obFTRSS User Manual (1.5.8)

(foobla Full-Text RSS)

 

THIS DOCUMENT IS STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Every Request for this document, please email me: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

 

 

This image need to be changed -Thong Tran 6/9/10 1:05 PM 

 

Author: Thong Tran – http://foobla.com

In this Document:

1. About obFTRSS

2. Install & Upgrade

   1. K2 Plugin

   2. PLEXIcontent Plugin

3. Configuration

4. Set-up News Feed

5. News Feed Manager
   1. Understanding the News Feed list.
   2. Clear Cache.

6. Plugins

   1. About obFTRSS plugin

   2. Install Plugin

   3. K2 Plugin Parameters

   4. FLEXIcontent Plugin Parameters

7. Some more funs
   1. Tips
   2. Languages/Translation

8. Request Support

This list need to be updated automatically and formatted well -Thong Tran 6/9/10 12:57 PM

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1. ABOUT obFTRSS

obFTRSS (foobla Full-Text RSS) allow you to create Joomla Articles from RSS feed sources with FULL TEXT support, no matter the RSS feed source is full-text or not.

 

 

 

 

 

When we design this extension, we focus on performance, easy-to-use GUI and saving time for end-user (yes, time is more than money, let's use it for your family).

Key Features

• Grab full-length articles from RSS Feeds.
• Built-in cronjob, just install obFTRSS, set up some News Feed and done.
• Grab external images and store into Joomla images folder.
• Plugin support provides obFTRSS ability to grab articles for K2 content, grab articles for FLEXIcontent, ...

 

Please check out the product page for more information about what it is.

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2. INSTALL & UPGRADE

2.1. Install

obFTRSS extension is all-in-one Joomla extension package, so that everything we need to do to implement this extension is install the component as regular Joomla component.


Go to Joomla backend > Click: Install/Uninstall > Browse the component file (something likes: com_fulltextrss_1.5.8) > Click [Upload File & Install] > if there is no problem, the extension will be installed.

Click on [Click here] link to go to the Main Screen of the extension directly.


In this Main Screen, there is some notifications as wizard to instruct you in the first time. It will check for environment, cronjob setting, creating first news feed. We will go for it later in this document.

2.2. Upgrade

There are two methods to upgrade to the newer version.

 

 

This screenshot need to be updated with latest version (1.5.8) -Thong Tran 6/9/10 11:06 AM

 

2.2.1. METHOD #1: Using One-Click upgrade feature

On the main screen of the component backend, click [Support] button.

If your version is out-of-date, you will see a screen as above. Just click [UPGRADE NOW] button to upgrade the extension.

Backup the current site is recommended in this case.

2.2.2. METHOD #2: Using patch file

The first thing we need to do for this option is downloading the patch file. Since you are here, you know how to get it.

Just use the form as above screen to upgrade the patch file, and you are done.

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3. CONFIGURATION

On the main component backend screen, click [Parameters] button on the Toolbar, we will see a popup likes below:

 

 

 

 

 

3.1 Alias Characters Replacement

You can see many pairs of Unicode|ANSCII characters, this will be use for title alias. You can add, edit them if you want. We have made it for almost Latin languages in the world.

3.2 Created Date Type

This is global value for created date of each item stored from the feed.

• Real Created Date: the current date will be used for articles.
• Created Date from Feed: the date from feed will be used for articles.

3.3 Crobjob Active

If you want to POST articles from RSS automatically, you have to turn it on.

3.4 Start At

This option is relevant with "Cronjob Active", it lets extension know when you want to start the schedule for the first time.

3.5 Schedule

The time period between each execution.

3.6 Default Email

In [Support] area, we offer quick support / quick feedback to help you easier to get help from us. In order to be monitored when using those forms, you have to use correct email address which you used for purchasing the extension.

3.7 Show Tips

In effort to get more funs for you when using the extension, we add it to give you more tips. The tips will be updated automatically from our FAQs section. You can turn this Tips box off if you don't need further tips.

3.8 Show Feed Optional

When you create a new News Feed, the only thing you have to provide is: Feed URL, we do not disturb you with un-necessary information. You even do not need to provide a title, we made it. Feed Optional is for advanced purpose, you can ignore it without problem. It's HIDE in default mode. You can show it up by turn on this value.

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4. SET-UP THE FIRST NEWS FEED

Let's getting started by click [New] button on the toolbar or Setup link on the notification bar.

 

 

 

 

Feed Information

• News Feed Title: the name of this RSS feed. This entry is required. You can open the RSS feed for editing by clicking on the title. It's automatic filled with Untitled Feed (number) if you don't want to care about it.

• Feed URL: the URL for this RSS Feed. You can enter or paste the URL RSS Feed here. The system will automatically get Articles from this URL. Notice: it HAS TO start with http:// , it won't work if it starts with feed:// . If you post automatic articles in uncategorized section/category, this is only require field that need to be filled.
• Section: content section, you can create quickly a section by selecting “- New Section -” option, an AJAX form will open up to help you create new MASS sections in a second without reload the page.

  
  To create multiple sections, use below format:
   

  Section 01 Name|Section 01 Description Section 02 Name Section 03 Name|Description is an option

  
  

   

• Category: content Category, you can create quickly a category by selecting “- New Category -” option.

  
   

  To create multiple categories, use below format:

   

  Category 01 Name|Category 01 Description Category 02 Name Category 03 Name|Description is not necessary

Feed Optional

At the bottom of this area, there is a checkbox: "Always show Feed optional". Check it if you want to show up this area everytime you create a news feed. Otherwise, just ignore it.

• Ordering: the order of this news feed in the news feed list.
• Strip HTML Tags: there are three options at the moment
  • a: will strip out all anchor tags.
  • img: will strip out all img tags.
  • *: will strip out all HTML tags.
• Content Source: this text will be added in the bottom of the article as author of the article (for the copyright issue).

• Keywords: flexible keywords, you can use “+” or “-” to includes or exclude content which contain or not those keywords, and quote " " for keyword phrase.
  obFullTextRSS offers very flexible expression with three operators AND, OR, NOT and " " for keywords phrase.
  Some examples:

  • A NOT B: +"joomla extensions" -templates
  • A AND B NOT C: +"joomla cms" +wordpress -dotnetnuke
  • A OR B OR C: joomla "content management system" joom jumla
    
• Get images as: decide what you do with the images in articles.
  • Link: the image URLs will be changed to absolute path to the source site. No image downloaded to your Joomla site.
  • Get to local: the images in each articles will be download into your Joomla site, image path will be changed to local path, of course.
• Save to: this option follows up with "Get images as" above, if you "get image to local", this option decides where to store those images, default path is: images/stories/.
• Words Introtext: cut off the full-length text for introtext, leave blank for no introtext.
• With Image: set it checked if you want to show up image in the introtext.
• Full-Text RSS: if the RSS source doesn't offer Full-Text, you can turn on this option to grab the full content of each item.
• Published article: set article published automatically as soon as it has been grabbed.
• Frontpage: if this option is “Yes”, the article will be show up on the frontpage.

• Link to original: select Yes or No from the radio button group to indicate whether to display link original Article. If you select Yes, the text link to original Article will display at the end of each Article.

• Screen for Duplicates: select Yes or No from the radio button group to indicate whether to prevent duplicate Articles from being posted.

• Parameters section: as regular Joomla article parameters.

 

Parameters - Article

• Author: as regular Joomla article parameters.
• Author Alias: as regular Joomla article parameters.
• Access Level: as regular Joomla article parameters.
• Created Date: as regular Joomla article parameters.
• Start Publishing: as regular Joomla article parameters.
• Finish Publishing: as regular Joomla article parameters.
• Created date type: set created date for each article.
  • Use Global: as the option you set in the configuration.
  • Current: based on the time each article get published on your Joomla site.
  • As Feed: based on the time set on feed.
• Word length: the minimum characters for each article, if the article has less than that minimum value, it will be ignored.
• Black list: this option is relevant with "Keywords" option to decide what you want to do with negative articles.
  • Ignore: just ignore it.
  • Save unpublished: give it a chance, still save it but set unpublished, we can go check it manually later.
• Before text: you can add some text before each article in effort to make it unique (for SEO).
  • Apply to:
    • Introduction: add to introtext.
    • Fulltext: add to full text.
    • Both: add to both introtext and full text.
• After text: you can add some text after each article in effort to make it unique (for SEO).
  • Apply to:
    • Introduction: add to introtext.
    • Fulltext: add to full text.
    • Both: add to both introtext and full text.

Metadata Information

The same as regular Joomla article creating form.

Parameters - Advanced

The same as regular Joomla article creating form.

Buttons

• Preview: view what we get from the extension.
• Save: save the news feed setting and go to the Main Screen.
• Apply: save the news feed setting and stay in the current page.
• Save & New: save the news feed setting and go create a new one (this button only show up when you create a new News Feed).
• Save as Copy: create a copy of current News Feed (this button only show up when you edit an existing News Feed).
• Cancel: ignore the current setting and go to the Main Screen.

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5. SOME MORE FUNS

Clear Cache

In the toolbar, we have [Clear Cache] button.

Tips

We made it in effort to help the end-user more useful tips & tricks when using the extension. It is the first time we make it on foobla's extension. We will implement this fun to other extensions of foobla in future.

Languages/Translations

This built-in feature allow you to translate this extension to another language.

Click [Languages] button to go to the Translation screen.

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6. PLUGINS

6.1 About obFTRSS Plugins

obFTRSS provides ability to extend its functionality through Plugins structure. Since we have obFTRSS installed, we can extend its by install plugins for it. Currently, we have two plugins:

• K2 content plugin: grab articles from RSS source and import into K2.
• FLEXIcontent plugin: grab articles from RSS source and import into FLEXIcontent.

In near future, we will make more plugins, i.e:

• VirtueMart: grab products from eBay, Amazon, Google Base,... and import into VirtueMart.
• EventList: grab events from somewhere (I don't know) and import into EventList.

If you need something likes this, please contact us, we will consider to make it for you.

6.2 Install obFTRSS Plugin

Just install it as regular Joomla extension. Do not forget to enable the plugin after installed it.

6.3 K2 Content plugin

link to K2 plugin page -Thong Tran 6/9/10 2:09 PM 

6.4 FLEXIcontent plugin

link to FLEXIcontent plugin page -Thong Tran 6/9/10 2:09 PM 

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7. Request Support

• The product page: http://foob.la/obFTRSS

• FAQs: http://foob.la/FAQ

• Support: http://foob.la/Support