Authentication for RSS Feeds

[theArchitect]

I have enabled RSS syndication on my forum but a couple of my users are having trouble using it and have asked if it uses standard HTML authentication for the RSS feeds?

Also, what is the update rate of the RSS feeds?

[daemon]

I'm not sure what they mean by "HTML authentication for the RSS feeds." The only forums exported are those that are viewable to guests.

The external data provider updates in real-time.

[theArchitect]

I don't know what "HTML authentication for the RSS feeds" means either, which is why I posted it here.

I just got asked the question over at my forum and as my knowledge of RSS extends only to what I read in the vBulletin help section, I thought that I may not be understanding something very simple. I will ask him to clarify his question.

[phumphries]

The only forums exported are those that are viewable to guests.

I am not sure what the original question means, either, but I do have a question about this aspect of the RSS option (and the FPS_External hack does not appear to address it, either):

Do I have to hack external.php to allow some sort of authentication to permit restricted forums to be serialized?

[Torqued]

Do I have to hack external.php to allow some sort of authentication to permit restricted forums to be serialized?

I believe external.php only pulls forums available to Guests... so, yes, I belive you would have to hack it to pull restricted forums.

Also, if you are going to offer them as RSS feeds, why are the forums even restricted?

[phumphries]

Those who have access to the forums would like RSS feeds from them.

[Zachery]

It will require modifing the code, you can try asking at vBulletin.org for assistance.

[phumphries]

I should not have any trouble adding a security variable of some sort to external.php or fps_external.php; I just did not want to start hacking if I was overlooking something that was already in vB.

[theArchitect]

OK, I have finally sorted out what the problem was. I have some public forums but a lot require a user to be logged in to access. One of my users had programmed his RSS reader to log-in so that it could garner thread info from all forums not just public ones.

His problem was that his reader was unable to log in so was not pulling all of the info he wanted.

But apparently the external.php file will only display threads available to guests.