The RSS Feeds PlugIn allows you to display news titles over the desktop Wallpaper and to download media files from RSS Feeds.
RSS Feeds v1.5.2
After downloading, double-click the downloaded file in Windows Explorer to start the installer.
RSS Feeds plugin is compatible with the following RSS standards:
- RSS 0.91
- RSS 1.0
- RSS 2.0
- ATOM
This means the plugin is compatible with almost all news and media feeds available on internet. The plugin can be used with any kind of feed but in order to make configuration easier they are flagged as "News" feeds or "Download" feeds. News feeds are displayed in the news ticker, the plugin download the feed, get the titles of the articles and displays them as a single news ticker. Download feeds are used only to download files, the text inside the feeds can be saved as a description for the downloaded images. Of course feeds marked as "Download" must contains some kind of media, for example photos or videos. The plugin is compatible with most photo sharing sites that offers RSS feeds, for example Flickr, smugmug, picasa, panoramio are compatible and the plugin can download public images from user galleries and photo streams.
How to configure the plugin
Open the Wallpaper Slideshow Pro configuration window and go to the plugin configuration window. See this tutorial if you don't know how to do it.
If you don't see the plug in the Wallpaper Slideshow Pro plugin list then you need to download and install the plugin.
First of all the PlugIn must be enabled by checking the control "Enable PlugIn". Then you must add some RSS feeds to the list in the main window and configure news ticker and download settings.
How to display a news ticker
Click on the "Add..." button, the "RSS Feed" window will open.
Enter here the Feed URL. The easiest way to find the url of a feed is to open the web site with a browser then find the "RSS" icon or the writing "Subscribe to ... feed", copy the link and paste it in this window. Choose the action "Add to news ticker"and click on the "Check" button, the plugin downloads the feed and checks whether it contains valid items or it is not correct.
Repeat the procedure for all feeds you like.
Since the RSS news ticker is written directly on the bitmap used for the wallpaper it can only be updated when the wallpaper changes. There is no way to display a scrolling news ticker.
How to download photos from web sites
The RSS feeds plugin can download photos and video from web sites that offers RSS media feeds. Some sites are Flickr, Picasa, Panoramio, Tumblr, Smugmug and many others.
Click on the "Add..." button, the "RSS Feed" window will open.
Enter here the Feed URL. The easiest way to find the url of a feed is to open the web site with a browser then find the "RSS" icon or the writing "Subscribe to ... feed", copy the link and paste it in this window.
Panoramio is an exception to this rule since it doesn't have links to its feeds, however you can access to RSS feeds in this way:
http://www.panoramio.com/userfeed/xxxxxx
where xxxx is the userid, the same you see in the address bar when you see the profile of the user
After you entered the URL of a feed choose the action "Download Media "and click on the "Check" button, the plugin downloads the feed and checks whether it contains media items or not.
Repeat the procedure for all feeds you like.
Next step is to configure the download settings, click on the "Download Settings" button, the settings window will open:
Enter here the name of a folder (with full path !) where to store downloaded media (photo and video) and choose the options you prefer. Then add the same folder to the Wallpaper Slideshow Pro folders list.
That's all. After closing the configuration window Wallpaper Slideshow will download the configured feeds and media, if any.