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RSS for Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) Articles

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In a recent email exchange between me, my dev lead, PM, and one of the developers on the SourceSafe team, I suggested that a KB article would be the most appropriate documentation delivery channel for a minor technical issue we were discussing.  Since my dev lead is relatively new to the team, I added that KB articles are the ideal place to document workarounds for the class of issue we were discussing.  I went on to say that Knowledge Base articles are increasingly discoverable and useful. In fact, many of the customers with whom I interact consume services like KBAlertz that notify them, via email or RSS feed, when a new KB article has been published or updated in their area.

Within a few minutes of mentioning RSS feeds for KB articles, my developer shot me a “Whatyou talkin' about, Willis?“ type of email.  His tone was something like, 'C'mon man, why didn't you tell me this before?'

It's true.  By installing a newsreader like SharpReader or NewsGator, you too can monitor the wire for announcements that a KB article in your area of interest or concern has been published.  Scott Cate, of KBAlertz.com explains how to subscribe to KB RSS feeds in response to a Tim Heuer blog post.

[Scott Cate] “RSS feeds are available. Click "All Kb's" on the title menu. This will take you to a page that lists all the technologies we scan, from the Microsoft knowledge base.
On this page, select the technology. This will take you to the technology page, listing the articles for that technology in chronological order. Once you've narrowed your search to this page, you'll see the famous [XML] icon on the top of the page for that technology.“

Visual SourceSafe  -- Subscribed
Visual Studio .NET-- Subscribed
Visual C#               -- Subscribed
SQL Server           -- Subscribed
ASP.NET              -- Subscribed
Keyboards             -- Did Not Subscribe

Keyboard KBs?  Okay, somebody has way too much time on their hands.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    March 11, 2004
    Why doesn't Microsoft provide RSS feeds for its knowledge base itself?
  • Anonymous
    March 11, 2004
    It's too bad that banks don't let you subscribe to your own RSS feed for bank statements, with authentication of course.
  • Anonymous
    March 12, 2004
    Ever wanted to be notifed when Microsoft posts a new Knowledge Base article? Well, now you can be notified via RSS. Just search for the product that you want to keep updated about, and just subscribe to the feed. It's...
  • Anonymous
    March 13, 2004
    An excellent idea to subscribe to new KB articles. I used to get a listing from the Microsoft website via ftp and figure out the URL based on the structure.

    Heck, I was a KB Lead for several years - from 92-95 for Microsoft Excel and Project. :)

    First time I've seen KBAlertz.com - I'll add them to my RSS feeds.
  • Anonymous
    March 18, 2004
    While Microsoft Chats doesn't "get" RSS, the Microsoft Knowledge Base certainly does... At least through KBAlerts. Take a look at this post from one of my new favourite Microsoft'ers Korby Parnell: RSS feeds are available. Click "All Kb's" on the title menu. This will take you to a page that lists all the technologies we scan, from the Microsoft knowledge base. On this page, select the technology. This will take you to the technology page, listing the articles for that technology in chronological order. Once you've narrowed your search to this page, you'll see the famous [XML] icon on the top of the page for that technology. - Scott Cate Here are some samples from Korby: Visual Studio .NET Visual C# SQL Server ASP.NET Personally, I think Microsoft should be the one issuing RSS feeds... But then I wouldn't want KBAlertz to go under......
  • Anonymous
    April 19, 2004
    Thanks everyone for supporting kbAlertz.com.

    -- scott cate