tRSSNews is a fully compliant RSS feed reader for RSS version 0.91 - 2.0 and Atom Feeds.

Features of tRSSNews include:

• Customizable block (center/sides) for either a single feeds or latest news from all feeds - Scrolling option.
• Fully templated using pnRender & Xanthia.
• "My Feeds" - allow users to add and edit their own feeds.
• Module Stylesheet
• Category and sub-category support - 1 Page or Multiple Category pages.
• Multiple language support including Cyrillic.
• Cache for number of days to keep articles based on publication dates.
• Backend for cron daemon to automatically update feeds on a regular basis.
• Support for feed images or Administrator can choose a custom feed icon.
• Support for news article images and dynamic resizing for blocks.

There are many more features, and more to come in future releases. Your feature suggestions are always encouraged. Please post your suggestions in the forums.

tRSSNews requires:

• PostNuke version .760 or greater.
• PHP version 3.06 or greater.
• Xanthia (Must be Installed/Activated)
• pnRender (Must be Installed/Activated)
• Cron daemon - for automatic feed updates (Optional)

This module will work under Autotheme, but Xanthia and pnRender must be activated.

 MD-Pro Requirements

• MD-Pro version 1.0.76 or greater. (May work on lower versions)
• PHP version 3.06 or greater.
• pnRender_X_MD2.1 (Must be Installed/Activated)
• Cron daemon - for automatic feed updates (Optional)
  

1. To install tRSSNews, download the zip file or the tar/gzip file. If you are ftping the files to a server, make sure and upload everything in ASCII mode, not binary, or you will get some file not found erros.
2. Copy the modules/tRSSNews folder to your Postnuke/MD-Pro installation, under modules.
3. Copy the modules/tRSSNews/pnsearch/trssnews.php to your includes/search folder.
4. Make sure that the webserver has read access all files in the tRSSNews folder and search folder. (ie. chmod -R ug+r *)
5. The folder pnimages/rssimgs needs to have write permissions for the webserver. (ie. chmod ug+rw pnimages/rssimages)
6. Regenerate your modules list under Postnuke's/MD-Pro's Administration/Modules
7. Initialize and Activate the module.

That should be it for most users. If everything has been done properly, you should now be ready to add categories and feeds.

MDPro SEO Hack for tRSSNews

tRSSNews has built in SEO optimizations that can be utilized in MDPro.

The hack can be found at MDPro SEO Hack

PostNuke Specific

If you are using a version of tRSSNews earlier than 2.01, then you will need to regenerate your modules list and Upgrade/Activate the tRSSNews module. You may also need to clear out your pnRender and Xanthia pnTemp cache files.

MD-Pro Specific

No Updates/Upgrades Released

The initial tRSSNews Admin Page looks as follows:

From this page you have the option of Creating a New Feed or selecting from the other menu items. If you want to use categories and sub-categories you must select add category first before adding feeds. If you are upgrading your version and want to categorize your feeds, then add the categories. After you have added your categories, click on Uncategorized Feeds, this will allow you to edit each of your feeds and place them in the categories you have created.

Creating a New Feed:

To create a new feed:

• Enter the Feed Name (This is the name you want to call this feed, not the name from the feed).
• Enter the Feed Source (This must be in the format http://...)
• If you have set up categories, select the Category for this feed.

Adding a Category:

To add a category:

• Enter the name for your category in the Category field.
• Select New Top Category if you want this to be a main category, or if you have already defined other categories, select the category you want this to be a sub-category of.
• Select your Category Image from the drop down list.
  • Note: If you would like to add your own category images to tRSSNews, just copy them to the pnimages/catimages folder. Images should be gif format and now larger than 32x32 pixels. tRSSNews will automatically detect your new images and add them to the drop down list.

Module Configuration:

To modify the module configuration click on Modify Configuration. You are then presented with the following:

The following options are available for module customization:

• Cache Time (days) - This is the number of days old an article can be before it is purged from the system.
• Theme Left Coumn Width - This is the size of the left column width of your theme. This setting is used to determine article image sizes for left column blocks.
• Theme Right Column Width - This is the size of the right column width of your theme. This setting is used to determine article image sizes for right column blocks.
  • Note: Right and Left Column width are used to determine the size of images displayed in center blocks.
• Number of Items per Page - This controls the number of articles displayed on each page, ie. Latest News, Popular, etc.
• Maximum Feed items to add per feed - This controls the number of new articles added per feed during an update, 0 adds all new articles.
  
• Allow Cache to Expire? - This setting determines whether the cache of downloaded articles will expire based on the Cache Time or whether all articles will be kept forever.
  • Note: If Allow Cache to Expire is not checked, your database of articles will continue to grow and also the images for the articles, that are saved on the disk, will increase - taking up valuable disk space.
• Switch TimeSince 'Ago' before Minutes - If you are using a "Romance Language", ie. Spanish, Italian, and need the "Ago" to be placed before minutes, select this option.
  • Example: 16 Minutes ago ... or ... ago 16 minutes.
• Use Feed Image from RSS - This option, if checked, will use the image provided by the feed for the top of feed article pages. If uncheck, the Default Image to use for RSS Feeds without Image will be used.
• Show Feeds & Categories on 1 Page - This option, if selected, will show all feeds and categories on one main page to users. If unchecked, the user page will display top categories and the user will have to navigate through each category/subcategory to get to the feeds.
  • Note: This feature is mainly a cosmetic feature and can be used based on your personal taste.
• Use Article Page - Select this option if you would like to display an article page, rather than popping up the actual article.
• Note: This feature is useful if you would like to use hooks to for comments, etc.
  
• Article Length on Item List Pages - If you would like to limit the length of articles on your Latest/Populer/Feed pages, enter the number of characters to display here.  If you enter 0 the full article that was retrieved will be display.
  
• Allow Users to have "My Feeds" - If you would like your users to be able to have their own feeds and feed pages, then select this option. If you would rather users not have this feature, uncheck this option.
• Default Image to use for RSS Feeds without Image - This is the default image to use for feeds that do not provide and image or the image you want to use if Use Feed Image from RSS is unchecked.
  • Note: This image is also used for the top of the Popular News Items and the Latest News pages.
• Default Image to use for Categories - If you have chosed not to Show Feeds & Categories on 1 Page then this is the image that shows up as default for New Categories. You still have the option to change the image on each individual category when you add them.
• Use Proxy - If your server requires you to go through a proxy to download feeds, check this option.
• Proxy Name - Enter then url for your proxy server here.
• Proxy Port - Enter the port for your proxy server here.
• Proxy Requires Authentication - If your proxy server requires authentication, check this option.
• Proxy User Name - Enter your proxy user name here.
• Proxy Password - Enter your proxy password here.
• Debug Feed - This option is strictly for debuging a feed that is not parsing properly.  If this is enabled, a page will be displayed with information about how the feed was parsed.  Articles will not be added to the database. 
  
• Note:  If a feed is failing for you please post the feed URL and the output of this page in the forums.
  

Uncategorized Feeds: If you have added feeds prior to adding categories, you can view your feeds that do not have a category assigned here. You can View Feed Items (articles) here, edit the Feed and assign it to a category, update the feed cache individually, or delete the feed.

User Feeds: User Feeds displays a list of all feeds that users have added via "My Feeds". You can manually update the cache for each item, View Feed Items, edit the user feeds, or you can delete feeds that you do not want.

Update All Feed Caches: This menu item allows you to update all of your feeds at one time if you are not using Cron for your updating. This is easier than manually updating each feed.

To add a new tRSSNews block

1. Goto Postnuke Administration and select "Blocks".
2. Click on "New Block".
3. Type the name for your block
4. For Block select "tRSSNews/tRSSNews feeds Block.
5. Select the Position for your new block.
6. Configure any additional options you want and click Update.

You are then presented with the the tRSSNews block configuration page.

The options for the tRSSNews Block are as follows:

• Number of Articles - This is the number of articles you want displayed in the block.
• Maximum Article Length - This is the number of characters of an article you want displayed in a block.
  
• Show Article Images - If you only want the article text displayed, leave this option uncheck. If you check this option, the images that are included with the articles will be displayed, dynamically resized to fit the location of the block.
• Show Feed Image - If this option is checked, the image from the feed will be displayed in the block. If this option is unchecked, the Default Feed Image is used.
  • Note: "Latest/Popular" will always show the "Default Feed Image".
• Feeds to Show - Select either Latest News, Popular, or the feed (s) you want displayed in the block. 
• Note: Hold down the <ctrl> key while selecting feed to choose more than one.
• Use Scrolling Marquee - This option allows you to enable the scrolling news block.
• Scroll Direction - Choose the direction you want your scrolling block to display articles.
• Scroll Width - This is the width of the block or the width that you would like the scrolling to take place in.
• Scroll Height - This determines the height of the block that scrolling will be occuring in.
• Scroll Delay - This determines how fast or slow your marquee will move.  A lower number will increase the speed.
  

Click Update to add your block.

Note: If you are using Xanthia for your theme, remember to add the block to your theme.

The tRSSNews inteface is designed to provide a user-friendly experience to your users.  The interface is as follows:

The user is presented with the following options:

• Show Feeds - This option shows either a '1' page list of all feeds and categories, or a graphic page of feed categories.
• Latest News - This option shows the 'Latest News' from all feeds ordered by date/time with newest articles displayed first.
• Popular Headlines - This options shows the 'Most Popular' news articles ordered by the number of clicks the article has received with most clicks displayed first.
• My Feeds - If you have enabled users to have 'My Feeds', then this menu item is displayed as follows:

My Feeds allows the user to add their own custom feeds to your site.  The user has the following options:

• Show My Feeds - This options shows the users their feeds that they have added.  If they have added feeds, they are also given the opportunity to Edit their feeds or Delete their feeds.  - At the bottom of the page, they are presented with Add Feed where they can add new feeds in the following format:
  • Feed Name - The name the user wants to call the feed.
  • Feed Source URL - The URL for the feed as shown in the Example.  (URL must start with http://)
• Latest News - This option shows the users the latest news from all their feeds ordered by date with newest articles displayed first.
• Update Feeds - This option updates the cache of articles for their feeds.  This option is useful if the user has just added a feed and has not been updated by the Administrator via Update All Feed Caches, or via a cron job.