# SimpleRss: Poorly formatted feed

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/simplerss-poorly-formatted-feed/53313>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [February 1, 2006, 9:03am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/simplerss-poorly-formatted-feed/53313 "2006-02-01T09:03:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![softwareengineer\_99](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@softwareengineer\_99](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/softwareengineer_99)\
**Post date:** [February 1, 2006, 9:03am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/simplerss-poorly-formatted-feed/53313/1 "2006-02-01T09:03:40Z")

</div>

Based on the suggestions here I decided to use SimpleRSS but no matter  
what RSS feed I try, I keep getting the error:

“Poorly formatted feed”

I have tried “well formatted” RSS 0.91, 0.92 and 2.0 feeds but to no  
avail.

Can anyone please come to my rescue?

Thanks  
Frank

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![softwareengineer\_99](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@softwareengineer\_99](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/softwareengineer_99)\
**Post date:** [February 1, 2006, 9:21am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/simplerss-poorly-formatted-feed/53313/2 "2006-02-01T09:21:43Z")

</div>

I found the code (but not the reason) why I am getting the error:

The code is:

```
        raise SimpleRSSError, "Poorly formatted feed" unless 

```

@source =~ %r{\<(channel|feed)._?\>._?\</(channel|feed)\>}mi

However, I have even tried the example slashdot.rdf but to no avail?

Any assistance is appreciated.

Frank

softwareengineer 99 [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: Based on the  
suggestions here I decided to use SimpleRSS but no matter what RSS feed  
I try, I keep getting the error:

“Poorly formatted feed”

I have tried “well formatted” RSS 0.91, 0.92 and 2.0 feeds but to no  
avail.

Can anyone please come to my rescue?

Thanks  
Frank

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---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![softwareengineer\_99](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@softwareengineer\_99](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/softwareengineer_99)\
**Post date:** [February 1, 2006, 10:52am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/simplerss-poorly-formatted-feed/53313/3 "2006-02-01T10:52:30Z")

</div>

Hello,

This is my code so far:

begin  
@feeds = @category.feeds  
for @feed in @feeds  
rss = SimpleRSS.parse(@feed.url, true)  
# … formatting code  
end  
rescue Exception =\> exc  
flash[:notice] = “R: #{exc.message}”  
end

Any suggestions / ideas are greatly appreciated.

Thanks  
Frank

softwareengineer 99 [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: I found the  
code (but not the reason) why I am getting the error:

The code is:

```
        raise SimpleRSSError, "Poorly formatted feed" unless 

```

@source =~ %r{\<(channel|feed)._?\>._?\</(channel|feed)\>}mi

However, I have even tried the example slashdot.rdf but to no avail?

Any assistance is appreciated.

Frank

softwareengineer 99 [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: Based on the  
suggestions here I decided to use SimpleRSS but no matter what RSS feed  
I try, I keep getting the error:

“Poorly formatted feed”

I have tried “well formatted” RSS 0.91, 0.92 and 2.0 feeds but to no  
avail.

Can anyone please come to my rescue?

Thanks  
Frank

* * *

Do you Yahoo!?  
With a free 1 GB, there’s more in store with Yahoo!  
Mail.\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_  
Rails mailing list  
removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid  
[http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails](http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails)

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[http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails](http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![softwareengineer\_99](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@softwareengineer\_99](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/softwareengineer_99)\
**Post date:** [February 1, 2006, 1:49pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/simplerss-poorly-formatted-feed/53313/4 "2006-02-01T13:49:52Z")

</div>

softwareengineer 99 wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> This is my code so far:
> 
> begin  
> @feeds = @category.feeds  
> for @feed in @feeds  
> rss = SimpleRSS.parse(@feed.url, true)  
> You’re trying to parse the url, not the feed. My code to do something  
> similar looks like:

rss = SimpleRSS.parse(rio(@feed.url).read, true)

because the rio library is too groovy not to use like that.