What is "Javascript content syndication system"

[SpeedStreet]

It sounds cool and I want to know more

[mister]

its probably something so that you or others can put a simple javascript include and have the latest threads show up on a non-vb site (your site or an external users site)

just a guess. i haven't gotten that far yet.

[blackice912]

It sounds cool and I want to know more

Ditto, I as well want to know more

[J-J]

Reply

[Wayne Luke]

It is something that allows you to send arrays of messages, threads or forums to another site so that they can display that infomation anywhere on the site.

The system also does RSS information feeds for integration into other scripts and programs (Trillian, Netscape's Sidebar, etc...).

[J-J]

Yes, but what is the file or script to point to?

Tx Wayne

[Wayne Luke]

First you have to turn the options on in your ACP.

vBulletin Options -> External Data Provider

You are given three options and you can use any combination that you like. The options are Javascript, XML, and RSS.

Then you link to external.php to get the information.

Javascript = www.yourdomain.com/forumpath/external.php?type=js
XML =
www.yourdomain.com/forumpath/external.php?type=xml
RSS =
www.yourdomain.com/forumpath/external.php?type=rss
RSS 2.0 =
www.yourdomain.com/forumpath/external.php?type=rss2
The system defaults to RSS so if you leave off the type, that is what you get.

You can refine this by specifying forumids in the path like so:
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/external.php?forumids=55

I am sure there is more but I haven't researched it fully yet.

[Scott MacVicar]

just to point out defining forumids by going to

externa.php?forumids=1,2,3,4,5
seperate each forum with a comma.

[Kayn]

Hrrrm, this could be extremely handy.

How can you edit the settings, say with the javascript settings - I checked it out - http://www.pluh.com/forums/external.php?type=js - and it pulled up my first 15 posts ever.

What are some other parameters for this nifty feature?

[Mac Write]

How do you break up the information so it's not all clumped together like that?

I want to pull the info from an announcemnt forums onto a news page for a website I am building.

Can this also be used to display a certain thread? so that I can have the comments relating to an article on the same page with the article?

[SpeedStreet]

I was right.

It's nifty.

I can't wait to hear more

[Scott MacVicar]

for javascript
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.url.com/external.php?type=js"></script>

Then you just have to manipulate the arrays and you can use document.write to output the data formatted the way you want.

[Mac Write]

I know nothing about Javascript. I am not a programmer.

Will all this be in the Documentation?

[Scott MacVicar]

Some sample code will be provided in the documentation.

Will most likely include how to format the XML document with XSLT and the JavaScript one.

[Marco]

I know nothing about Javascript. I am not a programmer.

Will all this be in the Documentation?

If you want to play around with it already, you could use something like this:

<script src="/yourvb3location/external.php?type=js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
for (i in threads)
{
document.writeln(threads[i].title + " (" + threads[i].poster + ")<br />");
}
//-->
</script>

That would output the following:

Thread title 1 (Poster name)
Thread title 2 (Poster name)
...
Thread title 15 (Poster name)



Or, say you want to limit it to the last 5 threads only, you would use:

<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
for (i = 0; i < 5; i++)
{
 document.writeln(threads[i].title + "&nbsp;(" + threads[i].poster + ")<br />");
}