RSS

Rich Site Summary (RSS)

• Rich Site Summary (RSS), also called Really Simple Syndication, is a format for distributing web content

• RSS works by registering a feed with an RSS aggregator. The aggregator searches registered websites each day for RSS documents, verifies the links and then displays information about the feed for client consumption.

Example RSS Document

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0">

<channel>
  <title>...</title>
  <link>...</link>
  <description>...</description>
  <item>
    <title>...</title>
    <link>...</link>
    <description>...</description>
  </item>
</channel>

</rss>

Example RSS Document Explained

• The first line is the XML declaration

• The next line is the RSS declaration

• The <channel> element has three required children:

  • <title> – defines the title of the channel

  • <link> – defines the hyperlink to the channel

  • <description> – describes the channel

• The <channel> element can have one or more <item> elements.

• The <item> element defines an article in the RSS feed and has three required children:

  • <title> – defines the title of the item

  • <link> – defines the hyperlink to the item

  • <description> – describes the item

Optional <channel> Children

• <category>

• <cloud>

• <copyright>

• <docs>

• <generator>

• <image>

• <language>

• <lastBuildDate>

• <managingEditor>

• <pubDate>

• <rating>

• <skipDays>

• <skipHours>

• <ttl>

• <webMaster>

Optional <item> Children

• <author>

• <category>

• <comments>

• <enclosure>

• <guid>

• <generator>

• <image>

• <pubDate>

• <rating>

• <source>

Get an RSS Feed on the Web

1. Create an RSS XML document

2. Validate the RSS file

3. Upload the RSS file to web server

4. Put the orange “RSS” or “XML” button on a web page with a link to the RSS document

5. Submit the RSS feed to the RSS Feed Directories

6. Register the feed with major search engines

7. Update the RSS feed when new content is available