My sites RSS fedd and the rss.php - is NOT a valid syndication Feed

PHP
1

My site has some RSS feeds, I just added some extra code so my RSS feed will Ping Google/Yahoo/etc when a site change is made,

Ping to be sent with Just Listed Item

while trying to find out if my new Ping code was being sent out, I decided to work backwards and test the RSS feed.

Weblogs.com provides this service so that you can verify whether or not your feed satisfies the most common syndication standards (i.e. Atom, RDF, and RSS).

http://www.trade-th.com/ rss.php?feed=1 is NOT a valid syndication Feed

below is my rss.php, all ideas/help greatly appreciated.

<?
#################################################################
## rss.php for Ping										 	##
##-------------------------------------------------------------##
## Copyright 2012  All rights reserved.	                     ##
##-------------------------------------------------------------##
#################################################################

define('RSSlang', 1); // Language English=1, Chinese=2
define('RSSlogo', 'images/probidlogo.gif'); // logo must be relative to site url
define('RSSdepth', 10); // number of items to display.
define('RSStitle1', 'Just Listed');
define('RSStitle2', 'Closing Soon');
define('RSStitle3', 'Featured Items');
define('RSStitle4', 'Big Ticket');
define('RSStitle5', 'Very Expensive');
define('RSStitle6', 'Under $10');
define('RSStitle7', 'Warm Items');
define('RSStitle8', 'Hot Items');
define('RSStitle9', 'Buy Now');
define('RSS10', 10);     // items $10 and under
define('RSS300', 300);   // items $300 and more
define('RSS1000', 1000); // items $1000 and more
define('RSSwarm', 10);   // items with 10 or more bids
define('RSShot', 25);    // items with 25 or more bids

// DO NOT EDIT BELOW THIS LINE

define ('IN_SITE', 1);

include_once ('includes/global.php');

$charset = 'ISO-8859-1';
$langcode = 'en-us';

function utf8_convert($string) 
{
	return utf8_encode($string);
}

function get_path($node) // look up the parent of this node
{ 
	global $db;
	$path = array(); // save the path in this array
	
	$row = $db->get_sql_row("SELECT parent_id,name FROM " . DB_PREFIX . "categories WHERE category_id='".$node."'");

	if ($row['parent_id']>0) // only continue if this $node isn't the parent node
	{ 
		$path[] = $row['name']; // the last part of the path to $node, is the name of the parent of $node
		$path = array_merge(get_path($row['parent_id']), $path); // add the path to the parent of this node to the path
	}
	return $path; // return the path
}

function letsunhtmlspecialchars ($string) 
{
	$string = str_replace (''', '\\'', $string);
	$string = str_replace ('%23', '\\"', $string);
	$string = str_replace ('&quot;', '\\"', $string);
	$string = str_replace ('<', '<', $string);
	$string = str_replace ('>', '>', $string);
	$string = str_replace ('&amp;', '&', $string);
	$string = str_replace ('&nbsp;', ' ', $string);
	$string = stripslashes($string);

	return $string;
}

function letsclean_string ($string, $maxchars=1200) 
{

	/*
	* No extra repeat characters.
	* No spaces in begining of field.
	* No spaces in ending of field.
	* No extra spaces in body of field.
	* Remove all quotes.
	* Max field size is approx 1024 characters.
	* Do not truncate words.
	* Do not concatinate words.
	* Remove all html tags.
	* Remove single character words such as @,#,!,^,&,*,(, etc
	*/

	$space = array("&nbsp;","<br>","<BR>","<br/>","<br />","\\r\
","\\r","\
","\	","\\v");
	$tags = array("applet","meta","xml","blink","link","style","script","embed","object","iframe","frame","frameset","ilayer","layer","bgsound","title","base");
	$string = letsunhtmlspecialchars($string);
	$string = str_replace($space, ' ', $string);
	$string = str_replace("&039;", ' ', $string);
	
	foreach ($tags as $tag) 
	{
		$string = preg_replace("@<".$tag."[^>]*?>.*?</".$tag.">@si", "", $string);
	}
	
	$string = preg_replace('#[\\x00-\\x1F\\"\\']#i',"",$string);
	$string = preg_replace('#[\\x7F-\\xFF\\"\\']#i',"",$string);
	$string = strip_tags($string);
	$string = stripslashes($string);
	$string = ereg_replace("[^[:blank:][:alnum:]\\+,;.!:$%&@?/)(_-]", " ", $string);
	$string = preg_replace('/\\s+/'," ",$string);
	$string = trim($string);
	$words = explode(" ",$string);
	$string = array();
	$single_chars = array("+",",",";",".","!",":","$","%","&","@","?","/",")","(","_","-");
	
	foreach ($words as $word) 
	{
		foreach ($single_chars as $single_char) 
		{
			$pattern = "/\\\\".$single_char."+/";
			$word = preg_replace("$pattern",$single_char,$word);
		}
    	if (strlen($word)==1 && !preg_match('/^[aAiIxX\\+\\-]/',$word)) continue;
		$string[]=$word;
	}
	
	$string = implode(" ",$string); // array to string
	$maxchars = (strlen($string)>$maxchars) ? $maxchars : strlen($string);
	$string = substr($string,0,$maxchars);
	$string = implode(" ",explode(" ",$string,str_word_count($string)-1));

	return $string;
}

$user_id = intval($_REQUEST['user_id']);

switch ($_REQUEST['feed'])
{
	case 1: 
		$RSStitle = RSStitle1; // items listed in the last 24 hours
		$postdate = 'start_time';
		$sort = 'DESC';
		$subquery = 'start_time<=' . CURRENT_TIME . ' AND start_time>' . (CURRENT_TIME - (24 * 60 * 60));
		break;

	case 2: 
		$RSStitle = RSStitle2; // items closing in 24 hours or less
		$postdate='end_time';
		$sort = 'ASC';
		$subquery = 'start_time<=' . CURRENT_TIME . ' AND end_time<=' . (CURRENT_TIME + (24 * 60 * 60));
		break;

	case 3: 
		$RSStitle=RSStitle3; // homepage items
		$postdate = 'start_time';
		$sort = 'DESC';
		$subquery = 'start_time<=' . CURRENT_TIME . ' AND hpfeat=1';
		break;

	case 4: 
		$RSStitle = RSStitle4; // items over 300.00
		$postdate = 'end_time'; 
		$sort = 'ASC';
		$subquery = 'start_time<=' . CURRENT_TIME . ' AND (max_bid >= ' . RSS300 . ' OR start_price >= ' . RSS300 . ' OR buyout_price >= ' . RSS300 . ')';
		break;

	case 5: 
		$RSStitle = RSStitle5; // items over 1000.00
		$postdate = 'end_time'; 
		$sort = 'ASC';
		$subquery = 'start_time<=' . CURRENT_TIME . ' AND (max_bid >= ' . RSS1000 . ' OR start_price >= ' . RSS1000 . ' OR buyout_price >= ' . RSS1000 . ')';
		break;

	case 6: 
		$RSStitle = RSStitle6;
		$postdate = 'start_time';
		$sort = 'DESC';
		$subquery = 'start_time<=' . CURRENT_TIME . ' AND (max_bid <= ' . RSS10 . ' AND start_price <= ' . RSS10 . ')';
		break;

	case 7: 
		$RSStitle = RSStitle7; // items with 10 or more bids
		$postdate = 'start_time';
		$sort = 'DESC';
		$subquery = 'nb_bids >= ' . RSSwarm;
		break;

	case 8: 
		$RSStitle = RSStitle8; // items with 25 or more bids
		$postdate = 'start_time';
		$sort = 'DESC';
		$subquery = 'nb_bids >= ' . RSShot;
		break;

	case 9: 
		$RSStitle = RSStitle9; // item with a Buy Now
		$postdate = 'start_time';
		$sort = 'DESC';
		$subquery = 'start_time<=' . CURRENT_TIME . ' AND buyout_price>0';
		break;

	default:
		if ($user_id>0) // setup query for specific users
		{ 
			$username = ucfirst($db->get_sql_field("SELECT username FROM " . DB_PREFIX . "users WHERE user_id='" . $user_id . "'", 'username'));
			$postdate = 'start_time';
			$sort = 'DESC';
			$subquery = 'start_time<=' . CURRENT_TIME . ' AND end_time>' . CURRENT_TIME . ' AND owner_id=' . $user_id;
			$RSStitle = 'Listings posted by ' . $username;
		} 
		else // no user specified
		{
			$RSStitle = RSStitle1;
			$postdate = 'start_date';
			$sort = 'DESC';
			$subquery = 'start_time<=' . CURRENT_TIME . ' AND start_time>' . (CURRENT_TIME - (24 * 60 * 60));
		}
		break;
}

$limit = ($user_id > 0) ? '' : 'LIMIT ' . RSSdepth;

	if ($user_id>0) {

$results = $db->query("SELECT a.auction_id, a.name, a." . $postdate . " AS postdate, a.description, a.max_bid, 
	a.nb_bids, a.currency, a.owner_id, a.category_id, a.closed, a.bold, a.hl, a.buyout_price, a.is_offer, a.start_price, 
	a.reserve_price, am.media_url, u.username FROM " . DB_PREFIX . "auctions a 
	LEFT JOIN " . DB_PREFIX . "auction_media am ON a.auction_id=am.auction_id AND am.media_type=1 AND am.upload_in_progress=0 
	LEFT JOIN " . DB_PREFIX . "users u ON u.user_id=a.owner_id
	WHERE a.closed=0 AND a.active=1 AND a.approved=1 AND a.deleted=0 and a.owner_id='".$user_id."' 
	GROUP BY a.auction_id ORDER BY " . $postdate . " " . $sort . " " . $limit);

	} else {

$results = $db->query("SELECT a.auction_id, a.name, a." . $postdate . " AS postdate, a.description, a.max_bid, 
	a.nb_bids, a.currency, a.category_id, a.closed, a.bold, a.hl, a.buyout_price, a.is_offer, a.start_price, 
	a.reserve_price, am.media_url, u.username FROM " . DB_PREFIX . "auctions a 
	LEFT JOIN " . DB_PREFIX . "auction_media am ON a.auction_id=am.auction_id AND am.media_type=1 AND am.upload_in_progress=0 
	LEFT JOIN " . DB_PREFIX . "users u ON u.user_id=a.owner_id
	WHERE a.closed=0 AND a.active=1 AND a.approved=1 AND a.deleted=0 
	GROUP BY a.auction_id ORDER BY " . $postdate . " " . $sort . " " . $limit);

	}
$numrows = $db->num_rows($results);

// RSS 2.0 item information
$items=array();

$timezone = $db->get_sql_field("SELECT value FROM " . DB_PREFIX . "timesettings WHERE active=1", 'value');
$timezone = explode('-', $timezone);
$tz = sprintf('%05s', $timezone[count($timezone)-1] . ':00');
$timezone = (count($timezone)-1) ? '-' . $tz : '+' . $tz;

while ($row=@mysql_fetch_assoc($results)) // loop through database fields & build item array
{
	$price = $fees->display_amount(($row['max_bid']>0) ? $row['max_bid'] : $row['start_price'], $row['currency']);

	$picpath = null;
	if (!empty($row['media_url'])) 
	{
		$picpath = '<img alt="' . $row['name'] . '" border="0" src="' . SITE_PATH . 'thumbnail.php?pic=' . $row['media_url'] . '&w=100"><br><br>';
	}

	$items['title'][]	= utf8_convert(letsclean_string($row['name'])).utf8_encode(' - ' . $price);
	$items['link'][]		= utf8_encode(SITE_PATH . 'auction_details.php?auction_id=' . $row['auction_id']);
	$items['desc'][]		= utf8_convert(letsclean_string($row['description']));
	$items['pubDate'][]	= utf8_encode(date('Y-m-d', $row['postdate']) . 'T' . date('H:i:s', $row['postdate']) . $timezone);
	$items['category'][]	= utf8_convert(letsclean_string(implode(' : ', get_path($row['category_id']))));
	$items['creator'][]	= utf8_convert(ucfirst($row['username']));
}

header("Content-Type: text/xml;charset=" . $charset);

// display RSS 2.0 channel information
$RSSlogo=RSSlogo;

echo <<<START
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="$charset"?>
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">
<channel>
	<title>$RSStitle: {$setts['sitename']}</title>
	<link>{$setts['site_path']}</link>
	<description>{$setts['sitename']}</description>
<image>
	<url>{$setts['site_path']}$RSSlogo</url>
	<title>{$setts['sitename']}</title>
	<link>{$setts['site_path']}</link>
</image>

<language>$langcode</language>
<copyright>Copyright {$setts['sitename']}. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only.</copyright>
<generator>{$setts['site_path']}</generator>
<!-- RSS-Items -->
START;

// display items
for ($i=0; $i<$numrows; $i++) {

	echo <<<ITEM

<item>
	<title>{$items['title'][$i]}</title>
	<link>{$items['link'][$i]}</link>
	<guid isPermaLink="true">{$items['link'][$i]}</guid>
	<description>{$items['desc'][$i]}</description>
    <dc:creator>{$items['creator'][$i]}</dc:creator>
	<dc:date>{$items['pubDate'][$i]}</dc:date>
    <category>{$items['category'][$i]}</category>
</item>

ITEM;

}


echo <<<END
<!-- / RSS-Items PHP/RSS -->
</channel>
</rss>

END;

?>
2

Hi RayWilk,

Have you tested your feed against online RSS feed validators?
They usually give you hints on how to correct your errors.
Try:
http://validator.w3.org/feed/
or
http://www.rssboard.org/rss-validator/

HTH,
Mário

3

Thanks for the suggestions.

The error is caused by these characters:
3629;& 3633;& 3621;& 3610;& 3633;& 3617;& 3649;& 3626;& 3605;& 3617;& 3611;& 3660;

Does anyone know why?

4

Hello mjpr & tom8,

yes http://validator.w3.org/feed/ tells me the below line:

It looks like this is a web page, not a feed. I looked for a feed associated with this page, but couldn’t find one. Please enter the address of your feed to validate.

I dont understand … lol all help ideas appreciated :slight_smile:

5

Ok all is working :slight_smile:

Yes the RSS Feed is working fine, it was the way I was loading it into the reader, Plus being told that is NOT a valid syndication Feed

is NOT a valid syndication Feed is incorrect, the site RSS feeds are alive and well,

thank you all who have contributed :slight_smile: