Really Simple Syndication Feeds How to Get Your Message Out Using XML

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Really Simple Syndication FeedsHow to Get Your
Message Out Using XML

• Angelo Serra
• Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services
• March 22, 2005
• Reston, VA

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Session Objectives
After completing this session, you should be
prepared to

• Describe RSS
• Be able to see at least one use for RSS within
  your State
• Identify what is involved to use an RSS feed
• Discuss what is involved in setting up an RSS feed

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What Is RSS?

• RSS Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site
  Summary
• Older technology (circa 1997)
• Designed to be used as an aggregation technology

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Limitations of RSS

• Maximum of 15 items per channel (10 recommended)
• Only a few tags supported
• Not very rich
• Too many feeds can be confusing
• Many different versions
• But all relatively compatible

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Advantages of RSS

• Maximum of 15 feeds per channel
• Only a few tags supported
• Not very rich
• Uses XML
• Simple to create and simple to understand

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How Do You Use an RSS Feed?

• RSS Feed aggregates items from a website such as
• Yahoo!, Slashdot, or New Scientist.
• A Feed may be subscribed to
• With a specialized RSS reader
• With a browser

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What Does a Feed Look Like?
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To a Nontechie? (in a Reader)
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To a Nontechie (in a Browser)
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What Is a Feed Composed Of?

• An RSS Feed is composed of a number of different
  elements
• Header
• Items

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What Is a Feed Composed Of? (cont.)

• Header is made up of
• ltchannelgt (opening tag)
• lttitlegt (title of your website)
• ltlinkgt (link to the website home)
• ltdescriptiongt (description of website)
• ltlanguagegt (what language the feed is in)
• There are also some optional image tags.

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What Is the Feed Composed Of? (cont.)

• The items are made up of
• ltitemgt (opening tag for each item)
• lttitlegt (title of the item)
• ltlinkgt (link to the news item/article)
• ltdescriptiongt (short description of the item)

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Feed Example
lt?xml version"1.0" encoding"ISO-8859-1" ?gt
ltrss version"0.91"gt ltchannelgt
lttitlegt(website Title)lt/titlegt ltlinkgt(link to
website homepage)lt/linkgt ltdescriptiongt(website
description)lt/descriptiongt ltlanguagegten-uslt/langu
agegt ltimagegt lttitlegt(title of image for RSS
link)lt/titlegt lturlgt(URL to where the image
is)lt/urlgt ltlinkgt(link that the image should
point to)lt/linkgt ltwidthgt90lt/widthgt
ltheightgt36lt/heightgt lt/imagegt ltitemgt
lttitlegt(title of the news item)lt/titlegt
ltlinkgt(link to where the entire article can be
found)lt/linkgt ltdescriptiongt(description of the
news item)lt/descriptiongt lt/itemgt lt/channelgt
lt/rssgt
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RSS Readers

• Mac OS X NetNewsWire (http//ranchero.com/netnews
  wire/)
• This very elegant Mac aggregator that is easy to
  use and powerful.
• Linux Straw (http//www.nongnu.org/straw/)
• Most likely the best aggregator for GNOME.
• Windows SharpReader (http//www.sharpreader.net/)
  
• Simple, but gets the job done very effectively.
• Web Bloglines (http//www.bloglines.com/)
• Gives the user the ability to check all your
  feeds from any web browser.

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RSS Validators

• As with all XML-based items, there are some
  validators
• available
• http//aggregator.userland.com/validator
• http//feeds.archive.org/Fvalidator/

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RSS References

• RSS Specifications website really breaks it down
  into its constituent parts.
• http//www.rss-specifications.com/rss-specificatio
  ns.htm
• Stevens Web gives a quickie tutorial.
• http//www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/website/view.cgi?dbs
  Articlekey1059503386

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In Closing

• RSS is a very simple way to distribute news
  items.
• It can be used by anyone.
• RSS readers can be integrated into any existing
  app that can use an http stream.

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Questions?