Retrieve Contents from RSS

This is very advanced features when you want to show the list of Article's Titles from one of another blog or a different blog that you want to share with your blog readers.

You can able to retrieve the basic contents as title, link, description, date, summary etc in a list format. For doing such, you need to install "MAGPIE" plugin with your current Expression Engine.

Installation Steps:-

1. Download MAGPIE first.
2. Extract the downloaded zip file.
3. Copy the pi.magpie.php inside EE System folder through any common FTP program.
4. Login to your active EE Admin area.
5. Create a new template and name accordingly.
6. Type the following code there :-

{exp:magpie url="http://example.com/rss/" limit="10" refresh="720"}<ul>{items}<li><a href="{link}">{title}</a></li>{/items}</ul>{/exp:magpie}

7. Save the Template and run to see how it fetch records from any available RSS feed.

The tag has three parameters:

1. url - The URL of the RSS or Atom feed.

2. limit - Number of items to display from feed.

3. offset - Skip a certain number of items in the display of the feed.

4. refresh - How often to refresh the cache file (in minutes). The plugin default is to refresh the cached file every three hours.

Example opening tag: {exp:magpie url="http://example.com/rss/" limit="8" refresh="720"}

Tags in ExpressionEngine

The Tag Module allows you and your users to add Tags to weblog and/or photo gallery entries for ExpressionEngine. It's a very powerful module that allows you to create several different features in your templates using robust functions. You can show Tags that belong to an entry, view all entries that are Tagged with a specified Tag, show related entries based on shared Tags, and build a Tag "Cloud" to show and weigh all Tags in system. Additionally, your members can also subscribe to Tags, and view entries based on Tags they've subscribed to.

If you already have a Tagging system where Tags are placed into a custom field, or if you've manipulated the Tag "feel" by assigning your entries to several EE categories, the Tag module can easily transition your website. Using the built in Harvesting utility, you can easily harvest this data, and it will automatically convert all into Tags and apply them to your entries.

The Tag module adds a clean, robust AJAX tab to your Publish/Edit Entry page in the CP where you can easily add Tags, search for Tags, or scan your custom fields for Tags using the "Suggest" function.

NOTE: Tag requires ExpressionEngine 1.6.x, MySQL 4.1+, and the jQuery for the CP extension.

Following code is for showing tags related for a single entry:-

<br />{exp:weblog:entries weblog="articles|demography" status="not closed" limit="1" rdf="off"}<br /><p><font color="#006683"><b>{title}</b></font></p><br /><p>{author_name} | {entry_date format="%j %M %Y"} | {comment_total}</p><br /><p>tags : {exp:tag:tags entry_id="{entry_id}" backspace="2"}<a href="{path='tags/tag'}{websafe_tag}" title="{tag}">{tag}</a>, {/exp:tag:tags}</p><br /><div>{body}</div><br />{/exp:weblog:entries}<br />

Tag cloud :-

The Tag:Cloud function creates a "cloud" or list of all Tags in the database, but can be filtered down to specific weblogs, categories, and more. Furthermore, the Tag:Cloud function is able to "weigh" your Tags through different methods, such as how many entries are assigned to them, or how many times they've been clicked.

To help you understand the weighting system, using rank by "entries" that have been assigned that Tag, here is an explanation:

The number of times the highest ranked Tag is used establishes the top of the scale with 0 as the bottom. You can specify the number of groups into which your Tags will be sorted. Each of your Tags will be evaluated as to which group they belong in. They will be given a numerical ranking based on this.

For example, imagine you have 3 Tags on your site; "apple", "orange" and "microsoft". You specify that you want to show a cloud with 3 groups. If "apple" is used 12 times, "orange" 7, and "microsoft" 1, the top of your scale will be 12. "apple" will get the highest rank and the largest font size. "microsoft" will get the smallest ranking and font size. "orange" will get the middle font because it falls into the middle grouping. The range for falling into the lowest group would be 0-4. For the middle, 5-8. And for the top, 9-12. Use following code:-

<br />{exp:tag:cloud weblog="articles" limit="100" groups="10" sort="asc" orderby="tag_name" rank_by="entries" step="1" start="9"}<br /><a href="{path='tags/tag'}{websafe_tag}" title="{tag}" style="font-size:{step}px;">{tag}</a>, <br />{/exp:tag:cloud}<br />

List of Entries for Each Tag :-

<br /><h1>{exp:tag:tag_name}</h1><br />{exp:tag:entries inclusive="yes" weblog="articles" status="not closed|editing" orderby="entry_date" sort="desc" limit="20" paginate="bottom"}<br /><hr/><br /><a href="{title_permalink=articles/view}"><h3>{title}</h3></a><br /><h5>{if author_name}{author_name} | {/if}{entry_date format="%d %F %Y"}</h5><br /><h5>{if archives}{archives}{/if}</h5><br />{paginate}<p class="paginator">Page {current_page} of {total_pages} : {pagination_links}</p>{/paginate}<br />{/exp:tag:entries}<br />

List of Articles for each author in ExpressionEngine

Below blog will describe the process to make a new page for article-list of each author. In the article list page OR article details page make a link from "Author Name" of that article with this new template/page. It will show you the list of articles published by that author. It will very useful for such blogging or news site, those have multiple authors and want to create such type of page.

There will be 2 templates for such, one will search the Article titles as per Author name and other will just embed that template and show in a decent manner.

Author Page:-
This template will show the list of articles of each author. Prepare the page-design as per your need and place the following type of of code in the body area OR where you want to show the list:-

{exp:weblog:entries weblog="weblog1|weblog2|weblog3" rdf="off" status="not closed|editing" limit="1" disable="categories|member_data|trackbacks" paginate="bottom" dynamic="on"<h1>{author_name}</h1><? $author = str_replace("'", "\'", "{author_name}"); ?>{embed=templategroup/author_query author="<? echo $author; ?>"}{/exp:weblog:entries}

Query Page:-
Following template is mainly responsible for searching the articles as per the author name from the database and prepare the list:-
{exp:query limit="12" paginate="bottom" sql="SELECT w.blog_name, t.title, t.url_title, t.entry_date, t.entry_id, d.field_id_12, d.entry_id, d.field_id_85 FROM exp_weblogs AS w, exp_weblog_titles AS t, exp_weblog_data AS d WHERE w.weblog_id = t.weblog_id AND t.entry_id = d.entry_id AND t.entry_date < field_id_12 =" '{embed:author}'" weblog_id ="4" weblog_id ="5" weblog_id ="7"><ul><hr/><a href="{path={blog_name}/view/{url_title}}" class="features1"><h3>{title}</h3></a><h5>{if field_id_12}{field_id_12} | {/if}{entry_date format="%j %M %Y"}</h5><h5>{field_id_85}</h5></ul>{paginate}Page {current_page} of {total_pages} : {pagination_links}{/paginate}{/exp:query}

Article List or View page Update :-
Just put the below type link from the Article author name with the Author page template as follows:-

{exp:weblog:entries weblog="weblog1|weblog2" status="open|not closed" limit="10" rdf="off" disable="categories|member_data|pagination|trackbacks"}<input type="hidden" name="au" value="{author_name}">{if thumbnail}<img src="{thumbnail}" alt="thumbnail" />{/if}<a href="{title_permalink=weblog1/view}"><h1>{title}</h1></a><p class="links"><a class="navLink" href="{title_permalink=sections/author_page}">{author_name}</a> | {entry_date format="%j %M %Y"}{if comment_total} | <img src="{imageurl}comments.gif" alt="comment" border="0" /> {comment_total}{/if}</p>{body}<hr/>{/exp:weblog:entries}


If you face any difficulty to integrate these code, feel free to put comments here. We will try to fix the problem.

Including YouTube videos & image and how they should be displayed in the EE Articles

Task Details :-

The editor can insert youtube videos by the following procedure:

• Includes in the text of the article the following tag: {YOUTUBE_VIDEO_MIDDLE}
• Enter the identifier in the custom field “youtube”
• Enter the alignment in the custom field “youtube_align”.

There are two problems related to the insertion of youtube videos:

• If the editor enters a youtube video, but also an image, the re-sizing of the image is not working as it should in the permalink.
• If the user enters a you-tube video in place of the image (i.e. on the top-left), it is not being displayed of the appropriate size in the Artcle List page.

Action desired:
• If a youtube video is inserted in the middle of the article (not on the top-left) and an image is inserted in the right usual place (top-left):
o The size of the image should be height 90px (for Article List page) and height 200px (for permalink).
o The size of the video in the permalink should be 230px width.
• If a youtube video is inserted at the top-left instead of an image:
o The video’s height in the Article List page should be 90px.
o The video’s width in the permalink should be 230px.

YouTube Template:-

<object width="{embed:youtube_width}" height="{embed:youtube_height}" align="{embed:youtube_align}"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/{embed:youtube}"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/{embed:youtube}" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="{embed:youtube_width}" height="{embed:youtube_height}" align="{embed:youtube_align}"></embed></object>

Article List Page:-

{exp:weblog:entries weblog="weblog name" status="open|not closed" limit="10"}<br /><a href="{permalink=">{title}</a><br/>{entry_date format="%D, %j %M %Y"} | {comment_total}<br/><br />{exp:word_limit total="100"}{if youtube != ''}{if youtube_align=="center"}{exp:replace find="sizIH|YOUTUBE_VIDEO_MIDDLE" replace="90|embed='site/youtube_tmpl' youtube='{youtube}' youtube_height='90' youtube_align='left'" multiple="yes"}{body}{/exp:replace}{/if}{if youtube_align!="center"}{embed="site/youtube_tmpl" youtube="{youtube}" youtube_height="90" youtube_align="{youtube_align}"}{exp:replace find="sizIH" replace="90" regex="yes"}{body}{/exp:replace}{/if}{if:else}{exp:replace find="sizIH" replace="90" regex="yes"}{body}{/exp:replace}{/if}{/exp:word_limit}<br/> <br /><br />{paginate} Page {current_page} of {total_pages} pages {pagination_links} {/paginate}{/exp:weblog:entries}

Permalink Page :-

{exp:weblog:entries weblog="weblog_name" status="open|editing"}{if youtube != ''}{if youtube_align=="center"}{exp:replace find="sizIH|YOUTUBE_VIDEO_MIDDLE" replace="200|embed='site/youtube_tmpl' youtube='{youtube}' youtube_width='230' youtube_height='190' youtube_align='left'" multiple="yes"}{body}{/exp:replace}{/if}{if youtube_align!="center"}<br /><br />{embed="site/youtube_tmpl" youtube="{youtube}" youtube_width="230" youtube_height="190" youtube_align="{youtube_align}"}{exp:replace find="sizIH" replace="200" regex="yes"}{body}{/exp:replace}{/if}{if:else}{exp:replace find="sizIH" replace="200" regex="yes"}{body}{/exp:replace}{/if}{/exp:weblog:entries}

Including a YouTube video in ExpressionEngine articles

Following blogs are details of including a YouTube video in articles of EE. The video should be displayed instead of the usual image, i.e. on the top left of the article OR any other position where you want to set.

References
http://expressionengine.com/wiki/Embedding_YouTube_movies/
http://expressionengine.com/wiki/Embedding_YouTube_Movies_w_Reusable_Template/

This is the template used to display the articles in the following format:

















We have to update this as follows with following features:-


• Width of 230px.
• Height proportional as per usual proportions of YouTube videos.
• The text should appear around the video, as shown in the image above.






Solution :-
1. We first include a new field as "Video_Name" for the weblog to enter the YouTube Video link.
2. Prepare a Blog with a youtube video link such as http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T70xKdjuK8A
3. Save the blog.
4. Open the template who is responsible to show the article details.
5. Use this following code:-

{exp:weblog:entries weblog="bioedge" paginate="bottom" status="editor choice|front page|open|editing"}<br /><h2>{title}</h2><br /><a class="navLink" href="#comments"> {comment_total}</a> | <a class="navLink" href="{permalink=bioethics/email_article}">Email</a> | <a class="navLink" href="javascript:window.print();">Print </a> <br /><div class="editor_artilce_full"><br /><h5>{entry_date format="%D, %j %M %Y"}</h5><br />{if youtube != ""}<br /><object width="230" height="230" align="left"><br /><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/{youtube}"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/{youtube}" width="230" height="230" align="left" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent"></embed></object>{/if}{body}</div>{/exp:weblog:entries}