Laterooms xml

[chippyb]

Hi All

Is anyone using laterooms xml feed, any fancy giving me an idiots guide to it as im am struggling to use it as the mo as I can just work it out,
I would like to use it I think it would really help out this, I need something from start to finish, ie it being live, Thanks for you time guys and girls

Ryan

 

[chippyb]

anyone got any ideas with xml feeds?

 

[monaghan]

I've not got round to using the XML feed, but from memory, I'm sure there were some samples on the affiliate site. Try contacting your account manager, they may have some guidance.

Alternatively you could advertise for a developer to do this for you.

 

[Admin]

I had a call from Laterooms today, they have heard of AD recently and are looking to see how they can help.

They don't currently have any sample PHP code to use with their API / XML feed but I have asked them to take a look at this as I'm sure a lot of us would be interested.

They have said they will keep in touch with me regularly so if you have any questions let me know and I will collate them together to get answers.

Admin

 

[chippyb]

I have spoken with the guy at laterooms and he has been helpful with it, but says to just leave it if you dont really understand it, the docs they have to help you out dont really tell you how to set it up which is good as I think a better manual would mean more people using it and more sales, I have even downloaded the xml file to my computer but can never get the file open as excel just crashes when you do, I would like an idiot guide really to set this up, I can provide any info you need to help me to do this, I have access to dreamweaver to whcih should make things easier.
Thanks all

 

[grantw]

It's not an excel file, it's a live feed of the laterooms data in a format similar to an rss feed. You need to write the code that will parse the data in the feed and display it on your site.

example xml file:
http://www.simplyhired.com/a/add-jobs/example-xml

Forget Dreamweaver, you need something written in php or similar really.

Grant

 

[chippyb]

Ok thanks for the info but still doesnt help me out at all really, still have no idea what to do.

 

[grantw]

Ok thanks for the info but still doesnt help me out at all really, still have no idea what to do.

If you're trying to open an xml file with excel then you're really going to struggle to do this yourself. It would be much less painful to pay someone to code it for you.

Some example code here:
http://www.bobulous.org.uk/coding/php-xml-feeds.html

If you want to view the file you've downloaded then open it in a plain text editor such as notepad.

Grant

 

[Retired_member41]

Better leave it then or learn it maybe?

I'm guessing your just looking for someone to do it all for you, if only life was that simple.

 

[chippyb]

Im not looking for someone to do it for me at all, I want to learn it, hense why I would like a guide on how to do it! I dont want to pay anyone either, I wanted to know if anyone has used laterooms xml feed and got it to work and had success, If only life was that simple that the file doesnt even open in notepad either, its a 50 meg file that seems to crash whatever program it wants to open,

 

[grantw]

http://www.textpad.com/ will be able to handle the file size.

Grant

 

[chippyb]

anyway thought I didnt need to open this file anyway

 

[grantw]

anyway thought I didnt need to open this file anyway

You don't but seeing as you downloaded it and tried to open it with excel I assumed you wanted to view it for some reason??? Plus if you're going to be writing a php script to parse the feed then you will need to view it.

I recommend opening it anyway so that you can see what you're dealing with.

Grant

 

[Admin]

The file can be used with many parameters, I suggest you use a small data set to start with so that you don't get too many results.

As per their documentation, the feed handles requests for:

1. Regions (1 = UK, 2 = Scotland, ...)
2. Towns
3. Specific Hotels
4. Keywords
5. Geo

Etc.

So

http://xmlfeed.laterooms.com/index.aspx?aid=11657&rtype=1&rid=2

means I have selected rtype 1 and rid 2 which gives me Hotel Regions for Scotland.

You can copy my code above into your web-browser and you will see the XML feed for this. You then need to parse this (I am using PHP to do so) to make it a readable web page. You can do this inside Wordpress by add the PHP Plug-In.

I you are not a developer this will be a lot for you to understand.

Admin

 

[chippyb]

thanks for this, im not using wordpress tho, my site is all hand coded, is i need a way of putting that data into php and into my html page i have already
thanks

 

[philiporchard]

Try downloading the CSV file.

This may be a better alternative for you. I know someone on here recently built a site using their CSV file.

I've got to hand it to Laterooms though - they really take the time to build a relationship and seem to have a genuine interest in helping out.

If in doubt, ask for Colin.

 

[Alien]

Have a look on HotScripts.com for a PHP script to handle it.

 

[tifosi]

The php/curl coding to download it & parse it into an array is pretty straight-forward. The question is then what are you going to do with it - display/store as that increases the coding somewhat.

 

[aquanuke]

Just dumping it into mysql is by far the easiest. Then you have full control over all the data and can do anything you want with it. Plus it only takes 1 line of code to dump it all into mysql.

 

[chippyb]

I think I am just goint to go through the csv file, seems easier for now,
just a same that you can only download everything and not just for a certain town or city,

Funny enough colin in my contact in laterooms, \i have spoken with him today but he doesnt know much about xml either, so he is putting the info across to the team that more info on the subject would be a good idea,