RSS Feeds for PocketGPSWorld.com Forums

MikeB

We have been contemplating adding RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds to the forums for some time now. Last time we tried it on the old server it had some serious performance implications.

Well we have a new server now with a lot more get up and go. So we have decided to trial the RSS feeds on certain forums and see what the impact is on the server and its resources.

Any forums marked with the RSS image support the RSS feed to your favourite reader. All you have to do is copy and paste the link into the Add Feed function of your news reader and you will receive notification of each post made into those forums.

The RSS will be trialed for a month. If it is successful it will be rolled out to the rest of the forums. If it causes performance issues it will be pulled pretty quickly...

A word of warning. Some of our forums are very busy so ensure that you are not getting too much data sent to your reader.
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Mike Barrett

tchart · Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2005 2:58 am Post subject:

Way cool!

I just set it up using the generic RSS widget for Konfabulator. Now I can get the latest GPS news right from my desktop at work! Yay Laughing

Trevor

Aidi · Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2005 10:48 am Post subject:

Finally!

I have been a keen fan of RSS Feeds for a couple of months.. Great choice to bring it to PocketGPSWorld. I hope it works well and will be brought to the other forums in the future.

Best

Aidi

NickG · Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2005 12:12 pm Post subject:

I'm a web developer and I implement RSS feeds quite a bit but I've never found they have any performance implications. Was this due to the number of requests for the feed URL or the way it integrates with your forums?

Darren · Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2005 12:20 pm Post subject:

I use Firefox predominantly which has a form of RSS built-in but it doesn't work with this format of RSS Syndicated Story or am I missing a trick?
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Darren Griffin

Aidi · Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2005 1:30 pm Post subject:

I am too running firefox, and i have 6 rss feed shortcuts on browser bar which work just fine.

It has a small orange icon, which when clicked expands and shows the latest feeds listed, and update continually through the day. I have to admit that it takes a little effort to configure, but it works a treat.

Darren, do you have the default one listed with "Latest headlines" showing at the top of your browser?

Aidi · Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2005 1:31 pm Post subject:

and just to add, I have the PocketGPS World one working just fine

NickG · Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2005 1:31 pm Post subject:

Firefox seems to work for me. What problems are you having?

The "trick" might be to open the bookmarks manager and go to File > New Live Bookmark - because your URL doesn't have the RDF extension, it may not recognise it as an RSS feed at first - or possibly the page is not sending the correct MIME type for the file.

Nick...

NickG · Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2005 1:33 pm Post subject:

By the way, I find the RSS reader in Thunderbird to be much nicer than the Firefox one, because it treats stories like messages so you can see which ones are new/unread and which you've already seen. However, I CAN'T get the PGPS RSS links to work in Thunderbird. It seems to say "verifying feed" for ages and never completes.

Darren · Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2005 1:38 pm Post subject:

SimonCatlin · Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2005 2:27 pm Post subject:

For the uninitiated, Darren, is it possible to give a link to information on RSS? I (and probably many others) would like to find out more about this before deciding whether this is any use for us.
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iPhone5, TomTom, Google maps, Navfree, Viewranger and Apple Maps (ekk)

Darren · Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2005 2:32 pm Post subject:

See the Wikipedia explanation here.
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Darren Griffin

MikeB · Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2005 3:00 pm Post subject:

Please let us know if you have successfully installed the RSS feed and which software you are using to read it.

Also please let us know if you have any failures, or have any suggestions to improve it.
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Mike Barrett

NickG · Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2005 3:25 pm Post subject:

Well as I said - I can't get it to work in Thunderbird - which is a pretty major piece of software. It would be nice if someone could figure out why, but I don't have the time today to look into it.

Paul-m · Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2005 12:30 am Post subject:

Hi Mike, Darren,
Im using Pocket Rss on my HX4700. i have 46 feeds running now and have just added Pocketgpsworld. All working fine.

The Pocketrss software is pretty cheap and worth the money. i did use another free reader which worked via active sync but pocketrss works via WiFi which for me is an easier solution.

you simply read each story and click the web icon to browse to the detail.

Paul

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