Gossamer Forum: General: Internet Technologies: News Ticker...

Jan 12, 2005, 1:03 AM

Andy

Veteran / Moderator (18441 posts)

Jan 12, 2005, 1:03 AM

Post #1 of 11

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News Ticker...

Hi,

I've just been working on a News Ticker (to go on a site) using the BBC's XML feed.

Now, the script was a piece of cake to write. However, getting the news to actually show now is prooving to be more of a PITA :/

The outputted code looks like;

Code:
<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> 
<html> 
<head> 
<title></title> 
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> 

</head> 

<body> 
<div class="ticki"><a id="tickerAnchor" href="#" target="_top" class="tickl"></a></div> 
<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"> 
<!-- 
// Ticker startup 
function startTicker() 
{ 
	// Define run time values 
	theCurrentStory     = -1; 
	theCurrentLength    = 0; 
	// Locate base objects 
	if (document.getElementById) {	 
		    theAnchorObject     = document.getElementById("tickerAnchor"); 
			runTheTicker();   	 
		 } 
	else { 
            document.write("<style>.ticki{display:none;}.ticko{border:0px; padding:0px;}</style>"); 
            return true; 
	} 
} 
// Ticker main run loop 
function runTheTicker() 
{ 
	var myTimeout;   
	// Go for the next story data block 
	if(theCurrentLength == 0) 
	{ 
		theCurrentStory++; 
		theCurrentStory      = theCurrentStory % theItemCount; 
		theStorySummary      = theSummaries[theCurrentStory].replace(/&quot;/g,'"');		 
		theTargetLink        = theSiteLinks[theCurrentStory]; 
		theAnchorObject.href = theTargetLink; 
		thePrefix 	     = "<span class="tickls">" + theLeadString + "</span>"; 
	} 
	// Stuff the current ticker text into the anchor 
	theAnchorObject.innerHTML = thePrefix +  
	theStorySummary.substring(0,theCurrentLength) + whatWidget(); 
	// Modify the length for the substring and define the timer 
	if(theCurrentLength != theStorySummary.length) 
	{ 
		theCurrentLength++; 
		myTimeout = theCharacterTimeout; 
	} 
	else 
	{ 
		theCurrentLength = 0; 
		myTimeout = theStoryTimeout; 
	} 
	// Call up the next cycle of the ticker 
	setTimeout("runTheTicker()", myTimeout); 
} 
// Widget generator 
function whatWidget() 
{ 
	if(theCurrentLength == theStorySummary.length) 
	{ 
		return theWidgetNone; 
	} 

	if((theCurrentLength % 2) == 1) 
	{ 
		return theWidgetOne; 
	} 
	else 
	{ 
		return theWidgetTwo; 
	} 
} 
// --> 
</script> 


	<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"> 
	<!-- 

	var theCharacterTimeout = 50; 
	var theStoryTimeout     = 5000; 
	var theWidgetOne        = "_"; 
	var theWidgetTwo        = "-"; 
	var theWidgetNone       = ""; 
	var theLeadString       = "LATEST:&nbsp;"; 

	var theSummaries = new Array(); 
	var theSiteLinks = new Array(); 

	var theItemCount = 10; 



		theSummaries[0] = "Three killed as storms batter UK"; 
		theSiteLinks[0] = "http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/click/rss/0.91/public/-/1/hi/uk/4164613.stm"; 

		theSummaries[1] = "Blair to face MPs amid feud talk"; 
		theSiteLinks[1] = "http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/click/rss/0.91/public/-/1/hi/uk_politics/4166625.stm"; 

		theSummaries[2] = "Alarming ignorance of cancer risk"; 
		theSiteLinks[2] = "http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/click/rss/0.91/public/-/1/hi/health/4164131.stm"; 

		theSummaries[3] = "Boscastle awaits flooding report"; 
		theSiteLinks[3] = "http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/click/rss/0.91/public/-/1/hi/uk/4166895.stm"; 

		theSummaries[4] = "'Errors' doomed first Dome sale"; 
		theSiteLinks[4] = "http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/click/rss/0.91/public/-/1/hi/uk_politics/4165767.stm"; 

		theSummaries[5] = "Police launch Class A drugs blitz"; 
		theSiteLinks[5] = "http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/click/rss/0.91/public/-/1/hi/uk/4166925.stm"; 

		theSummaries[6] = "Businessman takes top MI6 job"; 
		theSiteLinks[6] = "http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/click/rss/0.91/public/-/1/hi/uk/4166941.stm"; 

		theSummaries[7] = "'vCJD timebomb' fears discounted"; 
		theSiteLinks[7] = "http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/click/rss/0.91/public/-/1/hi/health/4162749.stm"; 

		theSummaries[8] = "Greer attacks 'bully' Big Brother"; 
		theSiteLinks[8] = "http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/click/rss/0.91/public/-/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/4165101.stm"; 

		theSummaries[9] = "Football: Morientes close to move"; 
		theSiteLinks[9] = "http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/click/rss/0.91/public/-/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/4127559.stm"; 

		theSummaries[10] = "Tennis: Henman winning start"; 
		theSiteLinks[10] = "http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/click/rss/0.91/public/-/sport1/hi/tennis/4164273.stm"; 



	startTicker(); 

	//--> 
	</script> 


</body> 
</html>

Can anyone see any stupid mistakes?

Cheers

Andy (mod)
andy@ultranerds.co.uk

Last edited by:

Andy: Jan 12, 2005, 1:05 AM

Jan 12, 2005, 9:05 AM

Watts

Veteran (1141 posts)

Jan 12, 2005, 9:05 AM

Post #2 of 11

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Re: [Andy] News Ticker... In reply to

Wild guess, but could it be this:

var theItemCount = 10;

You have 0-10 in your array which is 11 items (?)

Jan 12, 2005, 9:10 AM

Andy

Veteran / Moderator (18441 posts)

Jan 12, 2005, 9:10 AM

Post #3 of 11

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Re: [Watts] News Ticker... In reply to

Thanks for the try... didn't work though :

The actual error (which wasn't being reported earlier), is something about "line 46", which is;

Code:
theStorySummary.substring(0,theCurrentLength) + whatWidget(); 
// Modify the length for the substring and define the timer 
if(theCurrentLength != theStorySummary.length)

I'm not really a JS expert though Frown

TIA!

Andy (mod)
andy@ultranerds.co.uk

Jan 12, 2005, 9:41 AM

dan

Enthusiast (760 posts)

Jan 12, 2005, 9:41 AM

Post #4 of 11

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Re: [Andy] News Ticker... In reply to

Andy, what is the verbatim JS error message?

----
Cheers,

Dan
Founder and CEO

LionsGate Creative
GoodPassRobot
Magelln

Jan 12, 2005, 9:52 AM

Andy

Veteran / Moderator (18441 posts)

Jan 12, 2005, 9:52 AM

Post #5 of 11

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Re: [dan] News Ticker... In reply to

Hi,

I can't copy+paste the exact message, but its along the lines of;

Line 44
Char 35
Error: Expected ';'

..and;

Line 146
Char 2
Error: Object Expected

Probably something silly... but my JS skills have a little to be desired =)

TIA

Andy (mod)
andy@ultranerds.co.uk

Jan 12, 2005, 9:57 AM

dan

Enthusiast (760 posts)

Jan 12, 2005, 9:57 AM

Post #6 of 11

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Re: [Andy] News Ticker... In reply to

Is:

theAnchorObject.innerHTML = thePrefix + theStorySummary.substring(0,theCurrentLength) + whatWidget();

on the same line - error message seems to indicate that it is broken up over 2 lines.

----
Cheers,

Dan
Founder and CEO

LionsGate Creative
GoodPassRobot
Magelln

Jan 12, 2005, 10:07 AM

Andy

Veteran / Moderator (18441 posts)

Jan 12, 2005, 10:07 AM

Post #7 of 11

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Re: [dan] News Ticker... In reply to

Thanks. I think that may well be it =)

The stupid server has gone offline (or is very busy) at the moment... which is a PITA :'( I guess I'll have to take a look tomorrow.

Thanks again.. and lets hope that fixes it <G>

Cheres

Andy (mod)
andy@ultranerds.co.uk

Jan 12, 2005, 10:12 AM

dan

Enthusiast (760 posts)

Jan 12, 2005, 10:12 AM

Post #8 of 11

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Re: [Andy] News Ticker... In reply to

If not, if you can post a URL to the page, it would be helpful. Dang servers, you must have the ML-Chip installed. Murphy's Law Chip =) I don't know why, but I keep on upgrading mine ;=)

----
Cheers,

Dan
Founder and CEO

LionsGate Creative
GoodPassRobot
Magelln

Jan 12, 2005, 8:25 PM

Chaz

Enthusiast (819 posts)

Jan 12, 2005, 8:25 PM

Post #9 of 11

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Re: [Andy] News Ticker... In reply to

Also check a line or two above that for this:

Code:
thePrefix 	     = "<span class="tickls">" + theLeadString + "</span>";

You might need to escape the extra "'s in there:

Code:
thePrefix 	     = "<span class=\"tickls\">" + theLeadString + "</span>";

~Charlie

Jan 12, 2005, 8:28 PM

Chaz

Enthusiast (819 posts)

Jan 12, 2005, 8:28 PM

Post #10 of 11

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Re: [Chaz] News Ticker... In reply to

Just tested and that did the trick :)

~Charlie

Jan 13, 2005, 12:23 AM

Andy

Veteran / Moderator (18441 posts)

Jan 13, 2005, 12:23 AM

Post #11 of 11

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Re: [Chaz] News Ticker... In reply to

Thanks... that worked a beauty :)

Turned out to be the way the Perl script was interpreting it. i.e, it was set to show as;

thePrefix = "<span class=\"tickls\">" + theLeadString + "</span>";

... but I had to use the following in the end;

thePrefix = "<span class=\\\"tickls\\\">" + theLeadString + "</span>";

Thanks for the pointer Smile

Cheers

Andy (mod)
andy@ultranerds.co.uk