A Donation FeedFlare for FeedBurner
FeedBurner, the processor for my blog’s feed, has a really cool feed optimization extension called FeedFlare (under the Optimize menu in your account). It allows additional links to be dynamically added under each feed item (see the catalog of available FeedFlare’s). Moreover, the FeedFlare API allows developers to create new FeedFlares (XML scripts) and integrate them with their feeds through FeedBurner.
So trying out the possibilities, I created a new FeedFlare which allows the feed subscribers to make a donation via PayPal. The “Donate via PayPal” FeedFlare adds a customized donation link below each feed item. This FeedFlare has the following customizable URL Parameters:
label -> link title (eg: Donate to XYZ etc.), if unspecified defaults to ‘Donate’;
msg -> message displayed on the PayPal payment page (eg: Donate to the XYZ Relief Fund etc.), if unspecified defaults to the FeedBurner blog feed title;
email -> PayPal e-mail address, if unspecified defaults to the FeedBurner author e-mail address;
curr -> currency code (eg: USD, GBP, EUR, AUD etc.), if unspecified defaults to USD;
locl -> locale ID (eg: US, UK, AU etc.), if unspecified defaults to US.
Usage example: http://www.nilkanth.com/feedflare/donate/?label=Donate to WorldVision&msg=Donation for WorldVision Children Fund&email=yourname@test.com&curr=AUD&locl=AU
Posted under Personal, Projects, Technology | Posted on Sat, 3rd Mar 2007 11:47 am
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I’d love to try your feedflare but the link is broken. Could you repost it or email it to me? It’s a godsend!
susie
Hi Susie,
Thanks for your interest in the PayPal Donation FeedFlare. The link seems to be working fine - http://www.nilkanth.com/feedflare/donate/
Let me know if you face any problems.
Cheers
Hi, I can’t seem to get this to work, every time I upload the file feedburner says “We could not find a valid feedflare file at that location”.
I’m havign the same problem as patung. is it not enough to copy and paste into a txt file. do i need to do something special?
I appreciate the help
Hi guys,
The hosted version of the donation FeedFlare is located at http://www.nilkanth.com/feedflare/donate/ . So you can simply set this URL in your FeedBurner FeedFlare settings. If you wish to host this FeedFlare on your own server, then you must copy its XML source code, paste it in a XML text file (like paypal-feedflare.xml), and upload it to your server. Then you can set the FeedFlare location to the URL of the XML file on your server.
Hope it helps!
Hi,
I don’t seem to be able to get this flare to work.
I’ve tried using the hosted copy, but I don’t understand how that could really work.
I’ve also tried hosting it on my own server, but again when I add the labesl to the url as I submit it to feedburner, I encounter feed not found errors.
It’s a great idea, which I would love to be able to make use of.
Is there anyway you could do a step by step guide with the exact pieces of code and where they are submitted.
Many thanks and best wishes
Hi Ashutosh:
I’m with Adam… speaking for myself, I have no previous experience with “Feed Flare” to fall back on. A clear tutorial would go a long way in allowing what I suspect are a large number of folks to quickly and properly set-up your Pay Pal Donation Flare.
BTW an extremely good (and needed) idea.
I look forward to your positive reply.
All The Best
Tom G, Sr.
I just found this and thought I would give it a try. I’m new to feedburner and have been tweaking it out since I signed up earlier this week.
I set this up on my server and it does wok with one small problem. The email address it attempts to send money to via paypal is a fake one I use in my RSS feed. I’ve goone into the feed and adjusted it, but it still tries to send payments to the bogus address.
Is there a way to manually set the address in the xml file or do I need to make a change on feedburner its self?
thanks!