Using RSS

[tmitch]

Hi everyone, I am trying to implement RSS newsfeed on my site. I need to be able to snatch the XML page so that I can parse it and dynamically display the headline and URL on my site.

I have written the parsing function, and it works fine as long as I manually save the XML page to my machine. However (and bear with me, I'm sure this is elementary), I don't know how to save a remote file to a local server for processing. For example, here is what I've tried:

#!/usr/bin/perl

open (SITE, 'http://rss.com.com/2547-12-0-5.xml') or warn "Error opening location " ;

@site = <SITE> ;

close SITE or warn "Can't close location " ;

print @site ;

I'm sure there is a better way to open/save a remote XML page - and in fact, there may be a better way to implement the RSS altogether. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
~T

[ajt]

tmitch,

To get files off a remote server, you will need to use one of a selection of fine tools. If you want to pulls the files off periodically, then you can use a scheduler such as cron or at, and a standalone executable such as wGet. If you want to get the files and work on them at the same time, then Perl has some excellent tools for this: LWP::UserAgent; LWP::Simple and HTTP::GHTTP.

Once you have your XML file, you'll want to do something with it. Perl has some excellent tools for this too, including the just updated XML::RSS and my very own XML::RSS::Tools. Either way there are some nice examples and useful links in the documentation of both modules, and there is also useful stuff on XML.com

As it happens I know that the perl-rss crew are planning to update the documents of XML::RSS with some nice links to example articles soon, so you won't have to dig around too much on your own.

Here is a sneak preview (kellan's suggested list):

• Simple RSS with Perl, brian d foy, Nov, 2002, Covers: RSS Syntax, RSS generation, RSS parsing, RSS to HTML
• RSS and You, Chris Nandor, January 25, 2000, Covers: RSS intro, RSS to HTML
• So, really, what's new? Randal L. Schwartz, Jan, 2000, Covers: RSS parsing, RSS aggregation, RSS to email
• Making Headlines with RSS, Jonathan Eisenzopf, February, 2000, Covers: RSS intro, RSS syntax, RSS generation, RSS to HTML
• An introduction to RSS news feeds James Lewin, November, 2000, Covers: RSS syntax, RSS parsing
• Create RSS channels from HTML news sites, Chris Ball. November 15, 2001 Covers: Brief RSS intro, RSS generation, screen scraping and XML::RSS
• Parsing RSS Files with XML::RSS, Derek Vadala, August, 2002, Covers: RSS syntax, RSS parsing, RSS to HTML

Good luck!


--
ajt

[Steve_p]

The simplest way is to use the XML::RSS module. There is actually a good example for using it at Randal Schwartz's site.

[jasonk]

If by "better ways" you mean "ways that actually work", check out the LWP::UserAgent and LWP::Simple modules.