21 Managing the RSS Service

This chapter describes how to configure and manage the RSS service for the Spaces application and Framework applications.

This chapter includes the following sections:

Audience

The content of this chapter is intended for Fusion Middleware administrators (users granted the Admin or Operator role through the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console). See also, Section 1.8, "Understanding Administrative Operations, Roles, and Tools."

21.1 What You Should Know About the RSS Service

The RSS service encompasses the RSS Viewer and the service to show news feeds from various WebCenter Portal services. The RSS Viewer enables users to view external news feeds from different web sites from within WebCenter Portal applications. The RSS service delivers content update information from the following WebCenter Portal services: Recent Activities, Discussions, Lists, and Announcements.

21.2 RSS Prerequisites

The RSS service does not require any back-end server. You do not need to set up a connection to use this service. However, depending on your network configuration, you may need to set up a proxy server to enable your WebCenter Portal applications to display content from external RSS news feeds.

21.3 Setting Up a Proxy Server for External RSS News Feeds

To enable external RSS news feeds in your WebCenter Portal applications, you must set up a proxy server.

A proxy server is also required if you want to display external links in Activity Stream task flows. Both the RSS service and the Activity Stream service share the same proxy server settings.

You can configure a proxy server by using either Fusion Middleware Control or WLST. For information, see Section 9.7, "Setting Up a Proxy Server."

21.4 Testing External RSS News Feed Connections

After setting up the proxy server for the RSS Viewer of the RSS service, you can test the connection to make sure you can access external RSS feeds.

To ensure the proxy server is accurately configured for the RSS Viewer:

  1. In your WebCenter Portal application, add the RSS task flow to a page.

  2. Edit the RSS task flow and set the URL to an external RSS feed. For example:

    http://www.oracle.com/rss/rss_ocom_pr.xml

    If the RSS feed renders correctly, it confirms that the proxy configuration is set up properly.

For information about adding the RSS task flow and editing the URL, see the "Working with the RSS Service" chapter in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Portal: Spaces.