RSS feed for user-only sections

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Tim Green
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RSS feed for user-only sections

Unread post by Tim Green »

If you use an RSS feed reader you have probably discovered the RSS feed link in the forum header. However, this link only provides the content of the open sections of the forum. If you want, you can also create a feeds that will read the user-only sections of the forum as well. You must create one feed for each section you want to read, as follows:

Tutorials & Guides:
http://helpman.it-authoring.com/rss.php?login&f=2

Tips & Tricks:
http://helpman.it-authoring.com/rss.php?login&f=1

Templates & Utilities:
http://helpman.it-authoring.com/rss.php?login&f=11

These feeds requires a login, of course, but most RSS readers support this and you usually only have to enter your username and password once, after that it's automatic.

Enjoy! 8)
Last edited by Tim Green on Wed Jan 30, 2008 9:44 am, edited 2 times in total.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Dean Whitlock
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Unread post by Dean Whitlock »

Hi Tim,

I've never used an RSS Feed. (I don't even know what the acronym stands for :oops:) How do they work, and what's the advantage over simply bookmarking the forum and checking the Posts Since Last Login page a couple of times a day?

Thanks,
Dean
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Tim Green
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Posts: 23155
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 9:11 am
Location: Bruehl, Germany
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Unread post by Tim Green »

Dean,

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. It is an XML-based format that is used for creating "feeds" that an RSS reader or an RSS-capable browser like Opera (out of the box) or Firefox (with an extension) can "pull" from a website, without you having to physically visit it. The easiest way to explain this is to describe what happens with the RSS feed for the forum:

When an RSS reader accesses the special RSS page on the forum a script in the page automatically scans the forum and finds all the new postings. It then extracts their text and sends them to the RSS reader enclosed in special XML tags, which the reader can then format as it pleases. In most readers the display will look a little like a list of emails in an email program. How the actual texts are formatted depends on the style used in the reader -- you can usually choose between a variety of formats or "skins".

The big advantage of this is that you don't need to check websites yourself. You can set up any number of feeds in your reader and the reader will check them automatically at regular intervals. Some feeds just include a brief synopsis of new articles, which you can then visit if you want, others include the entire article (that's how the forum feed works).

I have my reader set up to check the forum every 10 minutes -- that's how I keep up to date without having to check in myself. The best RSS reader I've found for Windows is called FeedDemon by Nick Bradbury, which is available here:

http://www.newsgator.com/NGOLProduct.as ... =FeedDemon

If you want a lot of information on RSS try the Wikipedia article here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(protocol)

(The (protocol) is supposed to be part of the link, the forum isn't formatting it properly...)
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