In the past each asset that wanted to export an RSS Feed had to do it on it's own. This meant that we ultimately had several different implementations of generating RSS feeds in WebGUI. For example, the Syndicated Content asset allows you to agregate multiple RSS feeds and display their content to a page. But you may not have been aware that it's also capable of taking that aggregate and republishing it as Atom and RSS feeds. In addition, the Collaboration System publishes it's list of recent threads as an RSS feed. In the past these things were done entirely independently of one another.

With the advent of Asset Aspects in 7.6 a new way to proceed has emerged, and in 7.7 we now have an RSS Feed aspect. This new aspect can be added to many different types of assets quickly and easily. Upon adding the RSS Feed aspect to an asset, a new tab is added to the properties of the asset called RSS (see the attached image). It lets you set various options for the feed. And then by extending a method, you can export feed items from your asset in RSS, Atom, and RDF, giving the user much flexibility.

In 7.7, the Syndicated Content, Collaboration System, Gallery, Gallery Album, and Wiki assets all use this new aspect. In addition, some new arrivals that I can't talk about yet will be using this new aspect as well. If you're a user, you now have lots more RSS options at your fingertips. If you're a developer, you have a lot less hassle to give your users the RSS feeds they want from your application.