RSS Feeds

Webmasters use RSS to provide headlines and fresh content in a succinct manner.  Meanwhile, consumers use RSS readers and news aggregators to collect and monitor their favorite feeds in one centralized program or location.  Content viewed in the RSS reader or news aggregator is called an RSS document, otherwise known as a "feed," "web feed," or "channel." 

RSS feeds are created in XML, or "Extensible Markup Language."  XML is a pared-down version of SGML ("Standard Generalized Markup Language") that uses tags that describe the contents of the field.  It is very similar to HTML, but unlike HTML, it allows designers to create their own customized tags, enabling the definition, transmission, validation, and interpretation of data between applications and between organizations.  
RSS is a free and easy way to promote a site and its content without the need to advertise or create complicated content-sharing partnerships.  

Help Creating an RSS Feed

If you only wish to create a single feed and do not need to edit or update the feed, you may use an online feed creation tool.  Suggested RSS feed creation Websites include:

• www.feedforall.com
• www.create-rss.com
• www.webreference.com/cgi-bin/perl/makerss.pl

If you are inexperienced with HTML or XML, FeedForAll is recommended as an easy-to-use feed creation tool that allows webmasters to create, edit, and publish RSS feeds.

Creating an RSS Feed

An RSS file is a plain text file, meaning it can be created with any ordinary text editor, such as Windows Notepad, Wordpad, or Microsoft Word.  

RSS feeds contain what are referred to as "items."  The items are usually connected in some way and contain a common theme or other similarity.  Each item contains a title, a description, and a link.  The title and description should be written to describe the content; the link should reference the webpage that contains the actual content.

The following is what an item looks like:

<title>The Title Goes Here</title>
<description>The description goes here</description>
<link>http://www.linkgoeshere.com</link>

An RSS feed typically contains multiple items, and an open and close tag is used to distinguish between them.  
Example:

<item>
<title>The Title Goes Here</title>
<description>The description goes here</description>
<link>http://www. linkgoeshere.com</link>
</item>

<item>
<title>Another Title Goes Here</title>
<description>Another description goes here</description>
<link>http://anotherlinkgoeshere.com</link>
</item>

As stated above, a feed consists of a series of items, and these items are chained together to create a "channel."  The channel appears at the top of the file and tells people how the items relate to one another.  Like items, a channel uses title, description, and link tags to describe its content.  The "open channel" tag (<channel>) occurs before the first item and the close tag (</channel>) occurs after the last item.
Example:

<channel>
<title>The Channel Title Goes Here</title>
<description>The explanation of how the items are related goes here</description>
<link>http://www.directoryoflinksgoeshere.com</link>

<item>
<title>The Title Goes Here</title>
<description>The description goes here</description>
<link>http://www. linkgoeshere.com</link>
</item>

<item>
<title>Another Title Goes Here</title>
<description>Another description goes here</description>
<link>http://anotherlinkgoeshere.com</link>
</item>

</channel>

Finally, you will need to indicate that the file is an XML file by inserting XML- and RSS-defining tags at the beginning and "</rss>" at the very end.
Example:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<rss version="2.0">
<channel>

<title>The Channel Title Goes Here</title>
<description>The explanation of how the items are related goes here</description>
<link>http://www.directoryoflinksgoeshere.com</link>

<item>
<title>The Title Goes Here</title>
<description>The description goes here</description>
<link>http://www. linkgoeshere.com</link>
</item>

<item>
<title>Another Title Goes Here</title>
<description>Another description goes here</description>
<link>http://anotherlinkgoeshere.com</link>
</item>

</channel>
</rss>

Important note: Some common characters are illegal in XML format.  The following are accepted substitutes for such characters:

& - Replace all instances of '&' with the following: &amp;
    Don't forget to make necessary changes within any URLs.
" - Change every full quote to: &quot;
    Example: He shouted, "Fire!" → He shouted, &quot;Fire!&quot;
' - Change every apostrophe to: &apos;
    Example: It's his bike. → It&apos;s his bike.
> - Change every "greater than" character to: &gt;
    DO NOT change these symbols in the tags.
    Example:
    <description>I am > three feet tall.</description> →
    <description>I am &gt; three feet tall.</description>
< - Change every "less than" character to &lt;
    Again, DO NOT change these symbols in the tags.
    Example:
    <description>I have < five dollars.</description> →
    <description>I have &lt; five dollars.</description>
When you save the file, be sure to save it as an XML file.
Once your file is complete, you may upload it to your website.  After it is uploaded, you may choose to validate your RSS file to ensure that it will function properly.  To do this, go to an RSS validator online and enter the URL of your RSS file into the form.  If there are any errors, the validator will tell you about them.  Otherwise, it will validate your file.  The following are sites of RSS validators:
•    http://aggregator.userland.com/validator
•    http://feeds.archive.org/fvalidator/
•    http://feedvalidator.org