How to access the RSS feed if Elmah is local access only

[codeulike]

So we have got Elmah running on our web site. Its lovely. And we have
restricted it so that the Elmah.axd page can only be viewed locally.

But I would like to embed the Elmah RSS feed into various places, eg
our Google Sites site. At the same time, I don't want to open the feed
up to everybody.

Is there some sort of 'feed forwarder' app that can be used on the web
server to re-publish the feed at a secret address, so we can
subscribe?

Or is there some other way around this problem?

[James_2JS]

Hi there!

Atif has another project called MADAM which should help you achieve
this.
It will allow you to authenticate requests via the RSS feed
Check it out here: http://raboof.com/Projects/Madam/

You can then use this in conjunction with the techniques described
here:
http://code.google.com/p/elmah/wiki/SecuringErrorLogPages

And you should be able to get something up and running pretty quickly.

Hope this helps!

Cheers,

James

[codeulike]

So how exactly does MADAM fit in? Am I supposed to use it to allow
basic http authentication to the feed? Can most feed-readers handle
that sort of thing?
I think I need a bit more info, sorry...

[James_2JS]

Yes... so you might secure your site using Forms authentication as
describe in the Securing ELMAH link.
Then you plug MADAM into the mix using basic http authentication.
Your feed reader should offer an advanced option in which you can
specify a username and password for the feed.

If you happen to use RssBandit, then it's part of the wizard steps
when setting up a new feed.

Hope this helps!

Cheers,

James

> > > Or is there some other way around this problem?- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Atif Aziz]

basic http authentication to the feed? Can most feed-readers handle
that sort of thing?

There's more chances that your feed reader can work with HTTP Basic or Digest authentication than anything else since schemes like Forms-based authentication have no standards.

 

- Atif

[codeulike]

Thanks for your help James and Atif.

I see the benefit of the MADAM solution, but I don't want to start
changing the web.config of my live application at the moment. Maybe
I'll look at that for a future release.

As an alternative, is it possible to get a local application (on the
server) to read the feed and re-publish it on a secret URL?
I don't know much about RSS, but I imagine some sort of re-publisher
might well have been written by someone at some point ... any ideas?
Can any of the popular feed readers re-publish?

Or any other solutions other than MADAM?

Thanks

[James_2JS]

You could investigate "Dmitry's RSS Toolkit" here:

http://www.codeplex.com/ASPNETRSSToolkit

That might help you read and republish the feed.

Cheers,

James

[Atif Aziz]

re-publish it on a secret URL?

If you're thinking of security by obscurity then you might as well make ELMAH pages and feeds available over a secret/munged URL as opposed to what most people use, which is usually elmah.axd.

 

- Atif