Description
FeedCache will retrieve, cache and store locally a list of RSS feeds that you can then display on your WP site. This prevents multiple HTTP requests with each page load since the feeds can be read from the cache file.
Requirements
- Ruby
- Rubygems with the following gems installed:
- active_record
- feed_tools
(If you are hosted with Dreamhost you have these gems already. If you are hosted elsewhere you will need to check. If you run a VPS or dedicated machine like me, then just install them viasudo gem install
)
- CRON access
Upgrading
IMPORTANT
If you are upgrading from a version of FeedCache prior to v0.9.8, please
deactivate and delete your existing feedcache plugin directory and follow the new
installation steps.
-
Deactivate the previous version of FeedCache through your WordPress plugins menu
-
Upload the new feedcache-cron.rb, feedcache.php and complete lib/ directory files to your existing feedcache directory. You do not need to overwrite your feedcache-config.yml file.
-
Enter the correct FEEDCACHE_DIR variable in the feedcache-cron.rb script
-
Go to Options -> FeedCache Options and update your FeedCache settings
Screenshots
Installation
-
Upload the feedcache directory to your wordpress wp-content/plugins directory. Make sure the feedcache directory is writeable by the web server (rw-rw-rw 666).
-
Change the file permissions on the feedcache-config.yml file to rw-rw-rw- (666)
-
Activate the FeedCache plugin through your wordpress plugin menu
-
Setup FeedCache options under the Options -> FeedCache Options menu
(a) Choose the number of feed groups you want (1 – 99)
(b) Add your list of RSS feeds 1 per line and set the other options. You can have up to 4 different groupings of RSS feeds to cache.
If you wish to manually override the name of the feed, place a pipe character “|” after the RSS URL and then type the name you want to use (e.g http://www.craigjolicoeur.com|Craig P Jolicoeur)
If you wish to manually override the number of feed items to display, place a pipe character “|” after the feed title and enter the number to display
If you wish to manually override the feed text formatting, place a pipe character “|” after the feed display number and put either of a true/false boolean value
(c) Take note of the “CRON Script Settings” section at the bottom – you will need this info -
Edit the feedcache-cron.rb file
(a) Copy the “feedcache directory” path from the CRON Script Settings into the “FEEDCACHE_DIR = ”” variable
(b) Set the number of characters from each RSS feed you want to display
(c) Update the MYSQL_SOCKET setting if your MySQL socket is different than the default -
Add the feedcache-cron.rb ruby script to your servers CRON job (if you need help with CRON please refer
to the following URL: http://www.unixgeeks.org/security/newbie/unix/cron-1.html)
(e.g. 30 * * * * /usr/bin/ruby /path/to/your/wordpress/install/wp-content/plugins/feedcache/feedcache-cron.rb) -
Add FeedCache output to your site via widgets or direct placement
- If your theme is widget-enabled, simply add the FeedCache widget wherever you want to your theme
-
If your theme is not widget-enabled, or you prefer not to use the FeedCache widget, add the following code to your wordpress theme where you want the RSS feed listing to be displayed
for the default (group 1) listing or you can specify a group (in this case, group 2)
<?php if (function_exists('feedcache_display_feeds')) { echo feedcache_display_feeds(2); } ?>
If you don’t specify a group number in the function call, then Group 1 will be used. If you want to specify the specific
group number to display use “feedcache_display_feeds(GROUP_NUMBER)” where GROUP_NUMBER is the number you want to display. -
Sit back and enjoy the plugin
FAQ
- Why would I need this plugin?
-
If you are using your WP installation to display other website’s RSS feeds, this will save HTTP requests and improve page load times for your users. By using a CRON job to fetch and format the feeds, the user will not have to wait during page load for the feed to be updated.
- Will FeedCache work with Atom feeds?
-
Yes! FeedCache will work with both RSS and ATOM feeds.
- Can I receive error emails from the CRON process?
-
Yes, just set CRON_EMAILS = true in the feedcache-cron.rb script. Error emails are turned off by default.
- Can I have more than 10 RSS Groups
-
Yes, but you’ll need to manually edit the feedcache.php file. Find the following line:
define("MAX_GROUPSIZE", 10);
and change the number 10 to whatever number you need. (Just don’t go overboard, 🙂 ) Take note that when you upgrade the
FeedCache plugin in the future, you’ll need to update this number every time.
Reviews
There are no reviews for this plugin.
Contributors & Developers
“FeedCache” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
ContributorsTranslate “FeedCache” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Change log
1.1.1
- Bugfix: WP database password wasn’t found properly in CRON script
1.1
- widgetize plugin
- store all config settings in the yaml file. dont use a separate master-config.txt file
1.0.6.1
- bugfix for missing false option on settings page
1.0.6
- bugfix for truncation of feed titles during CRON job
1.0.5
- strip non-ascii characters from title output
1.0.4
- added plugin credits to admin page footer
- updated credential levels for adding admin subpage
1.0.3
- update WP options to only use 2 option fields via an options array
1.0.2
- use feed_tools gem for parsing
- single YAML config file
- store RSS cache into the WP database
0.9.8
- allow for up to 99 feed groups now
0.9.5
- added option to open feed links in a new browser window
0.9.1
- bugfix for issue where files/ directory wasn’t being included in the WordPress download
- fixed issue with truncation of feed titles to include ellipses
0.9
- allow the user to set the number of RSS groups (from 1 – 10)
- moved config and cache files to the new files/ directory
- created a new master-config file for general settings
0.8.1
- fixed an issue with weird links using ATOM feeds from blogspot
0.8
- now using feedparser library to parse both RSS and ATOM feeds
- cleaned up configuration so only the feedcache plugin path will need to be entered
0.7.2
- fixed bug with config files not being set properly
0.7.1
- rename broken screenshot file
0.7
- Allow up to 4 different cache files to allow for multiple instances of the plugin per theme
- Fix some admin page layout issues
0.6.1
- Add option to not send CRON error emails
0.6
- Fix broken feed formatting options
0.5.5
- Added user-agent to the CRON script to force RSS-only feeds from feedburners SmartFeed service
0.5.2
- Lower the error output level from the CRON job again
0.5.1
- Lower the error output level from the CRON job
0.5
- Use a temp file when grabbing new cache
0.4
- Updates to the Ruby CRON script for better error handling
0.3.1
- Fixed bug that would cause PHP header errors during login/logout
0.3
- Added option to manually override the number of feed items to display on a per feed basis
- Added option to manually override the feed text formatting option on a per feed basis
0.2
- Updated README file
- Added option for manually named feed titles
0.1
- Initial Release