Importing Feeds
Zend_Feed enables developers to retrieve feeds very easily. If you
know the URI of a feed, simply use the
Zend_Feed::import() method:
You can also use Zend_Feed to fetch the contents of a feed from a
file or the contents of a PHP string variable:
In each of the examples above, an object of a class that extends
Zend_Feed_Abstract is returned upon success, depending on the type of
the feed. If an RSS feed were retrieved via one of the import methods
above, then a Zend_Feed_Rss object would be returned. On the other
hand, if an Atom feed were imported, then a Zend_Feed_Atom object is
returned. The import methods will also throw a Zend_Feed_Exception
object upon failure, such as an unreadable or malformed feed.
Custom feeds
Zend_Feed enables developers to create custom feeds very easily.
You just have to create an array and to import it with Zend_Feed.
This array can be imported with Zend_Feed::importArray() or
with Zend_Feed::importBuilder(). In this last case the array
will be computed on the fly by a custom data source implementing
Zend_Feed_Builder_Interface.
Importing a custom array
The format of the array must conform to this structure:
'title of the feed',
'link' => 'canonical url to the feed',
// optional
'lastUpdate' => 'timestamp of the update date',
'published' => 'timestamp of the publication date',
// required
'charset' => 'charset of the textual data',
// optional
'description' => 'short description of the feed',
'author' => 'author/publisher of the feed',
'email' => 'email of the author',
// optional, ignored if atom is used
'webmaster' => 'email address for person responsible '
. 'for technical issues',
// optional
'copyright' => 'copyright notice',
'image' => 'url to image',
'generator' => 'generator',
'language' => 'language the feed is written in',
// optional, ignored if atom is used
'ttl' => 'how long in minutes a feed can be cached '
. 'before refreshing',
'rating' => 'The PICS rating for the channel.',
// optional, ignored if atom is used
// a cloud to be notified of updates
'cloud' => array(
// required
'domain' => 'domain of the cloud, e.g. rpc.sys.com',
// optional, defaults to 80
'port' => 'port to connect to',
// required
'path' => 'path of the cloud, e.g. /RPC2',
'registerProcedure' => 'procedure to call, e.g. myCloud.rssPlsNotify',
'protocol' => 'protocol to use, e.g. soap or xml-rpc'
),
// optional, ignored if atom is used
// a text input box that can be displayed with the feed
'textInput' => array(
// required
'title' => 'label of the Submit button in the text input area',
'description' => 'explains the text input area',
'name' => 'the name of the text object in the text input area',
'link' => 'URL of the CGI script processing text input requests'
),
// optional, ignored if atom is used
// Hint telling aggregators which hours they can skip
'skipHours' => array(
// up to 24 rows whose value is a number between 0 and 23
// e.g 13 (1pm)
'hour in 24 format'
),
// optional, ignored if atom is used
// Hint telling aggregators which days they can skip
'skipDays ' => array(
// up to 7 rows whose value is
// Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday
// e.g Monday
'a day to skip'
),
// optional, ignored if atom is used
// Itunes extension data
'itunes' => array(
// optional, default to the main author value
'author' => 'Artist column',
// optional, default to the main author value
// Owner of the podcast
'owner' => array(
'name' => 'name of the owner',
'email' => 'email of the owner'
),
// optional, default to the main image value
'image' => 'album/podcast art',
// optional, default to the main description value
'subtitle' => 'short description',
'summary' => 'longer description',
// optional
'block' => 'Prevent an episode from appearing (yes|no)',
// required, Category column and in iTunes Music Store Browse
'category' => array(
// up to 3 rows
array(
// required
'main' => 'main category',
// optional
'sub' => 'sub category'
)
),
// optional
'explicit' => 'parental advisory graphic (yes|no|clean)',
'keywords' => 'a comma separated list of 12 keywords maximum',
'new-feed-url' => 'used to inform iTunes of new feed URL location'
),
'entries' => array(
array(
//required
'title' => 'title of the feed entry',
'link' => 'url to a feed entry',
// required, only text, no html
'description' => 'short version of a feed entry',
// optional
'guid' => 'id of the article, '
. 'if not given link value will used',
// optional, can contain html
'content' => 'long version',
// optional
'lastUpdate' => 'timestamp of the publication date',
'comments' => 'comments page of the feed entry',
'commentRss' => 'the feed url of the associated comments',
// optional, original source of the feed entry
'source' => array(
// required
'title' => 'title of the original source',
'url' => 'url of the original source'
),
// optional, list of the attached categories
'category' => array(
array(
// required
'term' => 'first category label',
// optional
'scheme' => 'url that identifies a categorization scheme'
),
array(
// data for the second category and so on
)
),
// optional, list of the enclosures of the feed entry
'enclosure' => array(
array(
// required
'url' => 'url of the linked enclosure',
// optional
'type' => 'mime type of the enclosure',
'length' => 'length of the linked content in octets'
),
array(
//data for the second enclosure and so on
)
)
),
array(
//data for the second entry and so on
)
)
);
]]>
References:
RSS 2.0 specification: RSS 2.0
Atom specification: RFC 4287
WFW specification: Well
Formed Web
iTunes specification: iTunes
Technical Specifications
Importing a custom data source
You can create a Zeed_Feed instance from any data source
implementing Zend_Feed_Builder_Interface. You just have to
implement the getHeader() and
getEntries() methods to be able to use your object with
Zend_Feed::importBuilder(). As a simple reference
implementation, you can use Zend_Feed_Builder, which takes
an array in its constructor, performs some minor validation, and then can be used
in the importBuilder() method. The
getHeader() method must return an instance of
Zend_Feed_Builder_Header, and
getEntries() must return an array of
Zend_Feed_Builder_Entry instances.
Zend_Feed_Builder serves as a concrete implementation to
demonstrate the usage. Users are encouraged to make their own classes to
implement Zend_Feed_Builder_Interface.
Here is an example of Zend_Feed::importBuilder() usage:
Dumping the contents of a feed
To dump the contents of a Zend_Feed_Abstract instance, you
may use send() or saveXml()
methods.
saveXML();
// send http headers and dump the feed
$feed->send();
]]>