Re: OT: RSS Feeds, Atom?
- From: wm_walsh@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 29 Feb 2008 06:31:16 -0800 (PST)
Hi!
Well, let me try to make RSS simple. It is, after all, "Really Simple
Syndication".
On the web server side, the only things you need to implement RSS are
an XML file and a reference to it in the pages your site serves. This
reference would appear in two places--somewhere on your site for those
using "dedicated" RSS reader programs and in the headers of the
webpages for web browsers (like Apple's Safari) that are "aware" of
RSS.
An RSS "feed" (the XML file that you put up on your web server and
then reference) is nothing more than a simple XML file that contains
listings of new stuff on your site. It is also possible to specify
things like the time and date of the posting, a brief synopsis of the
article and the author's name. These files don't contain any
formatting information. You can make one with nothing more than
Windows notepad.
If you want to see one, try looking at
http://12.206.251.215/feed.xml with a browser (such as IE6) that has
no RSS support. You will see the raw XML.
On the end user side, you can view these feeds (usually many of them
at once) with a dedicated program that does nothing else, a web
browser that's aware of them, or a web service (like Google's Reader
at
http://www.google.com/reader/view/#directory-welcome-page).
That brings us to the "Why" of RSS. To explain that requires going to
your web browsing habits for a moment. If you're like a lot of people,
you have something of a "circuit" that you run around the WWW when you
start browsing it. You visit many different web sites to see what's
new or changed. This takes time to do, and you have to visit each web
site and look around to accomplish it.
RSS changes that when you use an RSS reader (more correctly known as
an "Aggregator") to subscribe to all the feeds that are hopefully
available on the web sites you'd normally run around and visit with
your browser. When web sites post new or changed information, your RSS
aggregator/reader makes a list in one place that you can run through
in an orderly fashion.
It used to be that programs like the copy of Feedburner (which I found
to be a good program, although not worth the price to me) performed
this function exclusively. Today, many programs are RSS aware. Web
browsers typically function as very simple RSS "decoders" and only
display the RSS feed of the site you're visiting. (Look for a special
icon to appear in the address bar.)
E-mail programs have gained features that make them like RSS
aggregators in recent times. Mozilla Thunderbird and Apple Mail both
have these features. In a way, a new RSS feed set up in your e-mail
program is treated like another e-mail account that shows up in its
own set of "folders"...typically an inbox for new stuff and a trash
folder for RSS entries you've already read.
Not all web sites and 'net related software are RSS enabled yet, and
there is no requirement that they be so.
Hope this helps!
William
.
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