RSS Part Two

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RSS Part Two

• ACE 2004
• June 21, 2004

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Versions of RSS

• .90
• .91
• 1.0
• .92
• .93
• 2.0

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...And then theres Atom
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A Short History of RSS

• In the beginning there was Netscape
• RSS .90 developed for Netscape portal
• RSS .91 (also for Netscape)
• More standard
• More valid XML
• Still in extensive use today (weblogs, news)

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History of RSS (cont.)

• Then came RSS 1.0
• Enhanced metadata format
• Rich Document Format
• XML namespaces
• RSS 0.92
• 0.91 with optional elements
• Eventually leads to RSS 2.0

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History of RSS (cont.)

• RSS 0.93
• Talked about but never used
• RSS 2.0
• The end of RSS
• 0.92 with optional elements
• Atom
• Attempt to step outside RSS progression

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Versions in use today

• 0.91
• 0.92
• 1.0
• 2.0
• Atom (Google)

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Web Services
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What are Web Services?

• Applications that interface with each other to
  give you direct access to information
• Automated resources accessed via the Internet
• Web-based applications that can dynamically
  interact with other Web apps using XML protocols

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Web Services can provide...

• Personalized web content
• Immediate updates
• Internal content integration
• External content incorporation

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Advantages

• You only have to negotiate once
• Automatic maintenance
• Immediate response
• One-time setup

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Creating the RSS Feed

• Investigate your current CMS / blogging system,
  it may already do it for you.
• Might have to configure CMS or blog

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Creating the RSS Feed

• Some other systems may allow you to mark up
  your content in a manner so that scraping tools
  can be used to generate the XML code.
• Mark up content
• Register your site
• http//feedster.com
• http//blogstreet.com

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Creating the RSS Feed

• Form input at WebDevTips
• http//www.webdevtips.com/webdevtips/codegen/rss.s
  html

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Creating the RSS Feed

• OK, so you don't use blogging software, forms
  are a hassle, but you have content that would
  lend itself to being syndicated. Now what? If
  your site is generated with a scripting language
  like PHP, ASP, JSP, Python, or Perl, then there
  are software libraries you can use to write your
  own. It is doable!

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Software Scripting for RSS

• Generally, two things you do with RSS from a
  software coding perspective
• Create a RSS file
• Parse an existing RSS file

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Software Scripting for RSS

• Software parsing libraries are generally loose
  and allow you to parse multiple versions.

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Scripting Libraries and Tutorials

• JSP/Java
• PHP
• ASP
• Pyton
• Coldfusion MX
• Perl

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Feed Verification

• Feed Validator http//feedvalidator.org
• http//feeds.archive.org/validator/
• Example feeds
• http//cyfernet.ces.ncsu.edu/cyfdb/pmt/cyfernet.rs
  s
• http//www.ncsu.edu/news.rdf
• http//sysnews.ncsu.edu/news/index.rdf