RSS - How do you make it work?

[centinel3]

I dowloaded the template, took a look at where the RSS Feed was and placed it in my browse.tpl.

It looks like this:

<a href="http://www.closeoutfloorsamples.com/external.php?cat=appliances"><img src="../images/rss.jpg" alt="Subscribe" /></a>{include file="categories/breadcrumb.tpl"}

{$promo}


The ting is though, the rss logo shows up in the template, though not in the browser. What I can't wrap my head around is how this one feeder icon placed on the browse.tpl knows which category was selected and which feed to publish. Right now I'm pretty sure it is only going to feed appliances. Now this is good when someone clicks on appliances, though when someone wants a feed of furniture, they're not going to get that, but rather appliances.

my head hurts.
chris

[centinel3]

I'm getting it now. So place the rss feed icon with the link to the external.php file and from there the feed is created.

Am I on the right track?

So is there anything I need to configure within the external.php script in order for it to feed the correct category, is it all set?

chris

[Eric Barnes]

Set your link up like this:
<a href="external.php?cat={$smarty.get.cat}">RSS</a>

[Lhotch]

your getting everything because you havent followed what we said abouve about appending the variable to the URL. So in essence your not specifying that it only show a certain category.

[centinel3]

I used this:

<a href="external.php?cat={$smarty.get.cat}">RSS</a>

AND IT'S WORKING!!!!!!!!!!

HORRRRAAAAYYYYY!!!!!! BEER FOR EVERYONE!!!!!!

HAHAHAAAAA!!!

Sorry for all the questions. I'm really not an idiot, though today I certainly felt like one. Holy Crap this feels good now though!!!!!

WhooooHoooo!!!!!!


Thank you for all your help!!! This was one of the biggies I had to implement on the site before launch..... Phew...

Thank you again .
Sincerely,
Chris

[Eric Barnes]

Chris,

That is great news. Now I just need to look up your address so we can all meet at the closet bar.

[centinel3]

I tell you what. When this site is up to snuff and trudge through the remaining modifications, with a little help, I'll send you beer money if you can't meet up.
I'm in Maine.

Chris

[seymourjames]

Another nice thing to do is put an RSS feed into listingsextra which is called by viewlistings. This way you can get a RSS feed for each seller (works nice if sellers post lots of items). Here is an example: Property In South West France.

<a href="feed://www.french-property-sale.eu/external.php?owner={$owner}">RSS feed from this seller</a>

[centinel3]

That's a great idea. I just implemented it into my website. Very nice function.

[seymourjames]

You are welcome - my advertisers like it because they feel happier about sharing the RSS feed of just their french properties which people can put onto the tool bar of their browser.

Something I am also working on is a random tag cloud of RSS feeds. Make that and share it about. I already put tag clouds of category links (a random list of categories) and search terms onto many pages. Helps to avoid duplicate pages and fills up empty ones which is always a problem. If you want the code let me know. Here is an example property in aquitaine. Hit the refresh a few times and watch the cloud change. I also change the footer every time with a cloud of conspicuous search terms.