Syndicate Your Headlines Using RSS

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 didnt want to display the standard "Content Provided By..." info? Or, have you ever wanted to syndicate your own content? RSS may be the answer youve 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 youve 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.



RSS 0.91//EN"
"http://my.netscape.com/publish/formats/rss-0.91.dtd">



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



http://www.web-source.net/>
Web Development article syndication feeds!

en-us

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 youre writing in US English.

If youd 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 youre not going to include an image, skip this step.



http://www.web-source.net/image.gif>
http://www.web-source.net/>
88
31
Web Design and Development


Now, youre 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 isnt required.



http://www.web-source.net/biz_tips_feed.htm>
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.




http://www.web-source.net/web_tips_feed.htm>
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Your final step will be to close your channel by adding the following tags:




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

If youd 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 youve created your new RSS file, youll 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, youre 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 youd like to display RSS content on your web site, youll need a script to fetch the content. News Fetcher (http://scripts.plebius.org/article/rss_fetcher) 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 Eisenzopfs 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.

About the Author

Shelley Lowery is the Webmaster of Web-Source.net - A complete resource portal for the Internet entrepreneur. The site assists the entrepreneur in developing a serious Web presence by providing a wealth of free information, resources, tools and content:To contact see details below.



service@web-source.net
http://www.web-source.net