User Guide: RSS Feeds
Basic Questions
What are Feeds? What are RSS Feeds?
How-to: Subscribe to an RSS Feed
In order to subscribe to an RSS feed, all you need to know is the URL of the feed. Once you know this, simply put the URL in the "Enter Feed URL:" text box and click the "Add Feed" button
How-to: Create a new RSS Feed folder
To create a new root folder for your RSS feeds, simply right click anywhere on the RSS Feed List TreeView (where there is white space), click the "Add New Folder" Option, type in the folder name you want in the resulting dialog box and click the "OK" button. Your folder will now be added to the top of the RSS Feeds TreeView
If you want to create a nested folder (that is a folder within a folder), simply right click the folder you want the new one to be in and follow the same steps as above.
How-to: Unsubscribe to a Feed or Remove a Folder
To unsubscribe from an RSS feed or to delete a folder (and all its contents) simply right-click the item you want to delete and select the "Remove Feed/Folder" option from the context menu.
If you want to delete a nested folder (that is a folder within a folder), simply right click the folder you want the new one to be in and follow the same steps as above.
How-to: Add an entire feed to your Watch List
You can add an entire feed as a Watch List Item. Simply right-click the item you want to add and select the "Add to Watch List" option from the context menu. This will allow you to see what files are present in the RSS feed from the Watch List Section
How-to: Add an entire feed to your Seasont Tickets
You can add an entire feed as a Season Ticket. Simply right-click the item you want to add and select the "Add to Season Tickets" option from the context menu. This will instruct Videora to automatically download every new file (and the newest 2 files) that appear in this RSS feed
How-to: View the Description of the Feed Item
To view the description of a specific feed item, simply select the feed item you want (with only one click).
How-to: View the enclosed file or link of the Feed Item
To view the enclosed file or link of a specific feed item, simply click on the feed item's +/- box.
How-to: Download the link or enclosed file of a Feed Item
To view the download the link or enclosed file of a feed item, simply double-click the item's title or link. If the link points to an HTML file, the file will be shown in the Item Description Window, otherwise Videora will switch to the Download section and begin downloading the file you asked for.
How-to: Change the Properties of the Feed
A number of feed options can be changed by simply clicking on the Properties tab for the feed, making the required changes and clicking the "Apply" button. The following options can be changed:
- Name - Lets you change the name of the feed which appears in the Feeds TreeView
- URL - Let you change the location of the URL
- Delay - Lets you change how often Videora will re-download the feed. (See Note Below)
- Active - Lets you prevent the feed from updating while still keeping it in your list
- Link Pattern to Match - Text in RSS feed link which you wish to replace (See next How-to)
- Replacement String - New text that you want to be placed in RSS feed link (See next How-to)
Note that if a TTL tag is present in an RSS feed, Videora will automatically change the delay to the ttl time regardless of what the user enters in order to comply with the wishes of the author of the feed.
How-to: Automatically change RSS feed links
Sometimes, authors create RSS feeds which points to webpages instead of directly linking to their videos (or other multimedia content). If this is the case, Videora will not be able to download the actual video since it doesn't know where to find it. However, if the video link URL is similar enough to the web link URL and they always follow the same pattern, it is possible to have Videora automatically convert the RSS link on the fly into a direct video link.
For example, suppose WebSiteX's RSS Feed links to HTML news postings about the video its posts up, instead of directly linking to the video. Lets assume that WebSiteX's news postings are accessible through the following URL (where a different id is used for each post/video):
http://www.websitex.com/news/content.php?id=23423
And WebSiteX's videos are accessible from this URL:
http://www.websitex.com/video/download.php?id=23423
When you add the RSS feed to Videora you will see a whole bunch of links to the HTML news content rather than video. By going to the feed properties, setting the "Link Pattern to Match" text box to "/news/content.php?id=" and the "Replacement String" to "/video/download.php?id=" and "Apply" the changes, the next time Videora refreshes the feed it will now be filled with direct links to video instead.
This is possible since there is enough information in the original URL to generate the direct link using simple text substitution. Note that this won't work for all websites.