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
  • Most portals can include News feeds in various formats
  • There are extensions for FireFox and other web browsers
  • There are libraries (e.g. PHP) to write custom RSS server-side aggregators

Educational usage

  • Check the status of student's work in the different platforms like Wiki, Blog or Portal
    • Many such platforms have a feed that shows what is new (what has changed).
  • 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

Feed from http://e4innovation.com/ example, i.e. contents from the feed URL = http://e4innovation.com/?feed=rss2

Short version, 10 items max.:

Extension:RSS -- Error: "http://e4innovation.com/?feed=rss2%7Ccharset=UTF-8%7Cshort%7Cdate%7Cmax=10" is not in the list of allowed feeds. There are no allowed feed URLs in the list.

Long version in reverse order, 3 items only:

Extension:RSS -- Error: "http://e4innovation.com/?feed=rss2%7Ccharset=UTF-8%7Cdate%7Cmax=3" is not in the list of allowed feeds. There are no allowed feed URLs in the list.

(this wiki has an extension that allows to include RSS feeds).

Code Examples

Examples taken from wikipedia

RSS 1.0

Based on rdf:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<rdf:RDF 
 xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
 xmlns="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/">

 <channel rdf:about="http://www.xml.com/xml/news.rss">
   <title>XML.com</title>
   <link>http://xml.com/pub</link>
   <description>
     XML.com features a rich mix of information and services 
     for the XML community.
   </description>
   <image rdf:resource="http://xml.com/universal/images/xml_tiny.gif" />
   <items>
     <rdf:Seq>
       <rdf:li resource="http://xml.com/pub/2000/08/09/xslt/xslt.html" />
       <rdf:li resource="http://xml.com/pub/2000/08/09/rdfdb/index.html" />
     </rdf:Seq>
   </items>
   <textinput rdf:resource="http://search.xml.com" />
 </channel>

 <image rdf:about="http://xml.com/universal/images/xml_tiny.gif">
   <title>XML.com</title>
   <link>http://www.xml.com</link>
   <url>http://xml.com/universal/images/xml_tiny.gif</url>
 </image>

 <item rdf:about="http://xml.com/pub/2000/08/09/xslt/xslt.html">
   <title>Processing Inclusions with XSLT</title>
   <link>http://xml.com/pub/2000/08/09/xslt/xslt.html</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="http://xml.com/pub/2000/08/09/rdfdb/index.html">
   <title>Putting RDF to Work</title>
   <link>http://xml.com/pub/2000/08/09/rdfdb/index.html</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="http://search.xml.com">
   <title>Search XML.com</title>
   <description>Search XML.com's XML collection</description>
   <name>s</name>
   <link>http://search.xml.com</link>
 </textinput>
</rdf:RDF>

RSS 2.0

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<rss version="2.0">
  <channel>
    <title>Liftoff News</title>
    <link>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/</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>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss</docs>
    <generator>Weblog Editor 2.0</generator>
    <managingEditor>editor@example.com</managingEditor>
    <webMaster>webmaster@example.com</webMaster>
    
    <item>
      <title>Star City</title>
      <link>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/news/2003/news-starcity.asp</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>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/2003/06/03.html#item573</guid>
    </item>
    
    <item>
      <title>Space Exploration</title>
      <link>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/</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>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/2003/05/30.html#item572</guid>
    </item>
    
    <item>
      <title>The Engine That Does More</title>
      <link>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/news/2003/news-VASIMR.asp</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>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/2003/05/27.html#item571</guid>
    </item>
    
    <item>
      <title>Astronauts' Dirty Laundry</title>
      <link>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/news/2003/news-laundry.asp</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>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/2003/05/20.html#item570</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).