Zend has published the latest in their "PHP 101" beginner PHP series, No News is Good News - a look at creating an RSS news aggregator with PHP.

After the workout I gave you last time, you're probably either chomping at the bit to build another PHP application or you've decided to give up PHP programming and try growing cucumbers instead. If it's the latter, you should stop reading right now, because I can guarantee you that this concluding installment of PHP 101 has absolutely nothing to teach you about vegetable farming.

If it's the former, however, then you're going to enjoy what's coming up. Over the next few pages, I'm going to be building a simple RSS news aggregator using PHP, SQLite and SimpleXML. With this news aggregator, you can plug into RSS news feeds from all over the web, creating a newscast that reflects your needs and interests for your website. The best part: it updates itself automatically with the latest stories every time you view it!

Come on in, and let's get this show on the road!

He provides all of the code, plenty of explainations, and lots of samples to get you started. There's also some sample XML sources to parse so that you can dive into real-world examples right away (Slashdot, Wired, Freshmeat, etc). SimpleXML is PHP5 only, so you'll have to use that to create the aggregator.