FAQ: phpBB ATOM feed

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wouterv
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Location: The Netherlands
Name: Wouter

FAQ: phpBB ATOM feed

Post by wouterv »

The contents of this first post can also be found as KB article 935.

What is this
This is a collection of things to know about the standard feed option as introduced in phpBB 3.0.7.
It replaces the FAQ: phpBB 3.0.6 ATOM feed.
Feel free to suggest corrections or textual enhancements.

phpBB 3.0.7
Many enhancements in the feed option compared to the initial release in phpBB 3.0.6.

phpBB 3.0.7-PL1
phpBB 3.0.7-PL1 fixed a security issue in the phpBB 3.0.7 ATOM feeds (Without logon, as Guest, the feed shows forum content where Guests have "No Access").

phpBB 3.0.8
There are no functional changes to the ATOM feed option in phpBB 3.0.8, only a minor bug fix, check the Changelog.

phpBB 3.0.9
There are no functional changes to the ATOM feed option in phpBB 3.0.9, only a few bug fixes, check the Changelog.

phpBB 3.0.10
There are no functional changes and no bug fixes to the ATOM feed option in phpBB 3.0.10.

phpBB 3.0.11
In phpBB 3.0.11 feeds are enabled by default (new installations only).

Feed format
The standard phpBB feed is ATOM format, NOT RSS, some feed readers may not be able to properly read the ATOM format. Although valid ATOM, it is quite unusual structured. There are no plans to add RSS format support with phpBB 3.x.

How to enable and where do I see it
To enable the feed in its basic form, go to: ACP>General>Feed settings
1)Set "Enable Feeds" to "Enabled".
2)Set "Enable board-wide feed" to "Enabled"
Leave all the rest default to start with and Submit the change.
If you return to the Board Index page, your browser should show a selectable feed icon near the address bar (examples of: Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 3.6) which will open the feed page.

Open feed by URL
An example feed URL for use in a browser that support feeds or in a feed reader is:
http://yoursite.xx/phpbb/feed.php
The actual URL (location of feed.php) depends on YOUR board installation.

Security, access rights and passworded
The feed will show forums according the user credentials, if you have not logged in to the board, the feed will use Guests rights. Once you have logged in, your browser will keep the credentials wich may be passed to the feed and show forums accordingly.
Contents of Passworded forums are not shown at all.

Feed options
Depending if feeds are enabled, what options are selected and what page of the board you are viewing:
a) the browser feed icon appears
b) one ore more different feeds can be selected from the feed icon pull-down menu
c) feeds can be selected by the URL with a "get" parameter
The different feed settings can be explained as follows (seeing the different feeds is understanding):

General feed settings
Enable feeds = General Enable or Disable any feed, feed type(s) to be further specified with oter settings.

Item statistics = Enable this to add the author, date and time of the post.

Allow HTTP Authentication = Enabe this to allows you to open the feed with the parameter auth=http
URL = feed.php?auth=http
This option allows you to issue user credentials (a user as registered in your phpBB board) for opening the feed. The feed will show contents according to the user permissions (e.g. show forum contents that is hidden to Guests).
Most feed readers have the option to specify a username and password in the feed properties.
If opened with a browser, you will get a Login dialog. Depending on the web browser version you may specify the user credentials in the URL, e.g.:
http://username:password@yoursite.xx/phpbb/feed.php?auth=http
Internet Explorer no longer allows to include user credentials in the URL (see Microsoft KB 834489), with Firefox you get a confirmation dialog.
See Microsoft KB 917125 for Outlook 2007 and authentication.
Some webservers need a modified .htaccess file as found in the root of your board installation, remove the # sign in front of these four lines:

Code: Select all

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization},L]
</IfModule>
Post-based feed Settings
Number of items = X (default 10).

Enable board-wide feed = Feed with X most recent posts from all topics in all forums.
URL = feed.php

Enable per-forum feeds = Feed with X most recent posts from all topics in the selected forum.
URL = feed.php?f=[ForumID]

Enable per-topic feeds = Feed with X most recent posts from the selected topic.
URL = feed.php?f=[ForumID]&t=[TopicID]

Topic-based feed settings
Number of items = Y (default 15).

Enable new topics feed = Board wide feed with the first post of Y most recent topics in all forums.
URL = feed.php?mode=topics

Enable active topics feed = Feed that shows Y last posts, not older then 7 days, for forums that have "Display active topics" enabled.
URL = feed.php?mode=topics_active
7 days = set in feed.php (can be changed by editing and install the modified feed.php file, refresh your browser cache):

Code: Select all

var $sort_days = 7;
News feed = Feed that shows first post of the topics in selected forums.
URL = feed.php?mode=news

Other feeds and settings:
Enable forums feed = Feed that shows a list of all forum titles (not the contents), excluded those forums you have no access to, but including passworded forums (not considered as bug).
URL = feed.php?mode=forums

Exclude these forums = Forums to exclude in any feed.

Enable feed icon with non-default style
If you use an other style then the default ProSilver or SubSilver2 or ProSilver Special Edition, you may need to modify your overall_header.html in /styles/yourstyle/template to include the feed icon activation as follows.

Find:

Code: Select all

<title>{SITENAME} &bull; <!-- IF S_IN_MCP -->{L_MCP} &bull; <!-- ELSEIF S_IN_UCP -->{L_UCP} &bull; <!-- ENDIF -->{PAGE_TITLE}</title>
Add after:

Code: Select all

<!-- IF S_ENABLE_FEEDS -->
	<!-- IF S_ENABLE_FEEDS_OVERALL --><link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="{L_FEED} - {SITENAME}" href="{U_FEED}" /><!-- ENDIF -->
	<!-- IF S_ENABLE_FEEDS_NEWS --><link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="{L_FEED} - {L_FEED_NEWS}" href="{U_FEED}?mode=news" /><!-- ENDIF -->
	<!-- IF S_ENABLE_FEEDS_FORUMS --><link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="{L_FEED} - {L_ALL_FORUMS}" href="{U_FEED}?mode=forums" /><!-- ENDIF -->
	<!-- IF S_ENABLE_FEEDS_TOPICS --><link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="{L_FEED} - {L_FEED_TOPICS_NEW}" href="{U_FEED}?mode=topics" /><!-- ENDIF -->
	<!-- IF S_ENABLE_FEEDS_TOPICS_ACTIVE --><link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="{L_FEED} - {L_FEED_TOPICS_ACTIVE}" href="{U_FEED}?mode=topics_active" /><!-- ENDIF -->
	<!-- IF S_ENABLE_FEEDS_FORUM and S_FORUM_ID --><link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="{L_FEED} - {L_FORUM} - {FORUM_NAME}" href="{U_FEED}?f={S_FORUM_ID}" /><!-- ENDIF -->
	<!-- IF S_ENABLE_FEEDS_TOPIC and S_TOPIC_ID --><link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="{L_FEED} - {L_TOPIC} - {TOPIC_TITLE}" href="{U_FEED}?f={S_FORUM_ID}&t={S_TOPIC_ID}" /><!-- ENDIF -->
<!-- ENDIF -->
Then do a board cache refresh and refresh your browser cache.

Add feed icon in forum header for ProSilver styles
If you want a feed icon in your forum header.

Edit overall_header.html in /styles/yourstyle/template as follows.
Find:

Code: Select all

<li class="icon-home"><a href="{U_INDEX}" accesskey="h">{L_INDEX}</a> <!-- BEGIN navlinks --> <strong>&#8249;</strong> <a href="{navlinks.U_VIEW_FORUM}">{navlinks.FORUM_NAME}</a><!-- END navlinks --></li>
Add after:

Code: Select all

<!-- IF S_ENABLE_FEEDS --><li class="rightside"><a type="application/rss+xml" href="{U_FEED}"><img src="{T_THEME_PATH}/images/feed.gif" alt="{L_FEED} - {SITENAME}" title="{L_FEED} - {SITENAME}" /></a></li><!-- ENDIF -->
Then do a board cache refresh and refresh your browser cache.

Add feed icon in forum header for SubSilver2 style
If you want a feed icon in your forum header.

Copy: styles/prosilver/theme/images/feed.gif
To: styles/subsilver2/theme/images/feed.gif

Edit: styles/subsilver2/template/overall_header.html
Find:

Code: Select all

<!-- IF S_USER_LOGGED_IN -->&nbsp; &nbsp;<a href="{U_PROFILE}"><img src="{T_THEME_PATH}/images/icon_mini_profile.gif" width="12" height="13" alt="*" /> {L_PROFILE}</a><!-- ENDIF -->
	<!-- ENDIF -->
Add after:

Code: Select all

<!-- IF S_ENABLE_FEEDS -->&nbsp; &nbsp;<a type="application/rss+xml" href="{U_FEED}"><img src="{T_THEME_PATH}/images/feed.gif" alt="{L_FEED} - {SITENAME}" title="{L_FEED} - {SITENAME}" /></a></li><!-- ENDIF -->
Then do a board cache refresh and refresh your browser cache.

Add feed icon in forum listing for ProSilver styles
Edit styles/prosilver/template/forumlist_body.html as follows.
Find:

Code: Select all

<!-- IF S_ENABLE_FEEDS and forumrow.S_FEED_ENABLED --><!-- <a class="feed-icon-forum" title="{L_FEED} - {forumrow.FORUM_NAME}" href="{U_FEED}?f={forumrow.FORUM_ID}"><img src="{T_THEME_PATH}/images/feed.gif" alt="{L_FEED} - {forumrow.FORUM_NAME}" /></a> --><!-- ENDIF -->
Replace with:

Code: Select all

<!-- IF S_ENABLE_FEEDS and forumrow.S_FEED_ENABLED --><a class="feed-icon-forum" title="{L_FEED} - {forumrow.FORUM_NAME}" href="{U_FEED}?f={forumrow.FORUM_ID}"><img src="{T_THEME_PATH}/images/feed.gif" alt="{L_FEED} - {forumrow.FORUM_NAME}" /></a> <!-- ENDIF -->
Then do a board cache refresh and refresh your browser cache.
Last edited by wouterv on Mon Sep 03, 2012 4:05 pm, edited 52 times in total.
Arkantos Khan
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Posts: 51
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2005 5:44 am

Re: FAQ: phpBB 3.0.7-PL1 ATOM feed

Post by Arkantos Khan »

I don't see the option to show the Last Topic replied, but with its original title, i.e. not "Re: Topic Title".
Keires
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Posts: 26
Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2008 2:34 pm

Re: FAQ: phpBB 3.0.7-PL1 ATOM feed

Post by Keires »

Allow http Authentication
Please note that some PHP setups require additional changes to the .htaccess file. Instructions can be found in that file.
Which changes?

I have installed a RSS/Atom reader on my cellphone. And I can't see anything. I just get the following error:

Unrecognised RSS format - no articles found.

Do I have to change something in the .htaccess file then? Or is it possible it got something to do with the language file? Because a while ago I installed a RSS mod. Afther the installation, I had the same error as now. Then I realised I forgot to change the language file. When I fixed it, it worked, but I still couldn't see a thing. The error was gone, but I needed http authentication...
mcsleazy
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Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2008 3:04 pm

Re: FAQ: phpBB 3.0.7-PL1 ATOM feed

Post by mcsleazy »

Excuse me if this is answered above (a lot of it is over my head) but is it possible to feed new threads only, and not the replies?
wouterv
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Posts: 265
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2008 10:22 am
Location: The Netherlands
Name: Wouter

Re: FAQ: phpBB 3.0.7-PL1 ATOM feed

Post by wouterv »

Keires wrote:
Allow http Authentication
Please note that some PHP setups require additional changes to the .htaccess file. Instructions can be found in that file.
Which changes?

I have installed a RSS/Atom reader on my cellphone. And I can't see anything. I just get the following error:

Unrecognised RSS format - no articles found.

Do I have to change something in the .htaccess file then? Or is it possible it got something to do with the language file? Because a while ago I installed a RSS mod. Afther the installation, I had the same error as now. Then I realised I forgot to change the language file. When I fixed it, it worked, but I still couldn't see a thing. The error was gone, but I needed http authentication...
I don't think your problem is related to HTTP Authentication.
"Unrecognised RSS format - no articles found" states clear enough that your feed reader cannot handle the standard phpBB ATOM feed.
Does your feed show correct when opened with Internet Explorer? If it does, it is for sure the feed reader on your cellphone. As I stated in the FAQ, the standard phpBB feed is quite unusual structered and many feed readers do have difficulties with ATOM format (e.g. the reader in my Sony TV cannot handle ATOM), there are no plans yet to add support for RSS.
Try Simple Syndication on your board: http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopi ... &t=1312745
Per default it generates RSS format, all you need is to install "syndication.php" (at the same location as feed.php) and see if that opens correct on your phone.

mcsleazy wrote:Excuse me if this is answered above (a lot of it is over my head) but is it possible to feed new threads only, and not the replies?
I think what you need is this one:
1) General feed settings>Enable feeds
2) Topic-based feed settings>Enable new topics feed (Board wide feed with the first post of Y most recent topics in all forums)
wouterv
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Posts: 265
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2008 10:22 am
Location: The Netherlands
Name: Wouter

Re: FAQ: phpBB 3.0.7-PL1 ATOM feed

Post by wouterv »

Explanation added for Allow HTTP Authentication in the first post of this topic.
Keires
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Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2008 2:34 pm

Re: FAQ: phpBB 3.0.7-PL1 ATOM feed

Post by Keires »

Dear wouterv,

Thanks for the explanation. The reader that I use, supports Atom feeds. I tried another Atom reader, but this one hasn't the possibility to fill in an username and a password. I searched on the internet and I found a way to use an username and a password:

http://user:password@server...

But I tried this, but it doesn't work. On my computer the feeds are displayed like it should be, but if I browse to the feed page with my cellphone, they aren't. I can see the text, but the layout isn't good. I don't get it, because if I surf with my cellphone to my forum, the layout is just fine.

Thanks

Greetings, Keires
wouterv
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Posts: 265
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Location: The Netherlands
Name: Wouter

Re: FAQ: phpBB 3.0.7-PL1 ATOM feed

Post by wouterv »

Keires wrote:Dear wouterv,

Thanks for the explanation. The reader that I use, supports Atom feeds. I tried another Atom reader, but this one hasn't the possibility to fill in an username and a password. I searched on the internet and I found a way to use an username and a password:

http://user:password@server...

But I tried this, but it doesn't work. On my computer the feeds are displayed like it should be, but if I browse to the feed page with my cellphone, they aren't. I can see the text, but the layout isn't good. I don't get it, because if I surf with my cellphone to my forum, the layout is just fine.

Thanks

Greetings, Keires
At first: did you set your forum permissions such that Guests have "No Access"?
If not (and Guests can see all or most posts) it makes no sense to enable the "HTTP Authentication" feature.
If you have enabled the "HTTP Authentication" feature, you only get the Login dialog when you open the feed like this: feed.php?auth=http
If login fails, the board will reply with a specific "You are not authorized..." page.
Corrupt page on your mobile, Good page on the PC: this still shows your mobile feed reader is not the best in the world.
My HTC PDA/Phone has "RSS Hub" installed, which perfectly shows my feed.php (can be downloaded as "NewsBreak" from Iliumsoft).
fflap
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Name: Jon Yates

How do I set get permissions to be able to see the news feed

Post by fflap »

I have enabled news feeds and can see them coming out of the forum beautifully when logged in as site admin. When I log out of the phpbb system and I browse the forum as a guest I can see the forums and the posts but when I click the rss/atom icon on the browser I see no entries in the atom feed at all

I understand that when logged out from the phpbb system, the atom feed uses the guest settings to allw of disallow viewing of the feed items.

I have been playing with the settings all day and have just lost the plot as I am unable to see how to enable a guest to see the atom fee. This is especially important as the atom feed is re burnt in feedburner which then sends the posts to twitter and without guest access to the feed, feedburner cannot do its stuff.

How do I set get permissions to be able to see the news feed items?



Cheers

Jonathan

PS I had this working yesterday perfectly!
wouterv
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Re: FAQ: phpBB 3.0.7-PL1 ATOM feed

Post by wouterv »

Which feed settings did you make?

I suggest to start as simple as possibe, with only the follwing:
1)Set "Enable Feeds" to "Enabled".
2)Set "Enable board-wide feed" to "Enabled"
Leave all the rest default to start with and Submit the change.

After login or logoff the board, refresh the feed page in your browser to have it updated according the proper user rights.
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Pimlico Flats
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Re: FAQ: phpBB 3.0.7-PL1 ATOM feed

Post by Pimlico Flats »

wouterv wrote: How to enable and where do I see it
To enable the feed in its basic form, go to: ACP>General>Feed settings
1)Set "Enable Feeds" to "Enabled".
2)Set "Enable board-wide feed" to "Enabled"
Leave all the rest default to start with and Submit the change.
If you return to the Board Index page, your browser (IE or FF) should show a selectable feed icon near the address bar which will open the feed page.
My feed URL works great, but I just cannot find a feed icon. Would it be possible to have a screenshot? Or is it missing - if so why?
wouterv
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Re: FAQ: phpBB 3.0.7-PL1 ATOM feed

Post by wouterv »

Here are examples of the feed icon.

Internet Explorer 8:
ie.JPG
ie.JPG (22.58 KiB) Viewed 88335 times
Firefox 3.6:
ff.JPG
ff.JPG (25.07 KiB) Viewed 88335 times
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ravikum
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Re: FAQ: phpBB 3.0.7-PL1 ATOM feed

Post by ravikum »

Last edited by stevemaury on Sat May 01, 2010 3:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: No credit line = no support
wouterv
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Re: FAQ: phpBB 3.0.7-PL1 ATOM feed

Post by wouterv »

If you are happy with the current RSS feed and the MOD keeps supporting new phpBB versions, there is no reason to enable the standard phpBB ATOM feed.

Another reason to keep your RSS feed is that the standard phpBB feed is ATOM format, ATOM format is not as widely supported as RSS (e.g. my Sony TV can perfectly display RSS but not ATOM format).
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Pimlico Flats
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Re: FAQ: phpBB 3.0.7-PL1 ATOM feed

Post by Pimlico Flats »

wouterv wrote:Here are examples of the feed icon.

Internet Explorer 8:
ie.JPG
Firefox 3.6:
ff.JPG
Fabulous, thank you so much! I realise that the reason I can't see the icon is because I am using Chrome, it's fine in FF & IE.
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