### Using BSCW RSS event feeds

For making use of BSCW RSS event feeds to keep track of what is going on in your BSCW workspaces,

• BSCW RSS event feeds must be activated on your BSCW server. If in doubt, ask your system administrator about configuration details.

• In addition, you have to activate the RSS event feed service in your personal event options, where you can also specify about which event types you want to be notified via RSS.

Current versions of Web browsers like Firefox, Opera, Safari or Internet Explorer allow to directly import and read BSCW RSS event feeds. Alternatively you can use one of the numerous RSS feed readers that can be found in the Web.

When you use an RSS feed reader to read BSCW event feeds, it depends on the configuration of your BSCW server whether you have to authenticate with your BSCW user name and password or not. If your preferred feed reader does not support authentication, ask your BSCW administrator to eventually disable authentication for RSS event feeds.

##### BSCW RSS event feed addresses

To find out the address of the BSCW RSS event feed on the events in a certain folder, you proceed as follows:

• Set your level of proficiency to Expert via Options Level if necessary; otherwise the following action will not be available.

• Navigate to the folder the events of which you are interested in. If you are, e.g., interested in an RSS feed on incoming tasks, open your task list.

Figure 24: View RSS events

• Choose GoTo Events to render an RSS feed of all recent BSCW events which have happened in the current folder. As a result, your browser displays RSS formatted output.

• Your browser’s URL field will now contain the address of the BSCW RSS event feed concerning the events of the current folder. This address has to be copied into your preferred RSS feed reader; if you do not want to view the feed in your browser, see below.

##### Adding a BSCW event feed to an RSS feed reader

• Start your preferred RSS feed reader, add a new RSS feed (sometimes called ‘news channel’) and enter the address of a BSCW RSS event feed
http://your-bscw-server/bscw/bscw.cgi/folder-id?op=rss
into the new feed’s or channel’s location field. If you do not know the server address or id of the folder whose events you are interested in, proceed as above and copy the correct URL from the URL field of your browser.

• Give a proper name to the BSCW event feed and tell your feed reader how often it should poll BSCW for new events.

Depending on the configuration of your BSCW server, your RSS feed reader may ask you for authentication when it polls BSCW for new events. Please note that not all RSS feed readers feature authentication; such feed readers may only be used for BSCW event feeds if authentication for these feeds is disabled for your BSCW server.

Note: Not all RSS feed readers look alike or work alike, some even do not work very well at all. So some feed readers may have difficulties in displaying BSCW RSS event feeds. Check for latest updates from time to time or just try another feed reader.

##### ‘Live Bookmarks’ in your browser

Current browsers like Firefox, Safari, Opera and Internet Explorer detect BSCW’s RSS capabilities and display an according RSS icon. With Firefox, Safari and Opera this is an RSS icon at the right end of the URL address field. In the Internet Explorer the Feeds button, located on the Internet Explorer toolbar, will change from gray to orange and it will play a sound. Click on the RSS icon and follow the browser instructions.

With Firefox, a ‘Live Bookmark’ for the BSCW RSS event feed will be created. Opera will directly open BSCW RSS event feeds in a separate tab. Check with your browser’s online help for details.