What do I do with an RSS feed?
Q: I am trying to figure out this RSS thing. If I want to "subscribe" to someone's XML feed, what do I do? I hit the XML button and get an entire page of code. What do I do with that?
A: I'll start by spelling out something which you probably (at some
level) already know: RSS (an acronym for RDF Site Summary) is just
another XML vocabulary. An RSS feed -- as you call it, an XML feed --
is simply an XML document conforming to the rules of that vocabulary
and served up to some client program. (For example, an RSS document
has a root rss element, which has numerous subordinate
elements, all of which may have various attributes.) If you're
interested in the details of the RSS vocabulary, an excellent
introduction is Mark
Pilgrim's XML.com feature of a few months ago. (Part 1 is
especially helpful for newcomers; Part 2 deals primarily with using
Python to process RSS feeds.)
But your question isn't about the vocabulary. Instead it poses the quite reasonable head-scratcher which might pop into any Web user's mind: Thousands of other people out there on the Web already "get" RSS -- how do I use all that RSS-encapsulated information?
As you've learned, simply aiming your Web browser at an RSS feed is not the way to go. Browsers -- even the late-model ones which tout their support for XML -- can't handle everything delivered to them. They can handle "XML" all right, using one-size-fits-all rules of thumb (like elements nested within other elements, and so on); it's the specific vocabularies, like RSS, which they don't know enough about to process in any meaningful way. So when you open an RSS document, your browser treats it the same way it does any other XML document: dumps the raw source to your screen.
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Essential Reading What Are Syndication Feeds
Table of Contents
Syndication feeds have become a standard tool on the Web. But when you enter the world of syndicated content, you're often faced with the question of what is the "proper" way to do syndication. This edoc, which covers Atom and the two flavors of RSS--2.0 and 1.0--succinctly explains what a syndication feed is, then gets down to the nitty-gritty of what makes up a feed, how you can find and subscribe to them, and which feed will work best for you. Read Online--Safari Search this book on Safari: |
For now, the solution is to acquire a separate client program, called an RSS aggregator, RSS client, or RSS reader, to collect and process your feeds. RSS reading features are sometimes bundled into Usenet newsreader programs. While the underlying technology is not the same, from a user's perspective "subscribing" to an RSS feed feels an awful lot like "subscribing" to a newsgroup. Some source of the information must be polled on demand or on a schedule; the data must be retrieved and presented to the user initially in some summary form, such as a header; and then the information must be displayed in full if the user selects it.
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| Figure 1: FeedReader |
In fact, even the RSS readers which aren't bundled into newsreaders almost universally have the same "look" as newsreaders themselves. Figure 1 shows the main screen for FeedReader 2.5, a freeware RSS reader for Windows. Down the left side is a list of available "channels" (that is, feed sources); at top right is the list of current "topics" from the selected channel; and at bottom right is the content associated with the currently selected topic. In many cases this content consists merely of a "Read on" link; sometimes the feed's developers have also included a capsule summary of the document.. Following the link here opens the entire document associated with this topic, often in the same portion of the newsreader window as the link/summary. For example, Figure 2 displays a recent XML.com feature as selected from the list of feeds available on the O'Reilly Meerkat "Open Wire Service." (Again, this screenshot depicts the FeedReader interface.)
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| Figure 2: FeedReader and Meerkat |
Not all RSS readers are based on Microsoft Windows. AmphetaDesk (version 0.93, Figure 3) runs under Windows and Mac and Linux clients. It's a Perl-driven freeware reader which dynamically assembles an index page containing links to all the current feeds and serves it up to the browser; each of these links, of course, simply opens the linked-to page in the browser window.
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| Figure 3: AmphetaDesk |
These clients share one feature: They all come preconfigured with sources of RSS feeds. As you might have noticed in Figure 1, for example, FeedReader's built-in set of sources includes an extensive selection from moreover.com's "public metabase".
Likewise, for the most part the RSS readers let you add new sources to the ones they're preconfigured for. Which brings up another question: How do you find RSS sources in the first place?
Good places to start include NewsIsFree and syndic8.com. At the latter, there's
a "search for feed" form on the home page; enter a keyword and hit the
Search button to list all the feeds for which they have
information. Entering "comedy," for instance, located 18 feeds (some
duplicates). At syndic8.com and, indeed, just about any site offering
RSS feeds, the links to the feeds are marked with one of the "XML
buttons" you mentioned in your question. (For those who haven't seen
them, these buttons most often look like this: 
) It's a plain old hyperlink,
so you can simply right-click on it to copy the URL and then paste it
into your RSS reader's "add channel" feature.
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| Figure 4: NewzCrawler |
Some RSS readers are a bit more sensitive than others to what you're looking at, though, and don't need the additional help from you. This feature is called "autodiscovery"; the idea is that when you're visiting any web page, and have your RSS reader active, it "knows" if there are one or more RSS feed links on the page. If so, you're given the opportunity to add the channel. The commercial NewzCrawler reader (free 14-day trial, $24.95 to purchase), for instance, pops up a form like Figure 4.
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Also in XML Q&A | |
(Be aware that a good deal of the current RSS load on the Internet isn't from "official" news sources such as newspapers and other press services, governments and so on. RSS is also common in distributing the content of weblogs. It's true that blogs are of uneven quality and freshness; nonetheless, their daily -- or more frequent -- update cycles fit naturally with the idea of content syndication. When visiting your favorite blogs, keep an eye open for the "XML button" described above.)
Not everyone agrees that this blizzard of standalone RSS clients is a good thing. Until the browser makers climb onto the RSS bandwagon, though, and start bundling RSS-smart modules with their products, these little applications provide the answer to your question. (If you're using Mozilla or Netscape 7.0+ as your browser, regardless of operating-system platform, you might want to check out the very interesting NewsMonster Java application. There's a free, ad-supported basic version as well as a "NewsMonster Pro" available for $29.95.)
What are you doing with RSS feeds? Share your experience in our forum.
(* You must be a member of XML.com to use this feature.)
Comment on this Article
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- http://feedlive.org
2006-07-11 15:59:12 Pusher [Reply]
You can use an online rss to html parser like http://feedlive.org to read the feeds directly in the webbrowser
- B2B and B2C?
2004-03-04 09:01:50 Veronica "Ronnie" Gambon [Reply]
I am looking to speak with content providers to learn from their success and failures and hear them wax poetic about their vision.
- www.WinRSS.com
2003-06-14 09:48:50 Manuel Gonzalez [Reply]
The WinRSS program can parse RSS/RDF/XML feeds, as long as also analyze related resources, including the author's website.
That information is also combined with the news.
We are now including more resources, like FOAF files, GeoURL information, and so.
News are shown in the system traybar, using balloon tooltips as soon as they arrive.
Freeware WinRSS for Windows:
http://www.winrss.com
- XUL Channels
2003-05-09 10:54:15 Dan Sickles [Reply]
http://www.fuckhedz.com/xulchannels/
- NetNewsWire and Mac OS X
2003-05-02 06:33:42 Kyle Adams [Reply]
I found the following sentence ironic, consider one of the best/most polished RSS clients out there is Mac-only:
"Not all RSS readers are based on Microsoft Windows."
To add to the irony, the only Mac RSS client mentioned was AmphetaDesk. I'd also recommend Mac users give Ranchero Software's NetNewWire (http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/) a try. The Lite version is free, and the Pro version is $40.
But don't take my word - O'Reilly's MacDevCenter just selected NetNewsWire (along with Spring, another web services-oriented program) as top dog in the Mac OS X Innovators Contest (http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/developer/2003/04/24/innovators.html).
In fact, having evaluated various Windows clients (Awasu, FeedReader, Headline Viewer, Syndirella, AmphetaDesk), I have yet to find one that could match NetNewsWire.
- nntp//rss rules!
2003-05-01 02:04:26 Olivia Poussier [Reply]
And you should definitely mention nntp//rss.
http://www.methodize.org/nntprss
"nntp//rss is a free open source Java-based bridge between RSS feeds and NNTP clients, enabling you to read your favorite RSS syndicated content within your existing NNTP newsreader. RSS feeds are represented as NNTP newsgroups, providing a simple, straightforward and familiar environment for news reading."
- RSS Readers
2003-04-30 19:42:03 James Robertson [Reply]
You should mention BottomFeeder:
http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/BottomFeeder
it runs across a very wide spread of platforms, from the same binaries.
