famed wss expert mike walsh had a chance to post about feedreader, you should check out his comments. one thing he points out that is interesting is the last comment about writing competitive freeware products when free ones already exist. it is an interesting point to ponder...like, how many different types of plain text editors can you have and are the feature gaps enough to warrant saying “it's better”?
at any rate, i've seen a bunch of rss web parts come out recently for sharepoint and thought i'd note on some of them. most of them seem to be a derivitive of the xml web part that comes with sharepoint...a wise idea since rss is an xml format anyway...simply apply an xsl stylesheet and you are good to go.
but let's say you can't spell xsl...
my web part (to toot my own horn here...the first public web part for rss and sharepoint services) adds value in several areas. first, xml web part only allows a single xml document (either url or text)--and some other rss web parts also have this limitation. feedreader allows multiple in one web part with no additional configuration. feedreader also provides value by adding caching capabilities (do you really want a request to go out every time the page refreshes?!?!), item filtering by date and counts, collapse/expand capabilities to read the summary comments, initial atom 0.3 feed support [note: see known issues on feedreader]. the xml web part can't offer you these (i would argue can't, but i'll at least say “can't easily offer”) out of the box. feedreader can...and guess what, it's free too.
thanks for the notes mike...i appreciate it. i also appreciate competition...it makes me strive to see what i can do better (which is the main reason i've been holding off the workspace view web part...another one that i released and many more followed, some good and some not so good).
The following is a list of currently known issues with FeedReader:
v3.0
- Atom 0.3 feeds don't update the title Url appropriately
- 11JUN2004 Update: default URL changed until issue can be resolved
- Possible issues with user-authenticating proxy servers (23MAR2004)
- 11JUN2004 Update: minor updates changed, encourage reinstallation of new download
- Issues with proxy servers, use SharePoint web.config instead of web part properties
Q: Why do I get “Request for the permission of type System.Security.Permission.FileIOPermission“?
Q: I am getting an error immediately after I add your web part, what's the problem?
Q: It says your web part is not marked as safe? What does that mean?
Q: I ran your install .msi file but the web part does not show up in the Virual Gallery, what happened?
A: Per the readme file, there are two methods of installing FeedReader. The first method is to change the trust level for the portal from WSS_Minimal (which is out of the box configuration) to Full. The second (and recommended) method is to ensure the web part is installed into the GAC. This is accomplished using:
stsadm.exe -o addwppack -filename -globalinstall -force
You'll notice the “-globalinstall” parameter which installs FeedReader to the GAC for you. This should solve the problem described above.
The other option instead of the “-globalinstall“ option (which puts the Web Part in the Global Assembly Cache) is to edit the web.config of the SharePoint server. You will notice in the web.config a section that indicates a trust level. By default this will most likely be something like “WSS_Minimal“ unless it has been changed. You can change this to “Full“ and FeedReader should work.
Q: My company uses a proxy server which requires user authentication, does FeedReader work?
A: We are trying to do our best to accommodate all environments, and proxy servers are one that are a pain point for us right now. Because the server is actually making the request for the RSS feed information, we are challenged with making sure all the credentials are appropriately passed on through FeedReader. Updates on this issue will be continually posted here.
References: http://msmvps.com/cgross/archive/2004/06/26/9045.aspx