Web Site Cookbook

6.8. Creating an RSS Feed from Database Content

Problem

You want to notify the world about updates on your web site with an RSS feed.

Figure 6-5. Three easy-to-use feed-parsing tools—Feed2JS, RSS-to-JavaScript, and CaRP—can reformat RSS feeds from other sites and display them on your site

Solution

Use a PHP script to get your web site content from a SQL database, format the records as valid RSS feed entries, and save the complete feed file to your web server.

First, define a connection to your SQL database:

	$dbName = "mydatabase";
	$conn = mysql_connect("dbhost","dbuser", "dbpassword") or die("Couldn't Connect.");
	$db = mysql_select_db($dbName, $conn) or die("Couldn't select database.");

Then define a function to generate the RSS code for individual items:

	function createItem ($title, $description, $link, $pubdate) {
	 $item  = "  <item>\n";
	 $item .= "   <title>".$title."</title>\n";
	 $item .= "   <description>".$description."</description>\n";
 	 $item .= "   <link>http://yourwebsite.com/".$link."</link>\n";
	 $item .= "   <pubDate>".$pubdate."</pubDate>\n";
	 $item .= "   </item>\n";
	return $item;
	}

To save the feed file on your web server, define the full server path to the file in the variable $feedfile:

	$feedfile = "/full/path/to/rss.xml";

Warning

Your web server must have write privileges for the directory the feed file will be saved in.

Also, define a variable for a properly formatted last-modified timestamp ...