The RSS document type is simply an outline or
brief summary of information which is written
in XML.
RSS documents are used to syndicate or publish
information in a known, standard format. The
documents usually contain a list of items,
each item being a summary of a larger item
and a link pointing to the location of the
larger item.
RSS aggregator tools are used to bring together
multiple RSS documents (or feeds) and present
their content to a user, perhaps according to
the users personal preferences.
This document shows how to use the RSS reporting
features of Ozibug to integrate with your favourite
RSS aggregator tool.
An example is included which shows how to
feed a list of all the new bugs for a given
module into your Outlook Express or Netscape
application.
Creating an RSS report in Ozibug is no different
to creating any other report. The only difference
is that the output may not always be readable
(this is browser dependent) as it is intended to
be read by another application, not rendered
by a browser.
Login to Ozibug and select the reports page.
This page is displayed behind the reports
icon.
From the first row of the table displayed,
select the checkbox in the Filter
column.
Now select the module that you require from
the drop down list to the right of the checkbox.
This selects the module to use in the report.
Include (all)
Filter
Sort
Module
Now select the checkbox for the third row
(Status) and select the
new value from the select box.
This will select only the new bugs for the report
filtering out all others.
Status
Finally select the RSS (summary)
value for the report format. Type in a
name for the report (NEW_RSS)
and then select the Save button.
You have now created and saved a RSS report.
You will see that this report has been
selected and the name is displayed in the the
select box at the bottom left hand side
of the screen.
To test the report you should run it and check the output.
Select the report from the select box in the bottom left
of the reports page.
Once selected you can either select the Apply
button or the
button (both buttons have the same action.)
The report is executed and the results, similar to
those shown below are displayed in a new browser window.
This XML file does not appear to have any style information
associated with it. The document tree is shown below.
<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>Ozibug Custom Report (NEW_RSS)</title>
<link>http://localhost:8080/ozibug/Controller</link>
<description>Filter: Module(Your Module Name) Status(new) ... </description>
<managingEditor>nobody@tortuga.com.au (Testing developer)</managingEditor>
<language>en-au</language>
<ttl>60</ttl>
<image>
<url>http://localhost:8080/ozibug/images/ozibug.gif</url>
<title>Ozibug Custom Report (NEW_RSS)</title>
<link>http://localhost:8080/ozibug/Controller</link>
</image>
<item>
<title>Your Module Name: OP#1</title>
<link>http://localhost:8080/ozibug/Controller...</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://localhost:8080/ozibug/Controller...</guid>
<author>nobody@tortuga.com.au (Eric Ozibug)</author>
<pubDate>Tue, 08 Jul 03 15:47:00 EST</pubDate>
<dc:subject>XML does not allow recursive entity definitions</dc:subject>
<description>
While XML does not allow recursive entity definitions, it does permit
nested entity definitions, which produces the potential for Denial of
Service attacks on a server which accepts XML data from external
sources. For example, a SOAP document like the following that has
extremely deeply nested entity definitions can consume 100% of CPU
time and a lot of memory in entity expansions.
</description>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>
While the contents that are displayed in the
browser window are not displayed or rendered
correctly by the browser, the URL
displayed in the browser window address bar
is.
This URL is the address of the RSS
report and must be cut and pasted into you
favourite RSS Aggregator.
It will look something like the following
(the line has been split for display purposes.)
Note: the authentication key (as
specified in the key parameter of the
URL) can also be obtained from the key link
on the Maintain User page. A new key would need to be
obtained if, for example, you change your password.
The output produced by the RSS report is designed for
consumption by an RSS Aggregator. While standards
dictate the fields that must be present in an RSS
report, aggregators are free to render the values of
these fields in any style. In order to present
meaningful information the display fields commonly used
by the aggregators are customizable.
The RSS title field of each item is often used as the
primary descriptive field rendered by the aggregator.
This can be seen in the subject column in both Outlook
Express and Netscape as shown below. In other
aggregators this may be the only field displayed, while
in others the RSS subject field may be used instead.
The RSS title and/or subject fields may be customized
by including a formatting parameter in the URL used to
invoke the RSS report. To format the title add the
parameter &titleFormat=XXX, or to
format the subject add the parameter
&subjectFormat=XXX, where the
string XXX is replaced by the required
format.
The following parameters can be specified in the format
string, with the default formats used for the RSS title
and subject fields being -m: -i and
-d respectively.
-m - the name of the module
-i - the formatted bug id
-s - the status of the bug
-p - the priority of the bug
-c - the creator of the bug
-u - the last updated date and time of the bug
-d - the (short) description or summary of the bug
Note: Any unsafe characters used in
the format string must be URL encoded, eg., a space
must be encoded to %20.
For example, the following URL (Note: the line has been
split for display purposes)
To integrate into either Outlook Express or Netscape
you must use a package that can translate between
the Ozibug RSS feed and the NNTP protocol that
these applications use.
The package
nntp//rss
does exactly this and we will use it for our
example integration.
Download nntp/rss package from the
sourceforge
site.
At the time of writing the current version is 0.3.
Download the package and unzip this into a local
directory. You can then change into the directory
and start the application as shown below.
Note: you must be the root super
user on Unix systems to use the default privileged
nntp ports.
To use alternative, non-privileged ports, see the
documentation in the README.TXT file that comes with
the nntp//rss package.
Now the nntp//rss bridging application is running
we must add the Ozibug RSS report to it, and then
add this application as a local newsgroup server
to Outlook Express or Netscape.
The nntp//rss administration page can be found
at the following url on your computer
http://localhost:7810/ or
http://127.0.0.1:7810/.
Put this address into your browser and you'll
see the simple administration screen (displayed below.)
In the top center of the page you will find the
add channel link.
Select this link and the add channel page will
be displayed as shown below.
Set the Newsgroup Name field to
Ozibug, set the RSS URL
field to the value that you obtained from your
browser when selecting the RSS report from Ozibug.
Leave the other fields as is and select the
Add button.
Congratulations, you have now configured the
nntp//rss application with the Ozibug RSS report.
You will see the new channel at the top of
the View Channels page
as shown below.
From within Outlook Express select the Accounts
option from the top Tools menu bar.
Now select the Add and then News...
options. This will start the wizard which
takes you through adding a news server account.
Answer the wizards questions with your details.
When the News (NNTP) Server is prompted
for, answer with the localhost
localhost or 127.0.0.1
address of your machine.
Now finish adding the server which will be displayed
in the left hand panel.
You can now select the server and then the
NewsGroups... button.
You will be able to see the Ozibug newsgroup which
you can then subscribe to. All the new bugs that
are added to your selected module in Ozibug will
now show up in this news group !
You can now change the RSS report in Ozibug which you
created and the changes will filter through to the group,
for example select only the new critical bugs...
The following snapshot shows the Outlook Express application
viewing the newsfeed from the Ozibug RSS report.
Adding the Ozibug RSS report to Netscape is very
similar to adding the report to Outlook Express.
The steps are outlined below.
From within the Netscape Mail Window select the
Mail and Newsgroups Account Settings...
option from the top Edit menu bar.
Now select the Add Account button and
then Newsgroup Account radio button option.
This will start the wizard which
takes you through adding a news server account.
Answer the wizards questions with your details.
When the name of the News Server (NNTP)
is prompted for, answer with the localhost
localhost or 127.0.0.1
address of your machine.
For the Account Name answer with Ozibug.
Now finish adding the server which will be
displayed in the left hand panel of the main
window once the wizard has been dismissed.
You can now select the server and then the
Subscribe to newsgroups... link.
You will be able to see the Ozibug newsgroup which
you can then add to your subscribed list.
All the new bugs that are added to your selected
module in Ozibug will now show up in this news group !
You can now change the RSS report in Ozibug which you
created and the changes will filter through to the group,
for example select only the new critical bugs...
The following snapshot shows the Netscape application
viewing the newsfeed from the Ozibug RSS report.
The example shown above uses the nntp/rss application
which can map content between RSS feeds and NNTP
servers. There are other applications however which
can be used to aggregate RSS feeds. The following
applications have been downloaded and tested with
Ozibug.
Cross Platform application written in Perl
which acts as a server in the background,
aggregating configured feeds and allows
access through a browser. Can be integrated
into a web site.
Application written for the Win32 platform.
Contains many features including aggregation,
blogging, posting and serving, etc.
A 14 day evaluation is available for you to try
before you buy.
icon.
on the Maintain User page. A new key would need to be
obtained if, for example, you change your password.
