RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a data format used to display updated Web content when you click a URL. An RSS document is called a feed and it contains either a summary of the content from an associated website or the full text.
The RSS Reader widget helps provide a 360-degree view of your business by allowing you to compare and contrast data in your dashboard with information from external news feed sources. The widget retrieves news from an RSS news feed and displays it alongside the other components of your dashboard. The RSS feed is automatically reloaded to display the most up-to-date news about a variety of topics that you specify.
You can use RSS Reader widgets on a dashboard to view and update your favorite RSS news feeds as you analyze grids, graphs, and other objects in the dashboard.
The RSS Reader widget helps provide context to your business data. For example, you are viewing a dashboard with sales figures for some of your local customers. You can configure the RSS Reader widget to display up-to-the-minute news about those customers. This allows you to, in one place, view both sales data and news information about the same customers. Consider another example. One of your reports provides sales figures for a group of stores in northern California. Using an RSS feed, you can display local industry news for that specific region, which can provide valuable background information about those sales figures.
RSS Reader requirements
The RSS widget supports both RSS 1.0 and RSS 2.0 formats.
Unlike other widgets, the RSS Reader widget does not require attributes or metrics on its widget template, unless you set the widget as a target of an attribute selector in the dashboard.
To create an RSS Reader widget
Add the widget to a document in Web
Open the document in Design or Editable Mode.
From the Insert menu, point to Widgets, and then select RSS Reader.
Click the location on your document, other than in the Detail section, in which you want to place the widget. The widget template, which looks like a standard grid container, is displayed. A small icon is displayed at the bottom right of the widget template, identifying the type of widget you added to the document.
If desired, resize the widget by clicking and dragging its handles.
View the widget in Flash Mode
To view and interact with the widget, switch to Flash Mode by selecting Flash Mode from the View menu.
Note: If Flash Mode is not available in the View menu, you must make Flash Mode available for this document.
Specify the RSS feed to display in the widget
As the document designer or administrator, you can specify the RSS feed to which the widget will connect. You can also specify the number of news articles that are displayed, the refresh frequency of the news articles, and other options.
Right-click the widget and select Properties. The Properties dialog box opens.
Select the General tab.
To create a title that appears at the top right of the widget, enter the title in the Feed Title field.
Enter the URL for one of the following types of RSS feeds in the RSS Feed URL field. You can enter only one RSS feed.
For static RSS feeds, enter the RSS feed's URL. For example, to view news from the Yahoo! Business News RSS feed, enter the following: http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/business
For dynamic RSS feeds, specify the base URL, any language/country properties, and one of the following:
To display news about a specific topic, insert the topic into the URL’s query parameter. For example, to display MicroStrategy-related news using the p= query parameter in the Yahoo! RSS feed, enter the following: http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/rss?p=mstr&ei=UTF-8&fl=0&x=wrt.
To display news related to an attribute, document, or dataset, insert an auto code for the object in the URL’s query parameter. To display news for an attribute, you must also set the widget template as the target of the attribute selector.
Specify the rate at which news items are automatically refreshed. Enter this value in minutes in the Default Refresh Frequency field.
Enter a number in the Items shown at a time field to specify the maximum number of news items that a user sees at a time. The default value is set as ten.
Select or clear the Open full article when clicked check box to determine whether a news article is opened in a new window when it is selected in the widget.
If the RSS feed is accessed through a proxy server, select the Use Proxy check box.
Click Save to apply the changes.
Modify the widget
In Flash Mode, right-click the widget and select Properties. The RSS Reader dialog box opens. These are the options:
General
RSS news feed: Type a title that will appear to the top right of the widget.
Default RSS field: Type or copy and paste a news feed address to display in the widget. Some examples include:
http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/business
http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/world
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/rss/business/index.xml
Default refresh frequency: Determine how often the widget will refresh the feed information. This refresh value is calculated in minutes.
Items shown at a time: Determine how many web page links you want to display in the widget at one time. If you click these links, you will open the web page that they connect to. You must select the Open full article when clicked checkbox to view the whole article in a new window. Otherwise, you will only see a preview of the article in the box to the top of the widget.
Open full article when clicked: Determine whether you want to see the full article when you click the web page link. If you leave this checkbox blank, then a preview of the article will display in the box to the top of the widget.
Use proxy: If the RSS feed is accessed through a proxy server, then you must select the Use proxy checkbox.
Background color: Determine the background color to display in the widget. Select a color from the pallette.
NewsItem
If you select General from the drop-down list, then these are the options:
Percentage height occupied by the news item list: Determine the size ratio of the web page detail box to the web page links list. For instance, if you do not want to see the detail box, then you should type 100 in the Percentage height occupied by the news item list field.
Auto scroll news item list: Determine whether you want the web page links list to scroll on its own or not. Select the checkbox to allow the list to scroll from one web page link to another.
Auto scroll direction: Determine which direction the web page links list will scroll. Select either Up or Down.
Auto scroll speed: Determine the speed at which the web page links list will scroll. Select a number from 1to 5. 1 is the fastest and 5 is the slowest.
If you select Fonts from the drop-down list, then these are the options:
Font type: Select a font for the items in the web page links list.
Font size: Select a font size for the items in the web page links list.
Italic: Determine whether the items in the web page links list is italicized.
Bold: Determine whether the items in the web page links list is bold.
If you select Colors from the drop-down list, then these are the options:
Alternating colors for news items: Determine how to color your web page link list. Select options from the drop-down list:
Background: Determine which alternating colors you would like to display in the background of the web page links. Displaying each web page link in alternating colors can help you see them more clearly.
Rollover background: Determine which colors you would like to display when you mouse over one of the web page links.
Font: Determine the colors in which you would like to display the font in the web page links.
Rollover font: Determine the colors in which you would like to display the font in one of the web page links when you mouse over it.
Read articles: Determine the colors you would like to display in the web page links after you have read them. This is a way that you can keep track of what web pages you have already viewed.
NewsDetail
Font type: Select a font type for the web page detail in the box to the top of the widget.
Font size: Select a font size for the web page detail.
Italic: Determine whether the text in the web page detail is italicized.
Bold: Determine whether the text in the web page detail is bold.
Background color: Select a background color for the web page detail box.
Font color: Select a font color for the text in the web page detail box.
Show the first item by default: Determine whether you want to display the first item in the web page links list in the web page detail box before any of the other items in the list. If you select this checkbox, then the first item in the list will display first in the detail section every time you access the widget.
Update item detail on rollover: Determine whether you want to display the web page you are currently pointing to in the detail box. Each time you mouse over a new web page link, it will display in the web page detail box.
Click OK to save your changes and close the dialog box.
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