Feeds/RSS
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RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines or podcasts. An RSS document, which is called a "feed," "web feed," or "channel," contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with their favorite web sites in an automated manner that's easier than checking them manually. RSS content can be read using software called a "feed reader" or an "aggregator."...—
The initials "RSS" are used to refer to the following formats:
- Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0)
- RDF Site Summary (RSS 1.0 and RSS 0.90)
- Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91)
RSS formats are specified using XML, a generic specification for the creation of data formats.
Answers.com
Code Elements
Required channel elements...
title The name of the channel. It's how people refer to your service. If you have an HTML website that contains the same information as your RSS file, the title of your channel should be the same as the title of your website.
link The URL to the HTML website corresponding to the channel.
description Phrase or sentence describing the channel.
Optional channel elements...
language The language the channel is written in. This allows aggregators to group all Italian language sites, for example, on a single page. A list of allowable values for this element, as provided by Netscape, is here. You may also use values defined by the W3C.
copyright Copyright notice for content in the channel.
managingEditor Email address for person responsible for editorial content.
webMasterEmail address for person responsible for technical issues relating to channel.
pubDate The publication date for the content in the channel. For example, the New York Times publishes on a daily basis, the publication date flips once every 24 hours. That's when the pubDate of the channel changes. All date-times in RSS conform to the Date and Time Specification of RFC 822, with the exception that the year may be expressed with two characters or four characters (four preferred).
lastBuildDate The last time the content of the channel changed.
category Specify one or more categories that the channel belongs to. Follows the same rules as the <item>-level category element.
generator A string indicating the program used to generate the channel.
docs A URL that points to the documentation for the format used in the RSS file. It's probably a pointer to this page. It's for people who might stumble across an RSS file on a Web server 25 years from now and wonder what it is.
cloud Allows processes to register with a cloud to be notified of updates to the channel, implementing a lightweight publish-subscribe protocol for RSS feeds.
ttl ttl stands for time to live. It's a number of minutes that indicates how long a channel can be cached before refreshing from the source.
image Specifies a GIF, JPEG or PNG image that can be displayed with the channel.
rating The PICS rating for the channel.
textInput Specifies a text input box that can be displayed with the channel.
skipHours A hint for aggregators telling them which hours they can skip.
skipDays A hint for aggregators telling them which days they can skip.
- RSS 2.0 at Harvard Law: site index
- What Is This RSS, XML, RDF, and Atom Business? by Meryl K. Evans
Tips and Tricks
- Different free-to-use icons and images for marking feed links, thanks to WikiMedia
- More free feed icons thanks to Ken Saunders:
- Rounded style, in many colors
- Squared, with a metallic edge, also in many colors: Windows format in 16x16, 48x48, 128x128; Macintosh format in 128x128; .png format in 16x16, 48x48, 128x128...
- Watch your own FeedBurner feed's stats via an RSS feed (how circular!). Simply add your FeedBurner feed URI to the end of this URI, and subscribe in your favorite feedreader. Just don't refresh repeatedly—respect the gift and the giver:
http://www.kedrosky.com/cgi/fb-stats.cgi?n=http://feeds.feedburner.com/YOURFEEDHERE
Creative Uses
- Send your blog's feed (either RSS or Atom) to
Twitter: twitterfeed.com
Troubleshooting
The problem might be your actual header call to your feed link, not the feed itself:
RSS feeds should be served as application/rss+xml (RSS 1.0 is an RDF format, so it may be served as application/rdf+xml instead). Atom feeds should use application/atom+xml. Alternatively, for compatibility with widely-deployed web browsers, any of these feeds can use one of the more general XML types — preferably application/xml.
Available Site5 Wiki Feeds
Books We Recommend
Ben Hammersley (
Feed):
- Content Syndication with RSS ISBN 9780596003838
:
- Find this book at
O'Reilly
- Find this book at
Barnes & Noble
- Find this book at
BooksPrice
- Find this book at
InformIT
- Find this book at
Powells' Books
- Developing Feeds with RSS and Atom ISBN 9780596008819
:
- Find this book at O'Reilly
- Find this book at Barnes & Noble
- Find this book at BooksPrice
- Find this book at InformIT
- Find this book at Powells' Books
Related wiki links: Atom; Feeds; KML; OPML; RDF; Semantic Web; XML
