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News

Includes

Description
Example of use
Setting Up News
Sample RSS news feed

Description

RSS is a data format that is used to syndicate news on the web. It allows users to view continuously updated content from a news site in another website.

Sites that distribute news in RSS format are called "news feeds." The CTools News tool is an RSS "news aggregator" (or "news reader") that reads and displays content from RSS news feeds. In addition to news, some websites use the RSS format for information that is updated often, such as blogs (web logs that serve as publicly accessible personal journals), events listings, or the revision history of a book. An RSS feed URL can usually be identified by the .rss or .xml in the URL (e.g., http://www.csmonitor.com/rss/scitech.rss or http://www.umich.edu/news/news.xml).

Site owners can customize their News feature by putting in a web address for any RSS new! s feed. Many feeds can be found by searching Google for RSS feeds i n your area of interest.

Setting Up News


Users with the required permissions can set up a site to display the news. You must enter a URL to an RSS news feed. An RSS feed is a specially formatted kind of list of news articles. Note that when the site is set up or at a later time, it is possible to add more than one News tool.


1.. Click News in the menubar.


2.. Click Options.


3.. Type a name that will be displayed on the the frame with the news in it.


4.. Type the complete URL for an RSS news feed.


5.. Click Update Options.

Sample RSS News Feed

Here is the URL for the BBC news feed:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/syndication/feeds/news/ukfs_news/front_page/rss091.x! ml

Are you finding what you're looking for? Please send feedback about this online help guide to ctools-doc-comments@umich.edu Thanks! (For questions about using CTools, send email to ctools-support@umich.edu)