Simple RSS Feed Reader
Version
2.3 (last update on Oct 30, 2011)
Rating
Compatibility
Votes
Favoured
60
License
GPLv2 or later
Non-Commercial
Type
Views
194206
Date Added
29 January 2007
Adding RSS syndicated content inside your Joomla! website is now super-easy and simple with the "Simple RSS Feed Reader" Module from JoomlaWorks. All you have to do is insert the feed (RSS) URLs of the websites you want to syndicate in the module's settings, edit your content options, publish the module in some position and that's it! You can even publish multiple feeds at the same time (in the same module instance), filtering globally the feed items by date!
"Simple RSS Feed Reader" is based on the very popular SimplePie PHP Class, which makes it easy to integrate syndicated content into your Joomla! website - and you don't even have to worry about what kind of feed it is! The module supports everything from the old-school RSS 0.91 and RSS 1.0 formats, to the ever-popular RSS 2.0 format, and also supports the emerging Atom format, in both 0.3 and 1.0 flavors. It has a very fast, very efficient caching system. By caching the processed data, rather than just the raw XML, the module is able to create a feed parser that's really, really quick.
The feed contents are stored inside Joomla!'s cache folder and refreshed in a specific time interval, which you set in the module's parameters.
In this new version:
- we have added the option to retrieve and process (resize) remote images, which are then stored in Joomla's "cache" folder for the best possible performance
- new content options include pre-text, post-text, a custom link option at the bottom of the feeds block and more
- MVC templating is now standard, module comes pre-packed with 2 cool sub-templates
- One input box for feeds enables you to add unlimited sources to your module (previously limited to 20 feeds only per module instance).
After you install the module, add one or more RSS feed sources in the related box under "Fetch Options" and simply adjust the "Feed Content Options" in the module parameters.
--- STYLING ---
The module already includes some generic CSS styling, which makes it truely "plug and play" for your Joomla! website. If you want more control, you can simply override both the generated HTML and CSS, using MVC template overrides within your Joomla! template. The module comes prepacked with 2 templates, default and compact - the latter inspired by http://joomlareader.com/
--- DEMO ---
Demo for "default" sub-template: http://demo.joomlaworks.gr (right column)
"Simple RSS Feed Reader" is released under the GNU/GPL v2 license.
Images
Great product! Very easy to use and to create a custom theme to fit your website requirements.
Nice module and easy set-up, works well except does not show images.
I tried several other RSS readers to integrate an existing Podcast and Blogger blog into my Joomla site. The others were making weird cascading layout things or were only customizable in the code. I'm not a coder, so that wouldn't really work for me.
This RSS Feed Reader worked first shot out of the box, Podcast and Blog posts showed up beautifully and with a few settings, I was VERY happy with the result.
Thank you!
This RSS Feed Reader worked first shot out of the box, Podcast and Blog posts showed up beautifully and with a few settings, I was VERY happy with the result.
Thank you!
It may somehow be my mistake but two things happened. First, when I attempted to display feed items using Simple RSS Feed Reader on the same page as the standard Joomla Feed "mod_feed" Reader I got a white screen. I understand that this may not be possible, however then, when I attempted to uninstall the module there were two instances of "mod_feed" in my module list. I uninstalled the first thinking it was the one associated with Simple RSS Feed Reader and what happened is that the uninstall uninstalled both! Now I no longer have the standard Joomla mod_feed module. I do backups before installation of anything new so I can recover from this but people should be aware of this unexpected behavior.
Runs perfectly on my website but not on wampserver and xampp. In wampserver / xampp the module is not displayed correctly and the tool tip pop-up isn't working but besides this its a great module.
Hope we can get a fix for this though.
Hope we can get a fix for this though.
Owner's reply
You may be missing required PHP modules on your local server, that's why it may not work properly for you.
In order for the module to work properly, your local server must have the following PHP modules enabled: cURL, iconv, PCRE, Zlib.
Hope this helps.
I'd give this 5 stars but it's basly programmed. If you use ANY other module that uses simplepie, your site will break. I got a tip from the gCalendar guys and patched this plugin to look for simple pie and only load it if needed, but then it has to be AFTER the other simplepie modules...need to put it first and you're out of luck. I'm having to look elsewhere.
Owner's reply
It's easy to fix that for the next version. Thanks for the input.
This is a great module for Joomla. It is easy to configure and easy to deploy onto a website. The only concern I have is that it should be able to have a commenting system on it. After each article there should be a method to allow comments. I know that I could easily copy the article into Joomla's article backend and then deploy JComments but it would be nice to know how to add a commenting system to each article that your RSS over to your site. Otherwise this is an excellent module and best of all it is free. I would pay for the development of an advanced module if the developers were interested.
All I wanted was to an RSS reader that would display the date of the posts. Incredibly, this is the only module I've found that does that. It has some good options and seems to be one of the best RSS readers available.
However, it came with two templates pre-installed, and you have to choose one of them. They don't match my site, so of course I want my site's template to dictate the style of the module, but that's not an option.
The only solution supplied is in the description above: "If you want more control, you can simply override both the generated HTML and CSS, using MVC template overrides within your Joomla! template." If someone can explain to me what that means, please do. I also don't understand why you can't just select "None" in the module's styling options.
However, it came with two templates pre-installed, and you have to choose one of them. They don't match my site, so of course I want my site's template to dictate the style of the module, but that's not an option.
The only solution supplied is in the description above: "If you want more control, you can simply override both the generated HTML and CSS, using MVC template overrides within your Joomla! template." If someone can explain to me what that means, please do. I also don't understand why you can't just select "None" in the module's styling options.
Very nice layout of the RSS Links with tooltip popup... unfortunately it does not allow to use utf8 characters, these will be transformed into a kind of japanese/chinese mix :-( The manual use of iconv in the source code does help, nevertheless I could not get the popup window to look reasonable. My solution: go back to version 1.4 where these problem did not appear.
Anyhow thanks a lot for the very useful extension ! Keep it up !
Anyhow thanks a lot for the very useful extension ! Keep it up !
Easily to install, but a bit hard to customize. Has major issues if the feed contains exotic characters such as ä, å and ö.
Owner's reply
New version 2 has been released, adding amazing new features and fixing any past issues. Templating is now a breeze using MVC overrides. Try it out!
This is *probably* the best of the 'simple' RSS Readers that I found! It has two features which set it apart from most other simple readers: ability to show the date and ability to show multiple feeds. The date especially is very useful. Additionally, the markup is nice and simple and the pre-installed styling is nice.
However... the module does not use a template for display! This make it impossible to change the output without changing the module itself. The provided css file has brilliant commenting, but would prefer to use my own, and can't because the imported styles from the module override mine (which are declared in ).
In conclusion: easily the best reader, but not the best for modularity/portability.
However... the module does not use a template for display! This make it impossible to change the output without changing the module itself. The provided css file has brilliant commenting, but would prefer to use my own, and can't because the imported styles from the module override mine (which are declared in ).
In conclusion: easily the best reader, but not the best for modularity/portability.
Great reader and easy to use! I had to upgrade to include more feeds (I think the cap is 20?) but I still use it here and there for certain content. Did seem to slow the site a bit but can't be for sure. Simplicity is key. Thanks!
This made my site so incredibly slow.. it was not worth using! Not only that but no feeds ever showed up. Just slow slow loading times, and with no results... sad
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