Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a collection of standardized
formats that are used to publish information about content that is
frequently changed. A news feed is published in XML format, which
contains one or more items that includes summary text, hyperlinks to
source content and additional metadata that is used to describe the
item. News feeds can be used for a variety of purposes, including
providing updates for weblogs, news headlines, video and audio
content. RSS can also be used for other purposes, such as a software
updates, where new updates are listed as items in the feed.
News feeds can be accessed remotely from a web server, or locally
as an XML formatted text file. The source of the feed is determined
by the URI scheme that is specified. If the http or https scheme is
specified, then the feed is retrieved from a web server. If the file
scheme is used, the feed is considered to be local and is accessed
from the disk or local network. The News Feed control provides an
interface that enables you to open a feed by URL and iterate through
each of the items in the feed or search for a specific feed item. The
control also includes a method that can be used to parse a string
that contains XML data in RSS format, where the feed may have been
retrieved from other sources such as a database.
The SocketTools ActiveX Edition components are self-registering
controls that are compatible with any programming language that
supports the Component Object Model (COM) and the ActiveX control
specification. If you are using Visual Basic 6.0, Service Pack 6 (SP6)
is required. We recommend installing all available updates for your
development tools. Although the Visual Basic 6.0 runtime is supported
on Windows 11, the IDE itself is no longer officially supported by
Microsoft. Legacy IDEs and compilers may also require elevated
(administrator) privileges to run properly.
The ActiveX controls are supported on Windows 7, Windows Server
2008 R2, and later versions of both desktop and server editions of
Windows. For Windows 7, Service Pack 1 (SP1) is the minimum
requirement. For Windows 8 systems, the 8.1 update must be installed.
On ARM-based platforms, the minimum supported version is Windows 10
build 1709.
SocketTools includes components for both 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit
(x64) Windows platforms. All modern versions of Windows are 64-bit,
but we continue to include 32-bit components for compatibility with
legacy development tools such as Visual Basic 6.0. We also provide
native ARM64 ActiveX controls for systems running Windows on ARM. Note
that 32-bit applications on ARM run using x86 emulation, and Microsoft
no longer supports native ARM32 applications.
If you are using VBScript, Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), or
another scripting environment on an ARM-based system, be aware that
64-bit hosts will require ARM64 components, while 32-bit hosts will
use x86 components under emulation. This includes applications created
with Visual Basic 6.0. To reduce deployment complexity and avoid
confusion, SocketTools does not include ARM32 ActiveX controls in its
standard redistribution packages but they are available on request for
legacy or specialized scenarios.
When you distribute an application that uses this control, you can
either install the file in the same folder as your application
executable or as a shared component in the appropriate system folder.
If you install the control in the system folder, it is important that
you distribute the correct version for the target platform and it
must be registered. If you install the control in the same folder as
your executable, it is recommended that you use registration-free
activation or COM redirection to ensure that the correct version of
the control is loaded by the application.