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NewsPoint manual

FAQ - NewsPoint
 
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Online manual of NewsPoint

Import as many RSS news feeds and store the content of it in a database. This information can be used with DataPoint to display live and self-refreshing news inside your presentation.
 

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Introduction
Setting up
Using
 
Setting up
 

Configuring your RSS news feeds

With the NewsPoint product installed on a computer you can click Start > All Programs > PresentationPoint > NewsPoint > NewsPoint configuration. From this application you can set up and control your NewsPoint RSS feeds. This program does not need to be running all the time as NewsPoint is running as a Windows service on your computer.

 

Set the refresh rate

The refresh rate sets the interval for the NewsPoint service to scan for news updates. The minimum value here is one minute.

 

Auto compacting the NewsPoint database

Typical for Microsoft Access databases is that the database size is growing when users are using the database. . Therefore it is a necessity to compact your databases now and then.

With the NewsPoint product installed on a computer you can click Start > All Programs > PresentationPoint > NewsPoint > NewsPoint configuration. From this application you can set up and control your NewsPoint RSS feeds. This program does not need to be running all the time as NewsPoint is running as a Windows service on your computer.

 

Setting up a news feed

In the My news feeds list you will see the list of news feeds. You can easily add a new news feed, modify and delete it.

There are three options you need to specify for a news feed; description, database and the URL. For the database you can use the default NewsPoint database or use another database that was copied from the default NewsPoint database. The default database can be found at C:\Program files\PresentationPoint\NewsPoint and is called NewsPoint.mdb. Important to know is that the NewsPoint database already includes a number of tables that should be present.

The news feed URL is typically a HTTP address from where the news information can be read. A valid news feed URL is http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/topstories. You can use whatever news feed you want. Nowadays almost all news papers are offering this service.

 

Working with proxy servers

In the event that your internet access is restricted or secured by an internet proxy server, click Settings in the Proxy server area at the NewsPoint configuration program. You can enter the name or IP address of your proxy server, port number, username and password. For more information on your secured internet access, please contact your administrator.

 

NewsPoint service

The NewsPoint service running in background will always see the updates on your configuration and with the next run, depending on your refresh rate, the new configuration options will be used automatically. There is no need to restart the service.

In case you want to stop or start the NewsPoint service, please click Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services. In the list you will see an entry called NewsPoint. From here you can start and stop the service. By default this service is started automatically when your computer is started, even when nobody is logged on to the system.

In case your databases are not located on your local machine, you have to specify a username and password that has access to the remote databases or access to the network shares. To set this information open the properties of the NewsPoint service and select the Log On tab. There you can specify the user information to be used by the NewsPoint service. In case your databases are located on your computer the default Local System account is sufficient to run this process.

 

 

 

 


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