Technical reference manual

Server requirements

In general, no special requirements are imposed on the webserver hosting a supplier's XML feed. Occasionally, however, problems occur when EDU-DEX tries to read such a feed. These issues can usually be attributed to outdated software or SSL certificates.

Smooth operation can be ascertained by two simple actions:

• Make sure the server software is up to date; a version of the operating system, the webserver or any plugin that is no longer supported by its vendor is bound to generate unexpected behaviour;
• Check the validity of the certificates used to secure the information you publish, and update them when necessary: we recommend using HTTPS (port 443) for all feeds and require it for closed feeds - an outdated certificate will cause the EDU-DEX feed reader to give up on the feed.
• Verify that the encryption mechanism (Wikipedia offers a thorough explanation) is up to current standards: SSL, TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 are considered outdated by many, and by 1^st January 2020) EDU-DEX will only accept feeds using TLS 1.2 or higher.

You can easily check the health of your feeds using (free) utilities like curl or postman.

Additional information and tips can be found in the section describing how to create a minimal viable set of feeds (step 4).