RSS

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Introduction

RSS, the acronym of really simple syndication (or in more popular words news feeds), is a standardized XML file in which websites insert structured information and is generally used to store news and updates. News feeds can be read by web-based or software-based news readers (also called aggregators).

Software

  • See News Feed Aggregator for standalone tools. Nowadays, most people use either a web navigator (E.g. Firefox) or so-called webtops (web dashboards)
  • Most portals including [[Creating websites with online services|online content creation services] can include News feeds in various formats
  • All modern web browsers can read RSS feed. In addition, there exist extensions that add extra functionality.
  • There are libraries (e.g. PHP) for writing custom RSS server-side aggregators

Educational usage

  • Check the status of student's work in the different platforms like Wiki, Blog or Portal
  • Provide students with a feed that brings them latest news about a class (won't work with an LMS for security reasons).
  • Provide students with an aggregator that shows headlines from news on different web sites of interest
  • Include sideboxes in portals like C3MS or LMS like Moodle that display headlines from important websites. This is similar to the above, but the idea is to "open up" typical student's focus from task-related things in a learning environment to wards the rest of the world
  • Organization of collective / collaborative scenarios where each student has his "own" space, but information can be shared.

RSS/Atom Variants

  1. RSS 0.90
    • RSS as invented by Netscape, RSS = RDF Site Summary
  2. RSS 0.91
    • Second version of Netscape, RSS = Rich Site Summary
    • simple syntax and not compatible with RDF
    • this format is still popular
  3. RSS 0.92
    • like RSS 0.91 but some improvements, like UTF-8 support
  4. RSS 1.0
    • based on RDF
    • not very popular, since the "web 2.0" crowd does not seem to understand or like concepts underlying the semantic web.
  5. RSS 2.0
    • follow-up of RSS 0.91 and 0.92
    • Not RDF compatible (simpler than RSS 1.0)
  6. Atom is another news feeds standard. The XML syntax differs from RSS 0.9x/2.0 but the principle is the same.

Life Feed example

This wiki has an extension that allows to include RSS feeds.

The following example feed is taken from http://e4innovation.com/ example, i.e. contents from the feed URL = http://e4innovation.com/?feed=rss2

Short version, 5 items max.:

Reflections on the PELeCON conference
I really enjoyed the PELeCON conference. I liked the format; in terms of the mix of themed sessions, interactive workshops and lots of keynotes. Unfortunately there were less people at the conference this year, which is a shame as it was excellent. It was good to meet up with old friends and to finally meet [...]
— Sun, 14 Apr 2013 11:42:32 +0000
The closing PELeCON conference keynote
Donald Taylor, the James Bond of e-learning apparently ;-), gave the closing keynote at this year’s PELeCON conference. The title of his talk was ‘Does learning and development have a future?’ He began by asking us to think about how our roles have changes in the last five years [...]
— Sun, 14 Apr 2013 11:05:14 +0000
Creating a learnspace in your workplace
 

One of this year’s PELeCON conference keynotes was my friend Joyce Seitzinger from Deakin University.  This blog post is a summary of her talk, the slides are available online. She started by stating that winning a place for technology is easy, whereas winning people for technology is hard. The talk gave [...]

— Sat, 13 Apr 2013 16:07:21 +0000
Managing change – patterns and analytics
 

One of the keynotes at this year’s PELeCON conference was Steve Warburton from Surry University. He had two themes: Pedagogical Patterns and Learning Analytics. He started by referencing Gartner’s technology acceptance curve and http://www.mooreslaw.org/. He stated that computing power is doubling every year.  He recommended Ray Kurzweil’s book ‘The singularity is near’, which [...]

— Sat, 13 Apr 2013 15:22:10 +0000
Digital literacies session at the PELeCON conference
One of the sessions I attended at this year’s PELeCON conference was on ‘Digital literacies and work placement’. The first speaker was Nadja Gagsi, who presented on the digital literacy work at Reading University as part of their JISC funded project. They used Beetham and Sharpe’s digital literacy framework. She outlined ten key [...]
— Sat, 13 Apr 2013 14:41:37 +0000

Long version, 3 items only:

Reflections on the PELeCON conference

I really enjoyed the PELeCON conference. I liked the format; in terms of the mix of themed sessions, interactive workshops and lots of keynotes. Unfortunately there were less people at the conference this year, which is a shame as it was excellent. It was good to meet up with old friends and to finally meet [...]

Gráinne Sun, 14 Apr 2013 11:42:32 +0000
The closing PELeCON conference keynote

Donald Taylor, the James Bond of e-learning apparently ;-), gave the closing keynote at this year’s PELeCON conference. The title of his talk was ‘Does learning and development have a future?’ He began by asking us to think about how our roles have changes in the last five years [...]

Gráinne Sun, 14 Apr 2013 11:05:14 +0000
Creating a learnspace in your workplace

  One of this year’s PELeCON conference keynotes was my friend Joyce Seitzinger from Deakin University.  This blog post is a summary of her talk, the slides are available online. She started by stating that winning a place for technology is easy, whereas winning people for technology is hard. The talk gave [...]

Gráinne Sat, 13 Apr 2013 16:07:21 +0000

Code Examples

Examples taken from wikipedia

RSS 1.0

Based on RDF, not popular: 

<?xml version="1.0"?>
 
 <rdf:RDF 
  xmlns:rdf="<nowiki>http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#</nowiki>"
  xmlns="<nowiki>http://purl.org/rss/1.0/</nowiki>">
 
  <channel rdf:about="<nowiki>http://www.xml.com/xml/news.rss</nowiki>">
    <title>XML.com</title>
    <link><nowiki>http://xml.com/pub</nowiki></link>
    <description>
      XML.com features a rich mix of information and services 
      for the XML community.
    </description>
    <image rdf:resource="<nowiki>http://xml.com/universal/images/xml_tiny.gif</nowiki>" />
    <items>
      <rdf:Seq>
        <rdf:li resource="<nowiki>http://xml.com/pub/2000/08/09/xslt/xslt.html</nowiki>" />
        <rdf:li resource="<nowiki>http://xml.com/pub/2000/08/09/rdfdb/index.html</nowiki>" />
      </rdf:Seq>
    </items>
    <textinput rdf:resource="<nowiki>http://search.xml.com</nowiki>" />
  </channel>
 
  <image rdf:about="<nowiki>http://xml.com/universal/images/xml_tiny.gif</nowiki>">
    <title>XML.com</title>
    <link><nowiki>http://www.xml.com</nowiki></link>
    <url><nowiki>http://xml.com/universal/images/xml_tiny.gif</nowiki></url>
  </image>
 
  <item rdf:about="<nowiki>http://xml.com/pub/2000/08/09/xslt/xslt.html</nowiki>">
    <title>Processing Inclusions with XSLT</title>
    <link><nowiki>http://xml.com/pub/2000/08/09/xslt/xslt.html</nowiki></link>
    <description>
     Processing document inclusions with general XML tools can be 
     problematic. This article proposes a way of preserving inclusion 
     information through SAX-based processing.
    </description>
  </item>
 
  <item rdf:about="<nowiki>http://xml.com/pub/2000/08/09/rdfdb/index.html</nowiki>">
    <title>Putting RDF to Work</title>
    <link><nowiki>http://xml.com/pub/2000/08/09/rdfdb/index.html</nowiki></link>
    <description>
     Tool and API support for the Resource Description Framework 
     is slowly coming of age. Edd Dumbill takes a look at RDFDB, 
     one of the most exciting new RDF toolkits.
    </description>
  </item>
 
  <textinput rdf:about="<nowiki>http://search.xml.com</nowiki>">
    <title>Search XML.com</title>
    <description>Search XML.com's XML collection</description>
    <name>s</name>
    <link><nowiki>http://search.xml.com</nowiki></link>
  </textinput>
 </rdf:RDF>

RSS 2.0

RSS 2.0 is a slight revision of RSS 0.91 

 <?xml version="1.0"?>
 <rss version="2.0">
   <channel>
     <title>Liftoff News</title>
     <link><nowiki>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/</nowiki></link>
     <description>Liftoff to Space Exploration.</description>
     <language>en-us</language>
     <pubDate>Tue, 10 Jun 2003 04:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
 
     <lastBuildDate>Tue, 10 Jun 2003 09:41:01 GMT</lastBuildDate>
     <docs><nowiki>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss</nowiki></docs>
     <generator>Weblog Editor 2.0</generator>
     <managingEditor>editor@example.com</managingEditor>
     <webMaster>webmaster@example.com</webMaster>
 
     <item>
       <title>Star City</title>
       <link><nowiki>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/news/2003/news-starcity.asp</nowiki></link>
       <description>How do Americans get ready to work with Russians aboard the
         International Space Station? They take a crash course in culture, language
         and protocol at Russia's Star City.</description>
       <pubDate>Tue, 03 Jun 2003 09:39:21 GMT</pubDate>
       <guid><nowiki>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/2003/06/03.html#item573</nowiki></guid>
     </item>
 
     <item>
       <title>Space Exploration</title>
       <link><nowiki>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/</nowiki></link>
       <description>Sky watchers in Europe, Asia, and parts of Alaska and Canada
         will experience a partial eclipse of the Sun on Saturday, May 31st.</description>
       <pubDate>Fri, 30 May 2003 11:06:42 GMT</pubDate>
       <guid><nowiki>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/2003/05/30.html#item572</nowiki></guid>
     </item>
 
     <item>
       <title>The Engine That Does More</title>
       <link><nowiki>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/news/2003/news-VASIMR.asp</nowiki></link>
       <description>Before man travels to Mars, NASA hopes to design new engines
         that will let us fly through the Solar System more quickly.  The proposed
         VASIMR engine would do that.</description>
       <pubDate>Tue, 27 May 2003 08:37:32 GMT</pubDate>
       <guid><nowiki>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/2003/05/27.html#item571</nowiki></guid>
     </item>
 
     <item>
       <title>Astronauts' Dirty Laundry</title>
       <link><nowiki>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/news/2003/news-laundry.asp</nowiki></link>
       <description>Compared to earlier spacecraft, the International Space
         Station has many luxuries, but laundry facilities are not one of them.
         Instead, astronauts have other options.</description>
       <pubDate>Tue, 20 May 2003 08:56:02 GMT</pubDate>
       <guid><nowiki>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/2003/05/20.html#item570</nowiki></guid>
     </item>
   </channel>
 </rss>


Atom 1.0

Example found in the specification: 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
 
 <title>Example Feed</title>
 <subtitle>Insert witty or insightful remark here</subtitle>
 <link href="http://example.org/"/>
 <updated>2003-12-13T18:30:02Z</updated>
 <author>
   <name>John Doe</name>
   <email>johndoe@example.com</email>
 </author>
 <id>urn:uuid:60a76c80-d399-11d9-b91C-0003939e0af6</id>
 
 <entry>
   <title>Atom-Powered Robots Run Amok</title>
   <link href="http://example.org/2003/12/13/atom03"/>
   <id>urn:uuid:1225c695-cfb8-4ebb-aaaa-80da344efa6a</id>
   <updated>2003-12-13T18:30:02Z</updated>
   <summary>Some text.</summary>
 </entry>
 
</feed>

News feed icons

For all news feed standards, there is a unique suggested icon (and that should replace the stupid "XML" icon):

128px-Feed-icon.svg.png

Links

Introductions

Specifications

None of the three popular RSS 0.91, RSS 2.0 and Atom is defined with a formal language. However, XML grammars (DTDs, Relax or XML Schema) can be found.

  • rfc4287 Atom standard by the Internet Society, 2005. This specification defines an informative Relax NG schema (in Appendix B).
  • RSS 0.91 Specification. A copy of the original RSS 0.91 specification published by Netscape on July 10, 1999

Examples

New feeds
Content aggregators
Retrieved from "http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/mediawiki/index.php?title=RSS&oldid=38122"
Personal tools
Namespaces

Variants
Actions
Via Google
navigation and help
Share
Categories
Print/export
Toolbox
big brother