When RSS feeds are not updating in Carousel the usual suspect is the network. It can also be the data in the feed or the bulletin layout. This will help you troubleshoot why RSS is not updating.

1.) Can’t create a RSS bulletin

If you get the error: “Could not read the feed URL. Please check that the URL is valid RSS or ATOM.” when creating a bulletin, it means that Carousel can not download the feed. This either because the URL is not an RSS or Atom feed OR the Carousel server can not contact the URL.

Resolutions:

• Make sure the Carousel server can get to the internet.
• On the Carousel server, put the feed into Internet Explorer, make sure it loads
• Carousel does not work with authenticated proxy servers! Bypass the proxy. (see below)
• Verify that the data is actually formatted as valid RSS or ATOM.

You can use a service like w3.org to verify any RSS feed.

We do not support authenticated proxy servers however, we do use the default settings from the Internet Options control panel for standard proxy servers.
We do this by setting the registry key:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ProxySettingsPerUser

to 0, which means whole machine. If your domain policy overwrites this setting, Carousel will not use the proxy server setting. Carousel uses the Microsoft.Net WebRequest() class to download HTTP data. This by default uses the machine’s proxy default settings.

|UPDATE| As of Carousel 5.2.4 the installers automatically adds the above registry key setting to the system.

Then you can set the proxy server default settings in the LAN configuration section of the Internet Options control panel.

2.) The RSS bulletin does not update

If you can successfully create a bulletin but it only updates once, it is most likely a proxy server on your network. Carousel downloads the RSS data every 15 minutes. A proxy server caches data downloaded from the internet in an attempt to speed up your network, but in some cases proxy servers will cache RSS feed data too. Carousel displays a Last Updated date and time in the manage bulletins screen. This is updated every time it successfully downloads the data. If the data is old, then something was cached or the data was not updated from the publisher.

Resolutions:

• Bypass the proxy server
• Check the last update field in Carousel
• Check the data downloaded by Carousel to see if it is out of date, if it is it is most likely the proxy server.

3.) The RSS bulletin seems out of date

A thing about RSS feeds is that the “ChannelPubDate” field is only updated when the data changes, so if you have a RSS feed that has an old ChannelPubDate it will appear in Carousel that RSS is not updating. But what is really happening is that the RSS feed has not added or updated the feed since the PubDate.

4.) The RSS bulletin shows a blank page

If you have a RSS bulletin that is showing a blank page it is because the data in the feed is too big to fit on a single page. We are addressing this issue in Carousel 5.2.2, but until then you will need this workaround.

|UPDATE| As of Carousel 5.2.2 we added pagination to the RSS rendering. Now if an item does not fit on one page, it breaks it up and appends ‘(cont.)’ to the item description. This fixes this issue completely.

Edit the bulletin and set the Character limit. You will probably need to experiment with this value.

Once you have set the Character Limit it should work.

5.) Connectivity issue between the Carousel player and server

If the RSS bulletin and data look up to date in the web interface, then your Carousel player may be offline. Check the player configuration.

Carousel caches the RSS data on the server and only updates the players when the data changes. This makes it more efficient on the network.