Details
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Type:
Bug
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Status:
Closed
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Priority:
Minor
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Resolution: Won't Fix
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Affects Version/s: 1.9.7
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Fix Version/s: None
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Component/s: RSS
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Labels:None
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Affected Branches:MOODLE_19_STABLE
Description
Moodle 1.9.7 standard RSS feeds do not contain <author> tags, which causes a problem for some readers. This behaviour is not consistent with moodle.org feeds.
Code is here:
http://cvs.moodle.org/moodle/lib/rsslib.php?revision=1.52.2.7&view=markup
There is a comment (annotate identifies it as from moodler, May 2005):
//$result .= rss_full_tag('author',3,false,$item->author); //We put it in the description instead because it's more important //for moodle than most other feeds, and most rss software seems to ignore //the author field .. $item->description = get_string('byname','',$item->author).'. <p>'.$item->description.'</p>';
However, on moodle.org behaviour is different - the commented-out line at the top is no longer commented out, so you get the <author> tag in addition to the description.
If using Google Reader, this means when using moodle.org forum RSS feeds, the author name appears twice: in the right place where author name is supposed to go, then at the start of the message. It looks like this:
Re: b2e.exe file stopped working
from Installation problems by Maria Marin Padilla
by Maria Marin Padilla.
However, some other readers have a view that doesn't show content (title & author only), which means that the non-moodle.org RSS feeds do not show the author name at all because there is no author tag. Moodle.org feeds would be OK in this case.
Our users complained about the author tag being missing - presumably somebody using moodle.org did too which is why that was hacked in there...
Question: Is it really still the case that many popular RSS readers ignore the author field?
If this is not the case then we should remove the hack that adds it to the description field and add back in the author tag.
If this is still the case then we should consider whether the version currently on moodle.org (that may display the name twice) is preferable even though it duplicates the information, and should therefore go into standard code.
I'm happy to make a code change if somebody agrees what it should be 
I think I need to change this locally anyway.
Anyone have any stats on popular rss readers?