Get thumbnails from RSS feed UWP C# Windows 10

Question

I am using this project : https://github.com/Microsoft/Windows-appsample-rssreader

I want to get thumnails from a RSS feed. Now, the problem is I get errors. I will explain them. First have a look on so far what I did. : I have this class :

  public class ArticleViewModel : BindableBase
{
    public string thumbnail { get; set; }
    public string Title { get; set; }
    public string Summary { get; set; }
    public string Author { get; set; }
    public Uri Link { get; set; }
    public DateTimeOffset PublishedDate { get; set; }
    public string PublishedDateFormatted => PublishedDate.ToString("MMM dd, yyyy    h:mm tt").ToUpper();
    public override bool Equals(object obj) => 
        obj is ArticleViewModel ? (obj as ArticleViewModel).GetHashCode() == GetHashCode() : false;
    public override int GetHashCode() => Link.GetHashCode();
    private bool? _isStarred = false;
    public bool? IsStarred { get { return _isStarred; } set { SetProperty(ref _isStarred, value); } }
}

For example we take the RSS feed of http://coffeeetech.xyz/feed .

Now here :

var feed = await new SyndicationClient().RetrieveFeedAsync(feedViewModel.Link);

                feedViewModel.Name = String.IsNullOrEmpty(feedViewModel.Name) ? feed.Title.Text : feedViewModel.Name;
                feedViewModel.Description = feed.Subtitle?.Text ?? String.Empty;

                feed.Items.Select(item => new ArticleViewModel
                {


                    thumbnail = item.thumbnail,
                    //    description = WebUtility.HtmlDecode(description);
                    Title = item.Title.Text,
                    Summary = item.Summary == null ? string.Empty :
                        item.Summary.Text.RegexRemove("\\&.{0,4}\\;").RegexRemove("<.*?>"),
                    Author = item.Authors.Select(a => a.NodeValue).FirstOrDefault(),
                    Link = item.ItemUri ?? item.Links.Select(l => l.Uri).FirstOrDefault(),
                    PublishedDate = item.PublishedDate
                })
                .ToList().ForEach(article =>
                {
                    var favorites = AppShell.Current.ViewModel.FavoritesFeed;
                    var existingCopy = favorites.Articles.FirstOrDefault(a => a.Equals(article));
                    article = existingCopy ?? article;
                    if (!feedViewModel.Articles.Contains(article)) feedViewModel.Articles.Add(article);
                });
                return true;

Now, the problem is that, in the line thubmnail = item.thumbnail, I get the error that 'thumbnail doesn't exist in current context'

So the question is how to get the thumbnail via SyndicationFeed. I mean, the item thumbnail doesn't exist there. Thanks.

Answer 1

SyndicationItem class represents an item in the feed. This class encapsulates information in the /rss/channel/item element in RSS 2.0 or the atom:entry element in Atom 1.0 .

For the <item> element in RSS 2.0, there is no sub-element related to thumbnail. So SyndicationItem do not has a "thumbnail" property. And even we add a "thumbnail" property in this class, it also won't help. For the mapping between SyndicationItem properties and RSS elements, please see the table under the Remarks section of SyndicationItem class .

Since you want to get the main thumbnail images. I suppose you want to get the <image> sub-element of <channel> . If so, you can try with SyndicationFeed.ImageUri property. This property represents image/uri element in RSS 2.0 . You can add a "thumbnail" property in FeedViewModel and then set it in RefreshAsync method like following.

var feed = await new SyndicationClient().RetrieveFeedAsync(feedViewModel.Link);

feedViewModel.Name = String.IsNullOrEmpty(feedViewModel.Name) ? feed.Title.Text : feedViewModel.Name;
feedViewModel.Description = feed.Subtitle?.Text ?? String.Empty;
feedViewModel.thumbnail = feed.ImageUri;