The Making of an RSS Feed
The Making of an RSS Feed by Sharon Housley of ... ... more and more ... news services and blogs are adding RSS content. RSS is a method of ... ... concept of aggr
The Making of an RSS Feed
by Sharon Housley of NotePage,
Inc.
Everyday more and more websites, news services and blogs are
adding RSS content. RSS is a method of syndicating
content.The concept of aggregating content in one central
location or repository is very appealing. Consumers have
become tired of push technology, RSS allows users the
flexibility to regain control of their content. RSS feed
creators provide content without forcing it on consumers. In
fact with RSS consumers are able to choose the content they
wish to view.
How to Make an RSS Feed
RSS feeds contain what are referred to as "items". The
items are usually connected in some way and contain a common
theme or other similarity.
The following feed http://www.notepage.net/feed.xml contains
eight items. The items are all SMS and paging related news
articles that would likely benefit someone interested in the
wireless market.
Each item contains:
title
description
link
The title and description should be written to describe the
content and the link should reference the webpage that
contains that actual content.
Like html, the xml file uses open and close tags to
designate the title, description and link. Tags are enclosed
in brackets <>, like standard html and the close tag
contains a forward slash /.
The following is what an item in a xml file looks like:
The Title Goes Here< itle><br><descritpion>The description goes here</description><br><link>http://www.linkgoeshere.com</link><br><br>As I mentioned earlier, an RSS feeds contains items and like <br>the tags above, an open and close tag is used to distinguish <br>between items. <br><br><item><br><title>The Title Goes Here< itle><br><descritpion>The description goes here</description><br><link>http://www.linkgoeshere.com</link><br></item><br><br><item><br><title>Another Title Goes Here< itle><br><descritpion>Another description goes here</description><br><link>http://www.anotherlinkgoeshere.com</link><br></item><br><br>Now an RSS Feed is a series of items, these items are <br>chained together to create what is called a "Channel". <br><br>The Channel appears at the top of the file and tells people <br>how the items relate to each other. Like items channels use <br>title, description and link tags to describe its content. <br>The open channel tag <chanel> occurs before the first item <br>and the close tag </channel> occurs after the last item. <br><br><channel><br><title>The Channel Title Goes Here< itle><br><description>The explanation of how the items are related <br>goes here</description> <br><link>http://www.directoryoflinksgohere</link><br><br><item><br><title>The Title Goes Here< itle><br><descritpion>The description goes here</description><br><link>http://www.linkgoeshere.com</link><br></item><br><br><item><br><title>Another Title Goes Here< itle><br><descritpion>Another description goes here</description><br><link>http://www.anotherlinkgoeshere.com</link><br></item><br><br></channel><br><br>Finally you will need to designate the file by indicating it <br>is an XML file by inserting xml and rss defining tags at the <br>beginning and </rss> at the very end. <br><br><?xml version="1.0"?><br><rss version="2.0"><br><channel><br><br><title>The Channel Title Goes Here< itle><br><description>The explanation of how the items are related <br>goes here</description> <br><link>http://www.directoryoflinksgohere</link><br><br><item><br><title>The Title Goes Here< itle><br><descritpion>The description goes here</description><br><link>http://www.linkgoeshere.com</link><br></item><br><br><item><br><title>Another Title Goes Here< itle><br><descritpion>Another description goes here</description><br><link>http://www.anotherlinkgoeshere.com</link><br></item><br><br></channel><br></rss><br><br>When you save the file be sure to save it as an xml file. <br><br>Warning<br>If you create the file using Dreamweaver or a similar tool <br>becareful that it does not strip out tags it feels are <br>redundant. In order to be be an RSS feed your file needs at <br>bare minimum that tags that were discussed above, and the <br>file will not be valid if tags are stripped out. <br><br>I found a cool little free program that helped in xml file <br>creation called First Object Editor <br>http://www.firstobject.com/ <br><br>Validation<br>As my math teacher use to say, check your work! Once your <br>file is complete and uploaded einter it into the feed <br>validator at http://feedvalidator.org <br><br>Syndication / Submission<br>If you've made it this far you are in good shape it is time <br>to "syndicate" your content! Submit your RSS feed (the xml <br>file you created) to sites just like you would submit a web <br>page. Some of the more popular sites that accept RSS files <br>can be found under "Post RSS Feed" <br>http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/rss-feeds.html
