RSS Factory and other news feeds not working - help!

I downloaded the version 1.5.1 about 24 hours ago… I can’t find any other version… But thank your for your info.

We also updated ours too from Google API > Yahoo today

http://demo.yuzoolthemes.com/feed/

And took this opportunity to add in a better, more modern layout and some nice new options:

VERSION 1.3:

  • Completely new design! Gorgeous masonry responsive layout
  • New options for opening links in new window, date formatting, colours, description (snippet length) and as many posts as you want
  • Support for SSL feeds
  • Now powered by Yahoo (since Google closed their RSS API)

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Meanwhile I got a development version of the stack from the developer and it works - great! Thank you, Richardet Design Support Team!

On the other hand, nothing back from the support team of Doobox concerning the non-functioning RSS Factory, even after writing to them several times.

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Thank you, Michael, for the info on this stack.

Franz

‌Denn das ganze Gesetz ist erfüllt, wenn ihr das eine Gebot haltet: „Liebe deinen Nächsten wie dich selbst!“‌ Galater 5,14
Franz Rathmair | Mobil: +43 650 53 46 175 | Web: rathmair.eu http://www.rathmair.eu/‌‌

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Managed to get the Blogger feed working across all browsers on 2 of my sites with Stacks4Stacks Feedslider but found it doesn’t work with Chrome Canary (not a major problem as Canary is a daily build development browser).

I wouldn’t expect instant support for a stack like RSS Factory which hasn’t been sold by Doobox or featured on their website for at least a year (maybe longer).

The fact that it doesn’t work anymore is because Google shut down their rss API so it’s not the developers fault. Barz Stacks has the same problem so his Monster RSS stack is also discontinued.

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Well said @Jamie1 - thanks for your understanding from a developer’s eyes :slight_smile:

Seriously, @yuzool? You are defending Doobox’ abandoning their customers to the point of ignoring requests for help? If they are simply shrugging their shoulders and leaving us to it, they should at least have the decency to say so.

(I should note that you did the right thing by fixing your own stack promptly and with good communication. So surprising you’re defending this lack of communication from Doobox.)

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Thanks @Nick

I didn’t really defend anyone per se, just was please with @Jamie1 mature and realistic answer. "Google shut down their rss API so it’s not the developers fault" I’m not speaking on behalf of @Doobox but I’m sure they have their reasons for their own pace of updates and so on, they’re only human and a small team afterall!

If you view their site (https://www.doobox.co.uk/stacks_store/stacks_store.html) the Stack in question is no longer for sale and maybe not for over a year as Jamie pointed out also, and doesn’t exist on the Community site anymore (https://rapidweavercommunity.com/search?q=rss+factory) so why should they have to keep supporting something that doesn’t exist anymore? Can you think of any software that no longer exists that is still supported?

I don’t think for a second that Doobox would abandon their customers and has been a stalwart of this community for as long as I can remember.

Ours still exists and is available, so we are developing it, supporting it and making it better / bug fixing when necessary!

I don’t really want to get into a debate about anything but was just wanting to give praise to Jamie for his smart comment, tell everyone ours is updated and working and FREE to update, and hoping to then go outside and enjoy the day… :sunny:

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it’s not the developers fault

I ask that you consider this from a customer’s perspective for a moment. When we buy stacks and put them on our sites, we are to a degree entrusting our livelihood to you. The front-facing site of my own organization had a big error message on it all of a sudden, and before I realized it was there and did emergency repairs, it made me and my group look unprofessional.

In situations like this, communication is critical. Is this stack kaputt and I need to look for a different solution? Is a new update coming and I just need to wait a few days? Is this perhaps a bug due to a RW upgrade and there’s already a workaround? Once I know the situation, I can move forward. Instead, I write to Doobox and get silence in return. It would have helped if Doobox had even told us “Sorry, we don’t support this any more - you’re on your own”, because then it would have been clear what to do.

Look for example at @joeworkman’s response to his Tumblr issue a few months back - he immediately posted a message here on this forum to tell people what was up, allowing people to either wait out the problem or look for another solution.

I don’t think for a second that Doobox would abandon their customers

And yet that is exactly what they have done - I and others have sent in support tickets about this issue, and to my knowledge nobody has received any reply.

There are different forms of support. I get that it’s not possible to fix every bug. But simply leaving people with no information at all is really, really poor form.

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I have to say I agree with Nick - if I spend good money on a stack, then I want to know when it is discontinued, when support is going to end, if there are no updates coming, etc. If a developer can easily take our details and money when we buy a stack, then they should just as easily be able to inform us when that stack is no longer viable. That si the nature of a client relationship - some people do it well, others don’t

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A quick comment from an uninvolved bystander: if the stack is discontinued, the developer should send a notice to all his customers telling them of the fact and announcing an equivalent product’s development timeline. Alternatively, he could place that announcement on his website for everybody to see. A quiet removal from the store is deceptive and unethical. Just my 2¢…

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I’m not disagreeing with any of you (@Rovertek @dudeneyge @Nick)…

There are two ways I think a developer should go about it:

  1. Fix it and communicate well what’s going on - e.g as we did with Feed here:
    Feed stack - Yuzool
    People are happy with that

OR

  1. As all 3 of you said, communicate that “it’s no longer working, won’t be fixed, here’s the deadline to get something else in place and here are some alternatives x y z.”

As @joeworkman did with Tumblr, but also as @Doobox did with his RSS Factory.

I recall he sent out a newsletter shot around the time the news broke of Google announcing that their API would be discontinued (about 1 year ago). I don’t recall the exact wording but I’m sure he offered some alternatives and gave a 1 year runway to make changes. Joe was less fortunate and had to give 30 days, but a lead time is better than nothing so I don’t believe Doobox left anyone high and dry and did communicate the changes coming. Sorry you see it that way.

Can we just be positive and believe that nobody would want another’s work to suffer or lose face with a site going down and would work like the clappers to get something fixed if they could. That’s what we do we our addons and I know all developers have pride in their work and wouldn’t want anything different.

I’m sorry this situation happened to some of you and I’m sure it’s just a misunderstanding and mis-communication situation.

I hope everyone’s RSS feeds are now displaying well - if anyone wants help with it, just reach out to the community and someone will help.

Peace out :pray:

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Hi,

since I posted this in the beginning, just a few facts:

I discovered the RSS Factory stack in June 2016 (either it was part of the mega deal I purchased a year before or I downloaded it at that time, I can’t remember).

Anyway, I was in e-mail contact with Doobox support twice because of it - once in June and once in October 2016. I got swift response within a day.

But I never was informed that the stack would become defunct because of Google’s changes. At least I can’t remember nor find anything in my e-mail archives.

I am still a bit puzzled that I did not get anything back from Doobox since I wrote to them with an inquiry why the stack is not working anymore.

Well - I have found another stack that does the job, so for me the issue is solved. To have received a response from Doobox would have been nice, indeed, and I expected it. But somehow - maybe with their (new?) system of customer feedback (I was asked to sign-up etc.) there was a communication breakdown somewhere in the pipeline…

Franz

Yes, my situation is exactly the same as @Franz - bought in July, never heard anything about pending termination of the stack, got no response to the ticket I sent in one week ago other than an automated message saying “One of us will get back to you real soon.”

But it’s all water under the bridge at this point. @Franz, which RSS stack did you go with in the end?

I bought first Joe Workman’s stack Reblog but found out that it pulls in the whole feed. Then I purchased Rapid Idea’s News Grid stack which has many features, including the options to truncate the feed, give colors etc. I really like it.

Franz

PS: Since the News Grid was not working properly initiatlly I was in contact with their support and got a development version which does the trick. It was said that an updated version is soon to appear.

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Thanks to Michael at Yuzool but I am getting a strange problem now…dont think it is the Feed stack…but can anyone help? I am get an ‘undefined’ message an no dates or images are appearing only the title…


Grateful for any pointers…is being pulled in from a normal blog page…

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@pigglypots I have been getting this error as well.Have emailed Michael about it and he recommended although it did not work for me. Try burning your feed in Feedburner (https://feedburner.google.com/) to cleanse it then put the Feedburner feed into the Stack and try that :slight_smile: Should work!

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well I am also suffering the loss of all my RSS News Feeds with RSS Factory. Today I’ve bought Yuzool Feed Stack and see that it works with external feeds bit fails on RW blog feed.

Could you please take a look into this?

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I think it’s to do with:

http://www.feedvalidator.org/docs/warning/NeedDescriptionBeforeContent.html
https://cyber.harvard.edu/rss/encodingDescriptions.html
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/RSS/Article/Why_RSS_Content_Module_is_Popular_-_Including_HTML_Contents

Mozilla Developer Network
Why RSS Content Module is Popular - Including HTML Contents
RSS has long had the description element that can be used to include the contents of an item. For example, you could use it to include the entire contents of a blog post; or just a summary of it. However, the RSS description element is only suppose to be used to include plain text data. This obviously limits you. And since many people write in HTML information and formatting is lost with the RSS description element.

We are looking for <description> and RW exports as <content:encoded> as it includes the HTML parts. The description being the standard and most popular way to parse RSS feeds.

We need to test this more on RW blog specific feeds and maybe adjust the Stack to see how to get around it.

As @jakobssystems says - it works with external feeds no problem…

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