Using DOMIT! RSS

I’ve worked with DOMIT! because it’s part of the Mambo and Joomla CMS systems so I expected this to be a doddle. Sorry, it wasn’t. There were 2 undefined constants and one code defect which all took time to identify.

There is no doubt that the code in DOMIT! is far more exhaustive than that of Magpie but, really, you don’t need it if all you’re planning to do is parse an RSS onto a webpage.

To use DOMIT!

1. Visit the Engage Interactive site and download
   • DOMIT!
   • DOMIT! RSS

   and yes, you do need both.

2. Unzip the two packages into the same “domit” folder on your hard drive and then upload onto your site using FTP.
3. Decide which page you want to add the feed to and open the appropriate file in your favourite editor (mine is Zend).
4. Now you just have to add these lines to the file, save and upload![php]require_once(‘domit/xml_domit_rss_lite.php’);
   $rssdoc =& new xml_domit_rss_document_lite(‘http://www.propertyinvestor.info/articles/feed/’);

   //get number of channels
   $numChannels = $rssdoc->getChannelCount();

   //set up a loop to iterate through each channel
   for ($i = 0; $i < $numChannels; $i++) { //obtain a reference to the current channel $currChannel =& $rssdoc->getChannel($i);

   //echo link of channel
   $output = “

   “;
   }
   }
   $output .= “

   getLink() . “‘ title=\”{$title}\”>{$title}

   “;
   echo $output;[/php]

Changes

• php_text_cache.php, line 112, truthval should be $truthval
• php_http_exceptions.php, line 31, make this change[php]$GLOBALS[‘HTTP_Exception_mode’] = 1;
  //$GLOBALS[‘HTTP_Exception_mode’] = HTTP_ONERROR_RETURN;[/php]
• xml_domit_rss_shared.php, line 914, make this change[php]$GLOBALS[‘DOMIT_RSS_Exception_mode’] = 1;
  //$GLOBALS[‘DOMIT_RSS_Exception_mode’] = DOMIT_RSS_ONERROR_RETURN;[/php]