Blame - user_guide/libraries/trackback.html - code-igniter-v3-giggi

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<h1>Trackback Class</h1>

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<p>The Trackback Class provides functions that enable you to send and receive Trackback data.</p>

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<p>If you are not familiar with Trackbacks you'll find more information <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trackback">here</a>.</p>

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<h2>Initializing the Class</h2>

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<p>Like most other classes in Code Igniter, the Trackback class is initialized in your controller using the <dfn>$this->load->library</dfn> function:</p>

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<code>$this->load->library('trackback');</code>

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<p>Once loaded, the Trackback library object will be available using: <dfn>$this->trackback</dfn></p>

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<p>You can also set your own class variable name. Please see the <a href="loader.html">Loader Class</a> for more info.</p>

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<h2>Sending Trackbacks</h2>

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<p>A Trackback can be sent from any of your controller functions using code similar to this example:

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<code>$this->load->library('trackback');<br />

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<br />

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$tb_data = array(<br />

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                'ping_url'  => 'http://some-site.com/trackback/456',<br />

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                'url'       => 'http://www.my-site.com/blog/entry/123',<br />

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                'title'     => 'The Title of My Entry',<br />

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                'excerpt'   => 'The entry content.',<br />

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                'blog_name' => 'My Blog Name',<br />

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                'charset'   => 'utf-8'<br />

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                );<br />

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<br />

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if ( ! $this->trackback->send($tb_data))<br />

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{<br />

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     echo $this->trackback->display_errors();<br />

}<br />

else<br />

{<br />

     echo 'Trackback was sent!';<br />

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}</code>

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<p>Description of array data:</p>

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<ul>

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<li><strong>ping_url</strong> - The URL of the site you are sending the Trackback to. You can send Trackbacks to multiple URLs by separating each URL with a comma.</li>

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<li><strong>url</strong> - The URL to YOUR site where the weblog entry can be seen.</li>

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<li><strong>title</strong> - The title of your weblog entry.</li>

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<li><strong>excerpt</strong> - The content of your weblog entry. Note: the Trackback class will automatically send only the first 500 characters of your entry. It will also strip all HTML.</li>

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<li><strong>blog_name</strong> - The name of your weblog.</li>

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<li><strong>charset</strong> - The character encoding your weblog is written in. If omitted, UTF-8 will be used.</li>

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</ul>

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<p>The Trackback sending function returns TRUE/FALSE (boolean) on success or failure. If it fails, you can retrieve the error message using:</p>

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<code>$this->trackback->display_errors();</code>

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<h2>Receiving Trackbacks</h2>

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<p>Before you can receive Trackbacks you must create a weblog. If you don't have a blog yet there's no point in continuing.</p>

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<p>Receiving Trackbacks is a little more complex than sending them, only because you will need a database table in which to store them,

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and you will need to validate the incoming trackback data. You are encouraged to implement a thorough validation process to

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guard against spam and duplicate data. You may also want to limit the number of Trackbacks you allow from a particular IP within

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a given span of time to further curtail spam. The process of receiving a Trackback is quite simple;

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the validation is what takes most of the effort.</p>

<p>In order to accept Trackbacks you must display a Trackback URL next to each one of your weblog entries. This will be the URL

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that people will use to send you Trackbacks (we will refer to this as your "Ping URL").</p>

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<p>Your Ping URL must point to a controller function where your Trackback receiving code is located, and the URL

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must contain the ID number for each particular entry, so that when the Trackback is received you'll be

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able to associate it with a particular entry.</p>

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<p>For example, if your controller class is called <dfn>Trackback</dfn>, and the receiving function is called <dfn>receive</dfn>, your

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Ping URLs will look something like this:</p>

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<code>http://www.your-site.com/index.php/trackback/receive/<samp>entry_id</samp></code>

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<p>Where <samp>entry_id</samp> represents the individual ID number for each of your entries.</p>

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<h2>Creating a Trackback Table</h2>

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<p>Before you can receive Trackbacks you must create a table in which to store them. Here is a basic prototype for such a table:</p>

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CREATE TABLE trackbacks (

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tb_id int(10) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment,

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entry_id int(10) unsigned NOT NULL default 0,

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url varchar(200) NOT NULL,

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title varchar(100) NOT NULL,

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excerpt text NOT NULL,

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blog_name varchar(100) NOT NULL,

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tb_date int(10) NOT NULL,

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ip_address varchar(16) NOT NULL,

PRIMARY KEY (tb_id),

KEY (entry_id)

);</textarea>

<p>The Trackback specification only requires four pieces of information to be sent in a Trackback (url, title, excerpt, blog_name),

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but to make the data more useful we've added a few more fields in the above table schema (date, IP address, etc.).</p>

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<h2>Processing a Trackback</h2>

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<p>Here is an example showing how you will receive and process a Trackback. The following

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code is intended for use within the controller function where you expect to receive Trackbacks.</p>

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<code>$this->load->library('trackback');<br />

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$this->load->database();<br />

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<br />

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if ($this->uri->segment(3) == FALSE)<br />

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{<br />

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    $this->trackback->send_error("Unable to determine the entry ID");<br />

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}<br />

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<br />

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if ( ! $this->trackback->receive())<br />

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{<br />

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    $this->trackback->send_error("The Trackback did not contain valid data");<br />

}<br />

<br />

$data = array(<br />

                'tb_id'      => '',<br />

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                'entry_id'   => $this->uri->segment(3),<br />

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                'url'        => $this->trackback->data('url'),<br />

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                'title'      => $this->trackback->data('title'),<br />

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                'excerpt'    => $this->trackback->data('excerpt'),<br />

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                'blog_name'  => $this->trackback->data('blog_name'),<br />

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                'tb_date'    => time(),<br />

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                'ip_address' => $this->input->ip_address()<br />

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                );<br />

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<br />

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$sql = $this->db->insert_string('trackbacks', $data);<br />

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$this->db->query($sql);<br />

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<br />

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$this->trackback->send_success();</code>

<h4>Notes:</h4>

<p>The entry ID number is expected in the third segment of your URL. This is based on the URI example we gave earlier:</p>

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<code>http://www.your-site.com/index.php/trackback/receive/<samp>entry_id</samp></code>

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<p>Notice the entry_id is in the third URI, which you can retrieve using:</p>

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<code>$this->uri->segment(3);</code>

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<p>In our Trackback receiving code above, if the third segment is missing, we will issue an error. Without a valid entry ID, there's no

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reason to continue.</p>

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<p>The <dfn>$this->trackback->receive()</dfn> function is simply a validation function that looks at the incoming data

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and makes sure it contains the four pieces of data that are required (url, title, excerpt, blog_name).

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It returns TRUE on success and FALSE on failure. If it fails you will issue an error message.</p>

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<p>The incoming Trackback data can be retrieved using this function:</p>

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<code>$this->trackback->data('<var>item</var>')</code>

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<p>Where <var>item</var> represents one of these four pieces of info: url, title, excerpt, or blog_name</p>

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<p>If the Trackback data is successfully received, you will issue a success message using:</p>

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<code>$this->trackback->send_success();</code>

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<p class="important"><strong>Note:</strong> The above code contains no data validation, which you are encouraged to add.</p>

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