RSS in forums: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 23:59, 20 January 2011

RSS in forums allows users with an RSS aggregator program to be notified of new forum discussions in a similar manner to the emails sent as a result of forum subscriptions.

Enabling RSS

To enable RSS feeds in forums, an administrator must first enable RSS for the site in Administration > Server > RSS.

RSS feeds in forums may then be enabled in the forum settings via the link in Administration > Modules > Activities.

When RSS is enabled, two new settings appear when Adding/editing a forum.

RSS feed for this activity

This turns RSS on or off for this forum. When set to “None,” RSS is disabled. When set to “Discussions,” the RSS feed will send out new discussions to subscribers. When set to “Posts,” the RSS feed will send out any new posts to subscribers.

Number of RSS recent articles

This number sets the number of articles that go out via RSS. If this number is set to 5, then the 5 most recent articles will be sent to subscribers. As new posts (or discussions) get added, the oldest post/discussion gets replaced on the RSS feed. If your forum gets a lot of posts every day, you will want to set this number high.

Podcasting

From version 1.6 onwards posting audio or video files to a forum will automatically turn the relevant RSS feed into a Podcast.

Cron

The administrative cron (admin/cron.php) must run after the forum is created and posts or discussions have been made. Otherwise the user will receive an error "Error reading RSS data"

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-When RSS is enabled, two new properties in Forum setup appear (Fig. 45). • RSS feed for this activity: This turns RSS on or off for this forum. When set to “None,” RSS is disabled. When set to “Discussions,” the RSS feed will send out new discussions to subscribers. When set to “Posts,” the RSS feed will send out any new posts to subscribers. • Number of RSS recent articles: This number sets the number of articles that go out via RSS. If this number is set to 5, then the 5 most recent articles will be sent to subscribers. As new posts (or discussions) get added, the oldest post/discussion gets replaced on the RSS feed. If your forum gets a lot of posts every day, you will want to set this number high. When you enable RSS in your Forum, your users will see an orange RSS button on the main page of the forum (in the upper right-hand side), as shown in Fig. 46. If you click on the RSS button you will get taken to a page that looks something like Fig. 47. The stuff on the page is not important to you or your users (but Moodle needs it!). For the purposes of RSS feeds, you (or the user) would copy the URL (the web address) from the top of the browser, and paste this address into an RSS news-reader. Now you (or your students) can get the latest posts or discussions along with all the other RSS (news) feeds that you are subscribed to
+RSS in forums allows users with an RSS aggregator program to be notified of new forum discussions in a similar manner to the emails sent as a result of [[Forum subscription|forum subscriptions]].
+==Enabling RSS==
-When RSS is enabled, you will see two new questions in the Forum setup: - RSS feed for this activity: This turns RSS on or off for this forum. When set to “None,” RSS is disabled. When set to “Discussions,” the RSS feed will send out new discussions to subscribers. When set to “Posts,” the RSS feed will send out any new posts to subscribers. – Number of RSS recent articles: This number sets the number of articles that go out via RSS. If this number is set to 5, then the 5 most recent articles will be sent to subscribers. As new posts (or discussions) get added, the oldest post/discussion gets replaced on the RSS feed. If your forum gets a lot of posts every day, you will want to set this number high. When you enable RSS in your forum, your users will see an orange RSS button on the main page of the forum (in the upper right-hand side): Notice the forum description tells the users about RSS. I do that in case students are not familiar with RSS. If you click on the RSS button, you will get taken to a page that looks something like this: The stuff on the page is not important to you or your users (but Moodle needs it!). For the purposes of RSS feeds, you (or the user) would copy the URL (the web address) from the top of the browser, like this: You (or your user) would then paste this address into an RSS aggregator. When I put the address into my test account at bloglines.com, it looks like this: Now you (or your user) can get the latest posts or discussions along with all the other RSS (news) feeds that you are subscribed to.
+To enable RSS feeds in forums, an administrator must first enable RSS for the site in ''Administration > Server > [[RSS]]''.
+RSS feeds in forums may then be enabled in the [[Forum settings|forum settings]] via the link in ''Administration > Modules > Activities''.
+When RSS is enabled, two new settings appear when [[Adding/editing a forum]].
+==RSS feed for this activity==
+[[Image:Rss_in_forums.gif|frame|right]]
+This turns RSS on or off for this forum. When set to “None,” RSS is disabled. When set to “Discussions,” the RSS feed will send out new discussions to subscribers. When set to “Posts,” the RSS feed will send out any new posts to subscribers.
+==Number of RSS recent articles==
+This number sets the number of articles that go out via RSS. If this number is set to 5, then the 5 most recent articles will be sent to subscribers. As new posts (or discussions) get added, the oldest post/discussion gets replaced on the RSS feed. If your forum gets a lot of posts every day, you will want to set this number high.
+==Podcasting==
+From version 1.6 onwards posting audio or video files to a forum will automatically turn the relevant RSS feed into a [[Podcast]].
+==Cron==
+The administrative cron (admin/cron.php) must run after the forum is created and posts or discussions have been made.  Otherwise the user will receive an error "Error reading RSS data"
+[[Category: Forum]]
+[[Category:RSS]]

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