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External Blogs

  • I’ve been watching BuddyPress since it was announced, and was hoping to use it for my site (Blogs.ca), but it is lacking the one feature that I need.

    Basically the ability for a user to add an existing external blog to their profile, and the corresponding RSS feed. The posts from the external blog would show up in their profile. If they were part of a group, say “Politics” the group would have a merged aggregate feed of all the member’s blogs.

    Wishful thinking, or on the horizon?

Viewing 25 replies - 51 through 75 (of 77 total)

  • David
    Participant

    @educartis

    This plugin will give to buddypress a lot of benefits,. so Nicole thanks for yor hard job…


    jfcarter
    Participant

    @jfcarter

    Are there any updates on this plugin? If Nicola’s too busy, perhaps a few other people should take a look at it.


    Jeff Sayre
    Participant

    @jeffsayre

    Jessica-

    I know that Nicola is currently in the US studying English. He is checking messages (once in awhile) but obviously very busy focusing on his primary task. The best route to contact him is either via PM using BP, or through his bp-dev website.


    nicolagreco
    Participant

    @nicolagreco

    Hi guys the code is 70% completed, you know i’m in NYC so i can’t develope a lot, but anyway i stopped my development because External blogs will be built-in in next bp versions as the roadmap says..

    i’ll share the code but is better to wait the builtin plugin


    Kunal17
    Participant

    @kunal17

    Hmm..while the external posts plugin gets implemented, can anyone recommend a way of displaying an rss feed in user or group profiles? Thanks.


    peterverkooijen
    Participant

    @peterverkooijen

    Here’s the code I use in the current version of my site – Kunal17 asked about it:

    // Include the SimplePie library
    require_once 'simplepie.inc';
    require_once 'shorten.php';

    // Because we're using multiple feeds, let's just set the headers here.
    header('Content-type:text/html; charset=utf-8');

    // These are the feeds we want to use
    mysql_connect(localhost,$db_username,$db_password);
    @mysql_select_db($db_name) or die( "Unable to select database");

    $query = "SELECT id, email, firstname, surname, rssfeed FROM members WHERE rssfeed != ''";
    $result = mysql_query($query);

    $feeds = array();
    $id_array = array();
    $first = array();
    $user = array();

    $userinfo = array();

    while ($cur_feed = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
    {
    $feeds[] = $cur_feed['rssfeed'];
    $userinfo[$cur_feed['rssfeed']] = $cur_feed;
    }

    // This array will hold the items we'll be grabbing.
    $first_items = array();

    // Let's go through the array, feed by feed, and store the items we want.
    $ix = 0;

    foreach ($feeds as $url)
    {
    $user_id = $id_array[$ix];
    $firstname = $first[$ix];
    $surname = $sur[$ix];
    $email = $user[$ix];
    $ix++;

    // Use the long syntax
    $feed = new SimplePie();
    $feed->set_feed_url($url);
    $feed->init();

    // How many items per feed should we try to grab?
    $items_per_feed = 1;

    // As long as we're not trying to grab more items than the feed has, go through them one by one and add them to the array.
    for ($x = 0; $x < $feed->get_item_quantity($items_per_feed); $x++)
    {
    $first_items[] = $feed->get_item($x);
    }

    // We're done with this feed, so let's release some memory.
    unset($feed);
    }

    // We need to sort the items by date with a user-defined sorting function. Since usort() won't accept "SimplePie::sort_items", we need to wrap it in a new function.
    function sort_items($a, $b)
    {
    return SimplePie::sort_items($a, $b);
    }

    // Now we can sort $first_items with our custom sorting function.
    usort($first_items, "sort_items");

    $counter=0;
    foreach($first_items as $item)
    {
    $feed = $item->get_feed();
    $info = $userinfo[$item->feed->feed_url];

    $counter++;
    if($counter >= 7)
    break;

    if ($img_size = @getimagesize('members/img/avatars/'.$info['id'].'.jpg'))
    $avatar_field = '<img src="members/img/avatars/'.$info['id'].'.jpg" alt="" />';
    else
    $avatar_field = '<img src="members/img/avatars/nopicture.png" alt="" />';

    $picture = '<div id="feedpicture"><a href="members/member.php?id='.$info['id'].'" title="'.$info['firstname'].'\'s Member Page">'.$avatar_field.'</a></div>';

    // Begin the (X)HTML page.
    ?>

    <h3><?php echo $picture; ?><a href="<?php echo $item->get_permalink(); ?>" target="_blank"><?php echo html_entity_decode($item->get_title(), ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8'); ?></a></h3>

    <!-- get_content() prefers full content over summaries -->
    <? echo trim(substr((str_replace("\n", ' ', str_replace("\r", ' ', strip_tags($item->get_description())))),0,300)); ?>
    ... <i>more</i></a><br />

    <p class="info"><a href="members/member.php?id=<?php echo $info['id']; ?>" title="<?php echo $info['firstname'].'\'s Member Page'; ?>"><?php echo $info['firstname'].' '.$info['surname']; ?></a> | <a href="<?php echo $feed->get_permalink(); ?>" target="_blank"><?php echo $feed->get_title(); ?></a> | <?php echo $item->get_date('M j, Y | g:i a'); ?></p>
    <br />

    <?php
    }
    ?>

    It shows the latest blog posts from members on a page, if they have an RSS feed in the database. It uses SimplePie. The code above is customized from regular SimplePie feed code. Member management in my current site is based on PunBB, not WordPress.

    I’d have no clue how to modify this code for Buddypress. Can’t figure out member management in Buddypress for starters, with x-profile vs wpmu and similar data stored in different places. It all looks kinda messy and inconsistent to me.

    Doubtful you should take this as starting point. I’ll wait for the integrated solution.


    Donnacha
    Participant

    @donnacha

    @Peterverkooijen – thanks for posting your code

    With regard to this thread as a whole, I would like to suggest that the moderators reconsider the practice of marking a feature request thread as resolved on the basis that someone says that they are going to make a plugin.

    If we accept that the function of such threads is to make the community of developers aware that that user demand for certain features exists, that function is undermined if it appears that the demand has been met. This thread was marked as resolved three month ago on the basis that Nicola had kindly volunteered to convert Phlux0r’s existing code into a plugin. Like most of us, Nicola overestimated the amount of time he had available and the work was not done. This would not be problem except that marking the request as resolved causes other developers to presume that the request has been resolved.

    I would like to suggest that moderators resist the temptation to mark threads as resolved before they have actually been resolved because, although it does give a good impression of progress, it leaves the actual need unaddressed, it leaves the request in limbo. It would be far better to leave it wide open and, even if someone says they have plans to write a plugin, encourage other developers to also apply themselves to the problem.

    Alternatively, create another label, possibly something such as “Allocated”, to signal that a plugin is being worked on but, if after a month there is no sign of actual progress, open it up again.


    Kunal17
    Participant

    @kunal17

    Thanks for sharing the code Peterverkooijen.


    Mariusooms
    Participant

    @mariusooms

    My and my colleague developed a plugin that enables groups to have a blog associated with them. It is not user specefic, but at least allows groups to have a broader functionality.

    It is in alpha stage and untested, so please do not use on a production server. It is our first bp plugin, so please be kind.

    bp-groupblog


    Kunal17
    Participant

    @kunal17

    Mariusooms,

    Thanks for working on this much required plugin. Does it allow you to associate external blogs as well as the ones within the current community?


    Mariusooms
    Participant

    @mariusooms

    No, it only allows integration of WPMU blogs.


    John James Jacoby
    Keymaster

    @johnjamesjacoby

    Back from the dead, looks like this topic has resparked some interest. I suspect this will be less of a BuddyPress thing and more of a WPMU thing as it comes down the pipeline.

    @Donnacha, looks like someone changed the status for you. Marking topics as resolved serves multiple purposes, and at that time it was fair to say development had begun and the request was resolved. Now that it’s not, it’s not. We’ll be sure to take your perpsective into account going forward though as it makes sense to approach feature requests like you suggest.


    peterverkooijen
    Participant

    @peterverkooijen

    “I suspect this will be less of a BuddyPress thing and more of a WPMU thing as it comes down the pipeline.”

    Does that mean Nicola Greco’s code – “70 percent done” – will not be integrated into a future Buddypress?

    Will Nicola Greco contribute the code to WPMU? Should we raise the issue at the WPMU forums?


    John James Jacoby
    Keymaster

    @johnjamesjacoby

    No one can answer on Nicola’s behalf, but it sounds like he’s abandoning development on this project to me, in lieu of it being a core feature eventually.

    This would work not unlike the way wordpress.com allows you to map your blog to another domain. I suspect that would basically end up being this, or vice versa? That being said, it sounds like a WPMU feature that would have a piggy back panel for BuddyPress to me.


    peterverkooijen
    Participant

    @peterverkooijen

    Was this functionality now part of the roadmap for Buddypress? Did Andy or other Buddypress developers get Nicola Greco’s code?

    I’ll bring this up on the WPMU forum as well.


    Mohit Kumar
    Participant

    @mohitkr05

    @ phuloxor Hey can i have the script that you used for flokka…to implement external blogs

    You can view the roadmap at https://buddypress.org/about/roadmap and find for yourself. As Jeff Sayre posted a couple of months back, if you have a question for Nicola, send him a message on this site.

    This post would be two or three months old and out-of-date if it hadn’t kept being bumped by people asking “is it out yet?”. I am tempted to close this thread.


    necati
    Participant

    @necati

    I don’t see why this should be out-of-date. It is obvious that there is an interest in this type of functionality. What is wrong for a thread to go over for months -if (since) it still generates interest?

    This isn’t a support question after all.


    John James Jacoby
    Keymaster

    @johnjamesjacoby

    Maybe the current discussion isn’t out of date, but the discussion and assumption that Nicola is developing this is.

    I can’t speak for DJPaul, but in the general clean-up that I do, I try to keep the conversations as focused on what is currently relevant as possible, to avoid confusion for newcomers and to let any old-schoolers know questions are being addressed.

    Does that make sense? I’m sure Paul will chime in and slap me with a trout if I’m wrong. :)


    peterverkooijen
    Participant

    @peterverkooijen

    Wouldn’t this plugin cover what we need?

    It seemlessly merges posts from an RSS feed with other posts in your blog. If there was a way to selectively offer this plugin to member blogs, that would solve it for me.

    And perhaps some integration with Buddypress account areas to make it more idiot-proof; a field where members can enter their RSS feed, without having to go into the plugin back-end.


    takuya
    Participant

    @takuya

    I’m using feedwordpress, but this requires users to create blogs.

    What I’m looking for is external blogs plugin which Andy wrote for groups. That is exactly what I want, and suppose what most of us on this discussion is looking for.


    peterverkooijen
    Participant

    @peterverkooijen

    If members don’t create blogs, where would those external blogs appear then? In the member profile page? Do you mean we can already use Andy’s external blogs plugin for that?

    Confused…


    takuya
    Participant

    @takuya

    External blog plugin is available for group only. Why don’t you try it youself?


    peterverkooijen
    Participant

    @peterverkooijen

    Why don’t you try it youself?

    Because I know it’s on the roadmap, I think for version 1.3 – and I’m not really a programmer.

    Maybe taking feedwordpress as starting point could save Andy and others some time?

    I’ll look into this myself when I upgrade to 1.1, which is going to be a mess with all the amateurish hacking I’ve done…


    r-a-y
    Keymaster

    @r-a-y

    Originally posted by Peter:

    If members don’t create blogs, where would those external blogs appear then?

    Probably the user’s activity feed. I’m not sure if the sitewide activity should account for external blog feeds, because this could potentially fill up the sitewide feed with unrelated external links.

Viewing 25 replies - 51 through 75 (of 77 total)
  • The topic ‘External Blogs’ is closed to new replies.
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