In previous article I had created a RSS feed using PHP DOMDocument class, and today we are going to use PHP SimpleXML to create the same. PHP SimpleXML can be used to manipulate XML documents easily, it can read data from XML files/strings, and edit nodes and attributes. SimpleXML functions are part of PHP 5+, so everyone using PHP 5 and up requires no additional extensions to use its functions.

RSS makes it possible to syndicate latest website contents throughout the web seamlessly, whether you have a news website, blog or a normal website, you can break it down into discrete items and syndicated them via RSS. If you are using WordPress or any other popular CMS, you will find its own RSS system. But creating your custom RSS feed is also fairly easy using PHP.

HTML form is an essential part of Web development process, it allows us to gather data from user inputs and we can do various things with the data we receive from user, we can send email, change interface, layout or save the data directly to our MySql table.

Here’s PHP function that comes in handy when you want to shorten long URLs into short Bit.ly URLs, before sharing it to Twitter or other Social networks. First you need to create Bit.ly OAuth application here, when you create an application you will be able to generate “Generic Access Token” under this application to make API requests on behalf of your own account.