** eBiz Updates ** Volume II No. 24 ** December 22nd, 2004
Helping to Keep Your Edge in e-Business
Serving the Internet Since March 2003
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- Editor's Notes
- Article: Making An RSS Feed
- Free Resources
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FEATURE ARTICLE:
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Making An RSS Feed
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RSS is a method of distributing links to content in your web
site that you'd like others to use. In other words, it's a
mechanism to "syndicate" your content.
To understand syndication, consider the "real world"
situation where artist Scott Adams draws a daily Dilbert
cartoon. The cartoon is made available to any newspaper that
cares to run it, in exchange for a fee -- and 2,000 papers in
65 countries do so.
Unlike Scott Adams, syndication of web content via RSS is
unlikely to make you rich. However, it can be an easy way to
draw attention to your material, bringing you some traffic
and perhaps a little net fame, depending on how good your
information is.
What Is RSS?
How does RSS syndication work? Say you publish a new web
page about a particular topic. You want others interested in
that topic to know about it. By listing the page as an "item"
in your RSS file, you can have the page appear in front of
those who read information using RSS readers or "news
aggregators" (explained more in my sidebar article, RSS: Your
Gateway To News & Blog Content). RSS also allows people to
easily add links to your content within their own web pages.
Bloggers are a huge core audience that especially does this.
What does RSS stand for? There's a can of worms. RSS as
introduced by Netscape in 1999 then later abandoned in 2001
stood for "Rich Site Summary." Another version of RSS
pioneered by UserLand Software stands for "Really Simple
Syndication." In yet another version, RSS stands for "RDF
Site Summary."
History buffs might be interested that there's been some
rivalry over who invented RSS. This is why we have both
different names and indeed different "flavors" or versions of
RSS. Mark Pilgrim's written an excellent article, What Is
RSS, that charts the different versions with recommendations
on which to use. I'll also revisit the version choice you'll
need to make. But first, let's look more closely at some
basics of what goes into any RSS file.
How Easy Is RSS?
I've been exploring RSS because it was time that Search
Engine Watch offered its own stories in this manner. I've
read several tutorials about making a feed, and they
generally suggest that it is easy. They often offer code that
you can "cut-and-paste" and link over to specifications that
I actually don't find that clear.
For example, the RSS 2.0 specification has an "cloud"
element that's optional but which a lay person might still
wonder if they should use it. Meanwhile, heaven help the
person who stumbles into the RSS 1.0 specification and its
complicated RDF syntax.
Sure, making an RSS file IS easy for many. If you understand
HTML, you'll probably understand enough to do a cut-and-paste
from someone else's RSS file to make your own file. Don't
know HTML? Start a blog, because several blogging tools
automatically generates RSS files.
As for those non-technical people using WYSIWYG page
building tools or personal home page building systems, have
faith. Even you can build an RSS file from scratch, as long
as you dispense with some of the extra features you probably
don't need. We'll go through how to do this below. Later,
I'll also mention some tools that will even do some or all of
the work for you.
The RSS File
At the heart of an RSS file are "items." No matter what
version of RSS you settle on, your file will have to include
at least one item. Items are generally web pages that you'd
like others to link to. For example, let's say you just
created a web page reviewing a new cell phone that's being
released. Information about that page would form an item.
To enter your item into the RSS file, you'll need three bits
of information:
Title
Description
Link
The title and description of your item need not match
exactly the HTML title tag of the web page that the item
refers to, nor the meta description tag, assuming you use
these. You can write any title and description that you think
will describe the page. However, using your page's title and
meta description tag certainly makes it easy to copy and
paste to build your RSS feed.
In the case of our example page, let's say this is the
information we settle on to define it as an item:
Nokia 3650 Combines Phone And Photos
I've been playing with the new Nokia 3650. Finally, someone
has got the combination of a cell phone with digital camera
capabilities right!
http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/nokia3650.html
Now we have to surround that information with XML tags.
These are similar to HTML tags, with the exception that
unlike with HTML, there's no set definition of XML tags.
Anyone can make up a particular XML tag. Whether it is useful
depends on the program that reads the resulting XML file. In
the case of RSS feeds, they have their own unique set of XML
tags that are defined. Use these correctly, and then anything
that reads RSS will understand your information.
Did that make your head spin? If so, don't reread -- just
carry on to see how simple it is. First, open a text editor
like Notepad. We're going to build our RSS file using it.
For your title, you need to start it with the <title> tag,
then follow this with the text of the title, then end with
the </title> tag. It looks like this:
<title>Nokia 3650 Combines Phone And Photos</title>
For your description, you do the same, starting out with the
opening <description> tag, then following with the actual
description, then "closing" with the </description> tag. Now
you have this:
<title>Nokia 3650 Combines Phone And Photos</title>
<description>I've been playing with the new Nokia 3650.
Finally, someone has got the combination of a cell phone with
digital camera capabilities right!</description>
Next, we add the link information, beginning with <link>,
following with the actual hyperlink, then closing with
</link>. That gives us this:
<title>Nokia 3650 Combines Phone And Photos</title>
<description>I've been playing with the new Nokia 3650.
Finally, someone has got the combination of a cell phone with
digital camera capabilities right!</description>
<link>http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/nokia3650.html</link>
Now there's one more thing we need to do. We actually have
to define all this information as forming a particular
"item," which we do using a special item tag.
You place the opening item tag, <item> at the top or start
of all the information we've listed. You then place the
closing item tag, </item>, at the bottom or "end" of the item
information. The finished product looks like this:
<item>
<title>Nokia 3650 Combines Phone And Photos</title>
<description>I've been playing with the new Nokia 3650.
Finally, someone has got the combination of a cell phone with
digital camera capabilities right!</description>
<link>http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/nokia3650.html</link>
</item>
Congratulations! You've now made your first item. There's a
bit more to do to finish our RSS file. First, what if we have
other items we want to syndicate? Then we simply add more
item elements, just as we did above. You can have up to 15
items. New items tend to be inserted at the top, with old
items removed from the bottom, to make room for new stuff.
With our example, let's see how things look if we add two
more items:
<item>
<title>Nokia 3650 Combines Phone And Photos</title>
<description>I've been playing with the new Nokia 3650.
Finally, someone has got the combination of a cell phone with
digital camera capabilities right!</description>
<link>http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/nokia3650.html</link>
</item>
<item>
<title>Sanyo Tablet PC Amazes!</title>
<description>I was dubious about the new Tablet PCs, but
then I saw the latest from Sanyo. Wow, cool looks and it
works!</description>
<link>http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/sanyotablet.html</link>
</item>
<item>
<title>Canon MegaTiny Digital Camera Too Small</title>
<description>OK, there is a limit to just how small is too
small. Canon's MetaTiny, no larger than a quarter, simply is
too little to use properly</description>
<link>http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/metatiny.html</link>
</item>
Having defined items we want to distribute, we now have to
define our site as a "channel." You'll use the same tags as
with the items: title, description and link. However, this
time the information will be about your entire site, rather
than a particular page. That means our channel information
would look like this:
<title>All Gadgets Reviewed</title>
<description>If it's a gadget, we review it. Learn what
gadgets are hot and what's not!</description>
<link>http://allgadgetsreviewed.com</link>
Now, how does something reading our RSS file know that the
information above is for our "channel" when it looks just
like item information? Simple. As long as we don't surround
this information with an opening and closing <item> tags, it
won't be seen as item information but rather as channel
information. That gives us this:
<title>All Gadgets Reviewed</title>
<description>If it's a gadget, we review it. Learn what
gadgets are hot and what's not!</description>
<link>http://allgadgetsreviewed.com</link>
<item>
<title>Nokia 3650 Combines Phone And Photos</title>
<description>I've been playing with the new Nokia 3650.
Finally, someone has got the combination of a cell phone with
digital camera capabilities right!</description>
<link>http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/nokia3650.html</link>
</item>
<item>
<title>Sanyo Tablet PC Amazes!</title>
<description>I was dubious about the new Tablet PCs, but
then I saw the latest from Sanyo. Wow, cool looks and it
works!</description>
<link>http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/sanyotablet.html</link>
</item>
<item>
<title>Canon MegaTiny Digital Camera Too Small</title>
<description>OK, there is a limit to just how small is too
small. Canon's MetaTiny, no larger than a quarter, simply is
too little to use properly</description>
<link>http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/metatiny.html</link>
</item>
There are a few last things we need to do. First, we need to
add a tag at the very top of the file saying that this is
written according to the XML 1.0 specifications. Right under
this, we also have to say what RSS version we are using.
So far, everything we've done is compatible with UserLand's
popular RSS 0.91 version. However, it also matches UserLand's
latest RSS 2.0 version, as well, so we'll define the file as
meeting that specification. This will allow us to add other
neat features in the future, if we want.
Finally, after the RSS tag, we need to add an opening
"channel" tag. That gives us this at the top of the file:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
At the bottom of the file, after all the items we want to
syndicate, we have to insert a closing channel and RSS tag,
in that order. Those look like this:
</channel>
</rss>
This means our complete file looks like this:
<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>All Gadgets Reviewed</title>
<description>If it's a gadget, we review it. Learn what
gadgets are hot and what's not!</description>
<link>http://allgadgetsreviewed.com</link>
<item>
<title>Nokia 3650 Combines Phone And Photos</title>
<description>I've been playing with the new Nokia 3650.
Finally, someone has got the combination of a cell phone with
digital camera capabilities right!</description>
<link>http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/nokia3650.html</link>
</item>
<item>
<title>Sanyo Tablet PC Amazes!</title>
<description>I was dubious about the new Tablet PCs, but
then I saw the latest from Sanyo. Wow, cool looks and it
works!</description>
<link>http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/sanyotablet.html</link>
</item>
<item>
<title>Canon MegaTiny Digital Camera Too Small</title>
<description>OK, there is a limit to just how small is too
small. Canon's MetaTiny, no larger than a quarter, simply is
too little to use properly</description>
<link>http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/metatiny.html</link>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>
Mind Blowing Options
Everything shown above is the bare basics you need to create
a file and start syndicating content from your web site.
However, there are additional things you could do.
For example, rather than your entire web site being a
"channel," you could actually have different content from
within the web site be defined into separate channels. That's
something I'm not going to explore in this article, but some
of the resources below will guide you through this, when you
feel more comfortable.
As hinted at, RSS 2.0 allows you to insert all types of
additional information into your feed. It can make your head
spin to look at these and decide what to use. The easy answer
is, don't bother with anything you don't know. Not every
aggregator supports all the options offered. As long as you
provide the minimum information suggested above, you should
be fine.
Did I Choose The Right RSS Version?
Earlier, I'd mentioned there are different versions of RSS.
Even though we entered the bare minimum of information, it
turned out that we were able to have a file that was easily
considered to be RSS 2.0, the latest version promoted by
UserLand and which is widely used.
Indeed, the Syndic8 site reports that the most popular
format of RSS by far is RSS 0.91 -- and though we've used RSS
2.0, our file as shown is entirely compatible with RSS 0.91.
In short, we're in safe company.
What about that RSS 1.0 version that I said was complicated.
Well, it is complicated. However, some people might want to
make use of some of the special capabilities that it offers.
If you are interested in it, then check out the official
specification.
Saving The File
Now that we're done adding to the file, we need to save it.
But what name shall we give it? I've looked and not seen any
guidance on this. I imagine that's because as long as the
file is valid (more below), it probably doesn't matter what
it's called.
To make my own decision for Search Engine Watch, I decided
to imitate what I saw out at UserLand, which promotes the RSS
2.0 standard that we used. UserLand's example feeds all ended
.xml, so let's do the same. As for the first part, that
really can be whatever you like. For our example, let's say
we just call it feed.xml.
Now that our file is saved, we can place it anywhere we want
on our web server. Let's say we put it in the root or home
directory. Then the address to our RSS file would be:
http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/feed.xml
Validating The File
Now our RSS file is done, but did we do it right? To find
out, we need to validate it. Use the aptly named RSS
Validator service at:
http://feeds.archive.org/validator/
Simply enter the address to your RSS file, and you'll be
told if everything is OK -- or if there's something wrong you
need to fix.
How about a quick preview of how your new feed actually
looks? Then pay a visit to Wytheville Community College News
Center at:
http://www.wc.cc.va.us/services/news/default.asp
Again, enter your feed URL, and you'll see the clickable
headlines and story descriptions nicely assembled inside a box.
The service will also generate a JavaScript code that you
can post on your site. Anyone copying the JavaScript can
automatically have your feed syndicated into their pages --
pretty neat!
Get Syndicated!
Now that your file is validated, you want the world to know
about it! To make this happen, visit RSS directories and
search engines. They generally offer submission pages, where
you can inform them of your feed.
You also want to make sure people who come to your web site
see that you provide a feed. It's very common to post a link
to the feed somewhere on the home page of a web site. If you
have a dedicated news page, you may want to put it there, as
well.
You can link to your feed with an ordinary HTML link.
However, many sites use a small orange XML icon to link to
the feed. I've also seen some sites use blue RSS icon. I
could find no standard about using these. So, to be safe, I
did all three with Search Engine Watch. Look on the home
page, and you'll see how it's done (and help yourself to the
icons, if you need them).
Finally, it's good to "ping" one of the major services that
track when web logs and RSS content changes. By doing this,
you ensure that other sites that monitor these know to check
back at your site for more content.
Weblogs.com is one of these major sites. Enter your site's
name and the URL of your feed into the manual Ping-Site Form,
and it will know you've updated your feed. The Specs page
explains how to set up automatic notification.
Easier Options
Still not happy about the idea of making the feed by hand?
Not to worry -- there are some alternatives you might try.
A top choice is the wonderful RSS Headline Creator at:
http://www.webdevtips.com/webdevtips/codegen/rss.shtml
At the creator, you choose the number of headlines you'd
like to include in your file, up to the 15 maximum allowed.
Then a form with boxes that you fill out will be made. Enter
the right information, then push the "Make The Code" button.
Your RSS file's code will be generated, for you to copy and
paste into a text editor and save.
Another solution you might experiment with is Feed For All at:
http://www.feedforall.com
I hope you enjoyed this article and you can find even more
ideas on how to use RSS by going here:
http://www.webcashlink.com/rsseasy
By Danny Sullivan,
http://www.calafia.com
Calafia Consulting: A company, which centers around general
internet consulting and search engine related consulting.
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