What is RSS?

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a widely used technology for transmitting information across the Internet and intranets. Many Web sites offer RSS Feeds you can subscribe to so you can get the latest information from the source automatically.

You can also subscribe to RSS Feeds from SharePoint libraries, lists, and other elements, so you can see when someone adds a document or changes a list item.

How RSS can be consumed in SharePoint?

You can use an RSS Viewer Web Part to display an RSS Feed on a SharePoint site. RSS Feeds and the RSS Viewer Web Part provide you with a convenient way to view information from many sources on a single page. For example, by adding RSS Viewer Web Parts to your My Site page, you can view RSS Feeds from external sites that provide information such as news and weather reports. You can also keep track of changes in libraries, calendars, and lists on other SharePoint sites.

A Corporate AD user can configure a RSS feed webpart to subscribe to any RSS feeds published inside and outside corporate network. Current scenario it is NOT possible to subscribe to an external RSS feed. This shortcoming calls for a need to enable internet access in the SharePoint web applications.

When a corporate AD user subscribes to an external RSS feed, the feed aggregator will check the publishers site for any new content and then collects the information and represents it in the RSS feed webpart.

Current functionality will not be impacted in a negative way. More functionality will be available.  The traffic is routed through the proxy / firewall like all other internet traffic from clients. Any request to an external URL will be validated and verified by the existing firewall mechanism thus eliminating any potential risk to information or environment.

Definitions and Acronyms

Logical Architecture

Implementation

Step 1: Browse to Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager

Step 2: Select the Web Application where the internet access is planned. Focus on the ‘Configuration Editor’ under ‘Management’

Step 3: Right click and select ‘Open Feature’

Step 4: Under ‘Configuration Editor’ à ‘system.net’, select the ‘defaultProxy’ section.

Step 5: Under ‘Configuration Editor’, provide appropriate values for the attributes below.

For more help on the attributes below, please refer to 

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa903369(v=vs.71).aspx

Step 6: After providing all attribute values, try using the ‘Generate Script’. This functionality provides you with managed code and scripts that helps to perform all the steps explained here in an automated fashion in acceptance and production farms. Please also keep in mind about making changes in a multi server environment. You can find more information from the below article.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.sharepoint.administration.spwebconfigmodification.aspx

Note: You could skip further steps and start planning implementation step of your choice or continue further by making changes directly via the configuration editor.

Step 7: After providing all attribute values, please select ‘Apply’ from the menu from left side.

Step 8: Verify the web.config of your application and see if the changes are reflected.

Step 9: Add a RSS Viewer webpart on your SharePoint page and configure the webpart to consume an online RSS feed.

References

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa903369(v=vs.71).aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.sharepoint.administration.spwebconfigmodification.aspx