Want to bring a little of the Microsoft TechEd to the visitors of your website? You can use the TechEdBloggersFeed user control to display an article list from TechEdBloggers.net on your website. The list on your website will update when articles are added to TechEdBloggers.net! The user control is a single ASP.NET control (ASCX) file that you can customize and insert into any ASP.NET web page (ASPX).
Send us a link to your website displaying the TechEdBloggers Feed and you'll be entered to win an Xbox!
Click here to download the control.
Adding the control to your dasBlog website? Michael Earls has a how-to article here.
Adding the control to your .Text website? Stephen McGibbon has a how-to article here.
Add the control to an ASP.NET web page.
1. Copy the TechEdBloggersFeed.ascx file to the virtual root of your web application, or
the folder where your web page (ASPX) is located.
2. Register the control by adding the following directive to the top of your
ASPX file:
<%@ Register TagPrefix="uc1" TagName="TechEdBloggersFeed" Src="TechEdBloggersFeed.ascx" %>
3. Insert the following tag at the location you want the control to appear in your ASPX
file:
<uc1:TechEdBloggersFeed runat="server" />
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I change the format or output of the control?
Yes, you can make as many changes to the control as you would like. However,
any webpage that displays the TechEdBloggers.net RSS feed must display the
image referenced in the rss/channel/image tag of the feed with a link
to the TechEdBloggers.net website. For example, the TechEdBloggersFeed control
displays the hyperlinked image for you.
How do I change the number of items displayed in the list?
Look for the asp:Repeater element in the TechEdBloggersFeed Usercontrol.
In the DataSource attribute of this element is a query that requests
all items with a position less than or equal to 5 (returns 5 items).
Increase or decrease this value as you would like. At the time of
this writing, the actual feed from TechEd Bloggers only returns the 20
most recent items. Therefore, increasing this value over 20 not display
more than 20 items.
Can I change the cache duration of the control output?
Yes, you can change the cache duration by changing the value of "Duration"
in the OutputCache directive at the top of the ASCX file. However, we
ask that you do not change the cache duration to a value less than
1800 seconds.
Can I place the control on multiple pages?
Yes, the control can be placed on as many pages as you would like. If your
website runs on v1.14322 of the .NET framework, you can add Shared="True" to
the OutputCache directive in the control so that all instances of the control
will use the same cached version of the output. This will keep multiple use of
the control from degrading the performance of your website.
How do I display only posts from a particular category on TechEdBloggers.net?
The available feeds on TechEdBloggers.net are all marked with an orange
RSS logo. Copy the URL associated with the RSS image for
the category you want to display on your page. Replace the value
for FEED_URL in the TechEdBloggersFeed Usercontrol with the new URL.
What happens if there is an error in requesting or processing the feed?
If an error occurs while requesting or processing the feed, a message
will be displayed directing the reader to visit the TechEdBloggers.net
website for the most recent news from TechEd. This will prevent
the user control from causing your entire webpage to fail in
the event of a processing error. When the error is corrected, the
feed will be displayed again.
How can I add the control to my dasBlog website?
Michael Earls has a how-to article here.