Jean-Philippe Doyle (j15e)

How to deal with multiple dynamic RSS feeds?

I used 2 objects to manage my RSS, one to store them (component) and one to help displaying them (helper).

1. Create a component to manage them
2. Create an helper to display them (meta-tags and HTML links)

Component

Let's create a simple component that will allow us to add RSS within our controllers.

class FeedsListComponent extends Object {

    private $feeds = array();

    function startup() {
    }

    function add($title,$url,$link=true) {
       $this->feeds[] = array($title,$url,$link);
    }

    function feeds() {
       return $this->feeds;
    }
}

Exemple of usage :

$this->FeedsList->add('All news','/news/.rss');
$this->FeedsList->add('Canada news','/news/canada.rss');

The third argument is optional and specify whether or not the link should be automatically listed on the page.

Now you may either

• Add feeds that should display on all pages (general ones) directly in the app controller feeds
• Add feeds that you wish to display in specific controllers / actions in those

You may add the FeedsList component in the app controller so you can access it from all controllers.

Helper

An helpter will help display feeds metas and html links.

class FeedsListHelper extends AppHelper {

    var $helpers = array('Html');

    function metas($feeds){
        $meta='';
        foreach($feeds as $feed)
            $meta .= $this->Html->meta('rss', $feed[1], array('title' => $feed[0]));
        return $meta;
    }

    function links($feeds){
        $links='';
        foreach($feeds as $feed) if($feed[2]) $links .= '
            <div class="rssFeed"">
            <a href="'.$feed[1].'" title="'.$feed[0].'">
            <img src="/img/feed-icon-14x14.png" alt="'.$feed[0].'" /></a>
            <a href="'.$feed[1].'" title="'.$feed[0].'">'.$feed[0].'</a>
            </div>';
        return $links;
    }
}

View

You can then use the 2 helper's functions in your layout/views, providing the FeedList array :

echo $feedList->metas($feeds);
echo $feedList->links($feeds);

or directly writing a feed title and url :

echo $feedList->links(array(array('All news','/news.rss',true)));