Using PHP to Parse external RSS file.

I have written a basic script to parse RSS, at the moment it parses a external twitter RSS:
PHP:

  



 and
 functions

print "
\n"; foreach ($twitterxml->channel->item as $twitteritem) {     print "
$twitteritem->title
\n"; } print "
";



?>

HTML Produced, putting the twitter feed into a list, this can not be customized using CSS styles:

  



ches_cat: about to go off to uni... time for some film philosophy
ches_cat: is about to get started on this essssayyyyyyyyy!
ches_cat: yooooo
ches_cat: also sopranos what an awesome show! where has it been all my life?
ches_cat: is about to sleep

lots to think about - dissertation, my web project and a philosophy exam! But was happy to get a 69 for his exam!!
ches_cat: yo
ches_cat: hello
ches_cat: hi
ches_cat: i am sitting in the su with ant, marta and aggi
ches_cat: enjoyed misfits. whos the masked dude??
ches_cat: doesn't like gin anymore :'(
ches_cat: loved 'how to train your dragon' ace animation!
ches_cat: whos watching?
ches_cat: has just finished his second run of the week, a bit hard this time. getting cold.
ches_cat: is going to have a cup of tea with nem. woop.
ches_cat: is feeling a lot better. roll on game studies presentation.
ches_cat: is feeling ill :(
ches_cat: has just been on a run, feels energized!!!
ches_cat: is ready to start the week! still slightly hung-over though.
ches_cat: is hungovvvver

Next step is to interlink two RSS files, one twitter feed, and then one image.

Testing PHP Continued

Some of the functions I have been learning for loops, arrays, if statements:

What to do next: Parsing RSS/XML files through similiar functions as to bellow using variables from the RSS file:

= 0){
 echo "
counter is zero or greater
";
}
else{
 echo "
counter is less than zero
";
}
//this is a test for a loop, in whicch it adds one to the counter untill it reaches four
while($counter < 4){
 $counter=$counter+1;
 echo "
I now have $counter bits of paper
";
 if ($counter == 2){
  echo "
";
 }
}

//this is a test for displaying an image depending on the time, if after 6pm display a night image, if not display a day image 
if ($current_time >= 18){
 echo "
";
}
else{
 echo "
";
}
//printing an element in an array in this case $food
//echo $food[1];
//echo $food[$foodarraycounter];
while($foodarraycounter<4){
 //echo $food[$foodarraycounter];
 if($food[$foodarraycounter]=="soup"){
  //echo "working";
  echo "
";
 }
 // if the food array counter corresponds to orange print the image 
 if($food[$foodarraycounter]=="orange"){
  echo "
";
 }
 // this is the loop function in which it pluses one untill it reaches the parameters of the if statement and prints the corresponding image
 $foodarraycounter=$foodarraycounter+1;
}
  
?>

Getting the hang of PHP

At the moment reading a PHP beginners book to get familiar with the coding,

Simple things such as starting with <?php and ending with ?> - functions, print/echo, comments are useful and to indicate a comment use // or to block out a whole section of php /* SELECTION /*, as well as strings which are situated with 'hello' ...

Iframe GoogleMaps

Googlemaps displayed as an Iframe:

Update

I have managed to using a combination of PHP and CSS to display the RSS FEEDS in a Loop in Blocks, however I now need to figure out how I can seperate each element of the RSS Feed so for example display 1) Twitter Feed and 2) An Image, and so on, in which I can choose where to put these different individual elements on the page, rather than them being seperated into blocks and loops as is in the current PHP script as well as CSS layout

Also I need to find out a way to display all the co-ordinates of my GEORSS Feed as a map, and possibly display it as a background or a Iframe on the back of my website.

Here is the html document for the website displayed in the image above:

	
















			
This is the footer
		

	
	

Problems to resolve...

RSS Feed reader only displays the latest 5 feeds (and this is because the XML filed do not hold the entire history of the feed, but only the latest) - need to find how I can display more.

The GEO RSS feed is not compatible with the PHP RSS reader used at the moment - need to find a way to display this alongside the normal RSS Feeds.

As suggested bellow the problem is that the RSS Reader PHP code cannot proccess the feed.

GEORSS!

I have located the RSS for my location feed off blogloc, when I open up the XML file I am displayed with the following:

The XML Format Looks as follows:

  
  
  Powered by blogloc
  
    
    
    
      
    
    2010-11-14T18:17:40Z
    2010-11-14T18:17:40Z
    
<p>&quot;is back at home XD&quot;</p><p>Latitude: 51.4815691<br/>Longitude: -2.5269726<br/>Bristol, UK<br/>Updated at: 2010/11/14, 18:17 local time (GMT +0:00)<p><strong>Updated via Web</strong></p><p><img src="http://maps.google.com/staticmap?center=51.4815691,-2.5269726&zoom=12&size=160x120&markers=51.4815691,-2.5269726&key=ABQIAAAAhScxmuV3ybzUgUXK5Hrc6BTKuGVEvWvsT_m2CQTZIH6fKg8lshThBPnuBALSdRec6dW8KOGn_XZwtw" /><br/><a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=51.4815691,-2.5269726&z=12">View larger map...</a></p>
    2010-11-14T18:17:40Z
    51.4815691 -2.5269726
  

However when trying to parse it through the RSS reader it does not display - I need to find a way to be able to display it - this is probably because it has different elements such as <georss: point>