Accessing RTC Feeds in Outlook

Any help/suggestions would really be useful !!

Thank you in advance.

When we try accessing RTC feeds using Outlook it does not work. We get an error message that The link may not point a valid RSS source. Using Feeds, is very critical to us and would require to access using Outlook.

An overview of the steps we execute are,

1. Copy the URL of the Feed in the Feeds section of RTC
2. Then we enter the URL in a browser (IE 8) after logging in.
3. After adding the feed, using the subscribe feed option, the feed is subscribed to Microsoft Feeds
4. When we look into the Outlook Feeds folder, this is unavailable.
5. Even if we manually enter the feed URL in outlook it throws a Link may not point a valid RSS source error

Please let us know if the information provided is sufficient.

Feeds are protected using FORM based authentication so outlook will fail
loading it obviously. Just try to open the
feed link in the browser. See https://jazz.net/library/article/75

On 08.06.2011 9:53, sdinakar wrote:

Any help/suggestions would really be useful !!

Thank you in advance.

sdinakarwrote:
When we try accessing RTC feeds using Outlook it does not work. We
get an error message that The link may not point a valid RSS
source. Using Feeds, is very critical to us and would require to
access using Outlook.
An overview of the steps we execute are,

1. Copy the URL of the Feed in the Feeds section of RTC
2. Then we enter the URL in a browser (IE 8) after logging in.
3. After adding the feed, using the subscribe feed option, the feed
is subscribed to Microsoft Feeds
4. When we look into the Outlook Feeds folder, this is unavailable.
5. Even if we manually enter the feed URL in outlook it throws a
Link may not point a valid RSS source error
Please let us know if the information provided is sufficient.

Hi,

Thank you for the response.

This works in the browser but we have a requirement that we need to make it working using Outlook. As mentioned in the link provided, we already have http instead and providing user id directly in the URL still fails.

Feeds are protected using FORM based authentication so outlook will fail
loading it obviously. Just try to open the
feed link in the browser. See https://jazz.net/library/article/75

On 08.06.2011 9:53, sdinakar wrote:

Any help/suggestions would really be useful !!

Thank you in advance.

sdinakarwrote:
When we try accessing RTC feeds using Outlook it does not work. We
get an error message that The link may not point a valid RSS
source. Using Feeds, is very critical to us and would require to
access using Outlook.
An overview of the steps we execute are,

1. Copy the URL of the Feed in the Feeds section of RTC
2. Then we enter the URL in a browser (IE 8) after logging in.
3. After adding the feed, using the subscribe feed option, the feed
is subscribed to Microsoft Feeds
4. When we look into the Outlook Feeds folder, this is unavailable.
5. Even if we manually enter the feed URL in outlook it throws a
Link may not point a valid RSS source error
Please let us know if the information provided is sufficient.

After doing quite a lot of investigations, I have found a work around for the problem.
The problem, btw, seem to come from the fact that Outlook has a problem authenticating to get secure feeds.
This happened to me whether I used Forms or Basic authentications.

In order to overcome this, I setup the "base" RSS home page, to point to some RTC feed, so that Outlook will pop me for the user/pass.
Once this is done, any feed I put in the Windows Common Feed List (by subscribing from IE to that RTC feed), can be Imported, and works properly.

I've checked this both on rss2.0 and on atom1.0, both work.

The specific actions to take:
1. Right click on the RSS Feeds "folder" in the Outlook folder list (typically found under the "Outbox" folder, and choose Properties.
2. Change to the Home Page tab.
3. Check the Show Home Page by default for this folder option.
4. In the Address: field, type in any RTC feed URL (check it first in your browser, that it is valid)
5. Click OK.
6. Click on the RSS Feed folder in Outlook. You should be prompted with Username/Password typical RTC login page.

NOTE: If you Check the "Remember Password" option, it will do that for subsequent logins.

7. Now, you can Import your Feed from the Common Feed List, that you had subscribed to.

Hi Shai,

Thank you for the response.

Yes, this works as you've described in Outlook 2007 but yet there seems to be a problem with the 2010 client.

Regards,
Sunita

After doing quite a lot of investigations, I have found a work around for the problem.
The problem, btw, seem to come from the fact that Outlook has a problem authenticating to get secure feeds.
This happened to me whether I used Forms or Basic authentications.

In order to overcome this, I setup the "base" RSS home page, to point to some RTC feed, so that Outlook will pop me for the user/pass.
Once this is done, any feed I put in the Windows Common Feed List (by subscribing from IE to that RTC feed), can be Imported, and works properly.

I've checked this both on rss2.0 and on atom1.0, both work.

The specific actions to take:
1. Right click on the RSS Feeds "folder" in the Outlook folder list (typically found under the "Outbox" folder, and choose Properties.
2. Change to the Home Page tab.
3. Check the Show Home Page by default for this folder option.
4. In the Address: field, type in any RTC feed URL (check it first in your browser, that it is valid)
5. Click OK.
6. Click on the RSS Feed folder in Outlook. You should be prompted with Username/Password typical RTC login page.

NOTE: If you Check the "Remember Password" option, it will do that for subsequent logins.

7. Now, you can Import your Feed from the Common Feed List, that you had subscribed to.

Sunita,

I'm happy to know it worked for you, however, in my case, I just noticed that the feed authentication sometimes times out, and the only way I found to "refresh" it is either:
1. open/close outlook
2. change the RSS feed base URl, and change back, getting the login prompt.

Some other approaches I am considering and testing now:
1. Disable authentication required for /events (i.e. feeds). This lowers security for feeds, but might not be a problem (as it is not for me). Search for "Allowed Anonymous URL Prefixes" in Advanced Properties, and type: 'events' as the value.
2. Change Jazz authentication from Form based (default) to Basic Authentication. Then, use user:pass@https://jazzsrv... as the url for the feed.
3. Setup SSO, which should not require users to authenticate when accessing Jazz. Not sure it will work, but worth try.

Shai.

Shai,

Did you have any luck with options 2 and 3? I tried option 1 and this did not seem to resolve the issue.

Scott

Sunita,

I'm happy to know it worked for you, however, in my case, I just noticed that the feed authentication sometimes times out, and the only way I found to "refresh" it is either:
1. open/close outlook
2. change the RSS feed base URl, and change back, getting the login prompt.

Some other approaches I am considering and testing now:
1. Disable authentication required for /events (i.e. feeds). This lowers security for feeds, but might not be a problem (as it is not for me). Search for "Allowed Anonymous URL Prefixes" in Advanced Properties, and type: 'events' as the value.
2. Change Jazz authentication from Form based (default) to Basic Authentication. Then, use user:pass@https://jazzsrv... as the url for the feed.
3. Setup SSO, which should not require users to authenticate when accessing Jazz. Not sure it will work, but worth try.

Shai.