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 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.
In addition to displaying text, you can also display a
small logo. 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:
