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

[Stuart McLachlan]

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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> > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com
> > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd
> > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com
> > 
> 
> 
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