grabrss.pl

Grabrss is an example Perl script to show how a CGI script can be used to "include" RSS feeds or headlines in an otherwise static html page.

To use grabrss, determine whether the feed you're wanting to show is local (on your server) or remote. If local, update the "parsefile" statement with the location of the feed file. If it's remote, you'll comment that line and uncomment the get and parse lines above it, as well as providing the URL of the feed.

Within the HTML page you're wanting to place the results, include this:

<script language="jscript" src="http://yourserver/cgibin/grabrss.pl">
</script>

That will be replaced at display time with the HTML that grabrss will output.

Grabrss can be customized quite a bit. Right now it outputs only a bulleted list of blog items, linked to their permalinks. You can, as you wish, add all or part of the description, or rearange the presentation however you like, by modifying the Perl code appropriately. The only thing to be certain of is that the program output contists of JScript "document.writeln" statements that output your content. (HTML has no true client-side include. This include technique includes jscript which the browser then expects to be able to execute.)

Grabrss is freeware. It's a server-side Perl script, so it assumes you have CGI capability and Perl on your web server.

Unfortunately because of today's litigious society, I also have to tell you the following:

By using grabrss.pl you agree to assume all risk for its use. It may or may not meet your needs. It's extremely unlikely, but it might have bugs that could harm or delete files on your computer. Perhaps all of them. Puget Sound Software assumes no liability for any damage caused by your use of grabrss.pl in any way.

If you can't accept those terms, then don't use grabrss.pl.

With that out of the way, I will also say that if you find a bug in grabrss I'll attempt to correct the problem and get you a new version for free. Since it's already freeware that last part is kinda silly, but it's my policy for all the software I'm providing here, free or not.

You can download grabrss.pl here. (1,355 bytes - zip)