Updated Sites¶

Introduction
Displaying Pings
- Parameters
- Variables
Receiving Pings
- Pruning Pings
- Editing Pings

Introduction ¶

This Updated Sites Module allows other sites to ping your site when they have created new content. You can then display a “recently updated sites” list based on the sites that send you pings.

Note

The Updated Sites Module is available only with a purchased ExpressionEngine license.

The module will accept either a standard Channels.com style ping (which is most common) or an Extended Ping.

Displaying Pings ¶

You may display the pings you have received for any of your configurations. Here is an example of code you will place in one of your templates:

{exp:updated_sites:pings which="default" orderby="title" limit="20"}
        <p><a href="{ping_site_url}">{ping_site_name}</a></p>
{/exp:updated_sites:pings}

limit=¶

limit="30"

Allows you to limit the number of pings displayed. The limit will default to 100 pings if a value is not specified.

orderby=¶

orderby="date"

The “order” parameter sets the display order of the pings. Setting options for this parameter include:

orderby=”date”
orderby=”rss”
orderby=”title”
orderby=”url”

sort=¶

sort="asc" ``sort="desc"``

The sort order can be “asc” (ascending order or “oldest item first” for dates) or “desc” (descending order or “newest item first” for dates). If you do not use a sort order the default is desc.

which=¶

which="default"

From which Configuration to show the pings (will show comments from all configurations if none is specified). Additionally, you can use the pipe character to separate multiple configurations:

which="default|private|business"

Or you can add the word “not” (with a space after it) to exclude configurations:

which="not private|secret|friends"

Variables ¶

count
ping_date
ping_ipaddress
ping_site_check
ping_site_name
ping_site_rss
ping_site_url
switch=
total_results

count ¶

{count}

The current increment value for this ping out of the total being displayed. i.e. if EE is currently displaying the 7th ping out of 20 then the count value would be “7”.

ping_date ¶

{ping_date format="%Y %m %d"}

The date the ping was received. See the date variable formatting page for more information.

ping_ipaddress ¶

{ping_ipaddress}

The IP address from which the ping was received.

ping_site_check ¶

{ping_site_check}

The “check URL” for the site that sent the ping. This is part of the Extended Ping format and is not often available.

ping_site_name ¶

{ping_site_name}

The name of the site that sent the ping.

ping_site_rss ¶

{ping_site_rss}

The RSS URL for the site that sent the ping. This is part of the Extended Ping format and is not often available.

ping_site_url ¶

{ping_site_url}

The URL for new content from the site that sent the ping.

switch=¶

{switch="option_one|option_two}

This variable permits you to alternate between any two values as the pings are displayed. The first result will use “option_one”, the second will use “option_two”, the third “option_one”, and so on.

The most straightforward use for this would be to alternate colors. It could be used like so:

{exp:updated_sites:pings which="default limit="20"}
        <p class="{switch="one|two"}">
                <a href="{ping_site_url}">{ping_site_name}</a>
        </p>
{/exp:updated_sites:pings}

The entries would then alternate between <p class=”one”> and <p class=”two”>.

Multiple instances of the {switch=} tag may be used and the system will intelligently keep track of each one.

total_results ¶

{total_results}

The total number of pings being displayed.

Receiving Pings ¶

Before you can start receiving pings:

Go to Add-Ons ‣ Modules ‣ Updated Sites and edit the Default configuration.
In the configuration there is a field called Sites Allowed to Ping, which allows you to specify a list of URLs that your site will accept pings from. You need only include part of the URL of the site pinging you, so if you want to accept pings from all channels at channelspot.com, you can simply enter ‘channelspot.com’ into this field.
After saving your configuration, you will see a URL in the module’s main menu. This is the Ping URL for this configuration. Give this URL to people you will allow pings from. They will put this URL into their Ping Server preferences for their software. If they are using ExpressionEngine they can add your ping URL to their My Account > Ping Servers page.

Note

You can have multiple configurations if you want to allow different groups to ping your site.

Pruning Pings ¶

In your ping configuration you’ll find a preference for the maximum number of pings to save. This allows the pings stored to be pruned every so often to keep database size down.

Editing Pings ¶

Click on the View Pings link next to the desired configuration. You can see the information received from this ping and when the ping was received. You may also deleted any unwanted pings.