longhornrss | Channel 9

Summary: Discussion of RSS support in the Longhorn platform
SeeAlso: SimpleListExtensions

For an overview of the platform, read the RSS in Longhorn page on MSDN.

Ideas for uses

* My customer in healthcare market is excited by this news. They immediately see possibilty of publishing information about which patient occupies which bed along with important care/medication updates.

Feature requests

* Improved UI for pages with multiple feeds in IE

* Some pages offer HTML and plaintext versions of their content in different feeds

* Some pages have various feeds each with totally different content

* It's a shame that all of the pages out there that offer the same feed in different formats (RSS, RDF RSS, Atom) don't use the same title attribute for their feeds, similar to how multiple alternate stylesheets can be grouped by their title. This would require browsers like Firefox to change their UI a bit, but it seems that these redundant feeds should have the same title (something like "Website Updates"), but have different MIME types in the type attribute. Titles like "RSS 2.0", "RSS .92" and "Atom 0.3" will not mean anything to my mother using the computer. In an ideal world, user agents would display unique titles when choosing a feed, and when loading the feed, pick the link with the MIME Type that the user agent supports best (which in the case of IE7 would probably be RSS 2.0). A possible hack to get the best of both worlds would be to do a simple check. If all of the feeds are of the same MIME Type (all RSS or all Atom), then they are unique feeds, and the user should be aware that there are multiple feeds. If they are all different MIME types, the publisher is trying to support as many clients as possible, which in many cases is overkill since most clients support every format. I haven't seen a website with multiple feeds and multiple formats of those feeds. My personal website has four RSS 2.0 feeds on the main page, all of which present completely different data, and I can't single one of them out as being the most important. I'm sure web publishers will adjust to however IE7 acts, just because of its market share, but we still need a way to present multiple feeds to the user. If nothing else, the toolbar button with the optional dropdown is the best, similar to the Back button.

Publishing features

* What we saw of the RSS platform for Longhorn is all about consuming RSS feeds. What about publishing them? Use Atom (when it's ready, heh), MetaWeblog API or something new?

* Integration with MSN Spaces.

Questions

* Is the RSS Object Model going to be written in DotNet? Will it be part of WinFX?

* The Shared Feed List makes user feed subscriptions visible to all applications using the Unified Feed Parsing API.#CTA8 However, Amar Ghandi has said#a1301 the RSS Repository has mechanisms to prevent other apps from changing feed info without user authorization. Are there plans to allow the user to restrict read access as well? Please see this discussion about privacy concerns for elaboration.

Summary%3a Discussion of RSS support in the Longhorn platform 
%5bSeeAlso%3a%5d %5bSimpleListExtensions%5d
 
For an overview of the platform%2c read the %5burl%3aRSS in Longhorn%7chttp%3a//msdn.microsoft.com/longhorn/understanding/rss/default.aspx%5d page on MSDN.
 
%21%21 Ideas for uses
	* My customer in healthcare market is excited by this news.  They immediately see possibilty of publishing information about which patient occupies which bed along with important care/medication updates.
 
%21%21 Feature requests
	* Improved UI for pages with multiple feeds in IE
 
	* Some pages offer HTML and plaintext versions of their content in different feeds
 
	* Some pages have various feeds each with totally different content
 
	* It%27s a shame that all of the pages out there that offer the same feed in different formats %28RSS%2c RDF RSS%2c Atom%29 don%27t use the same title attribute for their feeds%2c similar to how multiple alternate stylesheets can be grouped by their title.  This would require browsers like Firefox to change their UI a bit%2c but it seems that these redundant feeds should have the same title %28something like %22Website Updates%22%29%2c but have different MIME types in the type attribute. Titles like %22RSS 2.0%22%2c %22RSS .92%22 and %22Atom 0.3%22 will not mean anything to my mother using the computer.  In an ideal world%2c user agents would display unique titles when choosing a feed%2c and when loading the feed%2c pick the link with the MIME Type that the user agent supports best %28which in the case of IE7 would probably be RSS 2.0%29.  A possible hack to get the best of both worlds would be to do a simple check.  If all of the feeds are of the same MIME Type %28all RSS or all Atom%29%2c then they are unique feeds%2c and the user should be aware that there are multiple feeds.  If they are all different MIME types%2c the publisher is trying to support as many clients as possible%2c which in many cases is overkill since most clients support every format.  I haven%27t seen a website with multiple feeds and multiple formats of those feeds.  My personal website has four RSS 2.0 feeds on the main page%2c all of which present completely different data%2c and I can%27t single one of them out as being the most important.  I%27m sure web publishers will adjust to however IE7 acts%2c just because of its market share%2c but we still need a way to present multiple feeds to the user.  If nothing else%2c the toolbar button with the optional dropdown is the best%2c similar to the Back button.
 
%21%21 Publishing features
	* What we saw of the RSS platform for Longhorn is all about consuming RSS feeds. What about publishing them%3f Use Atom %28when it%27s ready%2c heh%29%2c %5bMetaWeblog%5d API or something new%3f 
 
	* Integration with MSN Spaces.
 
%21%21 Questions
	* Is the RSS Object Model going to be written in %5bDotNet%3f%5d Will it be part of WinFX%3f
 
	* The Shared Feed List makes user feed subscriptions visible to all applications using the %5burl%3aUnified Feed Parsing API.%7chttp%3a//msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/top10/%5d%23CTA8  However%2c %5burl%3aAmar Ghandi has said%7chttp%3a//weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2005/09/14.html%5d%23a1301 the RSS Repository has mechanisms to prevent other apps from changing feed info without user authorization.  Are there plans to allow the user to restrict read access as well%3f  Please see %5burl%3athis discussion about privacy concerns%7chttp%3a//inkblots.markwoodman.com/2005/09/14/vista-feed-api-raises-privacy-concerns%5d for elaboration.