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Creating a comments feed

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Lawrence asked how to create an RSS feed for your comments like mine. I’ll probably make some changes to my feed, but here’s how it’s currently done.

Create a new Index template in Movable Type with an output filename of something like comments.xml and use something like this for the template contents:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<rss version="0.91">
  <channel>
    <title><$MTBlogName$> Recent Comments</title>
    <link><$MTBlogURL$></link>
    <description>Recent comments on the Kalsey Consulting 
                        Group weblog.</description>
    <language>en-us</language>
    <image>
        <link><$MTBlogURL$></link>
        <url>http://www.kalsey.com/images/kalseybanner.gif</url>
        <title><$MTBlogName$> Recent Comments</title>
    </image>
    <copyright>Copyright 2002 Kalsey Consulting Group. 
                        Permission granted for non-comercial 
                        use.</copyright>
    <webMaster>info@kalsey.com</webMaster>
    <lastBuildDate>
        <$MTDate format="%B %d, %Y %I:%M %p"$>
    </lastBuildDate>
<MTEntries recently_commented_on="6">
    <item>
      <title><$MTEntryTitle encode_html="1"$> 
                   (<$MTEntryCommentCount$> Comments)</title>
      <description><MTEntryExcerpt no_generate="1" encode_xml="1">
                        <MTComments encode_xml="1" lastn="5">
<p><MTCommentAuthor> on 
    <MTCommentDate format="%b %e, %Y %l:%M %p"> | 
    <MTCommentBody trim_to="200" convert_breaks="0"
               remove_html="1">...</p>
  </MTComments></description>
      <link><$MTEntryLink$>#comments</link>
    </item>
</MTEntries>
  </channel>
</rss>

Of course you’ll need to change the title, description, copyright, and email address, but you get the idea. You can also adjust how many entries are displayed and how many comments for each entry are included by altering the lastn values in the template.

You’ll also need to make sure that all MT tags are on one line. MT won’t process tags with a line break in them.

Quadsk8
September 21, 2002 12:27 PM

Adam, I tried both Phil's RDF-template as this one. Conclusion: yours easier to implement by far, works immediately and has a nicer arrangement. Phil Ringnalda's needs a MT-plugin which for some reason does not seem to work for me (Al others do...). To finish off with a question: My normal Feed is using the wordcount plugin before the Excerpt (Mark Pilgrim's idea) would there be a way to do this for comments? Thanks for publishing your template! Lawrence

Adam Kalsey
September 21, 2002 4:30 PM

WordCount doesn't count comments, just the entry body and the extended entry.

Adam Kalsey
September 21, 2002 4:35 PM

The other feed template Lawrence mentioned is at http://philringnalda.com/archives/002320.php You can find other templates for comments feeds at: http://philringnalda.com/archives/002225.php http://www.syndic8.com/~wkearney/blogs/syndic8/archives/000012.html Anyone know of others?

Quadsk8
September 22, 2002 7:27 AM

No Feed but a rather interesting discussion on this thread http://www.intertwingly.net/blog/836.html Lawrence

Quadsk8
September 23, 2002 12:07 AM

Yes, found one! (already had it in my aggregator, but now the template is available) l.m.orchard of 0decafbad has published his MT-template. Find it on this post: http://www.decafbad.com/news_archives/000290.phtml Bottom line: nobody beats the Kalsey-template for usability! Lawrence

Quadsk8
November 10, 2002 1:06 PM

Seems I can't stop commenting on this post: sorry... I put up a MT-template as comment on my Blog for Comments Feed in RSS 2.0 style (seems to validate). http://www.groovycompany.nl/Blog/Archives/000121.php#000156 (link to example feed: click Quadsk8 above) Maybe useful for anyone? Lawrence

Quadsk8
November 10, 2002 1:08 PM

Sorry typo on Feed URL, click Quadsk8 above THIS comment...

Trackback from XXII Group
March 16, 2003 1:06 AM

Progress Report

Excerpt: Massive Improvement Number One NSLog(); posts some useful tips for Movable Type newbies like me and you. Well, not so much me but definitely you. ;-)

Trackback from Links
August 27, 2004 9:59 PM

Comments Feed Movable Type

Excerpt: Creating a comments feed :: Kalsey Consulting Group

This discussion has been closed.

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