XML, RSS: read & create
What is XML?
XML stands for “Extensible Markup Language“, a textbased markup language. Designed to structure machine-readable data in a Text-File.
JCI and XML: No Problem!
As the Plugin is called “JSON Content Importer” you might think it can handle only the JSON-Format. But JCI can do more!
It can read XML, converts it into JSON and work with it.
Read XML and convert it to JSON
Just add inputtype=XML to the Shortcode:
[jsoncontentimporterpro nameofthetemplate=... inputtype=XML]
Create XML out of JSON
Create a JCI-Template and put XML-text like the following into the twig-Template Text:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="windows-1252"?>
<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>titleexample: {{title}}</title>
<description>descriptionexample</description>
<link>http://...link</link>
<copyright>Copyright 20...</copyright>
<docs>http://....docs</docs>
<language>en-us</language>
<lastBuildDate>Tue, 21 Oct 2019 03:19:24 -0800</lastBuildDate>
<managingEditor>info@.....com</managingEditor>
<pubDate>Tue, 21 Oct 2019 12:18:22 -0300</pubDate>
<webMaster>webmaster@....com</webMaster>
<generator>JCI</generator>
<image>
<url>http://www.....gif</url>
<title>titleimage</title>
<link>http://www....imagelink.htm</link>
<description>descriptionimage</description>
<width>480</width>
<height>480</height>
</image>
<item>
<title>titleitem</title>
<description>descriptionitem</description>
<link>http://www.linkitem</link>
<comments>commentsitems</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 21 Oct 2019 07:38:46 -0800</pubDate>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>
Also add a URL and if needed some more info to get the JSON. When the Shortcode is used, the XML-text is evaluated by twig and code like {{title}} (see XML) is replaced by the JSON-data.
If the previous gave you XML you now can edit the template and insert more twig-code to insert JSON-data. In the end you get a XML-feed out of JSON.
RSS: Special XML
The above XML is a special XML-style called RSS. This is used at Newsreaders or Sliders.
Notice: RSS is sensitive to special chars and chars used for RSS itself.
Therefore you must add some “wrapping-code” with “CDATA” to tell RSS that data is enclosed here and not XML-syntax.
<![CDATA[ text.... ]]>
By using “?show=oc” you can remove the WordPress-Template to get pure XML. Read more on that here.