JIDE Feed Reader Developer Guide
Contents
PURPOSE OF THIS DOCUMENT ................................................................................................................. 1
FEATURES ................................................................................................................................................ 2
HOW TO USE FEED READER ...................................................................................................................... 2
THE USER INTERFACE ............................................................................................................................... 3
LAYOUT ......................................................................................................................................................... 3
TOOLBAR ...................................................................................................................................................... 3
HTML BROWSER ............................................................................................................................................ 3
ICONS ........................................................................................................................................................... 4
PERSISTENCE LAYER ................................................................................................................................. 5
USER PREFERENCE ................................................................................................................................... 5
FEED EVENTS ............................................................................................................................................ 5
INTERNATIONALIZATION SUPPORT .......................................................................................................... 6
DEPENDENCY ........................................................................................................................................... 6
Purpose of This Document
Even if you never heard RSS before, you must hear “weblogs” or “blogs” which is very
popular these days. RSS is the technology behind the “weblogs” that is used to publish
frequently updated content. RSS is an acronym for Really Simple Syndication. In fact, RSS is used
beyond “weblogs”. RSS basically makes it possible for people to keep up with their favorite web
sites in an automated manner that’s easier than checking them manually.
RSS content can be read using software called a "feed reader" or an "aggregator." The user
subscribes to a feed by entering the feed's link into the reader or by clicking an RSS icon in a
browser that initiates the subscription process. The reader checks the user's subscribed feeds
regularly for new content, downloading any updates that it finds.
There are many feed readers, commercial and open source. Most web browsers (IE, Firefox
etc) and email clients (Outlook, Thunderbird etc) support RSS now. There are also many
standalone feed readers.
Among all those feed readers, JIDE RSS Feed Reader serves a whole different purpose.
Imagine you are a software provider providing a tool to millions of users. Every time you do a
new release, you want to somehow notify your users. You can post news on your website but
not many people check your website regularly. You can email a newsletter which means you
need to have their email addresses. Even if you do, how often your newsletters will be filtered