Subscribing to a feed

When you install RssBandit, you'll notice that RSS Bandit includes a few default feeds. Feel free to read and enjoy them. There are a couple devoted to Rss Bandit in there along with popular feeds such as Wired News and Slashdot.

If that doesn't satisfy you, Rss Bandit makes it easy to subscribe to new feeds. Just follow the instructions below and you'll be on your way to reading 1400 feeds a night. Don't say we didn't warn you.

Click on a feed link
There are several ways to subscribe to a feed. One of the simplest is to click on a link with a feed: protocol. Typically this will be advertised as a one click subscription like. For example, clicking on feed://haacked.com/Rss.aspx will bring up the dialog in Figure 3.

Drag and Drop
Another easy method to subscribe to a feed is to simply drag and drop the URL from a web page into RSS Bandit. For example, suppose you decided to subscribe to http://haacked.com/Rss.aspx for some crazy reason. Left click and hold on the url and drag it underneath the category folder you wish to add the feed to. When you let go of the link, the feed will show up in your feed list. The beauty of this approach is that the dialog in Figure 3 is not displayed nor is it needed.

Right Click
Another simple method is to right click on a link to a feed within a web page. The context menu will include an item with the label "Subscribe in default aggregator" (See figure 1). Clicking this item will bring up the dialog in Figure 3.

Right Click To Subscribe
Figure 1. Subscribe context menu.

Add Subscription Wizard ( New in version 1.3)
Version 1.3 introduces the new Add Subscription Wizard used to add subscriptions to RSS Feeds and NNTP News Groups.  There are two ways to reach the wizard.  One is to select File | New Subscription item from the menu.  The second is to simply click on the New... button in the toolbar (figure 2).

Toolbar with New Subscription Button
Figure 2. Tool bar with New Subscription button.

The first time you bring up this dialog, you will see the following welcome screen.  Simply uncheck Always display this Wizard Welcome Page to get rid of the welcome the next time.

Add New Subscription Dialog
Figure 3. Add New Subscription Dialog.

Clicking Next will take you to the next screen which differs based on how you launched the wizard.  If you used the File Menu, you'll see the screen in figure 4.  This allows you to choose the source of the subscription.

Subscription Sources Dialog
Figure 4. Subscription Sources Dialog.

If you clicked on the New... button in the toolbar, it takes you directly to the first subscription source, New subscription by URL as in Figure 5.

New Subscription by URL Dialog
Figure 4. New Subscription by URL Dialog.

This dialog accepts the URL to the feed you wish to subscribe to.  However, if you do not know the full URL to the feed (and who really remembers these things?) simply enter the url of the website and the wizard will attempt to automatically discover the url to the feed on the page.  If there are more than one feed on the page, the wizard will display them all and let you choose one.  If there is only one feed discovered on the page, then the wizard will take you directly to a screen that allows you to specify the title and category as in figure 5.


Figure 5. Title and Category Dialog.

After entering a title and category, click Next to get to the Subscription Credentials Dialog as in figure 6.  If the subscription does not require credentials (the most common case), simply leave the fields blank and click Next. 

Security Credentials Dialog
Figure 6. Security Credentials Dialog.

The next screen (figure 7) allows you to specify additional properties related to a feed and it's items such as the update frequency, when to remove old items, whether you want to enable alerts, and whether or not to mark items as read when exiting a feed.

Feed/Item Control Dialog
Figure 7. Feed/Item Control Dialog.

The final input screen allows you to specify a custom formatter for the feed.  Custom formatters control the look and feel of a feed when displayed in the reading pane. 

Feed/Item Display Dialog
Figure 8. Feed/Item Display Dialog.

Clicking Next takes you to a Wizard Complete! screen.  Make sure to click Finish to finish adding the subscription.  The feed is now in the list of subscribed feeds.  Enjoy a good read!

Some Good Reading.
Figure 4. Unread items within a feed.