Connecting to RSS/ATOM

Concept Information

ACCESSDATA command

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) and Atom are XML-based format/feed languages used for publishing news or articles on websites. You can use the RSS/ATOM data connector to import your organization's RSS/ATOM data.

Before you start

To connect to RSS/ATOM, you must gather the following:

  • whether the feed type is RSS or Atom
  • the URI of the feed

For help gathering the connection prerequisites, contact the RSS/ATOM administrator in your organization. If your administrator cannot help you, you or your administrator should contact RSS/ATOM Support.

Create an RSS/ATOM connection

  1. From the Analytics main menu, select Import > Database and application.
  2. From the New Connections tab, in the ACL Connectors section, select RSS/ATOM.

    Tip

    You can filter the list of available connectors by entering a search string in the Filter connections box. Connectors are listed alphabetically.

  3. In the Data Connection Settings panel, enter the connection settings and at the bottom of the panel, click Save and Connect.

    You can accept the default Connection Name, or enter a new one.

The connection for RSS/ATOM is saved to the Existing Connections tab. In the future, you can reconnect to RSS/ATOM from the saved connection.

Once the connection is established, the Data Access window opens to the Staging Area and you can begin importing data. For help importing data from RSS/ATOM, see Working with the Data Access window.

Connection settings

Basic settings

Setting Description Example
Type

Specifies the feed type. The options available are as follows:

  • RSS

  • ATOM

RSS
URI

The Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) for the feed resource location.

This can be an http source or a file.

  

Advanced settings

Setting Description Example
Auth Scheme

Specifies the scheme used for HTTP authentication. The options available are as follows:

  • NTLM - To use your Windows credentials for authentication.
  • BASIC - To use HTTP BASIC authentication.
  • DIGEST - To use HTTP DIGEST authentication.
  • NONE - To use anonymous authentication; for example, to access a public site.
  • KERBEROSDELEGATION - To use delegation through the Kerberos protocol. Set the User and Password of the account you want to impersonate.
 NONE
Auth Token

The token used for authentication to identify the validity of an HTTP request.

The auth token set in the connection will be posted with the HTTP server as the request variable '@authtoken'.

  
User The user name to authenticate the connection.  
Password The password for the username to authenticate the connection.  
Limit Key Size The maximum length of a primary key column. 255
Map To Long Varchar This property controls whether a column is returned as SQL_LONGVARCHAR or not. -1
Map To WVarchar This property controls whether string types map to SQL_WVARCHAR instead of SQL_VARCHAR.  
Pseudo Columns

This property indicates whether to include pseudo columns as columns to the table.

The value of this connection setting is of the format "Table1=Column1, Table1=Column2, Table2=Column3".

  
SSL Server Certificate

The certificate that must be accepted from the server when connecting using SSL.

You can provide any of the following:

  • a full PEM certificate
  • path to a local file containing the certificate
  • public key
  • MD5 or SHA1 thumbprint (hex values can also be either space or colon separated)

Any other certificate that is not trusted by the machine is rejected.

  
Convert Datetime To GMT

Converts datetime fields to GMT time zone during import. If this option is disabled, the datetime value is converted to the operating system time zone of the system running Analytics.

  
Proxy Authentication Scheme

Specifies the authentication scheme to authenticate to the Proxy Server. The options available are as follows:

  • BASIC - The driver performs HTTP BASIC authentication.
  • NONE - The driver does not perform any authentication.
  • DIGEST - The driver performs HTTP DIGEST authentication.
  • NEGOIATE - The driver retrieves an NTLM or Kerberos token, based on the protocol set for authentication.
  • PROPRIETARY - The driver does not generate an NTLM or Kerberos token. You must supply this token in the Authorization header of the HTTP request.
 BASIC
Proxy Auto Detect Specifies whether to use the system proxy settings or not. The value set for this option takes precedence over other proxy settings. So, if you want to use custom proxy settings, disable this option.  
Proxy User The user name to authenticate to the Proxy Server.  
Proxy Password The password to be used with the Proxy User to authenticate to the Proxy Server.  
Proxy Server The hostname or IP address of a proxy to route HTTP traffic through.  
Proxy Port The TCP port the Proxy Server is running on.  
Proxy SSL Type

The SSL type to use when connecting to the ProxyServer proxy. The options available are as follows:

  • AUTO - If the URL is an HTTPS URL, the driver will use the TUNNEL option. If the URL is an HTTP URL, the component will use the NEVER option.
  • ALWAYS - The connection is always SSL enabled.
  • NEVER - The connection is not SSL enabled.
  • TUNNEL - The connection is through a tunneling proxy.

This option is enabled only when you provide the value for the Proxy Server.

 AUTO