RSS feeds: How to get RSS to work

RSS feeds: How to get RSS to work

by Graham Moir -
Number of replies: 15

I couldn't get RSS to work properly on 1.6.3, nor 1.7.  I have recently upgraded to 1.7.1 but the problem I had is still there.   I'm not sure if the problem is me or Moodle - may be someone could point me in the right direction and if it is moodle I'll raise a bug.  Anyway I'm running moodle on a desktop windows XP PC via the xampplite bundle.  I have a completely clean installation, in other words I threw away my previous versions and started again.  Installation was fine, MYSQL configured OK and Apache/MySQL start as expected.  I've been through the initial set up - largely taking all the defaults - and I'm logged in as the default admin user.  No other users are set up, I'm using the default them and there are no courses.

So, I think I'll set up the main page and add an RSS block to it.  I choose "Remote RSS feeds" from the block dropdown menu.  The block appears in its defalt location and I click on "Click here to configure this block to display RSS feeds", and I get the initial panel which tells me no feeds are defined/available yet, so I click on the "Edit news feeds" link and I configure a feed - the BBC main news page feed at http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk/rss/newsonline_uk_edition/front_page/rss.xml which validates no problem and is added to the list of available feeds.  I don't make it a shared feed nor do I have a title.  I then go back to the "Configure this block" tab.  The "Choose the feeds you would like to make available in this block" question is still there, but just with an empty tickbox next to it (see attachment below).  So, yes I want to choose the feed I just set up, so I click on the tickbox to set it,  but I then never get asked to choose the feed.  The help says "check the box next to each feed you want displayed",  but I don't get a list of feeds (or even the one feed I set up).   If I save the changes I just go back to an empty RSS block with an "Add/Edit" feeds prompt.  Trying further edits fails in the same way. 

What am I doing wrong ?

Any help much appreciated.

Attachment temp.jpg
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In reply to Graham Moir

Re: RSS feeds: How to get RSS to work

by Graham Moir -

Well, I think I'm making a little bit of progress understanding this,  but the bottom line is that I still can't get it to work.  A couple of things that came to light

1) I discovered that you need to enable RSS feeds for the site (my omission/mistake), which I did via the "Server/RSS" admin option and then the "Modules/Blocks" option - although the latter seemed to be setup OK anyway by default.   However none of this had any effect on what was displayed and I still get nothing in the RSS block.

2) Given the prompt about the BBC feed being problematic, I set up 3 additional feeds to make a total of 4.   One of these was the Moodle forums RSS feed which interestingly did NOT validate !  

Doing this provided an explanation to the "Configure a Remote RSS feeds block" panel display.  Against the "Choose the feeds you would like to make available in this block" prompt, there are now 4 tick boxes which obviously relate to the 4 feeds I've set up.   However the presentation of this is anything but user friendly as there is no description as to which feed each tick box relates to (see screenshot).  Anyway I assume they're listed in the order added and displayed when you go to "Manage all my feeds" tab, so I select one of the 4 (which I believe is not the BBC feed, nor the moodle feed) and get exactly the same result as before,  i.e nothing, despite everytrhing seeming to be set up.

What else am I missing ?  

Finally, with regards to the BBC RSS feed, someone has clearly got it working on a moodle site - have a look at http://vle.bsfc.ac.uk/moodle/ where it looks  neat.

A reminder that I'm doing this on a local Windows XP PC using localhost and version 1.7.1+ of moodle via the Apache/MySQL/Moodle combined package taking all the defaults and with nothing else defined on the moodle site - just trying to get an RSS feed onto the main page.  I do have an always on internet connection available too.

Any further help very much appreciated

thanks

Graham

Attachment temp.jpg
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In reply to Graham Moir

Re: RSS feeds: How to get RSS to work

by Steve Iman -
I'm stuck at some of the same places, but at least you seem to have some optional feeds registered. I've seen the help file and thought I followed all the steps outlines. I got to the allowing RSS on the site. In 1.7, the 'block' has a somewhat different name.. " Remote RSS Feeds". I think we may need some tutorials on configuring the URLs that we have to put in. I tried that bbc url and it validated, though when I went to save it as a configured feed it wasn't accepted.. perhaps some error in configurin the URL. Thanks for posting your question.. the least I can do is help bump it back to the top.

By the way, it might be that we could use some good tips on good places to find valid feed. For instance, I want news searched for "Cal Poly Pomona". I can get what works for RSS feed in by Safari Browser on a Mac, but here again is an address which isn't seen as valid by the checker. Hmm...
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In reply to Steve Iman

Re: RSS feeds: How to get RSS to work

by Graham Moir -

So , should a bug report be raise for this ?

thanks

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In reply to Graham Moir

Re: RSS feeds: How to get RSS to work

by Mauno Korpelainen -

Hi Graham,

I think this is not a bug. My own server has no troubles, RSS is working well in linux environment but in Windows RSS may have difficulties. The point is what RSS needs from server to work. At my employers Windows 2003 server running scripts is not allowed and firewall is watching trafic. There is no wget or curl. Ftp is enabled in php but it is not possible to use it or smtp for security reasons...

I have tried to find out is this a problem of permissions to use RSS (run scripts) or lack of some php extension but have not found answer yet.

If somebody is using Windows server (XP or 2003) and has got RSS working it would be nice to compare php info or environment. I solved this RSS problem at this restricted server by making a html block and adding a iframe tag where I have a RSS feed from my own server. The script is running well (but not at that 2003 server)

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In reply to Mauno Korpelainen

Re: RSS feeds: How to get RSS to work

by Graham Moir -
Thanks for your feedback guys.  I'm running all this on a Windows desktop PC with admin rights and Apache, MySQL and Php all seem to function fine, but perhaps it is something to do with using "localhost".   I think I'll try this with s server/my ISP and see what happens.  I'll provide feedback either way when I have it.
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In reply to Graham Moir

Re: RSS feeds: How to get RSS to work

by Graham Moir -

OK, just an update.  I didn't get around to setting moodle up from scratch with my ISP,  but what I did do is try the whole process again on a different machine,  where "the process" means installing the windows package of Apache/MySQL/PHP and moodle completely clean locally, taking all the defaults, then bringing up "Localhost" and the database etc.. and trying to configure an RSS block on the main page as the first thing that is done, i.e. no courses defined at all.  Magically on this second PC it works and I have an RSS feed, in fact the only feed I tried is the BBC feed that was considered flaky, and it works.  The feed even gets displayed correctly as an option to be chosen on the "configure RSS remote feed" panel - unlike the screenshots above

So what does this mean ?  To be honest I'm not sure,  but it seems to suggest some sort of (network ?) permissions issue on the first PC, even though I definitely have local admin rights on that machine - as I do on the second machine.  

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In reply to Graham Moir

Re: RSS feeds: How to get RSS to work

by Mauno Korpelainen -
It sounds like firewall needs to have some port open for RSS ???
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In reply to Mauno Korpelainen

Re: RSS feeds: How to get RSS to work

by Graham Moir -
I think you may be right.  It's got to be something like that, although running xampp-portcheck without starting anything up for Moodle on the offending machine shows all ports listed as free.
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In reply to Mauno Korpelainen

Re: RSS feeds: How to get RSS to work

by Ronaldo Reis Jr. -
Hi,

I have this same problem in a linux server. All my RSS dont work. I use debian. What package I need to RSS work? I think that this problem is a linux package installation problem
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In reply to Steve Iman

Re: RSS feeds: How to get RSS to work

by Steve Iman -
UPDATE: I couldn't tell you why, but all is working perfectly now. I found that the handout in pdf was multiple pages and much of value toward the end was useful, including some very useful suggestions for sources of feed.
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In reply to Steve Iman

Re: RSS feeds: How to get RSS to work

by Graham Moir -

Steve - sorry, where's that pdf handout ?

thanks

Graham

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In reply to Steve Iman

Re: RSS feeds: How to get RSS to work

by Ian Cannonier -
I have been following the posts with interest having been asked to set up moodle as our schools VLE. I myself haven't been able to do a lot of work on it but our third party contractors would be very interested in the PDF you refer to. Can you tell me where it is?

Thanks
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In reply to Graham Moir

Re: RSS feeds: How to get RSS to work

by William Lu -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers
I had same problem for years. Today, I checked:
Site administration > Server > HTTP > Web proxy
Clean everything to 'default'.
It works! smile All my test RSS appeared perfectly.
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In reply to William Lu

Have a user to subscribe your Forum to active a new RSS

by William Lu -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers
To get a new Forum RSS to work.
  1. Add a new post into this forum.
  2. Allow subscribe (don't force)
  3. Run cron
  4. Clean your cache
  5. Logout your admin role.
  6. Login use any user account
  7. Click on that RSS icon and subscribe it
  8. Login again as Admin and to see the 'RSS error' disappeared!!
  9. Change subscribe to force if you want to
Average of ratings:Useful (1)