create-rss-feed.php

<?php

/*
Establish a connection using mysqli and checked for connection errors.
Use htmlspecialchars to escape output to prevent XSS attacks.
Updated SQL query to prevent SQL injection, though parameterised queries via prepared statements would be better. 
Error Handling:  Added error handling for the database connection and query execution.
Added error handling for file operations.
Code Structure:  Improved readability by formatting the XML string more consistently. 
Organized the code to separate database logic, XML generation, and file handling. 
Make sure to replace placeholders like your_host, your_database, your_username, your_password, and "/path/to/your/feeds/index.xml" with actual values suitable for your environment.
*/

// Begin Function
function createRSSItem($post_title, $post_description, $post_link) {
    $returnITEM = "<item>\n";
    $returnITEM .= "<title>" . htmlspecialchars($post_title) . "</title>\n";
    $returnITEM .= "<description>" . htmlspecialchars($post_description) . "</description>\n";
    $returnITEM .= "<link>" . htmlspecialchars($post_link) . "</link>\n";
    $returnITEM .= "</item>\n";
    return $returnITEM;
}

// Database connection parameters
$host = 'your_host';
$db = 'your_database';
$user = 'your_username';
$pass = 'your_password';

// Create connection
$mysqli = new mysqli($host, $user, $pass, $db);

// Check connection
if ($mysqli->connect_error) {
    die('Connect Error (' . $mysqli->connect_errno . ') ' . $mysqli->connect_error);
}

// Define the type of doc we're creating
$filename = "/path/to/your/feeds/index.xml";
$rootURL = "http://www.YOURSITE.com/feeds/";
$latestBuild = date("r");

$createXML = "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>\n";
$createXML .= "<rss version=\"0.92\">\n";
$createXML .= "<channel>\n";
$createXML .= "<title>TITLE_OF_YOUR_RSS_FEED</title>\n";
$createXML .= "<link>$rootURL</link>\n";
$createXML .= "<description>DESCRIPTION_OF_YOUR_FEED</description>\n";
$createXML .= "<lastBuildDate>$latestBuild</lastBuildDate>\n";
$createXML .= "<docs>http://backend.userland.com/rss092</docs>\n";
$createXML .= "<language>en</language>\n";

// Get the News Articles
$content_search = "SELECT title, description, seoTitle, timeStamp FROM articles ORDER BY timeStamp DESC";
if ($content_results = $mysqli->query($content_search)) {
    while ($articleInfo = $content_results->fetch_object()) {
        $page = $rootURL . htmlspecialchars($articleInfo->seoTitle) . ".html";
        $description = htmlspecialchars($articleInfo->description);
        $title = htmlspecialchars($articleInfo->title);
        $createXML .= createRSSItem($title, $description, $page);
    }
    $content_results->free();
} else {
    die('Error executing query: ' . $mysqli->error);
}

$createXML .= "</channel>\n</rss>";

// Finish it up
if ($filehandle = fopen($filename, "w")) {
    fwrite($filehandle, $createXML);
    fclose($filehandle);
} else {
    die("Can't open the file");
}

$mysqli->close();
?>