Syndicate Your Headlines Using RSS

By Shelley Lowery

RSS is quickly becoming the standard choice for delivering
syndicated web content. Have you ever wondered how some
of the large content sites deliver their headlines? Or, have you
ever wanted to display news headlines, but didn't want to
display the standard "Content Provided By..." info? Or, have
you ever wanted to syndicate your own content? RSS may be
the answer you've been looking for.

RSS stands for Rich Site Summary. It is an XML format
specifically designed to share content. Netscape originally
developed RSS to drive channels for their Netscape Netcenter.
Formerly known as RDF, RSS was developed in 1999 and has
quickly evolved into the dominant format for syndicating
content. Well-known sites such as, CNET, ZDNet, CNN,
Wired and many more utilize this powerful means of dynamic
content delivery.

Distributing your content using RSS will involve creating one
file that contains your content. This file will reside on your
server to enable other web sites to display your channel. You
can update your channel simply by updating your file.

Once you've created your file you can submit it to web sites
like Netscape to enable other web sites to subscribe.

Creating an RSS File

Your first step will be to identify your file. To do this, place the
following code at the top of your text file.

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<!DOCTYPE rss PUBLIC "-//Netscape Communications//DTD
RSS 0.91//EN"
"http://my.netscape.com/publish/formats/rss-0.91.dtd">

<rss version="0.91">

Your next step will be to create your channel header. The
"channel" tag indicates that you are beginning a new channel.

<channel>
<title>Web-Source.net Syndication</title>
<link>http://www.web-source.net/</link>
<description>Web Development article syndication feeds!
</description>
<language>en-us</language>

The "title" tag indicates the name of your channel. The "link"
tag will contain a link to your web site. The "description" tag
describes your channel and the "language" tag indicates that
you're writing in US English.

If you'd like to include a small logo, include the following tags.
The image should be 88 pixels wide and 31 pixels high.
Displaying an image is optional. If you're not going to include
an image, skip this step.

<image>
<title>Web-Source</title>
<url>http://www.web-source.net/image.gif</url>
<link>http://www.web-source.net/</link>
<width>88</width>
<height>31</height>
<description>Web Design and Development</description>
</image>

Now, you're ready to create your headlines. Each new "item"
tag represents a new topic. The rule of thumb is to include
between five and fifteen items. You can include a description,
but it isn't required.

<item>
<title>Moving Up From Classified Ads to Display Ad</title>
<link>http://www.web-source.net/biz_tips_feed.htm</link>
<description>Display ads are the standard advertising tool of
print media. You can impress your carefully targeted audience
with a colorful display ad that spreads across the page of your
favorite magazine, trade bulletin, or newspaper.</description>
</item>

<item>
<title>Creating A Customized Marquee</title>
<link>http://www.web-source.net/web_tips_feed.htm</link>
<description>Learn how to create a customized marquee for
your web site</description>
</item>

Your final step will be to close your channel by adding the
following tags:

</channel>
</rss>

Save your new file with a .rss file extension and upload it to
your server.

If you'd rather not create your own RSS file, RSS Channel Editor
is a free Web based tool that makes it easy to create and
maintain RSS files. You can find the script here:
http://www.webreference.com/perl/tools/

Once you've created your new RSS file, you'll need to validate
it to make sure it is properly formatted. Visit the following web
address to validate your file:
http://my.netscape.com/publish/help/validate.tmpl

Now, you're ready to share your content. Visit the following
web sites to submit your new channel and enable other web
sites to display your content:

http://my.netscape.com/publish/
http://my.userland.com/
http://www.xmltree.com/

If you'd like to display RSS content on your web site, you'll
need a script to fetch the content. News Fetcher
( http://scripts.plebius.org/article/rss_fetche  ) is a free
script that will fetch content, format it as HTML and store it
in a file on your server. The content can then be displayed
on your web site using SSI or JavaScript.

Visit the following web address to see an example of RSS
displayed content:
http://www.web-source.net/channels.shtml

You can locate RSS files to display on your web site at the
following web addresses:

http://my.userland.com/
http://www.xmltree.com/
http://my.netscape.com/
http://w.moreover.com/

For further information about RSS, read Jonathan Eisenzopf's
tutorial entitled, "Using RSS News Feeds."
http://www.webreference.com/perl/tutorial/8/

If you have content that you regularly update, give RSS a try.
Providing free content is an extremely powerful method of
increasing your web site traffic.

Copyright © 2000 All rights reserved

About the Author:

Shelley Lowery is the Webmistress of Web-Source.net.
Your Guide to Professional Web Site Design & Development.
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