Integrating Content from External Sources with RSS, PHP, and JavaScript Chris Gilligan University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Integrating Content from External Sources
with RSS, PHP, and JavaScript
Chris Gilligan University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Companion Blog Post • Code Samples • Explanations • utc.edu/outc16
Content from WordPress via RSS
• WordPress RSS – Categories, Tags and Search strings – Images, Media attachments
• Media attachments and customized template require some additional tweaks
PHP files and OU Assets
• Parse feed and display HTML – “heavy lifting” “dev side”
• Variables set to defaults for testing – verify feed access and XML structure
• Files for various types of display html • Files for various sources of RSS
PHP files and OU Assets • Simple structure, “user friendly” • Specify RSS source • Limit number of posts to display
More Speed • cache RSS feeds via WordPress plugin,
e.g. W3 Total Cache – cron job to fetch feeds to local server
• minimize external requests – faster page load
Event Calendar RSS feeds from Master Calendar via RSS
Somewhat limited in terms of data, unless you build landing page
Content from WordPress via RSS
• WordPress provides some RSS • RSS from categories, tags and search
strings • media attachments and a customized
template require some additonal tweaks
Social Media Streams • jQuery plugin and PHP to pull in social
media posts for the university account, as well as for individual departments and colleges.
• $8 jQuery Social Stream (Code Canyon) – “What you pay for vs. what you work for”
Blog Post Links, Examples, Code Samples
utc.edu/outc16
Chris Gilligan University of Tennessee at Chattanooga