[AccessD] Access Application - RSS Feeds - "The Rest of the Story"

Arthur Fuller fuller.artful at gmail.com
Tue Sep 29 17:16:21 CDT 2015


I'm growing way too old way too quickly, so please forgive my failures to
comprehend the bleeding edge. That said, why would I want to bleed an RSS
feed? I just don't get it. I can read the bleed anytime I want, so why save
it locally? Or am I missing something here -- not for the first time -- as
I wrote, the years are catching up on me, and at age almost 68 the evidence
is paramount. Memory is fading, to be sure; but I still walk/run several
clicks per day, so I'm not dead yet, and I'm trying to stay abreast of this
thread, although the chemo is tiresome to say the least.

A.

On Tue, Sep 29, 2015 at 6:05 PM, Stuart McLachlan <stuart at lexacorp.com.pg>
wrote:

> OK, if you are not trying to implement a solution, just getting familiar
> with RSS feed concepts:
>
> How are you on XML?
>
> Here is a simple RSS primer:
>
> https://www.mnot.net/rss/tutorial/
> (Note the "Choosing Content for your Feeds" and
>
> Here's a sample VBA function which grabs an XML document from a wbesite
> and puts it's
> data into a table.   The XML document could just as easily be a RSS feed.
>
> Function GetBounces(sDate As Date, eDate As Date) As Long
>     Dim oHTTP As Object
>     Dim lngresult As Long
>     Dim strPage As String
>     Dim strParam As String
>     Dim strTmpFile As String
>     strTmpFile = CurrentProject.Path & "\tmpXMLData.xml"
>     strParam = "https://api.example.com/api/bounces.get.xml?api_user=" &
> strLoginName _
>                & "&api_key=" & strPW & "&start_date=" & Format(sDate,
> "yyyy-mm-dd") _
>                & "&end_date=" & Format(eDate, "yyyy-mm-dd")
>     Set oHTTP = CreateObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP")
>     lngresult = oHTTP.Open("GET", strParam, False)
>     lngresult = oHTTP.Send("")
>     strPage = oHTTP.Responsetext
>     If InStr(strPage, "<bounce>") > 0 Then 'There is data!
>         Open strTmpFile For Output As #1
>         Print #1, strPage
>         Close #1
>         Application.ImportXML strTmpFile, acStructureAndData
>     Else
>         MsgBox strPage
>     End If
>     Set oHTTP = Nothing
> End Function
>
>
> I can also let you have VBA samples of generating  HTML pages and
> uploading them to a
> web/RSS server if you need more, but it's a fairly simple case of printing
> the appropriate
> strings to a file and then uploading that file via FTP.
>
> --
> Stuart
>
>
> On 29 Sep 2015 at 17:59, Brad Marks wrote:
>
> > Darryl and Stuart,
> >
> > Thanks for the advice.
> >
> > I should have explained the rest of the story.
> >
> > I work for a small firm (50 employees) which manufactures and sells
> > employee recognition products.
> >
> > Recently, one of our sales reps landed a very large new account.  This
> > new customer has 20,000 employees.
> >
> > In the contract with this new account, there are a number of technical
> > details spelled out.  These details include the exchange of
> > information via RSS feeds.
> >
> > Because of the size of this new account, there is some thought that we
> > will need to play by their rules or risk losing their business.
> >
> > Therefore, I need to get up to speed with RSS feeds as soon as
> > possible.
> >
> > Brad
> >
> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: AccessD [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf
> > Of Darryl Collins Sent: Monday, September 28, 2015 6:57 PM To: Access
> > Developers discussion and problem solving Subject: Re: [AccessD]
> > Access Application - RSS Feeds
> >
> > "It doesn't really make a lot of sense to just stipulate a methodology
> > rather than a use case."
> >
> > Stuart has a great point here.  This is often the case of "Have
> > Hammer, ergo - problem must be a nail."  Would certainly be worth
> > asking what it is they are trying to achieve and why they think an RSS
> > feed is the best way to achieve that.  It might be so, but there may
> > also be a much easier and better option available as well that they
> > are not aware of (or haven't considered).
> >
> > Cheers
> > Darryl
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: AccessD [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf
> > Of Stuart McLachlan Sent: Tuesday, 29 September 2015 9:03 AM To:
> > Access Developers discussion and problem solving Subject: Re:
> > [AccessD] Access Application - RSS Feeds
> >
> > It's a web technology which supplies XML formatted text files usually
> > to  a user's browser at predetermined intervals when they have the
> > browser open.   However, since it is an on-demand XML file, you can
> > access it in a variety of ways. There are previous threads here where
> > Darren Dick and I have done this directly in Access.  So you could add
> > something to the application to periodically poll a server and get new
> > data.
> >
> >
> > You will need a web server and a way to get the appropriate data into
> > XML format on the server (Your can use VBA to export data as XML).
> >
> > Don't know about the customer sending data via RSS - they would need
> > to upload the data to their own RSS enabled web server which you would
> > then need to poll periodically and parse the returned XML.
> >
> > Do you know why/how  the customer wants to use the RSS feeds?  It
> > doesn't really make a lot of sense to just stipulate a methodology
> > rather than a use case.
> >
> > --
> > Stuart
> >
> > On 28 Sep 2015 at 21:44, Brad Marks wrote:
> >
> > > All,
> > >
> > > We have a key application that was built with Access 2007.
> > >
> > > Recently, a large customer has asked us to both send and receive
> > > information via RSS feeds.
> > >
> > > I have very little experience in this realm.
> > >
> > > I am curious if others have used RSS feeds in Access applications.
> > >
> > > Is anyone aware of good information on the web on how to use RSS
> > > feeds with Access?
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > > Brad
> > >
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> > >
> >
> >
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-- 
Arthur


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