RSS Feeds and Web Syndication - Fresh Thinking Business

RSS is an XML-based mark-up language protocol which is designed to allow websites to publish summaries of their content in a form that is easy for users to browse. RSS provides a way to see at a glance if specified web sites have updated their content. Using a simple RSS feed reading program a web user can subscribe to the feeds from any supporting site to get this information and link to any new articles of interest.

RSS feeds also provide a great alternative to the most common form of web content syndication, e-mail. With the large amounts of spam, emailed updates of web site content are not as effective as they used to be. RSS feeds provide an easy way to advertise new content on websites without the hit-or-miss nature of mass email newsletters.

The RSS reading software, which can also be called an RSS feed aggregator, collects RSS files from web sites with RSS feeds that the user has subscribed to. This information is displayed in a single interface, allowing the user to browse articles quickly. All new content is displayed in links, generally with comments attached, allowing the user to pick and choose articles rather than having to look through the web site for new updates.

At its core, there are tags for identifying the (section of the) web site being syndicated and tags identify each item of content on the site.

Because web sites can be syndicated in a variety of ways, the central concept of RSS is not that of web site but of channel. This can be thought of as a dynamic presentation of content from a particular server. A single server can provide a number of different, but possibly overlapping, channels which release and update content.

RSS is a protocol that uses XML, and RSS feeds take the form of a single XML file which can be hosted and automatically updated by the webmaster and downloaded and read by RSS feed reading software.

The simplest version of a RSS feed file contains a main URL and a set of items representing links published from the web site. Each of these items consists of a title, a link to that content on the site and a brief description.

A RSS reader/aggregator links to the RSS file on the site and downloads it, rendering each of the items as a separate headline and synopsis of the article or content, complete with a link. Most RSS readers will continually scan each RSS feed they have linked to for updates, then inform the user when new content is found.

For regular home users, receiving RSS feeds is as simple as downloading an RSS reader or an extension to their browser of choice and then finding which of their sites of interest offer RSS feeds.

FeedReader: This is an open source RSS aggregation program which uses a simple, uncluttered interface. FeedReader is a stand alone application and works under Windows 98 and later versions.

There are three generally accepted RSS versions for creating RSS feeds: RSS 0.91, RSS 0.92, and RSS 2.0. Any recent RSS feed reader should be able to read all three types properly.

RSS 0.91 is the simplest form and the easiest to understand. It is also the most limited for a number of reasons. RSS 0.91 provides only a basic set of features, allows a maximum of 15 items in any single feed, limits the length of the text used in titles and descriptions to 100 and 500 characters respectively. HTML cannot be used in the descriptions of items in RSS 0.91, as the specification supports plain text only. RSS 0.91 is a very rigid form, in that each item will have a single link, a title and possibly a description, with no variations allowed in this pattern.

RSS 0.92 is an extension of RSS 0.91. It removes a lot of the restrictions of RSS 0.91 and adds support for the HTML code to the description section of items. Items no longer need to have a title or link, as the description can now be used as both title and link if desired. The addition of an optional enclosure tag allows an RSS 0.92 feed to contain files which are downloaded by the user along with the item. All the length restrictions of the various text fields that were present in RSS 0.91 are removed in RSS 0.92.

RSS 2.0 is a different branch of the RSS 'tree' than RSS 0.92, though it originates from RSS 0.91. It supports all of the additions made by RSS 0.92, and adds a few new features like support for secure sites, GUIDs, feed categorizing, etc. The example file below is written in RSS 0.91 but can also be written in RSS 2.0 and uses a very small part of the allowed mark-up. The full specification of the RSS 2.0 language can be read here: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss

A basic RSS 2.0 feed file (- This is actually Fresh Thinking Business' own RSS feed)

- <rss version="2.0">

- <channel>

<title>Fresh Thinking Business Blog</title>

<description>Busines Tips, Advice and Resources from Fresh Thinking Business.
View articles for small business owners and entrepreneurs
and watch your business grow ...</description>

<copyright>freshthinkingbusiness.com</copyright>

- <item>

<title>Sep 20, Who inspires you? Small business top role model: Richard Branson</title>

- <link>

http://www.freshthinkingbusiness.com/small-business-blog.html#Who-inspires-you? Small-business-top-role-model:-Richard-Branson

</link>

<description>Small business people have voted Richard Branson as the ultimate
business role model in a recent survey commissioned by Intuit, maker of
QuickBooks financial management software. More than 500 small
business owners and directors were asked across the UK who their business role model is.
Twenty-five per cent of respondents said that Richard Branson was their top role model,
while six per cent opted for Alan Sugar and six per cent for retail guru Phillip Greeen. Some people looked further afield for their motivation, naming Ronald Reagan, Jesus Christ, RnB star Jay-Z, Sir Frank Whittle (inventor of the jet engine) and Bill Kenwright, chairman of Everton FC, as their business role models, A futher eighteen per cent felt that the person who most inspired them and their business was a member of their family.</description>

<pubDate>Wed, 20 Sep 2006 15:02:15 GMT</pubDate>

</item>

- <item>

<title>Sep 20, Quote of the Month</title>

<description>"Work is not man's punishment. It is his reward and his strength and his pleasure." George Sand, French Novelist</description>

</item>

- <item>

<title>Sep 20, 10 Tips to Reduce Your Personal Tax Bill</title>

<description>Read these top tips on how to reduce your personal tax bill as published in the Observer</description>

</item>

</channel>

</rss>

The <rss version = "2.0"> tag at the top is the root element and identifies the file to readers as an RSS XML file using RSS version 2.0. tag at the top is the root element and identifies the file to readers as an RSS XML file using RSS version 2.0.

Contained within the <rss version="2.0"> root element there must be a single <channel> element. The <channel> section identifies our RSS feed, including a title, a URL (which is usually pointed at the homepage that hosts the RSS feed), and an (optional) short description of the feed. Following this, the <channel> element contains a number of <item> elements. Each of these describe the individual pieces of data content being syndicated on this channel.

Each <item> section delineates one item or headline that is added to the feed and will be displayed to users when they download the feed through an RSS feed reader. Each of these also requires a title and a link (which generally go directly to the main page of the information that the item concerns). A short description (less than 500 characters) can also be added, giving readers an idea of what the item is about.

After the last item, the </channel> and </rss> tags are closed, ending the file.

This is the basic version of an RSS feed, there are several more things that can be done, including different versions of RSS to add HTML support to the item descriptions

RSS Channel Editor: The RSS Channel Editor is a RSS feed creation tool which automatically creates workable RSS 0.91 files from the data entered.

Because RSS is XML-based, RSS files are text documents written using a certain precise syntax. Therefore, to serve an RSS file which summarizes a web site it can be served as a XML file would be. The RSS file will be put on the web server file system and use the path to the file as the URL as done for HTML documents.

RSS files are not intended for viewing in browsers. They are aimed at RSS aware applications which fetch the documents and parse their contents to incorporate it in someway in their own output.

Once the RSS feed file has been created, all that remains is to post this file on an appropriate area of the web site and keep it updated. Best practice for this is to provide a link to the RSS file from the home page of the site, illustrated with an appropriate word or symbol, like RSS, XML or a feed graphic such as:

Here is the URL for Fresh Thinking Business own RSS Feed: http://www.freshthinkingbusiness.com/small-business.xml

Store it in your RSS reader and keep up-to-date with all the latest updates to your favourite small business web site.