RSS Ticker

[Sambal]

Update: December 1st 2008, updated this post to latest version of plugin

I really liked the rss feed by JakeyMouse. Unfortunatly this wasn't implemented as a seperate plugin. So i started work on a standalone version of a rss ticker and here is what i came up with.

I created a proces plugin, configurable through MP Setup, that would simply fill a Control on screen with aggregated items from a specified feed. This control can be whatever you like, a label, fadelabel, textboxscrollup, etc... Wherever you use #rssfeed in your skinfile, the plugin fills it with the rss items.

Installation:
Download latest version and extract to {your MP directory}\plugins\process\.

Configuration:
Go to MP Configuration->Plugins->Process plugins->MP-RSSTicker and select Config.
The following settings are available

RSS Ticker settings
RSS Ticker enabled: Wether or not the ticker is enabled
Feed: The url of the feed to display
Image: The path of a descriptive image for the feed. A logo for example.
#Items: The number of items from the feed to display
separator: The character sequence to display between headlines.
Auto refresh enabled: Auto refresh feed
Refresh interval (min): Refresh feed every x minutes

Weather settings
Important: For the weather to work you need to configure the Weather plugin correctly
Weather enabled: Wether or not the weather info is enabled
Auto refresh enabled: Auto refresh weather info
Refresh interval (min): Refresh weather info every x minutes





To use the feed information in your skin files you can use the following definitions:
#rssfeed to show the feed items

	<control><description>RSS items</description>
		<type>fadelabel</type>
		<id>1</id>
		<posX>155</posX>
		<posY>628</posY>
		<width>1200</width>
		<height>50</height>
		<font>font14</font>
		<label>#rssfeed</label>
	</control>

#rssimg the path to the selected image

	<control><description>RSS image</description>
		<type>image</type>
		<id>3</id>
		<posX>0</posX>
		<posY>625</posY>
		<width>140</width>
		<height>35</height>
		<keepaspectratio>no</keepaspectratio>
		<texture>#rssimg</texture>
	</control>

#weatherimg the path to the weather image

<control>
	<description>Weather image</description>
	<type>image</type>
	<id>1</id>
	<posY>10</posY>
	<posX>10</posX>
	<texture>#weatherimg</texture>
</control>

#location location(City) the weather information applies to. e.g. Amsterdam
#temp the temperature.
#condition the condition. e.g. Fog
These can be used seperately but to keep the length of this post limited are used in a single label

<control>
	<description>location</description>
	<type>label</type>
	<id>1</id>
	<width>400</width>
	<height>50</height>
	<posY>25</posY>
	<posX>140</posX>
	<font>font14</font>
	<label>#location #temp #condition</label>
</control>

Sambal

[jburnette]

Works very well. Thanks!

I did notice, however, that it doesn't display when you first start MediaPortal. It seems to work no problem after that, though.

[mattsk88]

Would you be able to add the weather info also?

[robyf]

Does this also work with WatchMenu.xml, ecc.?

Are the files generated with Aeon Menu Generator compatible with this plugin?

Thanks for your work

[Sambal]

@jburnette
If you first start MP it can take some time for the feed to load. If you are patient it will show just fine.
Sometimes it shows up right away sometimes it doesn't. I'm looking into this.

@mattsk88
Is on the todo list. First priority is fixing the autorefresh

@robyf
This can be used in any xml you like.
It is not yet compatible with the menugenerator but i will implement this. Just implemented it. See generator thread.

[catavolt]

Originally Posted by mattsk88

Would you be able to add the weather info also?

+1

Hi Sambal, excellent work! Just implemented in PureVisionHD, see screenshot.

BTW: It is much easier to maintain this plugin if you put the respective controls into a "common.rss.xml" which than can be imported easily into the different skin files. I made it this way to simplify the process of implementation.

[MoPhat]

Great plugin Sambal, thank you


MoPhat

[the_ult]

Great work again Sambal :-)

And now back to work!!!

[MoPhat]

Improvement suggestions/wish

If the feed was not updated and i go to anther screen (like from home to tv) and goes then back the rss feed should save his last displayed position and shows not again from the beginning.

so i can read many news without waiting that the loop is at end...

is this possible?

thank you - GREAT PLUGIN!

MoPhat

[catavolt]

Improvement suggestions/wish

Would it be possible to define multiple feeds which than would be displayed one after the other, e.g. first news, then sport, then stocks and so on?