RSS Feeds for TP?

[QueenTiye]

In another thread rbh offered this advice:

    Here is what I use to display my RSS feeds, http://www.rss2html.com/ . You can customize to fit your forums rather easily and it displays them nicely. You can see it in action and how I use it on a site I am presently working on. http://thestegmanfamily.com/forum/

    The feeds are in a block on the left using drop down menus and they load in a center block using iframes.

I need to know how to use this (or features like it)?  Do I create a block? How? What kind of block? How many blocks do I need to have multiple feeds? etc.?

Keep in mind that I am not at all tech-savvy - please be patient in your explanations!

QT

[IchBin]

After you go through their setup instructions, they should give you a link of some kind or something. You should be able to put that link into a RSS or PHP block depending on what type of link they give you.

[QueenTiye]

Oh! Wait... there's an RSS block? What does it do? Where do I find it? Inquiring minds want to know! LOL! 

Um.  OK - here are the options:

Option 1
Display RSS on RSS2HTML

4 Simple Steps to Display RSS feeds on RSS2THML

1. select a layout

2. select a color scheme

3. enter url of RSS feed

4. add the generated url to your website to display RSS.

or

Option 2
Download free RSS2HTML script

Want to host RSS2HTML on your server?

The script is available for FREE download.

By downloading the script you can create templates and customize the layout of the feed imbedding it into an existing websites style.

Allows you to retain complete control over how and where you RSS feed is displayed

I feel like I should understand those two options but I really don't.  In the first, I gather that I drop the feed url into their script and it spits out some code for me to copy and paste. Yes?  The second option does ... what exactly?  And - which option works best with the TP RSS Block?

QT

[IchBin]

You will only find out if you try it queen. You really just need to take the leap and try it out. When you get stuck with what ever you're trying then post what you have. I know its scarey, but you can do it!!

Just try one of the options and see where it takes you.

[QueenTiye]

Hah! IchBin, thank you very much.  However I did say I was tech-UNsavvy, didn't I?

I found the  RSS feed box, plunked in the code using option 1, and got the following error message:

XML error: not well-formed (invalid token) at line 6

This happy error - prevents the rest of the page from loading.  I originally set it to open in one of the forums - the entire forum (but not the child forum) disappears.  I switched it to the home page (not yet clear on how to do both..) and got... no home page!   so I deactivated the box, and now all is well. 

Here is the script I attempted to use:

http://www.rss2html.com/rss2html.php?TEMPLATE=template-1-5-1.htm&XMLFILE=http://feeds.bahai.us/usbahainews

QT

[IchBin]

Looks to be the fault of the rss2html script. I put the RSS feed in a block http://feeds.bahai.us/usbahainews and it works fine.

[QueenTiye]

OK - off to try that...

YAY! It worked! Ok - more questions.  Anyway to limit how many show, so I can have more than one feed? I also want a live science feed.

AND - does an RSS Feed box show images? Live Science does images of the day which I'd love to include...

QT

[IchBin]

The limiting option will have to be from a 3rd party (Like rsstohtml or something similar) software as TP doesn't do that. Only some RSS feeds show images.

[QueenTiye]

OK-that's a problem.  Any chance there is another tool? Or - can the RSS feed tool link go into a different kind of block? Is it not working because it is a feed of a feed?

QT

[IchBin]

Its not working because of something they have done with their software. There are other tools out there, however I don't use any. I would just search google for some I'm sure they're out there. Here's a couple to start with I think.
http://www.tinyportal.net/index.php?topic=14424.0