<
p>Okay now roll up your sleeves, close the door, take the phone off the hook and get ready. You are going to begin to create an RSS feed.
To Recap we have on the drawing board:
What you want to go into the feed
Patience
A place to put it up on the net
A small smattering of technical knowledge
Patience
The very first thing we need to do is understand the makeup of our "rss.xml" file. Well actually the very first thing we need to do is get a template to understand the makeup. We will go from the simple to the more complicated, so don't get stressed.
First point to remember. The template below does NOT include all possible options and/or variations. We will go from simple to complex. And I do not expect anyone to be able to get all the possible permutations at one shot. What we are simply trying to do is explain the layout so you can get the schema into your head and understand the various possibilities.
Of course if you are really into discovering all the techie jargon and possibilities about XML I suggest to start off at: http://www.feedvalidator.org/docs/rss2.html. This will lead you slowly and surely into the possibilities of RSS template creation and all its permutations.
If you are a "techie" or the inner workings of HTML and XML are not a mystery to you, then the template below will be fairly self-explanatory. However, if you are new to the world of XML and especially RSS then it would be a good idea to take the few minutes to study this template and all the explanations.
One of the points to remember is that if you do a Google or Yahoo search for "RSS templates" or something along that line you will come up with a great many articles. Unfortunately, most of those articles are written on a level that demands you have some expertise in these areas. Below I am going to try and explain in "layman" terms what each entry means.
XML has its own markup language. All the commands like HTML are enclosed in as you can see below. Some commands demand that the "command" or "code" be placed between the < opening and the ending > such as the first line in the template:
Other commands demand a beginning and an end marker such as . As in HTML the marker with the / (slash) such as tells XML you are at the end of the entry marked as .
Okay first the Template then we will begin to divide it up.
" "" "" "" "" "" "" "
Don't get scared. It really is not as difficult as it looks. Okay now I did promise "layman" terms so here goes. Lets divide this template up into THREE sections.
Section One - Heading XML Section
This section tells the reader/parser/file just what the file is. In effect without too much detail at the moment it announces to the world:
"Hello. I am an XML file and I adhere to the RSS XML template version 2.0 as proposed at http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/." (Well it means a lot more and a lot less but that is good enough for now.)
Now for the next parts. It is a linear table as usually all logic in computers is. This is not the place to get into arguments of logical systems however we do think in a linear format. So there are two parts.
Define the Channel
Define each item in the channel
What is a Channel? Well lets look on it as how you choose to define the information you are going to put into the file. For instance if you are putting out an RSS file to get people to look at your Web Site which has information about and sells Perfume, your channel would be that. Thus the title would read:
Randy Pandy's Perfumery.
As you can see from the template above the channel is defined by the following parameters.
" "" "" "" "" "" "" "
(Remember if you look at the bottom of the file you will find the end Channel marker which is of course .
Now the next level as we drill down is the item (items within the channel).
Again each item will have a title. The item title here may be:
Seduction - The Perfect Unisex Scent
As you can see the file follows a logical template drilling down from:
XML lines - "Hello World I am an XML file"
Channel - "Hello World. This is my Channel and the overall topic we will be discussing in the Channel." (and all the info you want to give on it.)
Item - "Hello World. I am an item in the above channel. Here is my information, my pictures, my source and where you can find me."
And remember at the end you will need the closing for both Channel and RSS:
If you are an author or writer think of it like this:
XML Lines describe the genre - Say "Hello World This is a book on fantasy"
Channel Line describes the book - Say "Hello World this is a book whose title is "Randy Pandy's Perfumery"
Item Lines describe each chapter. "Hello World this is a chapter "Seduction - The Perfect Unisex Scent"
Don't get worried yet. I am not going to leave you high and dry. In my next article I will teach you how to fill out each item in the Channel and Item declarations. When we are done with that, you should be able to create a fairly decent XML file and template.
This is a continuation from my articles on RSS
Part One - "RSS Mania Addiction - An Introduction to RSS and the Terminology"
Author: Ted Gross
Previous article: 14 January 2007
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