Using our RSS feeds to put member "module" and group "module" anywhere

Jen has a great tabbed content tip for VIPS.  I wanted to use this tip to toggle between member and groups, the problem is that we can't locate modules inside text boxes.  Solution, take advantage of the Ning RSS feeds.

I found several sites that can convert  rss feeds to javascript, the best I found was rssinclude.com.

Here is the end result using the VIP Tabbed Content Tip and RSSinclude, but you could use this in any slider or anywhere on your site. You can also use any rss feed, we have several on our ning sites.

Here are the steps.

1.  At the bottom of the groups or members page click to open your rss feed, depending on your browser it will open a feed reader or just the code, but it doesn't matter you just need the URL from the address bar.  Copy it.

2. Go to RSSinclude.com  You will see a start button, click it.

3. They have free and premium options.  The free options are pretty good and the logo they put on it is fairly small in most of the options.   Of the two images above  members is premium and groups is free.  (Groups won't show images in either scenario, they are not part of the RSS feed)  I chose to do the 7 day premium trial and will probably purchase it, its pretty cheap at around $35 a year.

4.  Set up your feed. Select your style than paste your RSS URL in the box.  You will get a preview.  The great thing I found about this service is the customizing, no other free surface I found seemed to have near the features, so easy to use.  

5. On the tabs in the setup box, Overview is the name of your feed for your use only, name it and create a login and you can come back and edit it later.  (make sure you hit save on this page).

6. Content and Styling - play with the colors, padding, fonts and settings until you get it how you want it, you can hit preview and save as many times you need.  

(Tip:  On some of the styles you couldn't turn off the title bar, so make the bar and the font the same color as the background and reduce the title bar height)

7.  Include!   This creates your javascript.  You can now paste this anywhere you want it!  In the examples from my site, I added the top title and the See all... in the text box.

Enjoy and share your ideas please!  I have a couple more thoughts on how I can use this :).