumpy's solution....but it did not work either.

-

Any more ideas....

-

I don't think I have a php block...

-

The really weird thing here tho is that a BLOG RSS from another site loads fine!?

[ Stuart: The colors are for you! ;-)  ]

Irepton, you are too kind :-) (but at least you are thinking of me :-))

I have also wondered about the RSS feed widget.  I have not gotten a single RSS feed to output any data using the RSS widget.  The same URL feeds work with other social networking platforms.

According to phpinfo (); register_globals is off.  I am not sure what other items are necessary, but most of dolphin's other functionality is working correctly.  Only the RSS feed widget seems to not work correctly.

Yes this is on a shared hosting environment, PHP 5.2.6++, mysql5, etc...  I did not see in this thread what is required, or what items to to look out if one is encountering this problem;  Only that it works in a carefully crafted specific environment that is kept in a top secret vault.

working feeds url ends with .xml

rss works for me - checkout my site - http://www.asia-connect-th.com/

Too funny!

-

I have an xml feed that works on one site, but the other site has additions of php code boxes etc. and will only feed off-site blog RSS.

-

Weird...but that is the way it is working  for my sites.

-

~~ Lorren

Ok, I can verify that I have both a PHP block and RSS block working on my own system:

CentOS 4.6

Apache/2.0.52

php-5.2.6

mysql-5.0.67

I did not do anything magic, they both just worked.

So I have the exact same Dolphin setup on a Dreamhost hosted environment (that does not work) as I do on my home system that does work.

So apparently I have something on my own server setup that is not setup on my shared hosted environment.

So now the question becomes, what is secret that makes this thing tick?

To say switch hosts is completely ignorant and lazy.  As long as a particular configuration does not pose a security risk the shared hosts I have dealt with are usually willing to work with you to help you out.  Unfortunately the gatekeepers have not given any hints to what items may not be available on a hosted environment that are required for dolphin to work.

I have not dug into this issue enough to know "what" the issue is.  Only that it works in one environment, and not the other.  It would be helpful if the dolphin developers could lend some assistance to what the exact requirements are for running this product as the envrionment that works with 90% of other products obviously is not sufficient for dolphin.

At least I have proven to myself that it does work.  If I get some time I will try to delve into this and see what the problem is and hopefully be able to provide a better answer then it's a problem with your shared hosting environment.

For anyone keeping score at home....

I am using dreamhost for my shared hosting environment and the RSS stuff, custom PHP blocks, etc.. were not working for me.

From post above, you can see that it worked fine when I installed Dolphin on my local Linux server.

After a bit of debugging I added the following to my php.ini file on Dreamhost, and now the RSS stuff and PHP blocks are working fine.

allow_url_fopen = on

Possibly this is the same problem people are having on other hosted environments.

I thought I would throw this idea out there since I believe it is better then saying your hosting environment sucks because it works fine on my hosted environment.

I know this is out of topic, cant stop my self posting after reading from top to bottom, being on a shared hosting myself makes me feel so miserable after  reading you guys. funny my site is working as it should  makes me wonder why in  hell it runs and still running or better yet why on earth did it run at all?

Hi,

I got my server changed yesterday as music and video uploads were not working on the previous server, now that part is fine but my FORUM POSTS on the home page are not loading up.

So I understand that this must be related to some setting on the server.Any body has any idea what that setting could be?

I feel that Dolphin should provide a DETAILED spec on the host server settings to support dolphin.

If anybody has a solution for this issue,please let me know.

Thank

Hello! Thank you for this! I spent 4 hours looking for a fix on the forums.  The first one I tried is on the same shared server and it didn't work, so I made another subdomain on my other shared server account and that one does work.  I'm not sure why it doesn't work on the original one though.  Thanks, again! Bob

Has anyone found a fix for this?

From memory there are issues with readfile() and remote addresses, the addresses need to be local.

I had a similar issues with a previous project and fixed it by using fopen() / fread().

DM.

It must be a server setting to allow the function that reads or writes the feeds not allowing it on the same server. I know one thing... It is a server setting/configuration not the script. I have had this problem with other scripts and I just make a proxy workaround as the above download. I do also have one Dolphin site hosted with hostgator on a shared hosting environment that works fine. So there is one thing that you could do if your current host will not find and change the setting that this requires you could always change hosting providers.

Yeah, don't really want to change hosts, been using them for a long time and am real happy with the service and price. So not an option for me.

I have a feeling that using curl will solve the problem, if i get a chance I will rewrite the code and see if it works.

But for the time being your fix works great.