Prerequisites

You will need the following in order for PloneRSS to work properly.

• Plone 2.1.1 or Plone 2.1.2.
• ZMySQLDA and access to a MySQL database

If anyone finds any other specific dependancies they think should be listed, please let us know by emailing support@encryptec.net.

Installing the Package

Download the latest version of PloneRSS by clicking here.

Move to the Products folder on your server and type;

tar xvfj <path_to_downloaded_file>
chown <zope_user>:<zope_group> PloneRSS

Substitute in the names of the file you downloaded and the Unix user/group id's the server runs as.

Setting up the Database

Change to your new PloneRSS directory and type;

cat PloneRSS.sql < mysql -h <host> -u <user> -p

Assuming you are using MySQL, substitute a valid host name (for example 'localhost') and user name, then enter the matching password when propmpted. If you are using another database (such as postgres) , substitute a command appropriate for your software.

This should create a database called plonerss with one table called feeds. You may think that using a MySQL DB is a bit of a pain, please see the design document for the logic behind the decision.

Configuring Plone

Now you will need to restart your Zope server for the new software to be recognised. When you've done this, go to your home page and log in as a user with Manager privileges. Click on Site Setup, then Add/Remove software. You should see "PloneRSS" as a package available on the left of the screen. Tick the box next to PloneRSS, then click the install button at the foot of the page.

Creating the SQL Connector

Again I'm going to use MySQL as an example, but other Databases should work so long as you have an appropriate connector, and I'm guessing the new ODBC connector should also work.

• Move to your 'custom' folder in your Plone instance in the Zope ZMI.

• Add a new Z MySQL Database Connection and call it PloneRSS_SQL_connection.
  (please note that the name IS critical)
• Add parameters appropriate to your database, for example;
  plonerss@<hostname> <user> <password>
• Make sure the connection opens, don't bother going any further until you have this working!

You should now be ready to start RSS feeds to the system, don't forget to add an RSS portlet or you're not going to see too much. Goto the ZMI, click on your Plone Instance, then click properties and insert;

here/portlet_plonerss/macros/portlet

You can see an example of the feeds in action by clicking here.

See the user documentation with regards to adding news feeds, then have a look at the System Administration documentation about how to make your feeds update automatically using CRON.