RSS for Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) Articles
In a recent email exchange between me, my dev lead, PM, and one of the developers on the SourceSafe team, I suggested that a KB article would be the most appropriate documentation delivery channel for a minor technical issue we were discussing. Since my dev lead is relatively new to the team, I added that KB articles are the ideal place to document workarounds for the class of issue we were discussing. I went on to say that Knowledge Base articles are increasingly discoverable and useful. In fact, many of the customers with whom I interact consume services like KBAlertz that notify them, via email or RSS feed, when a new KB article has been published or updated in their area.
Within a few minutes of mentioning RSS feeds for KB articles, my developer shot me a “Whatyou talkin' about, Willis?“ type of email. His tone was something like, 'C'mon man, why didn't you tell me this before?'
It's true. By installing a newsreader like SharpReader or NewsGator, you too can monitor the wire for announcements that a KB article in your area of interest or concern has been published. Scott Cate, of KBAlertz.com explains how to subscribe to KB RSS feeds in response to a Tim Heuer blog post.
[Scott Cate] “RSS feeds are available. Click "All Kb's" on the title menu. This will take you to a page that lists all the technologies we scan, from the Microsoft knowledge base.
On this page, select the technology. This will take you to the technology page, listing the articles for that technology in chronological order. Once you've narrowed your search to this page, you'll see the famous [XML] icon on the top of the page for that technology.“
Visual SourceSafe -- Subscribed
Visual Studio .NET-- Subscribed
Visual C# -- Subscribed
SQL Server -- Subscribed
ASP.NET -- Subscribed
Keyboards -- Did Not Subscribe
Keyboard KBs? Okay, somebody has way too much time on their hands.
