15.0 Reading News Feeds with Akregator

If you want to get the latest news, get your information with a news feed reader. One reader is Akregator. It connects to a server that contains a newsticker file and downloads it then shows the headlines and sometimes a small text to give an overview. See Figure 15-1. If interested in this news, click it and view it in a separate tab.

Figure 15-1 Akregator Showing Some News

Akregator contains some predefined news feeds for KDE. You can add news feeds manually or some Web sites announce it. For example, a Web site with feed support contains in Konqueror an orange rectangle in the bottom right corner. Click it to open a pop-up menu where you can select Add Feed to Akregator. Sometimes a Web site does not announce that it supports a news feed. Then you can search this site with some keywords like feed or rss. Sometimes you are successful and can obtain a link.

To add a news feed, do the following:

Adding a News Feed to Akregator

  1. Determine the URL of your news feed. Normally this can be found on your preferred Web site. More links can be found in the KNewsticker tool, an applet for the KDE panel.

  2. Open Akregator by pressing Alt+F2 and entering akregator. It opens a new window with the list of all feeds in your configuration. If you close this window, it docks in the system tray.

  3. Create a new folder with Feed > New Folder. This gives you the opportunity to group your feeds in categories.

  4. Name your new folder.

  5. Click this folder and choose Feed > Add Feed.

  6. Insert the feed URL, for example, http://www.novell.com/newsfeeds/rss/coolsolutions.xml. A new window opens where you can change the feed name, URL, or the update interval. With the Feed Archive tab, change how long articles should be stored.

  7. Proceed with Ok. Akregator downloads the latest articles.

After the download of the latest headers is finished, you can click an entry. Depending on the feed, this can list a small summary or just a link. With Complete Story, read the entire article.

Check for new news manually with Fetch Feed. Another option is to specify an update interval. Configure this by clicking Settings > Configure Akregator. A window opens where you can select the interval in General > Use interval fetching. Confirm with Ok.

You can read the complete story in Akregator or an external browser. Clicking Complete Story lets you select which.