So since there is this impending storm (blizzard, snow storm, snowmageddon, snowpocalypse, snowzilla) “Nemo” hitting us here on the East coast within a few hours, I figured a good topic might be on weather alert data. There is a bunch of data available from the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) on their site. Data is available in several categories, including Forecasts, Watch/warnings, Storm Prediction Center Forecast Products, etc. In my very quick example I’m going to pick the “Watch / Warning” data for my region and display this using WPF for an easy visualization. Continue reading “Display Weather Alerts From NOAA Using Atom (WPF Example)”
rss
.Net’s System.ServiceModel.Syndication / RSS Feeds!
If you’re looking to work with RSS feeds, I suggest you checkout the .net ServiceModel.Syndication. Below is a quick example in .net 4 / VB:
Imports System.ServiceModel.Syndication
'In case you're using a proxy:
Dim wReq As HttpWebRequest
wReq = WebRequest.Create("http://yourRSSfeedURL")
wReq.Proxy = WebProxy.GetDefaultProxy
wReq.Proxy.Credentials = CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials
Dim xReader As XmlReader = XmlReader.Create(wReq.GetResponse.GetResponseStream)
'Create the feed from the xml loaded
Dim sFeed As SyndicationFeed = SyndicationFeed.Load(xReader)
'Loop through the results
For Each sItem As SyndicationItem In sFeed.Items
 Debug.WriteLine(sItem.Title.Text) 'Many other SyndicationItem properties available!
Next
I have compared this to other libraries and this by far is the cleanest / easiest way to pull in RSS Feeds. What are your thoughts?
Chris Bitting 