The RSS Reader plug-in for internet explorer
The RSS reader plugin for IE is the open source project being developed by me (prafulla_t@users.sourceforge.net).
About RSS
RSS stands for Really Simplified Syndication which is the standard XML format used for the syndication. Many websites (such as CNN or any news website for that matter) has different sections. But it is not always possible for the reader to visit and read the news in those sections, so what they do is to publish the changes to that particular section in the form of XML. The XML format in which they publish this is standardized and that format is called as RSS. The advantage of all this stuff is that If I am interested in sports news from the world, I no longer have to go to the Sports section of some website but what I simply do is to give the Link of RSS published by the concerned website (CNN in our case) to my RSS reader (RSS Reader is the special software which has the capability to interpret and show the RSS in readable format). This is exactly what the toolbar that I have designed, does.
About RSS-Plugin for Internet Explorer
This plugin is actually a toolbar for the Internet Explorer. It shows the RSS news from the links which are given to it as the input. The RSS links can be configured with the help of the Configuration Dialog Box.
About RSS-Plugin for Internet Explorer
User Guide
1) Selecting the toolbar in the Internet Explorer.
The toolbar you have installed will have to be made visible if it is not visible. To do so Please select the View->Toolbar menu.You can see the RSS Reader Toolbar, select that toolbar as follows
2) Viewing the news
Viewing the news is really very simple. You just have to click on the button that you have added ( By default, There are five buttons which shows the news from the CNN -IBN news channel). If the corresponding XML file is loaded that news are visible as follows. The description about the item can be views in the balloon tool tip by simply moving the mouse over the corresponding menu item.
3) Modifying the Settings
The Rss Reader plugin is fully customizable in terms of the buttons which are visible and in terms of the link that it takes the data. Clicking on the RSS Reader... Button (The first button on the toolbar) will pop up the configuration dialog box as follows
About the code.
This project contains some interesting code fragments, which can be used as an example by everyone. This section describes such code fragments. (This section is for the beginners, you are already a pro in Windows Programming you can simply skip this section)
1) Creating toolbar buttons dynamically :
In this toolbar, buttons are creating and removed dynamically by the setting dialog box provided.
2) Creating cool looking owner drawn menu :
The windows on which news is displayed (See the Screen Shot ) is actually a menu. This menu is owner drawn.
3) Creating "Hot-Spot" on the Menu Item :
See the last menu item. There are two entries such as Next,Prev. Now when user clicks on the menu item, Only one message is generated, so which part of the menu item is clicked, is identified by the cursor Position. But only cursor position can not help. We cannot predict what are the valid sections for the next and prev,since we cannot tell where the menu will be shown. So I have taken the handle of the Menu itself and transformed the Co-Ordinates using MapWindowPoints() Win32 API.
4) C++ XML Parsing :
I have used Tiny XML for XML parsing, It is by far the best and the easiest XML parser available for C++.
5) Inter-process Communication :
Toolbar communicate with RSS Fetcher process, And all the function of bringing the rss from the internet is given to this process.
Requirements
I have used MS Visual Studio 2005,and you will need WTL 8.0 to compile this project,WTL 8.0 is available free of cost on the internet
Acknowledgements
1) Erik Thompson. - Creating DeskBands with
an ATL Object Wizard
2) AmHttpUtilities By Anders Molin.
3) Tiny XML- This project is hosted on sourceforge.net
About Myself
Hi I am Prafulla V Tekawade. I live in India, Pune. I have interest in C++, WTL and java as well. If you have any problem related to this project please feel free to contact me at following email ID Email ID : prafulla_t@users.sourceforge.net
Update
[7/5/2007]
1) Some memory leaks in RRPRssFetcher.exe removed,some still remains :-(
2) Problems with COnfiguration Setting Dialog Box removed
3) Now RRPRssFetcher compiles successully,all dependent files now included in
the source code.
License
The source code is released under the terms and condition given in the License.txt which comes with the source code