Site updates according to what is on other site...How?

G

Gator

New Member
It might seem silly, but I can't figure out how to make a site I'm designing update dynamically relative to the content of another site.

Yes, before it's asked, I do have the other site's permission (mind you, the client's permission; have yet to ask his webmaster).

I figure that I can do it manually by simply taking his HTML code from the site and updating mine in accordance, but the fact that I can do it that way makes me think that I can have it done automatically (it'd be a template modification anyways).

Would I need his actual files? Or could I do without?

Thanks in advance,
 
wetgravy

wetgravy

New Member
what your asking for is going to be a custom job, and will require alot of money and/or time to work properly.

Closest thing i have found to that online has been a script that lists rss feeds for auto updating of sites you want. That is relatively easy, but it requires a decent sized database and cronjob support.
 
voodish

voodish

New Member
Depends if you need all the content from the other site to be completely mirrored. If this is indeed the case; it can be quite difficult, and certainly not recommended from an SEO standpoint, as Google would deem one site more important than the other and discard the other as a 'copied' version, and downgrade it; perhaps even sandbox it if it's a newbie.

However, you could try setting up two domains, with two separate Content Management systems, and 1 database. If the domains reside on the same server, you could potentially update one of the sites from your CMS, and the other one will automatically update content from the 1 database (the style / colours / graphics etc. can be totally different). However, make sure that content is updated from one CMS and not both (you don't want to open that can of headache).
There are a whole number of things that you need to configure for this to work properly and is highly dependant on the CMS you will use; here is a howto, for a Drupal install: http://idcminnovations.com/?q=node/116

If on the other hand you want take 'some' data from the other site, you could simply setup an RSS feed and drag the data that way, the code to retrieve an RSS feed is quite simple, see below:

Code: 
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.google.com/reader/ui/
publisher-en.js"></script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.google.com/reader/public/javascript/feed/http://www.voodish.co.uk/articles/v-feed.php?n=9&amp;callback=GRC_p(%7Bc%3A'-'%2Ct%3A''%2Cs
%3A'false'%7D)%3Bnew%20GRC&amp;hl=en"></script>

You would place that in your web page where you would like the 'other sites' feed data to be displayed.

Or, you could do it a really nasty way and just <iframe> each page from the other, it really depends how large and complex the sites are.

Let us know how you get on, and any links to the aforementioned - good luck!
 
G

Gator

New Member
Thanks for the replies guys!

Admittedly, I'm fairly new to this web design world (this was more a favor for a friend rather than a service to a client). So, I've yet to work with RSS.

BUT! My friend requested something else. Instead of dynamically updating it, he'd rather have me make him a program with which he can easily update things based on a template. Two reasons: he doesn't want to look at droll text repeatedly, and he said he'd like to be selective with what he gets from the site.

Basically, while I won't be working with RSS here, I'll definitely take this as a sure sign that I've got another web-shedoodle to explore here.

Thank you very much
 
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