BNS SMF Feeds
Plugin with multi-widget functionality that builds an SMF Forum RSS feed url by user option choices; and, displays a SMF forum feed. The widget includes the additional option to include in the feed: specific boards and/or specific categories. There are also check boxes to include the feed item date and the item summary, too.
NB: If updating from a version before 1.1 please make sure to re-save your widget options (check your feed type) for each instance after upgrading. This will set the feed type correctly using the new feed drop-down selection option. Thanks! ~cais
Download
Latest version: Download BNS SMF Feeds v1.3.1.2 [zip]
Installation
This section describes how to install the plugin and get it working.
- Upload
bns-smf-feeds.phpto the/wp-content/plugins/directory - Activate through the ‘Plugins’ menu.
- Place the BNS SMF Feeds widget appropriately in the Appearance | Widgets section of the dashboard.
- Set options to personal preferences:
- Widget Title
- Specify the full URL to the SMF Forum (e.g.: http://www.simplemachines.org/community/)
- Choose feed type from drop-down menu (RSS, RSS2, Atom, RDF)
- The default is by recent Topics, or choose to display recent posts
- The default displays all items able to be seen by a “guest”.
- Choose specific boards (or categories of boards) to include only.
- Choose the maximum quantity of items to display (varies by SMF user permissions)
- Choose to display the item date and/or item summary
– or -
- Go to ‘Plugins’ menu under your Dashboard
- Click on the ‘Add New’ link
- Search for BNS SMF Feeds
- Install.
- Activate through the ‘Plugins’ menu.
- Place the BNS SMF Feeds widget appropriately in the Appearance | Widgets section of the dashboard.
- Set options to personal preferences:
- Widget Title
- Specify the full URL to the SMF Forum (e.g.: http://www.simplemachines.org/community/)
- Choose feed type from drop-down menu (RSS, RSS2, Atom, RDF)
- The default is by recent Topics, or choose to display recent posts
- The default displays all items able to be seen by a “guest”.
- Choose specific boards (or categories of boards) to include only.
- Choose the maximum quantity of items to display (varies by SMF user permissions)
- Choose to display the item date and/or item summary
Reading this article for further assistance: http://wpfirstaid.com/2009/12/plugin-installation/
FAQ
Q. Can I use this in more than one widget area?
A. Yes, this plugin has been made for multi-widget compatibility. Each instance of the widget will display, if wanted, differently than every other instance of the widget.
Q. How can I style the plugin output?
A. The plugin uses a variation of the WordPress RSS Output that assigns several rss related classes, such as: rssSummary, rss-date, and rsswidget. A wrapping class of ‘bns-smf-feeds’ has also been added to the widget for more fine tuning.
Q. How can I get the RSS feed url?
A. Once the widget is activated and placed into a widget ready area, there will be a standard RSS icon displayed beside the feed title. This icon will have the url anchored to it, simply click on it to subscribe to the feed directly.
Changelog
1.3.1.2
- compatible with WordPress version 2.9.2
- updated license declaration
1.3.1.1
- clarified the plugin’s release under a GPL license
1.3.1
- tied all links in the widget to use the “option to open links in new window”
1.3
- removed unnecessary (commented out) code
- added option to open links in new window as suggested
- added new screenshot of option panel
1.2
- added feed refresh frequency (in seconds) option
- added new screenshot of option panel
1.1.1
- compatibility check for 2.9.1 completed
1.1
- added drop-down menu to option panel to choose feed type, default set to RSS2
- updated the Option Panel screen shot
1.0.1
- minor corrections to description and screenshot
1.0
- Initial Release.
21 Comments
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Hi, I just installed your plugin on my site and it works great. Only one thing though, it doesn’t seem to update as soon as the a post is made on SMF. I was wondering if there’s a way around this, or to increase the frequency of the feed made from SMF? Is there any disadvantage of increasing the frequency? Thanks!
@Azari – Thanks for choosing BNS SMF Feeds. I have not reviewed any sort of feed polling, yet. The frequency of updates is also generally related to where and how the feed is being generated. Increasing the frequency via SMF would be fine, I see no reason or potential disadvantages except possibly a small server resource usage increase.
Hello again, thanks for your reply.
Website: http://www.tanggam.com
How do I control where and how the feed is being generated? Currently I’m using Wordpress as the frontpage of my community forum (SMF), and I have full access to both. I’m not particularly fluent in programming, as I’m learning this on the go. So excuse me if I don’t quite catch certain terms that you use
.
@Azari – The plugin creates the feed link, but as to the frequency of the feed being generated I cannot say. I have not looked that deep into the SMF code in some time; and, I mostly only manage SMF sites now. You may be able to find an SMF modification that can control the feed frequency at http://simplemachines.org
Thanks again for your reply and for pointing me in the right direction.
FYI … I have just added a new option that allows you to set the feed refresh frequency. I hope this will better fit yours and others needs with this plugin. Enjoy!
You know what, that is EXACTLY the thing I need. I’m sure others will to!
Rep up!
Hi,
I have just installed your plugin and it works like a charm!!!! I just want to ask one question.
Is there a way to open the forum in a new window instead of the same, when the links will be clicked?
Thx in advance for your help
Greetings from the snowy Germany
Manu
@Manu – Thank you for choosing BNS SMF Feeds! I will look into what you are asking and reply back here.
@Manu – If you delve into the heart of the plugin code … around line 151 … change:
echo "<li><a class='bns-smf-feeds rsswidget' href='$link' title='$desc'>$title</a>{$date}{$summary}{$author}</li>";… to:
echo "<li><a class='bns-smf-feeds rsswidget' href='$link' target='_blank' title='$desc'>$title</a>{$date}{$summary}{$author}</li>";This will cause the post/topic links to open in a new window/tab via the target=’_blank’ parameter. I may add this as an option to a future update, until them please make note of this change as it will be over-written otherwise.
FYI … version 1.3 adds this option.
Thx a lot for your help and the update of the plugin!
Just a little note, is there a way to open the the link of the wiget-title in a new window too?
For example at my site the title is “Recent Forum Posts” – I don’t know to explain it better. :-s
@Manu – I will look into it …
PS: After further review it made sense to make all links within the widget follow the same rule to open in a new window or not. Version 1.3.1 will now have the widget title and the RSS icon follow the same “open in new window” option as the feed items.
Just installed this plugin and it works great!
on thing tho! im running two wordpress blogs (with the same SMF forum), My blogs url is: http://dailymobile.se/ and http://dailyiphoneblog.com/ this plugin works fine on dailymobile and it shows the latest 10 posts, but the same plugin wont work on the iphone blog. it doesnt display any of the feed url / latest posts. its just empty.
Any idea on how i can fix this? would be nice to use this plugin on both my blogs.
thx
@Phat^Trance – Thank you for choosing the BNS SMF Feeds plugin. I recreated your RSS feed URL with the plugin on one of my test servers and it is showing the items from your forum. I cannot see what would be causing it to “not work” on your specific blog.
Hi,
very good pluginf. After same problem with RSS i have solved and now work fine.
Thank you. The only plugin wich work fine!
Andrea.
@Andrea – You are welcome! I am glad the plugin is working fine for you.
Hi, Edward! I’m presently testing an SMF/WordPress solution on a “dead” site belonging to a friend. I’m using your great plugin (love it!) and the WordPress Post to SMF(I’ll call it WP2SMF) plugin (also works!).
With WP2SMF, when I add a new WP post, a new SMF topic/post is automagically added, in the category I specify. The SMF post has an excerpt of my WP post (as long as I want it to be, up to full text) and a link back to the WP post.
I can add a link to the WP template which suggests commenting in the forum, and which takes the user directly to that WP post’s thread in SMF.
Problem: If users can’t see the SMF comments for that post, they likely won’t want to go exploring the SMF forum. They’ll use the WP commenting if it’s available, or not comment at all.
Your plugin pulls the most recent posts from all or specified topics or boards in SMF.
I’m after a slight modification, which would require me to insert code in my template to replace the existing comments section. Here’s what I’m looking to do:
Once I publish my new WP post and it has been created in SMF, I find at the bottom of my post a link to the topic with the number of comments (that is, number of SMF posts) on that specific topic. Below this, a modification of your plugin provides excerpts (or full text) of the first, say, 5-10 comments on that specific topic. (Dynamically generated variable.)
All commenting would be carried out in the SMF, but there would be visible “commenting action” shown on the individual WP post pages, enough to draw users into the discussion and leave them wanting more.
Any thoughts on how to get there?
I tried doing this with bbPress (WordPress’s integratable forum software) but it just doesn’t get adequate development attention, and there’s nothing that works to get where I want to be (there once was, but now it’s broken). And I’m a writer, dammit, not a programmer!
This could be a great way to really build community on a website.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!
@JennyD – This line of thought sounds very interesting to build additional internal linking for your blog, but I do not believe the BNS SMF Feeds plugin offers the immediate functionality you are looking for. As you stated:
The plugin cannot manage topic related feeds, it only works to display board and category feeds, the SMF software does not generate a feed expressly for Topics.
Besides the issue above, incorporating the necessary code into a theme as you describe it above would be a significant re-working of the current plugin.
Edward -
I was afraid of that. But I did think SMF allowed a “subscribe to this topic”. Am I wrong?
@JennyD – There may be a mod that allows for that, but to the best of my knowledge it is not part of the core SMF forum, although I do admit I have not focused on the inner working of the software for some time.