Celebrity Spotlight RSS Feeds

What is RSS?

Celebrity Spotlight | RSS

RSS News Feeds allow you to put Celebrity Spotlight News on your website. You can get the headlines stright to your site as soon as it is published.

There is some discussion as to what RSS stands for. Most people use the term 'Really Simple Syndication'.

How do I read the RSS feeds?

The first thing you will need is a news reader. This is designed to let you read any new articles that have been added. Some news readers are browser based, some are downloadable programs.

With browser based news readers, you can view all your RSS subscriptions from any copmputer. However, downloadable programs let you store the feeds on your main computer. This works in the same way you download email in outlook or hotmail.

Once you have chosen a news reader, you can then decide what content you want. Celebrity Spotlight allows you to download stories about most celebrities in out database.

Finding the RSS feeds couldn't be easier, all you need to do is look out for the orange RSS logo on the celebrities pages and click on it.

How do I use the feeds for my site?

All you need to do is add one of the following pieces of code to your site and the optional example styles which can be edited to change the look and feel of the feed. If you require help with this, then don't hesitate to email us : support@celebrityspotlight.co.uk.

Javascript - suitable for all websites.

ASP Code - suitable for Windows hosted websites.

<%
'*********************************************************
' ASP CODE TO DISPLAY RSS FEEDS - CELEBRITY SPOTLIGHT
'*********************************************************
Dim RSSURL, TemplateHeader, ItemTemplate, TemplateFooter, ErrorMessage, xmlDOM, xmlHttp, RSSItems, RSSItemsCount, j, i, RSSItem, child
Dim RSStitle, RSSdescription, RSSlink, ItemContent, sTargetWindow

'------------------------------------------------------------
' Settings - alter these to change what is displayed
'------------------------------------------------------------
' Turn descriptions on or off (true/false)
Const bShowDescriptions = false
' max number of items to be displayed
Const MaxNumberOfItems = 10
' show articles in new window, or same window (true/false)
Const bNewWindow = true
' the URL of the RSS feed
RSSURL = "http://www.celebrityspotlight.co.uk/rss/showbiz.xml"
'------------------------------------------------------------

' template header - what is at the top of the feed
TemplateHeader = "<table class='rssTable'><tr><td class='rssTableHeader'><a target='_blank' href='http://www.celebrityspotlight.co.uk'>Celebrity Spotlight News Feed</a></td></tr>"
' item template - for each item, {LINK} , {TITLE} and {DESCRIPTION} are where the details go
If bNewWindow Then sTargetWindow = " target='_blank'"

If bShowDescriptions Then
	ItemTemplate = "<tr><td class='rssTableItem'><a" & sTargetWindow & " href='{LINK}'>{TITLE}</a><br />{DESCRIPTION}</td></tr>"
Else
	ItemTemplate = "<tr><td class='rssTableItem'><a" & sTargetWindow & " href='{LINK}'>{TITLE}</a></td></tr>"
End if

' template footer - what is at the bottom of te feed
TemplateFooter = "</table>"
' on error, this error message is displayed
ErrorMessage = "Error has occured while trying to process " & RSSURL & "<br />Please contact web-master"

'*********************************************************
' DO NOT EDIT BELOW THIS LINE
'*********************************************************

Set xmlDOM = Server.CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
xmlDOM.async = false
xmlDOM.setProperty "ServerHTTPRequest", true
xmlDOM.Load (RSSURL)
Set xmlHttp = Nothing
Set RSSItems = xmlDOM.getElementsByTagName("item")
Set xmlDOM = Nothing
RSSItemsCount = RSSItems.Length-1

If RSSItemsCount > 0 Then 
	Response.Write(TemplateHeader)
End If

j = -1
For i = 0 To RSSItemsCount
	Set RSSItem = RSSItems.Item(i)
	
	For each child in RSSItem.childNodes
		Select case lcase(child.nodeName)
			case "title" : RSStitle = child.text
			case "link" : RSSlink = child.text
			case "description" : RSSdescription = child.text
		End Select
	Next
	
	j = j + 1
	
	If j < MaxNumberOfItems Then 
		ItemContent = Replace(ItemTemplate,"{LINK}",RSSlink)
		ItemContent = Replace(ItemContent,"{TITLE}",RSSTitle)
		Response.Write Replace(ItemContent,"{DESCRIPTION}",RSSDescription)
		ItemContent = ""
	End if
Next

If RSSItemsCount > 0 Then Response.Write(TemplateFooter) : Else Response.Write ErrorMessage

'*********************************************************
' END OF ASP RSS FEED CODE
'*********************************************************
%>

PHP Code - suitable for Unix hosted websites.

<?php
//*********************************************************
// PHP CODE TO DISPLAY RSS FEEDS - CELEBRITY SPOTLIGHT
//*********************************************************

//------------------------------------------------------------
// Settings - alter these to change what is displayed
//------------------------------------------------------------
// Turn descriptions on or off (true/false)
define("bShowDescriptions", false);
// max number of items to be displayed
define("MaxNumberOfItems", 10);
// show articles in new window, or same window (true/false)
define("bNewWindow", true);
// the URL of the RSS feed
$RSSURL = "http://www.celebrityspotlight.co.uk/rss/showbiz.xml";
//------------------------------------------------------------

// template header - what is at the top of the feed
$TemplateHeader = "<table class='rssTable'><tr><td class='rssTableHeader'><a target='_blank' href='http://www.celebrityspotlight.co.uk'>Celebrity Spotlight News Feed</a></td></tr>";
// item template - for each item, {LINK} , {TITLE} and {DESCRIPTION} are where the details go
if(bNewWindow) { $sTargetWindow = " target='_blank'"; } else { $sTargetWindow = ""; }

if(bShowDescriptions)
	{ $ItemTemplate = "<tr><td class=\'rssTableItem\'><a" . $sTargetWindow . " href='{LINK}'>{TITLE}</a><br />{DESCRIPTION}</td></tr>"; }
else
	{ $ItemTemplate = "<tr><td class='rssTableItem'><a" . $sTargetWindow . " href='{LINK}'>{TITLE}</a></td></tr>";
}

// template footer - what is at the bottom of te feed
$TemplateFooter = "</table>";
// on error, this error message is displayed
$ErrorMessage = "Error has occured while trying to process " . $RSSURL . "<br />Please contact web-master";

//*********************************************************
// DO NOT EDIT BELOW THIS LINE
//*********************************************************

$handle = fopen($RSSURL, "rb");
if ($handle === false) { echo $ErrorMessage; } else {
$xmlstr = stream_get_contents($handle);
$xmlDOM = new SimpleXMLElement($xmlstr);
$RSSItems = $xmlDOM->channel->item;
$RSSItemsCount = count($RSSItems);
fclose($handle);

if ($RSSItemsCount > 0) {
    echo $TemplateHeader;
}

$j = -1;
for($i = 0; $i < $RSSItemsCount; $i++) {
	$RSSItem = $xmlDOM->channel->item[$i];
   	foreach( $RSSItem->children() as $child ) {
		switch( strtolower( $child->getName() ) ) {
			case "title" : $RSStitle = $child; break;
			case "link" : $RSSlink = $child; break;
			case "description" : $RSSdescription = $child; break;
		}
	}
	
	$j++;
	
	if ($j < MaxNumberOfItems) { 
		$ItemContent = str_replace("{LINK}", $RSSlink, $ItemTemplate);
		$ItemContent = str_replace("{TITLE}", $RSStitle, $ItemContent);
		echo str_replace("{DESCRIPTION}", $RSSdescription, $ItemContent);
		$ItemContent = "";
	}
}

if ($RSSItemsCount > 0) { echo $TemplateFooter; } else { echo $ErrorMessage; }
}
//*********************************************************
// END OF PHP RSS FEED CODE
//*********************************************************

Example Styles - this changes the appearance of the feed.

Where can I find news readers?

Below are a couple of links to news readers that you may find useful.

Windows  -  Newz Crawler
Windows  -  FeedDemon
Mac OS   -  Newsfire
Web        -  Microsoft Live
Web        -  Yahoo!
Web        -  Google
Browser   -  FireFox

Where can I see example websites using the feeds?

You can see an example of how the feed could look at this example Paris Hilton Website, or at this example Lindsay Lohan Website.