rss feed not getting a title

[robandcathie]

My rss feed is not getting a title. When I look at the file created for the feed the opening <title> is not included, however the closing </title> is. As a result my rss reader shows the date of the log but no title, and when I click on the log my lower window does not give the summary. I'm not real familiar with php or rss but do have some basic knowledge

[robandcathie]

Just to further clarify, I use the rss2.0 for syndication. I have used this link: http://www.threelittleladiesrabbitry.co ... index.rss2 I have used it at My Yahoo and each article is listed as [Untitled]. I used RSS Bandit and the headline is listed as (...) with no topic. I'm having similar problems with every reader. Any feedback woul dbe greatly appreciated.

[garvinhicking]

There is really something wrong on your setup. The RSS Feed is missing a lot of stuff!

Please tell me:

- Which PHP version / Webserver you use
- Which Serendipity Plugins you use
- Which Database and version you use

And most of all, tell me if you modified/edited any files!

Regards,
Garvin

[robandcathie]

Ok I'm not totally sure on all of these things. I use bravenet as host for my website.

Database: Mysql 4.0.24
Php: Unsure, Its at least 4 but I think its 5
Serendipity: NO plugins.
Server: Apache2

I've made no modifications to any of the files that I downloaded.

[garvinhicking]

Are you really sure you are using NO plugins at all? Go to Serendipity => Plugin Configuration and see which Event Plugins there are listed. I've never seen a Serendipity install without any plugin

But now for the productive part. Please edit your rss.php and there go to line 12. The code should read something like:

Code: Select all

header('Content-Type: text/xml; charset=utf-8');
session_cache_limiter('public');
include_once('serendipity_config.inc.php');
$version         = $_GET['version'];
$description     = $serendipity['blogDescription'];
$title           = $serendipity['blogTitle'];
$comments        = FALSE;

Now after that $comments = false (or after the $title) please add this:

Code: Select all

die("Title: " . $serendipity['blogTitle']);

Then call your RSS feed again. You should only see a single line with this:

Code: Select all

Title: Three Little ladies Rabbitry Articles

If you do NOT see this it means that Serendipity is failing to read your configuration. This then seems to depend on your Server/Host and their special setup, there would be then something going wrong. Maybe some buggy PHP Code Accelerator, Zend Cache or whatever. In this case I can only help you further if you can give me FTP access to your machine. If you don't want to do this you will need to contact your hoster and ask them for any clues about their special server setup.

What may also be of help is if you create a simple script:

Code: Select all

<?php
phpinfo();
?>

and give a link to that page; this will tell me which PHP/Webserver version you'Re using exactly.

HTH
Garvin

[robandcathie]

Ok I'll start with the plugins. Wow did I get that wrong. Here's the list:

Calendar
Quicksearch
Archives
Categories
Syndicate this Blog
Blog Administration
Powered By

Markup Serendipity
Markup: Emoticate
Markup: Nl2BR
Browser Compatibility
Spam Protector.


I also changed the rss.php file as you instructed, and got the following result:

XML Parsing Error: syntax error
Location: http://www.threelittleladiesrabbitry.co ... index.rss2
Line Number 1, Column 1:Title: Three Little ladies Rabbitry Articles


Basically what I'm doing is making weekly articles available for people raising rabbits, and I'm making them available through an rss feed. I will not be the only one writing the articles as I have several experts interested in helping me with this project. I use Mozilla Firefox. I may not need all the plugins.

I appreciate your time in helping me out with this.

[garvinhicking]

Okay,you do get the title then at that point. Somewhen later though it seems that array is getting lost. Even though it does not seem that a plugin is responsiblefor it.

I can offer you to look into your installation if you can give me FTP access to your machine? If you want to do this, please send me a PM...

Regards,
Garvin

[robandcathie]

Confirmed with bravenet that they are running the following versions:

PHP: 5.0.2
MySql: 4.1

[garvinhicking]

Problem investigated:

Your server has the "iconv" extension installed, but that extension is malfunctioning. Any call to it to make a utf8_encode() fails. This means your hoster has an error in their setup.

A temporary solution, which I have enabled on your host, is to bypass iconv encoding. To do this, one needs to edit include/functions.inc.php and modify this:

Code: Select all

function serendipity_utf8_encode($string) {
    if (strtolower(LANG_CHARSET) != 'utf-8') {
        if (function_exists('iconv')) {
            return iconv(LANG_CHARSET, 'UTF-8', $string);
        } else {
            return utf8_encode($string);
        }
    } else {
        return $string;
    }
}

to:

Code: Select all

function serendipity_utf8_encode($string) {
    if (strtolower(LANG_CHARSET) != 'utf-8') {
        return utf8_encode($string);
    } else {
        return $string;
    }
}

Of course this is only a temporary solution. The real fix is needed on your Webspace provider side. This fix only solves the most pressing iconv-Errors, but other things like RSS Import or the RSS Sidebar plugin may create the same problems.

Regards,
Garvin