RSS: how to import/export subscriptions

I've just started trying a few RSS Readers. An immediate requirement
is to be able to import and export the 'feeds' (subscriptions) between
them, so that I don't have to tediously (and inaccurately) duplicate
entries. How do you go about that in general please?

I realise that the detailed steps will vary with each program. But I
was hoping there would be a 'standard'.

As an example, right now I'm trying NewzCrawler. I highlight a channel
in its Channel Tree, say 'BBC News|UK'. The File>Export menu then
invites me to export the 'folder' 'BBC News'. Is 'folder' a general
term, or unique to NewzCrawler? Does it mean all 4 channels under 'BBC
News' will be exported, not just the channel I highlighted? (BTW the
default filename in the Save dialog is set to the last channel saved,
regardless, which seems odd; I'd have expected it to default to the
name of the channel, or 'folder'?)

Anyway, my main question is: what do I do to import the resulting .ncw
file into another RSS Reader? Or vice versa. The file is not in plain
ASCII as I'd assumed. Presumably proprietary to NewzCrawler? I'm a
complete RSS novice (started googling yesterday morning!) but didn't I
read that there is a format called OPML for transferring feeds? I
assume that would look like HTML, and this .ncw file certainly
doesn't.

I've registered in the NewzCrawler forum and posted there, but any
advice meanwhile would be appreciated please.

Finally: is this post on-topic here? I was surprised that I could find
no newsgroups with 'RSS.' in their names. I gather this is a
technology that's well underway, so I'd have expected several
dedicated NGs.


--
Terry, West Sussex, UK

On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 10:58:27 +0000, Terry Pinnell
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I've just started trying a few RSS Readers. An immediate requirement
>is to be able to import and export the 'feeds' (subscriptions) between
>them, so that I don't have to tediously (and inaccurately) duplicate
>entries. How do you go about that in general please?
>

Anything that supports opml export will do just nicely, the majority of
readers now do.

I use

Sauce Reader from

www.synop.com

Its rather good.


greg

--
Yeah - straight from the top of my dome
As I rock, rock, rock, rock, rock the microphone

On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 10:58:27 +0000, Terry Pinnell wrote:

> I've just started trying a few RSS Readers. An immediate requirement
> is to be able to import and export the 'feeds' (subscriptions) between
> them, so that I don't have to tediously (and inaccurately) duplicate
> entries. How do you go about that in general please?
>
> I realise that the detailed steps will vary with each program. But I
> was hoping there would be a 'standard'.
>
> As an example, right now I'm trying NewzCrawler. I highlight a channel
> in its Channel Tree, say 'BBC News|UK'. The File>Export menu then
> invites me to export the 'folder' 'BBC News'. Is 'folder' a general
> term, or unique to NewzCrawler? Does it mean all 4 channels under 'BBC
> News' will be exported, not just the channel I highlighted? (BTW the
> default filename in the Save dialog is set to the last channel saved,
> regardless, which seems odd; I'd have expected it to default to the
> name of the channel, or 'folder'?)
>
> Anyway, my main question is: what do I do to import the resulting .ncw
> file into another RSS Reader? Or vice versa. The file is not in plain
> ASCII as I'd assumed. Presumably proprietary to NewzCrawler? I'm a
> complete RSS novice (started googling yesterday morning!) but didn't I
> read that there is a format called OPML for transferring feeds? I
> assume that would look like HTML, and this .ncw file certainly
> doesn't.
>
> I've registered in the NewzCrawler forum and posted there, but any
> advice meanwhile would be appreciated please.
>
> Finally: is this post on-topic here? I was surprised that I could find
> no newsgroups with 'RSS.' in their names. I gather this is a
> technology that's well underway, so I'd have expected several
> dedicated NGs.

Hi

I suspect the answer to your question is no, you may find that exporting
the feeds as XML files may allow you to import them into another agregator.

Just as an aside, have you seen this one www.wticker.org - I use it and
like it's layout.

Regards

Bill

phoenix <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 10:58:27 +0000, Terry Pinnell wrote:
>
>> I've just started trying a few RSS Readers. An immediate requirement
>> is to be able to import and export the 'feeds' (subscriptions) between
>> them, so that I don't have to tediously (and inaccurately) duplicate
>> entries. How do you go about that in general please?
>>
>> I realise that the detailed steps will vary with each program. But I
>> was hoping there would be a 'standard'.
>>
>> As an example, right now I'm trying NewzCrawler. I highlight a channel
>> in its Channel Tree, say 'BBC News|UK'. The File>Export menu then
>> invites me to export the 'folder' 'BBC News'. Is 'folder' a general
>> term, or unique to NewzCrawler? Does it mean all 4 channels under 'BBC
>> News' will be exported, not just the channel I highlighted? (BTW the
>> default filename in the Save dialog is set to the last channel saved,
>> regardless, which seems odd; I'd have expected it to default to the
>> name of the channel, or 'folder'?)
>>
>> Anyway, my main question is: what do I do to import the resulting .ncw
>> file into another RSS Reader? Or vice versa. The file is not in plain
>> ASCII as I'd assumed. Presumably proprietary to NewzCrawler? I'm a
>> complete RSS novice (started googling yesterday morning!) but didn't I
>> read that there is a format called OPML for transferring feeds? I
>> assume that would look like HTML, and this .ncw file certainly
>> doesn't.
>>
>> I've registered in the NewzCrawler forum and posted there, but any
>> advice meanwhile would be appreciated please.
>>
>> Finally: is this post on-topic here? I was surprised that I could find
>> no newsgroups with 'RSS.' in their names. I gather this is a
>> technology that's well underway, so I'd have expected several
>> dedicated NGs.
>
>Hi
>
>I suspect the answer to your question is no, you may find that exporting
>the feeds as XML files may allow you to import them into another agregator.
>
>Just as an aside, have you seen this one www.wticker.org - I use it and
>like it's layout.

Thanks both. Downloaded Sauce Reader and wTicker for installation
tomorrow.

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK