RSS is the simplest way of syndicating content. The simplicity of the process appeals to many and that is why every day an increasing number of content providers are including the RSS feature on their websites. Most Internet users are frustrated with the fact that information is scattered all over the place and there is no central repository that can keep track of updates from a multitude of sources and deliver content that is relevant.
Most content on the Internet is delivered in what is known as “push” technology. Servers simply push out whatever they contain when they are accessed. RSS is one of the few technologies that work on “pull” technology where users decide what they want and then RSS readers, also known as aggregators, will pull the configured content off the server.
In this sense, the content that comes through RSS is passive. It is not given to the user unless specifically requested. This gives the user more control over what they wish to receive or not and it also provides content providers and marketers with information that allows them to deliver appropriate content and advertisements.
Making your own RSS feed
Your RSS feed is made up of components that are called “items”. All items are interconnected through a common factor. Every item has three sub-components. These are the title, description, and link. The title is the link title that is displayed to the user when a new feed is sent. The description is a synopsis of the content update that the user is informed of. The link is the link to the web page containing the full content.
RSS feeds are written in XML. This is a simple programming language that follows the general rules of HTML but involves more complexity.
RSS template
The three sub-components inside every RSS item are described as follows in the XML file…
Items
An item can be seen as a collection of RSS feeds that have something in common. So if there are 12 feeds related to football then all of them can be put into a single item as follows…
Channel
What is known as an RSS feed is actually a series of RSS items. Items are linked or bunched together in order to create what is called a Channel. The Channel is placed right at the top of the file so that users can identify the type of items that are contained in there. Defining channels happens just like defining items.
Channel description
http://www.channelinks.com
Content synopsis is inserted here
http://www.contentserver.com/page/contentpage.htm
Content synopsis is inserted here
http://www.contentserver.com/page/contentpage.htm
Designation
The outermost container of the RSS feed contains identifiers that designate the file to contain XML code. This designation uses XML and RSS definition tags.
< ?xml version="1.0"?>
Channel description
http://www.channelinks.com
Content synopsis
http://www.contentserver.com/
Content synopsis
http://www.contentserver.com/
Content synopsis
http://www.contentserver.com/
This is the file that is saved with the .XML extension.
Warning
Certain tools like Dreamweaver that are often used by web developers will strip out code that they feel is not required in order to make the HTML code efficient. RSS feeds are very sensitive to the container tags but software tools do not recognize all these tags. If there is any mistake or removal of tags the RSS feed will not work. There are many tools available today that are specifically meant to help with the creation of proper RSS feeds. If you are not comfortable with hand-coding then you should use these tools.
Validation
This is the last step in RSS feed creation and it basically attempts to find out if your newly created feed is working properly or not. Visit http://feedvalidator.org and submit the RSS feed for testing. As soon as your feed link is validated you are ready to start syndicating your content. There are several sites that accept RSS feeds and you should submit your own .XML file to as many of them as you can.
