I don't see any difference b/w rss and webservices. Both are getting information from another website. If RSS is just an xml file then all we need to do is use it as a datasource for gridview and bind it. Am I missing something here?
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Yes, you are missing a lot. ;)
RSS is just a feed. It's plain XML with a specific schema that is made to be consumable by RSS readers. Of course, knowing this schema, you can certainly bind it to a GridView or any other bindable control. But RSS is useful for news stories, or blog posts, or any kind of feed.
A web service, on the other hand (depending on the type, I'll assume you meant SOAP), accepts a properly formatted XML request and returns a response. Basically, it's a way to expose certain actions and information over the web. .NET obfuscates most of that for you, so in the end, what you are left with is like a web library...you can make calls to multiple web methods, and get serialized responses. This is useful for all kinds of things. For example, I've been using web services to expose a database for my Silverlight applications.
The two really aren't the same thing at all. -
Hmm, well the point of developing an RSS application is to be able to supply up-to-date Web logs (known as blogs) to other websites.
It's not really meant to be consumed in a single website or page...it's larger than that. It's meant to be sending feeds (an Atom/RSS document) to other websites about the content in your site (or whatever your reporting about). The other websites consume the feeds that your service generates....th e other websites display the information contained in the feed to the end user in hopes that they'll be interested enough in it to link back to your site.
I don't think that RSS applications use Web Services either. They're more complicated than that... from what I understand, there's several components working together to make this possible.
You're going to have to implement a Service that manages the RSS feeds....it needs to be able to accept new feeds and send them out.
Check out Decentralized Software Services (DSS). I think it might get you started :)
-FrinnyComment
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Some points of correction Frinny:
RSS doesn't actually send anything. It just sits there, waiting to be consumed. I know you didn't mean it that way, but it is a common misconception that I've actually had to deal with here at the company recently.
And RSS is only as complicated as you want to make it. I made an RSS Feed for a site using a single ASPX page. I read the info from a DB, built the XML, then Response.Write( ) it and then Response.End();
OP, as you can see from that example that it doesn't have to be a static XML file, but it can be generated on the fly.
You could certainly bind an RSS feed to a GridView, assuming you provide an XmlDataSource and the proper XPath queries.Comment
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Thanks for the clarification iA. That is what I meant when I referred to RSS...
I've never actually developed an application like this. The topic was explained to me once in a....(oh beware: inner geeky-ness coming out)....a .NET user group meeting but since I have no need for it in my day-to-day development I've forgotten most of what was covered.
I just came across a pretty good article about Syndication that explains exactly what RSS is all about :)
[edit]
I just realised that I'm not even sure what the OP is developing.
Are you developing something that consumes RSS feeds?
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I believe I used that exact article when I was researching my project. 4guysfromrolla. com usually has good stuff.Comment
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Thanks Frinny and IA for your replies. Now I am clear about RSS. It is simply an xml document that is sitting on the server to be consumed by anyone. I wanted to use RSS feeds to display headlines and IT news in my website. Does anyone of you have links for headlines and microsoft IT news RSS feeds?Comment
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Most blogs and sites will provide their RSS feeds. Just check your favorite sites.Comment
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