New version RSSReader plugin

[HenkH]

I've released a new version of the RSSReader Plugin, with many enhancements over the previous one: http://www.bladerhq.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph.../RssReader

The main features are:
* Support for RSS version 0.91, 1.0 and 2.0
* Support for image feeds (e.g. the Dilbert Comic feed)
* Images can be enlarged
* Easy navigation between the items in a feed
* Feeds can be configured from within the Config application
* One feed can be shown as a 'Ticker' on the main menu
* Screen layout can be completely changed in the skins.
* All HTML formatting is stripped from the feed.

Change history:
* Complete rewrite of the fetching/processing of the RSS feed
* Removed filters, use automatic character translation instead
* List of feeds in program is in same order as in newsfeeds.xml
* Support for 'image-feeds' (such as the Daily comics)
* Extended support for Arrows (and other navigation keys).
* Better use of skins (I hope)
* Zoom-function for images (like in the Comics2 plugin)
* Configuration-dialog for config application
* Panel interface, so it acts like a Ticker'
* Automatic reload of a complete feed

Some screenshots:

[bgowland]

Hi HenkH,

I tried the following feed...

http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/NetgearMP101Group/rss

I can see the subjects of the messages but when I open one to read it I only get the first line - it seems to be picking up about 80 characters (roughly) of text and then not showing the rest.

Any ideas?
Cheers,
Brian

[HenkH]

The one line is all you get from this feed! The plugin downloads a XML file and basically shows whats in there. It doesn't follow links (except for simple image links).
For example the mentioned feed contains this information for one item:
<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE"><item>
<title>Best method to play server streams on a PC?</title>
  <pubDate>Mon, 21 Mar 2005 20:43:35 GMT</pubDate>
  <author>jet_franson</author>
  <link>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NetgearMP101Group/message/2486</link>
  <guid isPermaLink="true">http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NetgearMP101Group/message/2486</guid>
  <description>Hi, Just curious... I play my Twonky streams through Windows Media Player on my</description>
</item>[/QUOTE]

[HenkH]

I've updated the plugin for some small bug fixes:

3/23/2005 v.4.1 (HenkH)
* Menu button on MediaMVP remote now exits the plugin
* Fixed bug with PageDown key in short lists

[bgowland]

Quote[/b] (HenkH @ Mar. 22 2005,02:56)]For example the mentioned feed contains this information for one item:
<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE"><item>
<title>Best method to play server streams on a PC?</title>
     <pubDate>Mon, 21 Mar 2005 20:43:35 GMT</pubDate>
     <author>jet_franson</author>
     <link>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NetgearMP101Group/message/2486</link>
     <guid isPermaLink="true">http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NetgearMP101Group/message/2486</guid>
     <description>Hi, Just curious... I play my Twonky streams through Windows Media Player on my</description>
</item>

[/QUOTE]
OK - I get it now.

So in the case of the Yahoo Groups RSS feed, &lt;title&gt;&lt;/title&gt; obviously is the Subject of the post and &lt;description&gt;&lt;/description&gt; is the first line of the 'message body' (a bit like auto-preview on some email clients) and it's the &lt;link&gt;&lt;/link&gt; section which points to the full message in the post.

Do you have any plans to extend the plugin to follow links?

Cheers,
Brian

[bouchecl]

Kudos to you Henk.

I've just installed the new plugin and it works much better than an older one I picked up a few days ago. BTW, have you done something with the support for accented characters? They used to be garbled and now they are just fine. Works great with the feeds from Le 'Monde', 'Libération' and 'Radio-Canada'.

Great plug-in.

[HenkH]

Quote[/b] (bgowland @ Mar. 23 2005,02:48)]Do you have any plans to extend the plugin to follow links?

I have some ideas, but they are still in a prelimanary stage.

[HenkH]

Quote[/b] (bouchecl @ Mar. 23 2005,06:29)]Kudos to you Henk.

I've just installed the new plugin and it works much better than an older one I picked up a few days ago. BTW, have you done something with the support for accented characters? They used to be garbled and now they are just fine. Works great with the feeds from Le 'Monde', 'Libération' and 'Radio-Canada'.

Great plug-in.

Thanks for your appreciation!

I've build in a translation table between the special/accented characters and their windows equivalent. I don't think it will work for non-western character sets (Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Greek etc.).

[HenkH]

This RSS2 from the new forum didn't completely work with the plugin, so I updated it (again...):

3/25/2005 v.4.2
- Added support for the new GB-PVR forum feed
- Fixed crash on feed without items

[reven]

with the new version the text still gets cut off. i have to keep editing the source and changing that value to 0 to fix it.


heres my news.xml panel file

Code:

<settings>
    <!-- text style -->
    <TextStyles>
        <TextStyle name="FeedText" color="Black" typeFace="Tahoma" size="13" style="bold"/>
        <TextStyle name="TitleText" color="White" typeFace="Tahoma" size="13" style="bold"/>        
    </TextStyles>
    <!-- Composite Images -->    
    <CompositeImages>
        <!-- News-->
        <CompositeImage name="Background" size="852,40">            
            <DrawRoundedRect loc="5,5" size="852,30" radius="1" borderWidth="0" borderColor="Transparent" fillColor="Transparent"/>
        </CompositeImage>                                        
    </CompositeImages>    
    <Custom>
        <!-- Number of pixels ticker advances at each refresh -->
        <CustomElement name="Speed" value="2"/>
        <!-- Time in seconds between refresh -->
        <CustomElement name="Interval" value="150"/>
        <!-- Seperator between items in the ticker -->
        <CustomElement name="Separator" value=" | "/>
    </Custom>            
    <!-- special elements -->
    <SpecialElements>
        <SpecialElement name="NewsPanel" loc="0,0" size="852,40"/>
    </SpecialElements>    
</settings>

and heres the special element in the main menu skin.xml file

Code:

<SpecialElement name="Panel" panelName="News" visible="true" transparency="1" loc="0,427" size="852,40"/>