How can I get started making a C# RSS Reader?

Question

I have been wanting to make a RSS reader for a while now (just for fun), but I don\'t have the slightest idea of where to start. I don\'t understand anything about RSS. Are

Answer 1

If you are focusing on creating an RSS Reader and not on RSS parsing logic, you might want to delegate creation/reading RSS feeds using this free RSS Library called Argotic on CodePlex.com

Answer 2

RSS is an XML dialect, so if you know XML, you have part of the problem solved. If you want a start on your project, consider looking at the open source projects already out there:

http://www.codeplex.com/site/search?projectSearchText=RSS%20Reader

CodePlex (above) is a good place to start, as the majority of the projects will be in C#.

Answer 3

Consider reading the source code for RSS Bandit, which is a C# Winforms (possibly soon WPF) RSS Reader.

You should get some good ideas by just stepping through the application.

Answer 4

As another poster recommended, the SyndicationFeed class and Argotic are the best alternatives.

If performance is an issue, the SyndicationFeed class will be much better. I benchmarked it as being about 9 times faster than Argotic on my hardware.

The problem I've had with the SyndicationFeed class has been its ability to successfully parse any random feed from the 'net. It fails with an XmlException surprisingly often.

For my uses, I'm sticking with Argotic. After all, it is open source, so I can always make changes if I need to.

Answer 5

If you cant use System.ServiceModel.Syndication.Syndicationfeed, for example because you are using a PCL (Portable Class Library). I wrote one : FeedParserPCL. You can find it on NuGet.