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Different domain - display latest posts.

Started by shinglis, January 07, 2022, 02:27:07 PM

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shinglis

Ok for background I have some basic html knowledge but very limited when it comes to pho and databases.

I would like to create a holding page ( advertising page) on a different domain, showing the latest posts from the forum.

Maybe try to make it clear, what I'm looking to do;
Domain A - single simple page showing forum latest posts which is on domain B.

So would like to know, is it easy to do? Any security issues? I have full control over both domains under the same hosting account and know all the relevant database security info. (Server up, username, password etc)

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Chen Zhen


Yes you can make use of SSI.php to display a basic table containing latest posts.
This table can be displayed on the other forum/page as is or you can develop your own DOM parser to gather the data & display it as you wish.

example:
https://www.simplemachines.org/community/SSI.php?ssi_function=recentPosts;

My SMF Mods & Plug-Ins

WebDev

"Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like it's from Neptune." - Noam Chomsky

Kindred

The issue is doing it on a different domain.
Слaва
Украинi

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with support questions.  You will get better and faster responses in the support boards.  Thank you.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

shinglis

Thanks, due to the different domain, would display RSS be easier or just use iframe ?

Kindred

Iframes are poor design,these days,  and potentially insecure
Слaва
Украинi

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with support questions.  You will get better and faster responses in the support boards.  Thank you.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

Chen Zhen

#5
There is no issue using the DOM parser for a page scrape of a SMF forum from a different domain.
The output from SSI.php is very basic so there's not much to parse.

Example:
$html = file_get_contents('https://www.simplemachines.org/community/SSI.php?ssi_function=recentPosts;xml;');
$dom = new DOMDocument();
libxml_use_internal_errors(true);
$dom->loadHTML($html);
$tables = $dom->getElementsByTagName('table');
$rows = $tables->item(0)->getElementsByTagName('tr');
echo '
        <div style="width: 100%;overflow: hidden;">
            <div style="width: 100%;text-align: center;margin: 0 auto;color: blue;font-size: 1.5em;text-decoration: underline;padding: 1em;">SIMPLE MACHINES FORUM - LATEST POSTS</div>';
foreach ($rows as $row) {
    $cols = $row->getElementsByTagName('td');
    list($topicLinks, $num) = array($cols->item(1)->getElementsByTagName('a'), 0);
    foreach($topicLinks as $topicLink) {
        $topicAtt[$num] = array($topicLink->nodeValue, '<a href="' . $topicLink->getAttribute('href') . '">' . $topicLink->nodeValue . '</a>');
        $num++;
    }

    $topic = $cols->item(1)->nodeValue;
    $topic = str_replace($topicAtt[0][0], $topicAtt[0][1], $topic);
    $topic = str_replace($topicAtt[1][0], $topicAtt[1][1], $topic);
    echo '
            <div>Board: <a href="' . $cols->item(0)->getElementsByTagName('a')->item(0)->getAttribute('href') . '">'.$cols->item(0)->nodeValue.'</a></div>
            <div>Topic: '.$topic.'</div>
            <div>Date: '.$cols->item(2)->nodeValue . '</div>
            <hr />';
}
echo '
        </div>';

My SMF Mods & Plug-Ins

WebDev

"Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like it's from Neptune." - Noam Chomsky

Arantor

But why would you do that when you can literally just call SSI.php directly with a function name in the URL (because this is how the SHTML version works)?

Chen Zhen

I'm not sure if you were referring to my post but that's exactly what the code I wrote will do. It just allows the admin/user to display it as they wish.

My SMF Mods & Plug-Ins

WebDev

"Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like it's from Neptune." - Noam Chomsky

Arantor

Yes, I see what you're doing, you're calling it the really really roundabout way and building/parsing a DOM tree off the back of it.

Instead of, say, just calling it and including it directly, as it comes by default in an HTML fragment such as https://www.simplemachines.org/community/SSI.php?ssi_function=recentTopics and *just using it* as is.

Chen Zhen

Yes the default display of that HTML table is fine as it is if someone wants it like that. I figure people will likely want to have it display as they wish so using the DOM parser allows that.

My SMF Mods & Plug-Ins

WebDev

"Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like it's from Neptune." - Noam Chomsky

shinglis

Thanks for the comments and feedback the ssi code is exactly what I'm looking for.

Chen Zhen


Great, glad to hear that works for you.

Below is another example but also changing the time format (just for kicks):

$changeTimeFormat = true;
$timeFormat = array('search' => 'F d, Y', 'old' => 'F d, Y, h:i:s A', 'new' => 'Y-m-d');
$html = file_get_contents('https://www.simplemachines.org/community/SSI.php?ssi_function=recentPosts');
$dom = new DOMDocument();
libxml_use_internal_errors(true);
$dom->loadHTML($html);
$tables = $dom->getElementsByTagName('table');
$rows = $tables->item(0)->getElementsByTagName('tr');
echo '
<div style="width: 100%;overflow: hidden;">
<div style="width: 100%;text-align: center;margin: 0 auto;color: blue;font-size: 1.5em;text-decoration: underline;padding: 1em;">SIMPLE MACHINES FORUM - LATEST POSTS</div>';
foreach ($rows as $row) {
$cols = $row->getElementsByTagName('td');
$topic = $cols->item(1)->nodeValue;
$topicLinks = $cols->item(1)->getElementsByTagName('a');
// %B %d, %Y, %I:%M:%S %p
$date = trim($cols->item(2)->nodeValue);
$date = preg_replace("/[^A-Za-z0-9,:\s]/", '', $date);
if (!empty($changeTimeFormat)) {
if (stripos($date, 'today') !== FALSE) {
$timestamp = strtotime('today');
$today = date($timeFormat['search'], $timestamp);
$date = str_ireplace('today at', $today . ',', $date);
}
elseif (stripos($date, 'yesterday') !== FALSE) {
$timestamp = strtotime('yesterday');
$today = date($timeFormat['search'], $timestamp);
$date = str_ireplace('yesterday at', $today . ',', $date);
}

$myDateTime = date_create_from_format($timeFormat['old'], $date);
$date = date_format($myDateTime, $timeFormat['new']);
}

foreach($topicLinks as $topicLink) {
$topic = str_replace($topicLink->nodeValue, '<a href="' . $topicLink->getAttribute('href') . '">' . $topicLink->nodeValue . '</a>', $topic);
}

echo '
<div>Board: <a href="' . $cols->item(0)->getElementsByTagName('a')->item(0)->getAttribute('href') . '">'.$cols->item(0)->nodeValue . '</a></div>
<div>Topic: ' . $topic . '</div>
<div>Date: ' . $date . '</div>
<hr />';
}
echo '
</div>';

The time format parameters for the output of the above are here:
PHP.net: date_create_from_format()



You can also do the whole thing in JavaScript using setInterval() which would allow an auto-refresh.

My SMF Mods & Plug-Ins

WebDev

"Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like it's from Neptune." - Noam Chomsky

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