Here's one of your pages with an xmlparser that I've configured to suit your needs: http://bonrouge.com/test/perdiem.php
You'll get four random stories from the feed.
The parser looks like this:
xmlparser.php
<?php
$insideitem = false;
$title="";
$description = "";
$link = "";
$pubdate = "";
$tag ="";
$news=array();
$i=0;
function startElement($parser, $name, $attrs) {
global $insideitem ,$title,$description,$link,$pubdate,$tag;
if ($insideitem) {
$tag = $name;
} elseif ($name == "ITEM") {
$insideitem = true;
}
}
function endElement($parser, $name) {
global $insideitem ,$title,$description,$link,$pubdate,$tag, $news;
if ($name == "ITEM") {
$pubdate=preg_replace("/00:00:00 (GMT|PST)/", "", $pubdate);
array_push($news, array($link,$title,$description,$pubdate));
$insideitem = false;
$title="";
$description = "";
$link = "";
$pubdate = "";
}
}
function characterData($parser, $data) {
global $insideitem ,$title,$description,$link,$pubdate,$tag;
if ($insideitem) {
switch ($tag) {
case "TITLE":
$title .= $data;
break;
case "DESCRIPTION":
$description .= $data;
break;
case "LINK":
$link .= $data;
break;
case "PUBDATE":
$pubdate .= $data;
break;
}
}
}
$xml_parser = xml_parser_create();
xml_set_element_handler($xml_parser, "startElement", "endElement");
xml_set_character_data_handler($xml_parser, "characterData");
$fp = fopen($uri,"r")
or die("Error reading data.");
while ($data = fread($fp, 4096))
xml_parse($xml_parser, $data, feof($fp))
or die(sprintf("XML error: %s at line %d",
xml_error_string(xml_get_error_code($xml_parser)),
xml_get_current_line_number($xml_parser)));
fclose($fp);
xml_parser_free($xml_parser);
$i=0;
shuffle($news);
function wordLimit($string, $length, $ellipsis = '...') {
return count($words = preg_split('/\s+/', ltrim($string), $length + 1)) > $length ?
rtrim(substr($string, 0, strlen($string) - strlen(end($words)))) . $ellipsis :
$string;
}
foreach ($news as $story) {
if ($i<$number) {
echo "
<li><a href=\"$story[0]\" class=\"newstitle\">".wordLimit($story[1], $headlinelength)."</a>
<ul>
<li class=\"description\">".wordLimit($story[2], $storylength)."</li>
<li class=\"pubdate\">$story[3]</li>
</ul>
</li>";
}
$i++;
}
?>
I replaced what you had on the page with this:<ul id="rss">
<?php
$uri="http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.xml";
$storylength=20;
$headlinelength=3;
$number=4;
include 'xmlparser.php';
?>
</ul>
And I added this to the style sheet:#rss {
height:400px;
overflow:hidden;
}
#rss, #rss ul {
list-style:none;
font: normal 11px Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
}
#rss, #rss li, #rss ul {
margin:0;
padding:0;
}
#rss ul {
margin:3px 0;
}
.pubdate {
display:none;
}
You could try it out and see if it works faster than what you're doing now. I think it will.
I hope that helps.