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Originally Posted by thecarsales
John
Does this system work similar to csv feeds?
This is something i am desparate to set up myself.
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The file external.php is a script that reads through the database and pulls out pertinent information. It wraps the fields in XML tags which are much like html tags except the specific tags used follow the RSS feed guidlines in thier naming conventions and locations.
If people point to that file on your server they will get an RSS (ie specially formatted xml output) which they can in turn use how ever they like.
In a sense its like a csv feed. A CSV file is simply a predefined set of fields containing varying data. Each field is surrounded by double quotes usually (this can vary) and is seperated by a comma.
The main difference between a CSV file and an RSS file is that in the RSS file the fields are all defined in the tags that surround the data. For example, a CSV file may look like this...
"my ad title","this is my short description",15000,"here is my full ad description"
where as the same info above in an RSS file would looke more like this(not a very accurate example but its just to help get the point across).
<title>my ad title</title>
<shortdescription>this is my short description<shortdescription>
<price>15000</price>
<fulldescription>here is my full ad description<fulldescription>
Those are just rough examples and the RSS feed would contain additional info regarding where its from timestamps etc etc.