Pointers on RSS

[Joseph Witchard]

I want to add a RSS feed to my website. The problem is I don't know much of anything about XML. At this time, the only part of XML I need is the RSS part, so would I be all right in studying just the RSS side, or do I need to study XML as a whole thoroughly first?

[scragar]

it's all quite simple, firstly you've got the start of the feed, this has the basic info:<?xml version="1.0"?>
<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>this is the rss feeds title</title>
<link>link to the site</link>
<description>a quick description of the channel, not all rss readers can display this right, so don't put anything important in it</description>

next up you've got the items in the feed, you can have as many of these as you want, but there's a logical limit around 20 or so when adding more doesn't improve things and only adds to the size:
<item>
<title>title for the item</title>
<link>link to this item</link>
<description>Description of the item, this appears in almost all feed readers, so you can expect almost all users to see it</description>
</item>
then finish it off:

</channel>
</rss>


I've skipped a lot here, but for actually getting an RSS feed going it's a good guide.

[Joseph Witchard]

Do I need to be familiar with any other area of XML before I start testing RSS out?

[scragar]

no, just follow the steps I showed you, edit the contents of the tags.

[tracknut]

In case it wasn't clear, save the file scragar mentioned as "my-rss-feed.xml" when you're done, and that's an rss feed you can link to.

http://www.w3schools.com/rss/rss_syntax.asp shows the syntax in more detail.

Dave

[scragar]

In case it wasn't clear, save the file scragar mentioned as "my-rss-feed.xml" when you're done, and that's an rss feed you can link to.


Doesn't matter what it's called as long as it's served as XML, personally I like to call my RSS feeds "something.feed" or some similar extention that makes more sense when also using XML for small amounts of data or setting storage.

nice idea of the w3 link BTW, I should have just linked it from the start really.

[Joseph Witchard]

Thanks:)

[Joseph Witchard]

This may sound like a dumb question, but after you put your RSS feed on your website, is that it? If you do a RSS feed for a podcast, you have to go around to the different podcast places (like iTunes) and submit your feed to them. Do you have to do something similar for a non-podcast RSS feed?

[scragar]

http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/podcaststechspecs.html#submitandfeeback

you'll have to submit the url to iTunes once you have the first(or more) audio tracks linked in(might I recomend looking into the <enclosure> from w3schools if your using it to keep track of audio?)

https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/publishPodcast <-- submit your podcast there.

[Joseph Witchard]

That's not what I'm asking. I'm asking if you have to submit a non-podcast RSS feed (say, one for message board updates) to places like iTunes in order for people to subscribe to them, or if you can just set the feed link up on your website and be done with it;)

[scragar]

oh, a link to it is fine(the browser decides what to do with it, so there's no need to write anything more difficult that a normal link :P), there's also the option to link to it using the <link> tag, which is what I personally look out for more than anything else(since it appears in the URL bar and is hard to miss).
<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="MyRSSfile.xml">

[nbcrockett]

What is the point of using the link tag?

[scragar]

can you spot the easiest way to start using the RSS feed?

the screenie's from firefox, but most browsers offer the same sort of option, having it in the URL bar means that across sites it's in the same place, and people like me can always find the RSS feed without having to search the page for clues.

[nbcrockett]

Thanks, I didn't look in FF. I only tested in IE7 and it didn't show up.

[scragar]

Thanks, I didn't look in FF. I only tested in IE7 and it didn't show up.
IE still doesn't support alternate style sheets right, as if they would support rss like that as well. :P

opera, konqueror, firefox, safari and kazekage all show the rss icon when it's available, IE is the only browser I've every used that doesn't in it's latest version really.