RSS feed?

[Noel Llopis]

Hey Karl,

Is there a way to get an RSS feed from the forum? These days I do all my reading through an RSS reader (Google Reader), so I end up visiting the forum very infrequently and I miss interesting posts. If there is, I'd love to know the URL.
Thanks!


--Noel

[karlos]

That is a good question, Noel.

I haven't experimented with this, but the capability is there (I think). Try adding the following URL to your RSS reader: http://northcountycycleclub.com/smf/index.php?action=.xml
We may have to mess around with this to get it right. A poor man's solution is to use the e-mail notification to at least get notices (including content if you like) in your e-mail.

Work with me on trying the above URL and I will dig into what I need to do on this end. I just now set up that same URL as an RSS feed in my mail app - thunderbird - so I'll be checking it through a different reader.
Good suggestion - Karl

[karlos]

OK, Noel
I got the RSS feed to work just fine within Thunderbird. I changed the syntax slightly, try:

http://northcountycycleclub.com/smf/index.php?type=rss2;action=.xml

The feed into Thunderbird is really great - a very nice view of the post with our Forum logo, etc. One other goodie with the Thunderbird feed, is that I can see ALL the threads for the given post, and directly login to the message board (IN THUNDERBIRD) and then reply or whatever. I had no idea this feature was built in, waiting for someone to ask !

I'm really glad you brought this up. Others may also prefer getting our Message Board "fed to them" as well.

Let me know if you have any further questions or if it doesn't work for you.
Karl

[karlos]

If you only want to see the main Message Board, qualify the url with ";board=1" . The website board is "board=2". If you want to limit the number of posts to, say, 20, qualify it with ";limit=20" . The default is "limit=5". If you would rather see topics (instead of posts), use ";sa=news" and you will only see the first post. Since activity on our board is so light, there is little need to limit the posts coming into your RSS reader. The only required qualifiers to "http://northcountycycleclub.com/smf/index.php?" are "type=rss2;action=.xml". Note that "rss2" is the latest RSS communication format. You may find that your RSS reader requires (or works better) with the older format, indicated by "type=rss".

[Noel Llopis]

Perfect!! That worked like a charm. Thanks Karl!

[karlos]

In your browser, whenever you are viewing pages in the NCCC Forum (Message Board) you will actually see the standard RSS feed icon (true for ANY website with RSS feeds enabled). In Internet Explorer, version 7 (IE7), it is on the toolbar. In firefox it is in the address bar. Look for it now. In IE7, clicking it will open up a default RSS reader and you'll note that the URL in the address bar is just http://northcountycycleclub.com/smf/index.php?type=rss;action=.xml as noted above. In firefox, depending on your settings under Tools/Options/Feeds, you can customize how an RSS feed is handled - it is a little easier than IE7 to directly subscribe to another RSS reader such as Google Reader. In other browsers, just search for the icon. When you click it, you will undoubtedly be able to ascertain the URL so that you can paste it into any RSS Reader when you go to "Add Subscription". Each browser no doubt has options for handling RSS feeds in a user-friendly way.

There are other options as I indicated above to change the default viewing of the 5 most recent posts. If you want to know ALL possible RSS feed options, just visit this support page at the Simple Machines Forum support site.