Questions tagged [simplepie]

SimplePie is:

• A code library, written in PHP, intended to make it ridiculously easy for people to manage RSS and Atom feeds.

• An easy to use API that handles all of the dirty work when it comes to fetching, caching, parsing, normalizing data structures between RSS and Atom formats, handling character encoding translation, and sanitizing the resulting data.

• Free (i.e. no cost) open-source software, with a license more liberal than the GPL (BSD-licensed), that was built and improved over the course of years by people who have a passion for good software that makes people's lives easier.

• Well documented with a complete API reference, tutorials and screencasts for popularly requested uses, and details about the inner workings of the library.

• Always looking for more people to contribute to the project in terms of code, patches, support, and evangelism.

• A solution where we've worked very hard to keep the bar as low as possible for people who want to use it, but at the same time you MUST have a fundamental grasp of the PHP language. If you don't know PHP, and are interested in getting a handle on the basics, we recommend PHP 101: PHP For the Absolute Beginner (begin with parts 1-3, then move onto parts 4-7 making sure you actually understand them).

SimplePie is not:

• A magical solution that will just "do it for you."

• A copy-paste, "no code required" solution.

• A full-blown feed aggregator like Google Reader, NewsGator Online, Bloglines, and the like.

If you don't know PHP, or are not willing to learn PHP, SimplePie is not the right solution for you.

However, SimplePie integrates well with a variety of blogging systems, wikis, forums, and code frameworks. Many of these third-party software packages are more end-user focused, and require less (if any) actual programming. Check out our SimplePie Plugins and Integration page to see if SimplePie integrates with software you already use, in a way that doesn't require much programming (if at all).