RSS Reader

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Introduction

I am trying to use aspx on my site because it's easy to program and is very powerful. RSS is personally the best thing to get a site's search engine listings up. I wanted to be able to optimize the number of ways people can view my feed, so I created this class.

 

Using the code

Declaring:

private _rssReader = New System.Xml.RssChannel("feedURL") 'for a web feed or...

private _rssReader = New System.Xml.RssChannel(new streamreader("path")) 'for a local feed file   

Channel tag Values:

_rssReader.getChannelValue("link") 'to get the "<link>value</link>" value

_rssReader.getChannelValue("description") 'to get the "<description>value</description>" value etc.

Channel tag Attributes:

_rssReader.getChannelAttribute("atom:link")("href") 'href Attribute in the atom:link tag 

item tag Value 

While i < _rssReader.count - 1
        string += _rssReader(i).value("title") 'Loops Through all the Inner Values for th <title> tag of the feeds items
        i += 1
End While   

Item tag Attributes:

While i < _rssReader.count - 1
        string += _rssReader(i).attribute("guid")("isPermaLink") 'Loop Through all the items of the feed and get the guid isPermaLink Attribute
        i += 1
End While   

Item tag array:

While i < _rssReader.count - 1
        string += _rssReader(i).value("category")(0) 'Loop Through all the items of the feed and get the first category
        i += 1
End While

RssReader Source:

Imports System.Xml
Imports System.Net
Imports System.IO
Imports System.Collections
Public Class RssChannel
    Inherits CollectionBase
    Private _xmltxt As String
    Private _xml As XmlDocument
    Private _itemArray As ArrayList = New ArrayList
    Private _channelValues As New Hashtable
    Private _channelAtrValues As New Hashtable
    Public Sub New(ByVal file As IO.StreamReader)
        _xml = New XmlDocument
        _xml.Load(file)
        read()
    End Sub
    Public Sub New(ByVal url As String)
        Dim request As HttpWebRequest
        Dim response As HttpWebResponse = Nothing
        Dim reader As StreamReader
        Try
            Dim address As New Uri(url)
            request = DirectCast(WebRequest.Create(address), HttpWebRequest)
            response = DirectCast(request.GetResponse(), HttpWebResponse)
            reader = New StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream())
            _xml = New XmlDocument
            _xml.Load(reader)
            read()
        Finally
            If Not response Is Nothing Then response.Close()
        End Try
    End Sub
    Public Function getChannelValue(ByVal name As String) As String
        Select Case _channelValues.ContainsKey(name)
            Case True
                Return _channelValues(name)
            Case Else
                Throw New Exception("ChannelVar: " + name + " Doesnt Exist")
        End Select
    End Function
    Public Function getChannelAttribute(ByVal name As String) As Hashtable
        Select Case _channelAtrValues.ContainsKey(name)
            Case True
                Return _channelAtrValues(name)
            Case Else
                Throw New Exception("ChannelAtrVar: " + name + " Doesnt Exist")
        End Select
    End Function
    Default Public Overridable ReadOnly Property Item(ByVal index As Integer) As RssItem
        Get
            If Not ((index < 0) Or (index > _itemArray.Count - 1)) Then
                Return _itemArray(index)
            Else
                Throw New Exception("Index is out of range.")
            End If
        End Get
    End Property
    Public Shadows Function count() As Integer
        Return _itemArray.Count
    End Function
#Region "Frame"
    Private Sub read()
        Try
            loadChannelVars()
            loadItemArray()
        Catch ex As Exception
            Throw New Exception(ex.Message)
        End Try
    End Sub
    Private Sub loadChannelVars()
        For Each node As XmlNode In _xml.SelectNodes("/rss/channel")
            For Each node2 As XmlNode In node.ChildNodes()
                Dim AtrHashInner As New Hashtable
                If Not (node2.Name = "item") Then
                    _channelValues.Add(node2.Name, node2.InnerText())
                    Dim i = 0
                    While i < node2.Attributes.Count
                        AtrHashInner.Add(node2.Attributes(i).Name, node2.Attributes(i).InnerText)
                        i += 1
                    End While
                    _channelAtrValues.Add(node2.Name, AtrHashInner)
                End If
            Next
        Next
    End Sub
    Private Sub loadItemArray()
        For Each item As XmlNode In _xml.SelectNodes("/rss/channel/item")
            Dim hash As New Hashtable
            Dim AtrHash As New Hashtable
            Dim categorys As ArrayList = New ArrayList()
            For Each node As XmlNode In item.ChildNodes
                Dim AtrHashInner As New Hashtable
                If Not (hash.ContainsKey(node.Name)) Then
                    hash.Add(node.Name, node.InnerText)
                    Dim i = 0
                    While i < node.Attributes.Count
                        AtrHashInner.Add(node.Attributes(i).Name, node.Attributes(i).InnerText)
                        i += 1
                    End While
                    AtrHash.Add(node.Name, AtrHashInner)
                Else
                    'more then one
                    Try
                        hash(node.Name).count()
                        'Arraylist
                        hash(node.Name).add(node.InnerText)
                    Catch ex As Exception
                        'String
                        Dim Arr As New ArrayList
                        Arr.Add(hash(node.Name))
                        Arr.Add(node.InnerText)
                        hash(node.Name) = Arr
                    End Try
                End If
            Next
            _itemArray.Add(New RssItem(hash, AtrHash))
        Next
    End Sub
    Public Structure RssItem
        Public value As Hashtable
        Public attribute As Hashtable
        Public Sub New(ByVal valueHash As Hashtable, ByVal attributeHash As Hashtable)
            value = valueHash
            attribute = attributeHash
        End Sub
    End Structure
#End Region
End Class 

Points of Interest

I created this class because firstly I wanted to test reading an XML file and secondly as a webmaster I am well aware of the power of a feed and so I want to be able to use it.

When creating this class, I found that there are multiple ways of reading an XML file.

I settled with XMLDocument as it was like handling an array instead of a text file like some of the others.

History

Version 1: 09/04/2010