DataBind Wijmo Grid to RSS Feeds

The API Server, when paired with the ADO.NET Provider for RSS (or any of 200+ other ADO.NET Providers), provides RSS feeds as Web services, which enable connectivity to live data. This article shows how to consume JSONP-formatted RSS feeds from a Wijmo Grid.

Set Up the API Server

Follow the steps below to begin producing secure RSS OData services:

Deploy

The API Server runs on your own server. On Windows, you can deploy using the stand-alone server or IIS. On a Java servlet container, drop in the API Server WAR file. See the help documentation for more information and how-tos.

The API Server is also easy to deploy on Microsoft Azure, Amazon EC2, and Heroku.

Connect to RSS

After you deploy the API Server and the ADO.NET Provider for RSS, provide authentication values and other connection properties needed to connect to RSS by clicking Settings -> Connections and adding a new connection in the API Server administration console.

You can connect to RSS and Atom feeds, as well as feeds with custom extensions. To connect to a feed, set the URL property. You can also access secure feeds. A variety of authentication mechanisms are supported. See the help documentation for details.

You can then choose the RSS entities you want to allow the API Server to access by clicking Settings -> Resources. This article uses Latest News as an example.

Authorize API Server Users

After determining the OData services you want to produce, authorize users by clicking Settings -> Users. The API Server uses authtoken-based authentication and supports the major authentication schemes. Access can also be restricted based on IP address; by default only connections to the local machine are allowed. You can authenticate as well as encrypt connections with SSL.

Create a Real-Time Grid

Follow the steps below to consume RSS feeds from the Wijmo JavaScript controls:

1. Load the required Wijmo, jQuery, and Knockout libraries:

   
   <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.11.1.min.js"></script>
   <script src="http://code.jquery.com/ui/1.11.0/jquery-ui.min.js"></script>
     
   <!--Theme-->
   <link href="http://cdn.wijmo.com/themes/aristo/jquery-wijmo.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
     
   <!--Wijmo Widgets CSS-->
   <link href="http://cdn.wijmo.com/jquery.wijmo-pro.all.3.20161.90.min.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
     
   <!--Wijmo Widgets JavaScript-->
   <script src="http://cdn.wijmo.com/jquery.wijmo-open.all.3.20161.90.min.js"></script>
   <script src="http://cdn.wijmo.com/jquery.wijmo-pro.all.3.20161.90.min.js"></script>
   <script src="http://cdn.wijmo.com/interop/wijmo.data.ajax.3.20161.90.js"></script>
    
   <!--Knockout JS Library-->
   <!-- Both of the links below can work -->
   <script src="http://cdn.wijmo.com/wijmo/external/knockout-2.2.0.js"></script> 
   <!--<script src="http://cdn.wijmo.com/amd-js/3.20161.90/knockout-3.1.0.js"></script>--> 
   
   <!--Wijmo Knockout Integration Library-->
   <script src="http://cdn.wijmo.com/interop/knockout.wijmo.3.20161.90.js"></script>
   

2. Create a ViewModel and connect to it using the ODataView. You will need to replace the placeholder values for the URL of the API Server, an API Server user, and the authtoken for that user.

   
   <script id="scriptInit">
   $.support.cors = true;
   var viewModel;
   
   function ViewModel() {
     var latest newsView = new wijmo.data.ODataView("http://MyServer:MyPort/api.rsc/Latest News", {
     ajax: {
       dataType: "jsonp", 
       username: "MyUser",
       password: "MyAuthtoken",
       data: { "$inlinecount": null }
     },
     pageSize: 10
   });
     latest newsView.refresh();
     latest newsView.nextPage();
     this.latest news = latest newsView;
     this.prevPage = function () {latest newsView.prevPage();};
     this.nextPage = function () {latest newsView.nextPage();};
   }
   
   $(document).ready(function () {
      viewModel = new ViewModel();
      ko.applyBindings(viewModel, $(".container").get(0));
   });
   </script>
   

3. DataBind: Below is a simple table with some paging buttons, which you can paste into the body section of your markup.

   
   <h2>Connect to Live RSS Feeds in Real Time</h2>
   
   <h3>Latest News</h3>
   <div>
     <button title="previous page" class="pagebuttons" data-bind="click: prevPage, button: {}"><span class="ui-icon ui-icon-seek-prev" /></button>
     <button title="next page" class="pagebuttons" data-bind="click: nextPage, button: {}"><span class="ui-icon ui-icon-seek-next" /></button>
   </div>
   <table id="demo-grid" data-bind="wijgrid: { 
     data: latest news, 
     showFilter: true, 
     allowPaging: true,
     pagerSettings: { position: 'none'},
     columnsAutogenerationMode: 'append',
   }" >
   </table>   
   

Below is the resulting grid. You can filter and sort through pages of RSS feeds.