Simple Way to Create RSS Feed With Web API

RSS Feeds

The following describes Really Simple Syndication (RSS):

RSS Syndicates site content.
Defines an easy way to share and view headlines and content.
RSS files can be automatically updated.
RSS is XML.

Implementing RSS Feed with Web API

There are many more articles flying on the internet about implementing RSS Feed. But here, I am providing a simple way to implement RSS feed with the Web API.

Step 1

Open Visual Studio and create ASP.NET web application.

Step 2

Select a Web API template from the template wizard. The options for MVC and Web API are selected as shown below:

Step 3

An ASP.NET project will be created and the solution in the explorer looks like the following:

Now, right-click on the Areas folder and Add New and Controller option.

Step 4: A wizard with options to add various types of API controller will be displayed.

Select Web API 2 Controller with read/write actions and name it as RSSFeedController as shown below.

Step 5: In the RSSFeed controller, write a class called RSSRepository with a few properties.

Step 6: Modify the existing controller action (in the demo), use HTTPResponse as a return type as in the following:

HttpResponseMessage represents the Represents a HTTP response message.
public HttpResponseMessage Get()
{
var output = new MemoryStream();
string xml;
try
Next, I have written a logic to get data sample.
List<RSSRepository> Feeds = new List<RSSRepository>();
Feeds.Add(new RSSRepository()
{
Id="[email protected]",
Content="Sample RSS Feed to display.",
Link = "http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/authors/aravindbenator/articles/",
Title="Aravind-Aravindbenator",
UpdatedOn=DateTime.Now
});
List<SyndicationItem> items = new List<SyndicationItem>();

Next, create a syndication feed with header as in the following:

List<SyndicationItem> items = new List<SyndicationItem>();
var feed = new SyndicationFeed("RSS Feed Sample-Web API", "Aravind.", new Uri("http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/authors/aravindbenator/articles/"));
feed.Categories.Add(new SyndicationCategory("RSS Feed Sample-Web API"));

Create syndication items as in the following:

var solutionfeed = new SyndicationItem(rssrepo.Title, rssrepo.Content,
new Uri("http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/authors/aravindbenator/articles/"), "[email protected]",
rssrepo.UpdatedOn);
solutionfeed.Title = new TextSyndicationContent(rssrepo.Title);
solutionfeed.Id = "[email protected]";
solutionfeed.BaseUri = new Uri("http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/authors/aravindbenator/articles/");
solutionfeed.Content = new TextSyndicationContent(rssrepo.Content );
solutionfeed.ElementExtensions.Add(new XElement("enclosure", new XAttribute("type", ""),
new XAttribute("url", "http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/AuthorImage/aravindbenator.jpg"), new XAttribute("width", 200),
new XAttribute("height", 200)).CreateReader());
items.Add(solutionfeed);

Add syndication items to syndicate the feeds. I have added a few sample data to the syndication item for reference.

feed.Items = items;

Step 7

The following shows formatting the Syndication Feed:

var formatter = new Rss20FeedFormatter(feed);
var xws = new XmlWriterSettings { Encoding = Encoding.UTF8 };
using (var xmlWriter = XmlWriter.Create(output, xws))
{
formatter.WriteTo(xmlWriter);
xmlWriter.Flush();
}
using (var sr = new StreamReader(output))
{
output.Position = 0;
xml = sr.ReadToEnd();
sr.Close();
}

The following shows returning the RSS Feed:

var response = new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.OK) { Content = new StringContent(xml, Encoding.UTF8, "application/atom+xml") };
return response;

Step 8

The following shows testing the RSS Feed,

The URL will be like http://localhost:50945/api/RSSFeed (Base URL + API +Controller).

You can use custom methods too.

Thanks and regards.

Aravind

Simple Way to Create RSS Feed With Web API

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Implementing RSS Feed with Web API