New Message: Password-protected RSS feeds

[webmaster at userland.com]

A new message was posted:

Address: http://manila.userland.com/discuss/msgReader$196

By: Jake Savin (jake at userland.com)

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Previously, there was no way to read RSS feeds from Editors-Only Manila sites using an RSS news reader, because Manila uses a cookie for authentication.
This feature makes it possible to subscribe to RSS feeds in Editors-Only Manila sites using any RSS news reader which supports HTTP authentication.
This is especially useful for people who run private sites for a workgroup or project, or for people who run Manila sites in educational environments where the sites are required to have restricted access.
This feature is available now on all UserLand-hosted Manila sites. Update Manila.root to get the new feature.
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How to test
   Here's how to verify that HTTP authentication works with your Editors-Only site's RSS feed:
   1. In your web browser, make sure that you're *not* logged into your Editors-Only site.
   2. Enter the site's RSS URL into the browser's address bar -- the RSS URL is your site's URL plus xml/rss.xml. Here are a couple of examples:
      <code>http:\//www.mysite.com/xml/rss.xml</code>
      <code>http:\//www.myserver.com/MySite/xml/rss.xml</code>
   The browser should present you with a username/password dialog.
   3. Click the Cancel button, or enter an invalid username/password combination. You should get an error page in the browser.
   4. Click the browser's Refresh button, and enter the email address and password that you use to log into your Manila site into the username/password dialog, and click OK.
   You should now see the RSS feed displayed in the browser.
Subscribing to password-protected feeds
   Some RSS readers support the use of HTTP authentication for reading password-protected RSS feeds. Radio UserLand and NetNewsWire, for example, both do.
   In these RSS readers, the username and password are part of the URL used to subscribe to the password-protected RSS feed.
   To subscribe to a password-protected RSS feed in Radio UserLand or NetNewsWire, use the following format for the RSS URL: 
      <code>http:\//[username]:[password]@[domain]/[path]</code>
   For example, if the RSS feed is here:
      <code>http:\//www.example.com/xml/rss.xml</code>
   ...and your username/password is me\@foo.com, and xYz, then use this URL to subscribe to the feed:
   <code>http:\//me%40foo.com:xYz\@www.example.com/xml/rss.xml</code><br>
   Note that the '@' character in the username must be replaced with %40 (the URL-encoding for the '@' character). This is important for Manila sites, since members use their email addresses as their logins, and email addresses contain '@' characters. 
   Make sure that when using this URL format, that you replace the '@' character in your email address with %40. 
Notes
   This feature also works with the recently released <a href="http://manila.userland.com/discussionGroupRss">discussion group RSS</a> feeds and news item <a href="http://manila.userland.com/newsItemDepartmentEnhancements#departmentRssFeeds">department RSS feeds</a>.
   If your site's has either feature enabled, then you can use the same URL formatting to subscribe to the discussion group or to a department, that you use to subscribe to the site's home page.