designer

Connecting to an RSS Feed XML File 183
Connecting to an RSS Feed XML File
You can use the XML File Connection command on the Data Sources tab to connect to
an XML file located on an external server. You do not import the XML file to your site;
instead, you link the external XML file to the site by using its URL.
One popular external XML file is the one produced by an RSS feed. (Servers that publish
their content as XML data that conforms to the RSS format are said to have an RSS feed.)
Many Internet-facing servers produce RSS-formatted XML data as either an XML file or a
server-side script that produces RSS-formatted XML data.
Note Starting with Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, lists and libraries can expose their
content by using RSS.
In this exercise, you retrieve data published by an external server by linking to an XML
file connection.
Important In this exercise, you access an RSS feed over the Internet. To complete this
exercise, you must have Internet access.
SET UP Using SharePoint Designer, open the site you used in the previous exercise.
Open the DataSourceTest.aspx page and Data Sources gallery page if they are not
already open.
XML File
Connection
1. Click in the Data Sources gallery page to activate the commands on the Data
Sources tab, and then click XML File Connection.
The Data Source Properties dialog box opens.
2. On the Source tab, in the Location text box, type http://blogs.msdn.com/b/
sharepointdesigner/rss.aspx.
Warning For you to connect to a URL on the Internet, your SharePoint Server
administrator might have to configure on the SharePoint server(s) the web.config for
proxy server settings.
3. Click the General tab, and in the Name text box, type SharePoint Designer team
blog.
4. Click the Login tab, and verify that the Don’t attempt to authenticate option is
selected.