Sell Gift Certificates. Content Management. Ottawa Canada.

RSS feeds can be displayed with shopdaddy.com/utils/rssDigest.php5
Merchant Blogs are generally RSS feeds (XML) with a single item.

The Shopdaddy rssDigest will :

Ignore the link tag for channel and channel image.
Recognize and translate custom "markup" into HTML.
Recognize and expand custom tags like [image=url,width,largeurl], [contact=..], and [map=...]
Remove all HTML tags from the item description(s).

*bold* ... _italics_ ... _*bold italics*_

double-backslash \\ becomes a line-break 
triple-backslash \\\ becomes 2 line-breaks 
quadruple-backslash \\\\ becomes 3 line-breaks 
... and so forth.

(tag=) translates to the equivalently named HTML tag
(tag^) ... (^) translates to the equivalently named HTML tags
(.class^) ... (^) translates to a tag with a class as specified
(a^) link text http://whatever.com (^) becomes a link to the url

(img^) url , width , title, css-properties (^) loads an image
The mandatory arguments are "url" and "width" (number of px)
Ex. (img^) http://whatever.com/hat.jpg , 250 , fancy hat , float:left; (^)
Id and Class can be specified within css-properties

Any string beginning with http:// or https:// will become a link.

Place custom [image=url,width,largeurl], [map=...], and [contact=...] tags inside HTML comment tags to prevent them from being displayed.

In [image=url,width,largeurl],

both commas (,) are required
url is for the item image to display
width is required
largeurl is optional for link to larger image.

The image specified will appear right-justified immediately following the item title. The maximum width is either the default 400px or that specified by the "maxWidth" argument to the utility.

For an example of a feed, see ottawafood.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
<title><![CDATA[Ottawa Restaurants]]></title>
<link>http://www.boomtown.ca/ottawa/restaurants.php</link>
<description><![CDATA[Ottawa Restaurants]]></description>
<language>en-ca</language>
<image>
<title><![CDATA[Ottawa Restaurants]]></title>
<url>http://www.shopdaddy.com/gift/gfx/restaurant_400x150.jpg</url>
<width>400</width><height>150</height>
<link>http://www.boomtown.ca/ottawa/restaurants.php</link>
</image>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[El Meson Authentic Iberian Restaurant]]></title><link>http://www.elmeson.ca</link>
<description><![CDATA[
(br=)Combining the best of Spanish and Portuguese inspiration, El Meson focuses on quality and diversity. Luncheon specials and a daily table d'hôte along with a renowned menu. (br=6)(b^)Simply the best(^) Spanish and Portuguese food available in Ottawa! A large private room with a separate entrance can be reserved for your reception or company get together. José and his staff will prepare an exquisite menu.

]]></description>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[Les Fougères Restaurant in Chelsea]]></title><link>http://www.fougeres.ca</link>
<description><![CDATA[
(b^)Restaurant Les Fougères(^) is just 14 minutes from Ottawa in the magnificent Gatineau Hills. Our critically acclaimed cuisine is executed by the chef/proprietors and their team and it showcases the best regional produce. (br=6)Our menu changes with the seasons and the wine list is chosen carefully to complement menu choices. We offer à la carte menu, monthly table d'hôte, 11-course tasting menu, (a^) vegetarian http://www.fougeres.com/docs/vegetarian_en.pdf (^) and childrens' menus.

]]></description>
</item>

</channel>
</rss>

The arguments available to the digest are:

rss=url to specify the file name of the feed/blog.
image=url to override the feed image to display.
title=whatever to override the feed title to display.
js=yes if you are using a javascript tag to include the feed.
dlength=# to override default maximum description length of 500 characters.
maxWidth=# to override default maximum image width(s) of 400px.
links=no to ignore the link tag for item titles.

Remember to urlencode your argument values !

Classes written in HTML result

The following classes can/will appear in the resulting HTML so you can use your own CSS for appearance.

newslineup-title, newslineup-itemtitle, newslineup-desc, newslineup-desclink, newslineup-cartlink, newslineup-map and newslineup-date (which is used for the [contact=...] tag as well as the date the item was published).

Page/File processing for your website

Any non-rss file containing markup/tags can be processed with shopdaddy.com/utils/markup.php5
Merchant Blogs can be of this form.

The arguments available to the markup utility are:

file=url to specify the file to be processed.
js=yes if you are using a javascript tag to include the file.
maxWidth=# to override default maximum image width(s) of 400px.