What you need to know about RSS ( part 2 )

In my first article “All you need to know about RSS”, made you understand what does RSS means and what is RSS. Now let you give you some information on how does RSS

work as well as how you can make a RSS feed.

How does RSS work?

To be able to use RSS, you first have to download a software (content management system), by which XML format can be read. The title and, excerpt of the article, and a link to the full article are shown. Other than just text, you can also insert multimedia files in RSS feeds like pictures, videos, mp3s and others. Broad catching, picture casting, photo casting, and pod casting are some features you can incorporate into your feed, but will not be discussed in this article.

For users to access a RSS feed, they need to use an aggregator or a feed reader. An aggregator searches for updates on RSS-enabled web pages then displays it. It can either be a standalone program or a web browser extension, depending on your operating system. Search engines for web content broadcasted over RSS feed are also available such as Plazoo and Feedster.

How can I make an RSS feed?

It is definitely easier to make an RSS feed if you know HTML. If not, you could sign up for a blog (there are hundreds out there), some of which automatically creates RSS. If you’re using a personal webpage building system, you need to understand more about RSS. Making an RSS feed from scratch is relatively easy.

A RSS feed should always contain an “item”, whichever version of RSS you might use. If you wrote about a recent event in your city or a book review, the contents of this article can form an item. An item is essentially composed of three things: a title, its description, and link (where they can find your webpage). In choosing a title and description, use something that will describe the web content best. Although it will be easier for you, it doesn’t follow that the title tag of your webpage and the item title are the same.

An item will look like HTML tags. First, you need to put an opening channel tag that defines it as an XML file. Then, label the tag as an item by putting after the channel tag. After this, you can now insert the three essentials of your item: , , and . Just like HTML, we need to close the tag by writing and at the bottom.

An RSS feed that contains multiple tags looks like this:

Anne Rice’s Belinda: A Book Review

If you haven’t read any Anne Rice books yet, you will be greeted with shocking romantic relationships forming between unlikely characters…

http://allaboutbookreviews.com/belinda

Harry Potter IV: Darker with More Deaths

The recently released Harry Potter installation has proved dark for its younger readers…

http://allaboutbookreviews.com/harrypotterandthehalfbloodprince

Now, if you’re still having a hard time understanding these tags, look for HTML tags tutorial to further grasp the concept. Have fun!