Feed provider package manifest XML format

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In order to be displayed on the Widgets Board, apps that support Windows feeds must register their feed provider with the system. For Win32 apps, only packaged apps are currently supported and feed providers specify their registration information in the app package manifest file. This article documents the XML format for feed registration. See the Example section for a code listing of an example package manifest for a Win32 feed provider.

App extension

The app package manifest file supports many different extensions and features for Windows apps. The app package manifest format is defined by a set of schemas that are documented in the Package manifest schema reference. Feed providers declare their registration information within the uap3:AppExtension. The Name attribute of the extension must be set to "com.microsoft.windows.widgets.feeds".

Feed providers should include the uap3:Properties as the child of uap3:AppExtension. The package manifest schema does not enforce the structure of the uap3:Properties element other than requiring well-formed XML. The rest of this article describes the XML format that the Widgets Board expects in order to successfully register a feed provider.

<uap3:Extension Category="windows.appExtension">
  <uap3:AppExtension Name="com.microsoft.windows.widgets.feeds" DisplayName="ContosoApp" Id="ContosoApp" PublicFolder="Public">
    <uap3:Properties>
      <!-- Feed provider registration content goes here -->
    </uap3:Properties>
  </uap3:AppExtension>
</uap3:Extension>

Element hierarchy

FeedProvider

  Activation

    CreateInstance

  Definitions

    Definition

FeedProvider

The root element of the feed provider registration information.

Attribute	Type	Required	Description	Default value
Description	string	Yes	A short description of the feed provider.	N/A
DisplayName	string	Yes	The name of the feed provider that is displayed on the Widgets Board.	N/A
Icon	string	Yes	The package-relative path to an icon image file that is displayed in the Widgets Board.	N/A
Id	string	Yes	An ID that identifies the feed provider. Feed provider implementations use this string to determine or specify which of the app's feed providers is being referenced for each operation. This string must be unique for all feed providers defined within the app manifest file.	N/A

Activation

Specifies activation information for the feed provider.

CreateInstance

CreateInstance should be specified for Win32-based feed providers that implement the IFeedProvider interface. The system will activate the interface with a call to CoCreateInstance. The ClassId attribute specifies the CLSID for the CreateInstance server that implements the IFeedProvider interface.

Attribute	Type	Required	Description	Default value
ClassId	GUID	Yes	The CLSID for the CreateInstance server that implements the feed provider.	N/A

Definitions

The container element for one or more feed registrations.

Definition

Represents the registration for a single feed.

Attribute	Type	Required	Description	Default value
Id	string	Yes	An ID that identifies the feed. Feed provider implementations use this string to determine or specify which of the app's feeds is being referenced for each operation. This string must be unique for all feeds defined within the app manifest file.	N/A
DisplayName	string	Yes	The name of the feed that is displayed on the Widgets Board.	N/A
Description	string	Yes	A short description of the feed.	N/A
ContentUri	string	Yes	The URI from which feed content is retrieved.	N/A
Icon	string	Yes	The package-relative path to an icon image file that is displayed in the Widgets Board.	N/A
WebRequestFilter	string	No	A web request filter string specifying the set of URLs for which the resource requests will be redirected to the feed provider's implementation of IFeedResourceProvider. The pattern is expressed using the format described in Match Patterns. The filter string in the registration must use Punycode where necessary. All content types will be redirected when matched so the filter should only resolve to content intended to be obtained through the IFeedResourceProvider in the application.	N/A

You can use localized resources instead of string literals for the UI-facing attribute values. For more information, see Localize strings in your UI and app package manifest.

Example

The following code example illustrates the usage of the feed package manifest XML format.

<uap3:AppExtension Name="com.microsoft.windows.widgets.feeds" DisplayName="ContosoApp" Id="ContosoApp" PublicFolder="Public">
  <uap3:Properties>
      <FeedProvider Description="ms-resource:ProviderDescription" Icon="ms-appx:Images\ContosoProviderIcon.png">
          <Activation>
              <CreateInstance ClassId="ECB883FD-3755-4E1C-BECA-D3397A3FF15C" />
          </Activation>
          <Definitions>
              <Definition Id="Contoso_Feed" DisplayName="ms-resource:FeedDisplayName"                  Description="ms-resource:FeedDescription"
                  ContentUri="https://contoso.com/news"
                  Icon="ms-appx:Images\ContosoFeedIcon.png"
                  WebRequestFilter="https://contoso.com/*/feed/appResource/*" >
              </Definition>
          </Definitions>
      </FeedProvider>
  </uap3:Properties>
</uap3:AppExtension>