Re: How can i only fetch a (rss/atom) feed when it's changed?

On 10/2/07, Mark <markg85@gmail.com> wrote: > I'm currently fetching feeds about every hour (automatically in php) > but sometimes there are no new updates in a feed for 2 hours. so no i > wonder if it's possible to check the feed somehow to see if it changed > since i last fetched it and if it's the case than download it like it > should.. if it's not changed than just skip the download. > > Is this possible and how (with filemtime?)? i rather have a method > that works in php 4 and 5 (i use php 5 but alot of hosts still don't). [proper] feeds are generated in real-time. it depends if the server sends along some sort of etag or other modification information, but i would say the nature of RSS is to be dynamic and always up to date. you should just work on something on your end to dupe check/detect new items. that will be a much more consistent solution anyway, since it will work on ANY feed. much better than relying on the server or the other person's code or RSS code generator to tell the right last modification time.