Using RSS Bandit from Multiple Computers

RSS Bandit now has rich support for synchronization across multiple computers (version 1.2.0.112 and greater). This comes in very handy when you use RSS Bandit on multiple computers such as from work and home.

Why is this useful?
After a full day of work in which you spend some of that time reading feeds, it is a bit of an annoyance to come home and have to wade through all the items that you've already read to find the few new items you haven't yet read since you left work.

Now with the latest version of RSS Bandit, you simply Upload Feeds before leaving and Download Feeds when you get home and your home RSS Bandit will have the same state (more or less) that RSS Bandit at work does. (The ability to configure this synchronization to happen automatically is on the list of upcoming features in a future version).

How does synchronization work?
Sychronization data is transferred within a ZIP compressed file that contains information about the current state of your search folders, flagged items, replied items, subscribed feeds, and read/unread messages.

Please note that the actual feed content is not transferred, but rather the state of the feed content such as whether an item has been read or not.

For example, suppose you read the latest riveting post from http://haacked.com/ with the id #123 on your home computer. Being late for work, you hurriedly hit CTRL+SHIFT+U to upload your current state. This uploads the fact that you've read item #123 on haack.org. It does not upload the actual content of item #123. Upon arriving at work and settling down with your morning coffee, you hit CTRL+SHIFT+D to download your state, you may notice that item #123 does not show up. However, after refreshing your feeds by hitting CTRL+F5, RSS Bandit will download that item and it will appear as a read item rather than as a new item.

So how do I start using it?
First you have to configure Remote Storage. Under the Tools menu select Options ( or hit CTRL+O). Click on the Remote Storage tab. This will bring up the dialogue in figure 1.

Figure 1: Remote Storage Dialogue
Figure 1: Remote Storage Dialogue.

In order to user Remote Storage, check the Use Remote Storage checkbox and select a protocol. Depending on the chosen protocol, you will have to configure RSS Bandit with other information to allow it to synchronize your feeds. The following topices cover the various choices for Remote Feeds.

Once you've selected a protocol that will work for you simply upload your feeds when you're done using RSS Bandit on one computer and download feeds when you begin to use it on another computer. You'll be in synchronirvana!