The All About ER6 Syndication System
Implemented by Rafe and Dazler.

Contents:
Introduction and Customisation
Listing of available js output files
Recommended Code (for beginners)
Live example

Introduction and customisation
The full syndication of both news headline/ articles and forum topics / posts is now available. This is achieved through Javascript and a high degree of customisation is possible. In addition an XML-based backend is also available. For those interested in using this please contact the webmaster for more details.

Please, if you decide to use this please acknowledge the source. A link to the site would be nice, the layout must include a link for each item to the appropriate place on this site (e.g. news headlines link to news article), and somewhere near please place the text provided by All About ER6.

The Javascript works by calling a javascript hosted on this site. You must then either call one of the predefined layout functions or make your own.

You call the Javascript with the following code:

<script src="/allabouter6-late/external/js/filename.php"></script>

Where you want the syndicated content to appear you put the following:

<script>
MakeAll();
</script>

The MakeAll(); is a predefined layout function. There are three predefined layout functions:

  1. MakeAll() - Will print out article headlines, text of post, time date and forum posted in. An example of this is shown at the bottom of the page.
  2. MakeWithTeaser() - Teaser control via Javscript, prints out list with headlines and a 50 character teaser after each headline.
  3. MakeHeadlines() - Headlines / Topic Titles only.

It is possible to write your own layout function. Here is the code for the MakeHeadlines() as an example:

function MakeHeadlines()
       {
       for (var x=0;x<newsitems.length;x++) 
       {
       document.write("<li><a href='"+newsitems[x].commentsurl+"'target='_blank'>"+newsitems[x].headline+"</a>");
       }
       }

The important part of this is the document.write line. This control the layout since it is the part of the Javascript which outputs html. It also is where you put the array variables discussed below, which are created in the called script. An example of an array variable is the newsitems[x].commentsurl part of the script above, this example is saying for newsitem x print the commentsurl variable. This can be combined with HTML as shown above. Notice how the html and other text are surrouned by " while the variables are not. To join them together '+' is used.

The variables available for use are as follows:

newsid - id if news item
newsurl - url to link to for news items
commentsurl - url for link to comments in news, and posts in forums syndication
categoryid - news category / forum id
categoryname - news category / forum name
name - name of post / author
nameid - id of poster
profileurl - link to phpBB profile of poster
date - date of post
time - time of post
comments - number of replies to post
headline - topic title / news headline
text - topic / article text

To use say date, you would put in the script:

newsitems[x].date

This obviously allows ofr very powerful customisation of layouts.

An example shown below would show a list of the last posters:

<script>
for (var x=0;x<newsitems.length;x++)
{
document.write("<li><a href='"+newsitems[x].profileurl+"' target='_blank'>"+newsitems[x].name+"</a>");
}
</script>

 

Listing of available js output files.
These files are all in the /allabouter6-late/external/js/ directory. Therefore the code for linking needed is:

<script src="/allabouter6-late/external/js/filename.php"></script>

More are available on request to the webmaster, when contacting the webmaster please specify what you want. Remember it is possible to customise the output of the script as described above. With special negotiation the full text of an article or post is also available. Please contact the webmaster for more details.

Recommended code - use this if you don't understand above.

Place the following in your HTML file to get a list of the last 10 headlines.

<script src="/allabouter6-late/external/js/jsnat.php">
</script>
<ul>

<script>
MakeHeadlines();
</script>
</ul>

Place the following in your HTML file to get a list of the last 10 topic titles posted in the forum.

<script src="/allabouter6-late/external/js/jsfallt.php">
</script>
<ul>
<script>
MakeHeadlines();
</script>
</ul>

 

Live Example of jsfallrt.php (All Forums, recent posts, teaser, make all layout function) and placed in table.

 

Live example of headlines (recommended code placed in a table):