Creating An RSS Feed In Blackboard

Step 1: Find an RSS feed.

RSS feeds can be found on most news sites such as CNN, and the BBC. You can also search for RSS feeds in a search engine. Type in the key term that you are looking for and RSS feeds. Most sites indicate an RSS feed with a graphic like one of these:

My Yahoo! RSS feed button Atom RSS feed button XML buttonRSS feed button NewsGator RSS feed buttonRSS subscription button

Step 2: Click on the RSS feed button.

This will put the address of the feed in your address bar and will also display the code that runs the RSS feed. Cut or copy the address using control keys (Ctrl+C[copy], Ctrl+X[cut]) or use the Edit menu.

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Step 3: Visit Feed2JS, a site that transforms RSS feeds into displayable content.

Follow the directions, which mostly involve pasting the RSS feed from Step 2 into the first box. Click on Preview Feed to see how the feed will look in Blackboard. Click on Generate JavaScript to generate the code needed to access the feed in Blackboard.

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Step 4: Feed2JS will generate text to cut-and-paste into your site.

Decide where you would like to put the RSS feed. You might want to consider placing the code as a permanent announcement or if you have specific feeds that cover topics in the course you might want to place them in the Course Documents area along with the content for that topic.

    1. Go to the content area or Course Tools in Blackboard where you'd like the feed displayed.
    2. Add a new Item (Content Area) or new Announcement (Course Tools).
    3. In the Text box, click on the words <HTML>. The HTML view dialog box will appear.

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    4. In the HTML view dialog box, type <BR>. The HTML code will place a space before the displayed information in the RSS feed.
    5. Paste the Feed2JS code after the <BR>.

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    6. Click Submit
    7. In this example, the Text box has the link View RSS feed. The text for your link may be different.

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    The "View RSS feed" link is decieving. When you submit this page, the text will look similar to the graphic below. Graphic

Step 5: You now have an RSS feed displayed in Blackboard.

The look of your RSS feed may be different than the RSS feed shown. Please note that the more feeds you have on a page, the slower it will load.

Other Resources
http://casweb.ou.edu/olr/instructors/technology/bb/syndicate.htm

 

Adapted from: http://www.lagcc.cuny.edu/library/faculty/rssfeeds.htm