RSS Reader Webpart for SharePoint

UPDATE: http://weblogs.asp.net/jan/archive/2004/03/11/88118.aspx

Since releasing my previous “essential” webparts (Navigation, MyAlerts & Breadcrumbs) I'm really into extending SharePoint. I've always wanted to create a webpart that would display the contents of an RSS feed and this weekend I finally found some time! So here it is: the Leadit RSSReader webpart. I know Tim Heuer has already created such a webpart, but as a developer it's always cooler to be able to use your own bits.

   

I've tried to make this webpart as flexible as possible, you can change following properties:

  • Feed URL: of course :-)
  • Number of posts to show
  • Cache duration
  • Show post contents
  • Post title in bold (useful when showing the post contents)
  • Show post date
  • Post icon URL (if no URL is set, no icon will be displayed)
  • Show feed title
  • Show copyright (if one is available in the feed it's shown below the posts, if the feed has a link to an image, that image is shown too)

The easiest way to use this webpart is to put the Leadit.SharePoint.RSSReader.dll in the GAC (it needs some privileges to read the feed) and the DWP file in the \wpcatalog directory. To mark the assemnbly as safe put the following line in the SafeControls section of the Web.Config: <SafeControl Assembly="Leadit.SharePoint.RSSReader, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=86680f0f768d39e0" Namespace="Leadit.SharePoint" TypeName="*" Safe="True" />.

Downloads:

As always: please test this webpart first before you use it in a production site, I'm not responsible for bad things that could happen... :-) Btw, for all the Belgian people intrested in customizing SharePoint: keep the 3th of March free in your agenda (evening), I'll post more details as soon as they become available.

41 Comments

  • encroching on my turf ;-)



    -th

  • Before I look at this more closely, is there anything in your opinion that your web part can do that Tim Heuer's can't ?



    (From your example I can see the more lines of description per item but I'm not sure this is a good thing - can it be amended by a parameter ?)

  • I have Tim's web part installed and working great. I'll link you tonight when I get home if others need to use the feed. Great effort!

  • Mike, you can set if you want to see the description or not. Also, you can choose which image you want in front of each post. I don't want to say my reader is better than Tim's! Mine doesn't display a message referring to the creator's site (this could be important in a corporate envirionment) (Tim please don't take this personal :-).

  • I tried to install it but I got a System.Net.WebPermission exception. MediumTrust is not enough?

    Then I tried to adapt the wss_mediumtrust.config but then I got &quot;Die Sicherheitsberechtigungen der Assembly leadit.sharepoint.rssreader.dll sind zwischen den Anwendungsdom&#228;nen nicht kompatibel.&quot; Sorry, can't translate that.




  • Stephan



    There are two solutions for your problem:

    1) put the dll in the GAC

    2) change the source code a little bit and: add the following attribute to the AssemblyInfo.cs file:

    [assembly:AllowPartiallyTrustedCallers]



    I'm sorry for the hassle, but I'm planning to release an update with that attribute already in it.

  • 1) is in GAC

    2) never compiled a web part, just &quot;normal&quot; .NET apps. Sharepoint libs not found. Do I need to install something?

  • You need to copy the Microsoft.SharePoint.dll from your server to a place on your local machine. Then add a reference from the web part project to that assembly. If you have further questions, please send me an email through the &quot;Contact&quot; link.

  • When I elect to display dates with the feeds, they all display as 1/1/2001

  • Jan, I installed your webpart. Unfortunately, your webpart does not seem to offer a proxy settings configuration as tim's RSS Feed Reader does.

    Since the Global Proxy settings do not work together with our Active Directory integration, I'm curious, if there is a work around to that issue. Furthermore, I was quite happy with Tims RSS Webpart, but for German news it does not show special characters like &#228; &#252; &#246; &#223;. Does your Webpart support such.



    Keep on the good work. Your essentials package is very nice, by the way...



    Lars

  • Lars, you're right: proxy settings are still missing. Feel free to download the code and alter it yourself! ;-) Keep an eye on my blog for updates. Regarding the special characters, I haven't tested it myself...

  • One big thing I miss with tim's feedreader web part is the ability to modify the title of the blog, so if you provide the RSS feeds on multiple blogs on the SharePoint category, they all name in SharePoint so you can't distinguish. You seem to provide this ability!



    It's late now, but I will try it out tomorrow!

  • I get a 401 Exception from the server.



    I tryed to put some code for proxy settings, but it is not enough ?!

  • I came across the issue.

    Instead of opening my HttpRequest with :

    //request = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(uri);

    request = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(url);



    where uri is of type Uri and url is the string given as parameter ???!!!

    I am lucky it works, but I don't understand why ?!

  • Hi

    We have an user who antered a wrong url and we get :

    Server Error in '/' Application ...

    Where do you store the URL so we can edit it by hand.

    Thank you

    Max

  • Is is possible to add characters to the set available in WSS item edits. For example, I would like to have the ability to strikethough characters in an agenda item for a meeting. Thanks

    Don

  • When i add a feed url this message appears:

    There was an exception reading the RSS Feed.
    The ServicePointManager does not support proxies of server scheme.

    what´s the trouble, and how can i fix it?

  • I was able to successfully import the web part into the Sharepoint Server Portalpage. However, I can not make any changes to your code. For instance I am trying to bring the date text next to the description, but somehow none of my changes are showing up. Is this because of strong named assembly stuff please help!!!
    thanks

  • In case anyone wants to change the web part to use its own proxy settings, here is the code:

    // if a proxy is specified, use it
    string rssReaderProxy = ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["RSSReader.Proxy"];
    if (rssReaderProxy != null && rssReaderProxy != String.Empty)
    {
    Uri rssUri = new Uri(this.Feed);
    HttpWebRequest rssRequest = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(rssUri);
    WebProxy myProxy=new WebProxy();
    myProxy.Address = new Uri(rssReaderProxy);
    rssRequest.Proxy = myProxy;
    newRssFeed = RssFeed.Read(rssRequest);
    }
    else
    {
    newRssFeed = RssFeed.Read(this.Feed);
    }

  • Ok, so I've seen the Lead-IT What's New, and I have seen the RSS Reader. What I want to know is when will one of you guys create a What's New that is completely customizable and pertains to an entire site collection. I'm guessing that without the tags in the WSS code, RSS is not an option (without modifying their code). I am no developer, so I'm not sure how you created the What's New web part. But how cool would it be to select the exact lists within an entire site collection and post What's New.

    If I have shown any ignorance in my comment, it is because I am just that...ignorant. I think the new tools you guys are creating are awesome...they just make me think of new ways I want to use them.

  • Hello

    i can't deploy this on spportal 2003 because i create the file *.cab with visual studio 2005.

    "La version 2.0 n'est pas compatible"

    Have you a solution for this problem?

    The spportal 2003 have the sp2.

    Ps:Excuse me for my bad english ;-)

  • Eugene,

    Could you please provide some download url for modified code, because i dont have sdk or anything, and proxy is mandatory for me.

  • Kristijan,

    I'm sorry, I don't have a place from which to share the code. You would need to download Jan's code and manually insert my modification.

    Note that normally you would just configure the proxy in web.config. This code is only for a case where you want the RSS web part to use a proxy while the rest of the web parts (such as the Content Editor WP) do not.

  • Gotchya...

    Thanks, by server is behind dosens of firewalls and proxys so i still having problem but it is network matter... Thanks for your quickly reply.

  • I'm attempting to use your control. Forgive me, but I am just learning SharePoint. I followed your instructions on adding it to the SafeControls section, but I still get "A Web Part or Web Form Control on this Web Part Page cannot be displayed or imported because it is not registered on this site as safe." Any thoughts? Also, what is the "GAC"? As such, I don't know where I'm supposed to put the DLL. Any help would be appreciated.

  • Nice tool, I am trying to modify it to allow target = blank but this is the first web part changes for me and I have vs2005 and can't don't know how to get it to compile under .net 1.1 for ms portal server 2003. Any ideas?

  • This webpart is SO worth the extra effort. I tried Tim Heuers and yours is so much better.

    Some of the reasons I find this more useful:

    It automatically shows all of the "Details" of an entry in the feed. This is great for weather updates being posted on your front page.

    Also, it gives more options with titles and appearance customization.

    I really love this web part!

    Keep on coding!

  • Instructions on installing for newbs:

    GACutil.exe to install the .DLL into your GAC.

    To do this do the following:

    Start > Run ... > cmd

    In the command window type:
    cd C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322 (version may vary depending on your system)

    Type:
    gacutil /i (I extracted it in c:\temp)


    Copy your .dwp file to C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wpcatalog (if that is where your site is located on the C:\ drive)

    Edit the C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\web.config file as instructed above (the SafeControls part)

    Import the DWP file (from the wpcatalog directory) into SPS.

  • How does this handle authentication issues. The built-in rss feed web part does not even handle its own rss feeds if they are passed through an https connection.

    Does this handle authenticated rss?

  • Please can u advice on How To Access Active Directory through

  • Jan,
    Help!
    I have installed the RSS reader follwing your instructions but when I enter the feed's URL and click Apply/OK on the web part, I get this error message: The "RSSReader" Web Part appears to be causing a problem.

    Web Parts Maintenance Page: If you have permission, you can use this page to temporarily disable Web Parts or remove personal settings. For more information, contact your site administrator.


    Troubleshoot issues with Windows SharePoint Services.
    Any ideas what I did wrong?

  • Please disregard my previous post. I was able to get the web part working. For some reason my SP system did not have a wpcatalog directory. Once I added dwp file to the directory, the web part worked.

    Jan, thanks for the greate coding.

  • I am getting following error -

    There was an exception reading the RSS Feed.
    System.Net.WebException: The underlying connection was closed: Unable to connect to the remote server.


    Jan could you help me.


    Thanks
    - Supreet

  • Will this work with WSS 3.0? I have .NET v3.0 installed, and when I run the gacutil line, it doesn't recognize it as a command.

  • I'm also new at Sharepoint and using WSS 3.0. Is there a way to install it on this version ?

    Thanks

  • I was able to successfully install this web part using the gacutil from .NET 1.1.

  • Where do we insert this modification? please help, thank you.

  • Does it support authentication (username/password) and SSL (https://...)?

    Roelof

  • i have copied dll in GAC, add in web.config safe control list restart the iis. but try to add web part this is not shown in the list any where
    whats wron.

    iffi_zin @ hotmail . com

  • Hi,

    I've just installed the RSS Reader I didn't face any problem with the installation but when I give a feed address I receive the following message
    The underlying connection was closed: Unable to connect to the remote server

    Does anybody have a solution for this?

    Thanks
    Z

  • Hi,

    Thank you very much for this RSS Webpart

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