BlogWave FAQ
BlogWave Mini-FAQ
Last Updated: 10/24/2004
Current Version: 0.99.1.5 (Beta 1.5)
Download Link: http://www.addysanto.com/blog/blogwave/blogwave_vB15.zip (522K)
Q. What is BlogWave?
A. BlogWave is an "RSS Generator": a tool which can pull information from a variety of sources and publish it as RSS. This process is very easy to configure and can be scheduled to run automatically. For example, using BlogWave you can create an RSS feed from Sharepoint announcements on your company's internal site. Or you can publish event logs as RSS. Or even merge multiple sources into one feed (aggregation) and/or publish a feed to multiple destinations (cross posting).
Q. What content sources does BlogWave support?
A. BlogWave currently supports the following sources
• RSS Feeds
• Google Searches (new)
• Event Logs
• WSS Lists and Document Libraries
• SPS Searches
• NNTP newsgroups
• Custom sources can be added through a pluggable architecture and a simple .Net programming interface.
Q. Which destinations can BlogWave post to?
A. BlogWave supports the following destinations:
• .Text based blogs
• FTP sites
• Local or Network URNs
• Any WebDAV compliant website (such as Sharepoint or WSS)
• Custom destinations can be added through a pluggable architecture and a simple .Net programming interface.
Q. What is the difference between BlogWave and other automated RSS generators?
A. Most other generators support only one content source and destination, usually need to be installed on a server (such as a Sharepoint server in the case of Sharepoint content), and require the generator to be always running. BlogWave, on the other hand, supports multiple content sources, multiple destinations, can be run without any modifications to servers, and leverages the Windows Scheduling Services to enable scheduled publication even when no users are logged in.
Q. How does the scheduling work?
A. When configuring a feed, you can enable an automated publication schedule. BlogWave will create a task which will appear in the "Scheduled Tasks" lists in the Windows Control Panel. The execution of the task in handled by Windows - BlogWave doesn't need to be open, and you don't even need to be logged in. This allows for reliable, low-footprint publication process with advanced capabilities such as running under a different user account, running only when idle, etc.
Q. How do I install BlogWave?
A. Just open the ZIP archive into a directory. To use it, run BlogWaveClient.exe
Q. Is BlogWave easy to use?
A. I hope so! BlogWave isn't rocket science; any individual aspect of its functionality could be cobbled together in a weekend by any competent developer. However, not everyone is a developer, nor does everyone have the time and patience. And bringing it all together into an extensible framework with a friendly UI requires a bit more effort. The emphasis in BlogWave is on ease of use, and to that effect I included the following features:
• Simple and (hopefully) intuitive UI. No confusing property browsers!
• XP-Themed UI with task panes and colorful icons :)
• Drag and Drop creation of new feeds
• Drag and Drop creation of aggregated feeds - just drop a URL onto an existing feed to create an aggregated feed.
• Context Menus
Q. Can I embed BlogWave in my applications?
A. Once you have configured feeds in BlogWave, you can call BlogWaveWorker.exe via the command line to trigger the publication process. BlogWaveWorker runs silently and requires no user interaction. The interface for managing feeds is not yet available through a command line interface, but adding/removing feeds can be done by modifying the FeedSources.xml file directly.
Q. How can I extend BlogWave to support additional content sources?
A. You need to create an adapter class, compile it into an assembly and drop in into the 'Adapters' directory. Your class must implement the following interface:
public interface IRssIncomingAdapter
{
ProxyInfo Proxy
{set;}
XmlDocument GetRssFeed(EndPointInfo epInf);
EndpointTypeInfo[] SupportedSources
{get;}
EndPointInfo FeedConfigurationUI(EndPointInfo epInf);
}
For more info, see the C# code sample which comes with BlogWave.
Screenshots
Feed List:
Feed Configuration:
Selecting a Feed Source:
Feed Publication (Progress Window):
Proxy Settings
Tasks as they appear in Control Panel -> Scheduled Tasks
Viewing Feed History Logs:
Click on the image below for an animated demo of the drag and drop support
