About
RSS News Feeds!
RDF Site Summary (RSS) is catching on
as one of the most widely used XML formats on the Web.
Find out how to create and use RSS files and learn what
they can do for you. See why companies like Netscape,
Userland, and Moreover use RSS to distribute and syndicate
article summaries and headlines. This article includes
sample code that demonstrates elements of an RSS file,
plus a Perl example using the module XML::RSS.
What exactly are these RSS files?
RSS files are metadata.
Until you've used them or seen an example, it may not
be easy to understand what RSS files are, but they are
easy to create. An RSS file commonly contains four main
types of elements: channel, image, items, and text input.
These elements are easy to identify and code, as the example
in Listing 1 demonstrates. An example of an item within
an RSS 0.91 file, Listing 1 contains three easily identifiable
parts: a title, a link, and a description.
In headline collections published as results of RSS file
aggregations, HTML normally renders the specified title
as a headline. The title usually also serves as a link,
using the URL listed in the link element. Finally, the
description is normally displayed as a summary of the
article underneath the headline.
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