RbSS reader 'Live Data'

[Core]

Being new at programming Run Basic, and programming in general, I figured I would be nice to have a RSS feed reader. I read an article about how to create a feed reader in PHP, a language I know nothing about, and figured this will be good practice.

Run Basic has all the tools needed to create a reader, XML parser, Arrays, and the HTTPGET$ feature. I gave it a shot and I’m pretty happy with the preliminary results.

Learning how the XML parser worked was nothing short of ......... interesting.

I will defiantly spend more time perfecting the RSS reader engine as my knowledge of RB grows. Here is a sample of what I have so far, not perfect but functional.

Respectfully,

Core

Here is the direct link on my server.
hvacore.net/seaside/go/runbasicpersonal?app=RbSSv1


Here is the preliminary code:

global z, varElements, #PE, #CE
titlebar "RbSS reader"

cssid #St1, "{
       display: none;
       background-color: transparent;
      }"

cssid #Container, "{
       position: relative;
       top: 30px;
       left: 30px;
       width: 625px;;
       height: 332px;
       background: white;
       color: black;
       font-family: veranda,sans-serif;
       margin-bottom: 5px;
       padding: 3px 0;
       overflow: hidden;
       }"

cssid #Header, "{
        position: absolute;
        top: 0;
        left: 0;
       -moz-border-radius-topleft: 14px;
       -webkit-border-top-left-radius: 14px;
       -moz-border-radius-topright: 14px;
       -webkit-border-top-right-radius: 14px;
       border: 1px solid black;
       width: 623px;
       height: 65px;
       color: white;
       background-image: url('http://i445.photobucket.com/albums/qq179/ct315185/background-1.jpg');
       z-index: 1;
       }"

cssid #logo, "{
       position: absolute;
       top: 2px;
       left: 6px;
       width: 63px;
       height: 63px;
       z-index: 3;
       }"

cssid #RbSStitle, "{
       position: absolute;
       top: 21px;
       left: 160px;
       font-size: 1.5em; 
       font-weight: bold; 
       }"

cssid #RbSStitleDate, "{
       position: absolute;
       top: 27px;
       right: 10px;
       font-size: 1.2em;
       font-weight: bold;
       }"

cssid #RbSStileDescriptiont, "{
       position: absolute;
       top: 70px;
       left: 0;
       border: 1px solid black;
       width: 615px;
       height: 40px;
       padding: 4px;
       background-image: url('http://i445.photobucket.com/albums/qq179/ct315185/GreenGradient.png');
       color: white;
       font-size: 1.1em;
       font-weight: bold;
       z-index: 2;
       }"

cssid #Description, "{
        position: absolute;
        top: 123px;
        left: 0;
        width: 615px;
        height: 200px;
        overflow: hidden;
       -moz-border-radius-bottomleft: 14px;
       -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 14px;
       -moz-border-radius-bottomright: 14px;
       -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 14px;
        border: 1px solid black;
        padding: 4px;
         }"

cssid #ElementTitle, "{
       font-size: 1.2em;
       font-weight: bold;
       color: #660000;
       }"    

cssid #ElementDate, "{
       font-size: 1em;
       font-weight: bold;
       color: green;
       font-family: monospace;
       }"

cssid #Selection, "{
      position: absolute;
      top: 460px;
      left: 40px;
      }"

textarea #Story1, "", 0, 0
#Story1 setid("St1")

a$ = httpget$("http://feeds.foxnews.com/foxnews/entertainment")

  dim RssItemTitle$(varElements)
  dim RssItemUrl$(varElements)
  dim RssItemDescription$(varElements)
  dim RssItemPubDate$(varElements)

#Story1 text(prepArrays(a$,varElements))

  Redim RssItemTitle$(varElements)
  Redim RssItemUrl$(varElements)
  Redim RssItemDescription$(varElements)
  Redim RssItemPubDate$(varElements)

#Story1 text(RBss$(a$))

[restart]
 html "</div>
 <div id = 'Container'>
   <div id = 'Header'>
      <span id = 'logo'><img src = 'http://i445.photobucket.com/albums/qq179/ct315185/rssFeedIc.png' width = '63' height = '63'></span>
      <span id = 'RbSStitle'>"
          print RssItemTitle$(1)
html "</span>
      <span id = 'RbSStitleDate'>"
         print RssItemPubDate$(1)
html "</span>
   </div>
      <div id = 'RbSStileDescriptiont'>"
         print RssItemDescription$(1)
html "</div>
      <div id = 'Description'><marquee bgcolor='lightyellow' scrollamount='1' direction='up' loop='true' width='100%'>"
         for t = 4 to z - 1
        html"<span id = 'ElementTitle'>":print RssItemTitle$(t):html "</span>"
        html "<a href = '":print RssItemUrl$(t):html "' target='_new'>":print RssItemUrl$(t):html "</a>"
        html "<span id = 'ElementDescrip'>":print RssItemDescription$(t):html "</span>"
        html "<span id = 'ElementDate'>":print RssItemPubDate$(t):html  "</span>" 
print "-------------------------------"
print:print
        next t
html " </marquee></div></div>
     <div id = 'Selection'>
       <fieldset>
          <legend>Feed selection</legend>"
      dim feeds$(8)
        feeds$(1) = "http://rss.cnn.com/rss/cnn_topstories.rss"
        feeds$(2) = "http://feeds.foxnews.com/foxnews/latest"
        feeds$(3) = "http://rss.cnn.com/rss/cnn_tech.rss"
        feeds$(4) = "http://feeds.foxnews.com/foxnews/scitech"
        feeds$(5) = "http://rss.cnn.com/rss/cnn_space.rss"
        feeds$(6) = "http://feeds.foxnews.com/foxnews/entertainment"
        feeds$(7) = "http://www.nasa.gov/rss/breaking_news.rss"
        feeds$(8) = "http://feeds.wired.com/wired/index?format=xml"
          listbox #FeedXml, feeds$(), 0
          button #accept, " Read it ", [FeedUrl]
html " </fieldset>
     </div>"
wait

[FeedUrl]
 a$ = httpget$("";#FeedXml selection$();"")
   #Story1 text(prepArrays(a$,varElements))
     Redim RssItemTitle$(varElements)
     Redim RssItemUrl$(varElements)
     Redim RssItemDescription$(varElements)
     Redim RssItemPubDate$(varElements)
   #Story1 text(RBss$(a$))
cls
   goto [restart]
wait
' |||||||||||| RB functions |||||||||||||||

function prepArrays(feed$,b)
on error goto [parsingFailed]
xmlparser #rss, feed$
 if #rss elementcount() then
    for i = 1 to #rss elementcount()
        #PE = #rss #element(i)
     if #PE elementcount() then
       for a = 1 to #PE elementcount()
        #CE = #PE #element(a)
       next a
     end if
    next i
 end if
varElements = #PE elementcount()
prepArrays = varElements
end function

function RBss$(xml$)
on error goto [parsingFailed]
xmlparser #rss, xml$
 z = 1
     for i = 1 to #rss elementcount()
       #PE = #rss #element(i)
         if #CE key$() = "item" then
           select case #CE key$()
             case "item"
                 if #PE valueforkey$("title") <> " " then 
                  RssItemTitle$(z) = #PE valueforkey$("title")
                  RssItemUrl$(z) = #PE valueforkey$("link")
                  RssItemDescription$(z) = #PE valueforkey$("description")
                  RssItemPubDate$(z) = date$()
                  z = z + 1
                 end if
             end select
            end if
       next i 
  for b = 1 to varElements     '  |||| #PE elementcount()
     #CE = #PE #element(b)
       if #CE key$() = "item" then
         select case #CE key$()
            case "item"
                 if #CE valueforkey$("title") <> " " then 
                  RssItemTitle$(z) = #CE valueforkey$("title")
                  RssItemUrl$(z) = #CE valueforkey$("link")
                  D = instr(#CE valueforkey$("description"),"<",1)
                  RssItemDescription$(z) = left$(#CE valueforkey$("description"), D - 1)
                  RssItemPubDate$(z) = #CE valueforkey$("pubDate")
                  z = z + 1
                 end if
            end select
       end if
   next b

end function

[parsingFailed]
  print Err$
  XmlError = XmlError + 1
  if XmlError = 2 then
  print "This RSS feed is not valid"
  end
  end if
  goto [restart]