[dogmanthc]

dogmanthc

dogmanthc

Visit dogmanthc's website.

Show dogmanthc's last posts.

Show general stats for dogmanthc.

• 
• Newbie
• Karma: +0/-0
• Posts: 21

I recently joined a Gamebattles clan with some friends and they all wanted me to put up a Clan Page on my site, "No problem!" I said. Which it wasn't a real problem until I started trying to add our team stats and roster using the XML feed that GameBattles provides for each team.  I have tried a few different programs that was suggested on their forums but those programs have gotten out of date (at least the ones kept at the address they referred to) and well the didn't work. 

Does anyone else use the XML team feed provided by GameBattles?  If so, could you point me in the right direction to be able to use it myself?  The error I most commonly get when trying to use the XML file they provide is "The XML data could not be mapped because the map type defined is not recognized by this program."  or something to that effect.  I know a ton of peole who use this site run gamer websites so I thought this would be as good a place as any to get some help.

[dogmanthc]

dogmanthc

dogmanthc

Visit dogmanthc's website.

Show dogmanthc's last posts.

Show general stats for dogmanthc.

• 
• Newbie
• Karma: +0/-0
• Posts: 21

I am a total noob when it comes to this type of stuff so I got out a few of my books on Javascript and PHP&MySQL to see if this was something I could program myself.  I think it could be with a little hard work and some further information that isn't covered in my books.  The XMl data provided by GameBattles is at a web address only accessible when I log in to gamebattles and the books only tell me how to request XML data from my own server.  I don't have the tiniest bit of info in any of my books about how to access XML data provided from another server.  Will I need to create a program with my gamebattles login info that can access their server to retrieve the XML file first?  Or is it possible to just use the URL when calling up the XML file into the program?  My books teach me how to make an HTML table to display XML data and it teaches me how to access my own database using javascript in both cases. 

Apparently there are a ton of people who want to use this data but don't have the slightest idea how to do it just like me.  When you search for Gamebattles and XML google returns a ton of forum posts in places where people are asking the question unfortunately none of them I have read so far have an answer to them.  If I ever get this figured out or if I have to write a program to do it then I am going to make it publicly available to help others with this problem.  Honestly, I can't figure on why GB wouldn't put up some sort of resource info on how they intend for their users to use it. 

[m3talc0re]

m3talc0re

m3talc0re

Visit m3talc0re's website.

Show m3talc0re's last posts.

Show general stats for m3talc0re.

• 
• Death and Decay
• Administrator
• Hero Member
• Karma: +56/-8
• Posts: 590
• Life Sux

Could try this: http://landmark-project.com/feed2js/build.php

Google Search: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=javascript+rss+aggregator&btnG=Search

[dogmanthc]

dogmanthc

dogmanthc

Visit dogmanthc's website.

Show dogmanthc's last posts.

Show general stats for dogmanthc.

• 
• Newbie
• Karma: +0/-0
• Posts: 21

I tried the landmark project site, but I ran the URL through the validation page they have a link to and it's  not valid RSS.  Which I kinda already knew from all the programs I tried but any suggestion from you is like solid gold to me so I tried it anyways.  It gives two reasons why it won't validate: 

This feed does not validate.

    *

      line 1, column 23: Undefined root element: team [help]

          <?xml version="1.0" ?>   <team cacheDate="Thu 26 Jun 2008, 9:35 PM CDT">
                                 ^

In addition, interoperability with the widest range of feed readers could be improved by implementing the following recommendation.

    *

      "text/xml" media type is not specific enough


I don't know much about RSS and XML and AJAX and Javascript yet but I did do a little reading over at XML.com (one of the results on the google you provided) and I'm starting to think they goofed somewhere.  The site co-founder had even posted in a forum topic and told a few people some programs to try and gave a website address that was supposed to be an example of what the results would look like.  The address he gave was no longer a clansite (they must have lost their URL)and the program he gave was no longer supported.  My first thought was screw it, who cares if they still support the program or not if it works, so I downloaded it only to find it was an unrecognized filetype and the link to the install directions gave a 404 error. 

Interesting thing though, I can open the file locally using Microsoft Office Excel 2007 professional edition but if I try to do anything using the excel spreadsheet functions in Frontpage 2003 it gives an error again.  Am I wrong in thinking why didn't those morons put it in a more widely recognized format since it was being made available for public use?  Okay, maybe moron is kinda strong I take that part back but still....

[dogmanthc]

dogmanthc

dogmanthc

Visit dogmanthc's website.

Show dogmanthc's last posts.

Show general stats for dogmanthc.

• 
• Newbie
• Karma: +0/-0
• Posts: 21

*update*

I've been doing a ton of reading over at XML.com (the address Core recommended above) and I believe I have the answer but I'm not sure.  When calling an XML document into a browser the browser will simply output the XML file as it is written unless you associate the file with some style information.  Since I don't have access to the document in a way I can alter it's contents to do this I am not sure if I have the exact solution or not.  Here is what I think will work.  I plan to make a page that fits with my sites layout to place all the content I want for my clan and at the bottom of this page I will insert an inline frame to which the initial page set will be the XML page for my clan and then try to associate that inline frame with a CSS document designed to layout the information in the XML document in a spreadsheet format that has one table for the roster and another table for statistics.

I think that will work I haven't tried it yet but I will soon.  If it doesn't it's back to the old drawing board but if it does work I'll try to pass along the CSS I used so anyone wishing to alter/use it for their own can do so.  If anyone else tries it and it works for them I urge them to post back and let me know at least but I see there are a few people that have checked this topic.     

[m3talc0re]

m3talc0re

m3talc0re

Visit m3talc0re's website.

Show m3talc0re's last posts.

Show general stats for m3talc0re.

• 
• Death and Decay
• Administrator
• Hero Member
• Karma: +56/-8
• Posts: 590
• Life Sux

If you can have the feed display IN your page, like, as text/links or whatever, just wrap the part that does the feed work with a div:

<div class="xml-feed">
feed stuff
</div>

Then in your css file, just give each element in the div a style:

.xml-feed
{
stuff
}
.xml-feed p
{
paragraph styles
}
.xml-feed a:link, .xml-feed a:visited, .xml-feed a:active
{
link styles
}
etc...

[dogmanthc]

dogmanthc

dogmanthc

Visit dogmanthc's website.

Show dogmanthc's last posts.

Show general stats for dogmanthc.

• 
• Newbie
• Karma: +0/-0
• Posts: 21

To date the best I can do with what he provides is to insert an inline frame at the bottom and then set the initial page to be the XML document he provides. Would that work if I just wrapped the whole inline frame with the div?  That would be so much simpler but I don't want to waste a lot of time doing it if it won't work.