What is a good advice column site?

How to build RSS feed for a site with a daily column

• Hi - I'm in charge of andrewtobias.com, a site hosting a daily column, and need to add a RSS feed to the site. The site does not use any of the standard blogging tools for content managements but a custom system (one that enables the author to submit future columns for automatic publication on specified dates). I therefore need to handcode the building of the RSS page into the existing content management tool. I need to know the exact format of the RSS page I need to build. The site usually has a headline, sometimes a sub headline, a dateline and the body of the day's column. Pretty simple. How would I translate this into a RSS feed? How many columns' headlines would I include in the RSS feed? Just the current headline? Or also past ones? If so, how many past ones? Should they link to a permanent URL where the column will be archived, or to www.andrewtobias.com even though the current column will be replaced by a new one the following day on that page? What else do I need to keep in mind? Thank you. Marc.

• Answer:

  marcfest-ga: Thanks for your Question! RSS feeds are very useful for monitoring websites where the content is constantly updating. AndrewTobias.com looks like a prime candidate for this. To start, first it is a good idea to review what an RSS feed is, exactly. Here are some good explanations: What is RSS? http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/12/18/dive-into-xml.html RSS: Your Gateway To News & Blog Content http://searchenginewatch.com/sereport/article.php/2175281 Introduction to RSS http://www.webreference.com/authoring/languages/xml/rss/intro/ The important thing to note is that there are several different RSS specifications in use. For the greatest level of support (by RSS-aware newsreader applications, etc.), stick with RSS 0.91 / RSS 2.0, it has the simplest requirements and is very suited to your needs. Good instructions on how to create an RSS feed can be found on the WebReference.com websites: http://www.webreference.com/authoring/languages/xml/rss/ (see Tutorials section) The most direct route to take, though, is to simply use an online tool to generate an RSS file using your current desired links, take a look at the XML output, then figure out how to hardcode the necessary (ie. non-dynamic) parts into your current content management tool. A good tool to use for this is the RSS Headliner found at WebDevTips.com. Prior to using it, check out their article: http://www.webdevtips.com/webdevtips/developer/rss/index.shtml Then, check out the tool: http://www.webdevtips.com/webdevtips/codegen/rss.shtml As per the advice in the article, you should post the RSS feed file on your website, then use an online code-validation tool to make sure your online RSS feed works: http://feeds.archive.org/validator/ You asked whether the links in the RSS feed should point to a permanent URL, or to the AndrewTobias.com site. Since RSS feeds are considered dynamic content, and are queried each time a user wants to see it, you do not need to maintain any historic links. What this means is that, if you have an RSS feed that specifies today's headlines from the AndrewTobias.com website, that file should only be available for as long as the linked articles themselves are available. As soon as you update the AndrewTobias.com website, you should simultaneously update the RSS feed to link to the new articles. Now, some webmasters choose to use the full capacity of an RSS feed (technically 15 links) to include links to recently archived articles; if you choose to do the same, such as for example listing a week's worth of headlines (1-2 per day) in the RSS feed, then the URL for each of those articles should be one that is valid for as long as the headline link appears in the RSS feed. In all cases, though, readers expect that RSS feeds are updated regularly with the latest headlines, so best to keep it short and simple. In your case, since the AndrewTobias.com homepage already provides links to the past six columns (as well as the current one), you will probably want to include at least the current headline, as well as the past two or three. Please do not make your RSS feed too long, remember that the point of an RSS feed is to help your users keep current on the latest developments without requiring them to necessarily visit your site each and every day to check for the latest headline. Also, resist the urge to include anything else besides the headlines in the feed. So, no links to 'books', 'bio', or other sections of the site. Since RSS stands for 'Really Simple Syndication', you want to keep it really simple and to the point. That point being the headlines of the day. One challenge you may encounter, is coming up with a way to generate the description for each link. At a minimum, you have the title for each column. Many syndicators simply include the first line or so from their article as a teaser to the content. Other syndicators go to the trouble of writing a short, pithy summary (10-15 words). Since you will be manually creating the RSS feed through your content management tool, you will want to give some thought to how to best use the description field in the feed. I suggest using your dateline and your sub-headline as the description. As an example, here is what your current RSS file can look like: ============================================== (this would be saved as, for example, http://www.andrewtobias.com/andrewtobias.rss) <?xml version="1.0" ?> <rss version="2.0"> <channel> <title>Andrew Tobias</title> <description>Money and Other Subjects - Columns by the financial guru</description> <link>http://www.andrewtobias.com</link> <language>en-us</language> <item> <title>Transcripts</title> <description>Published on March 25, 2004</description> <link>http://www.andrewtobias.com/newcolumns/040325.html</link> </item> <item> <title>Two Thousand Bottles of Beer on the Wall</title> <description>Published on March 24, 2004 - Andrew Tobias' two thousandth column!</description> <link>http://www.andrewtobias.com/newcolumns/040324.html</link> </item> <item> <title>Selling Some TIPS</title> <description>Published on March 23, 2004 - At 132 or so, up from 99 when we first started discussing them in this space (plus interest and inflation), I?m selling a third of my 30-year Treasury Inflation Protected Securities ,,,</description> <link>http://www.andrewtobias.com/newcolumns/040323.html</link> </item> <item> <title>Ignoring the Threat</title> <description>Published on March 22, 2004 - Don?t take Paul O?Neill?s word for it. He was just the President?s Treasury Secretary. His experience of the Bush Administration is ...</description> <link>http://www.andrewtobias.com/newcolumns/040322.html</link> </item> </channel> </rss> ============================================== Now, anyone who has configured their RSS application to grab http://www.andrewtobias.com/andrewtobias.rss will see four headlines appear/scroll in their application. Any webmaster who chooses to syndicate with you to dynamically display your RSS feed on their webpage, can count on there being the four most recent columns linked in the feed. Your responsibility will be to update this file every day, by removing the last <item></item> group, and adding a new one (for the new column) at the top (after the </language> tag). For more examples of how others are using and formatting their RSS feeds, please check out the links that I provided in a previous related Answer: http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=309520 Specifically, once you have your feed up and running, you will want to submit it to some of the online RSS directories to aid in getting the word out. A prime one for this is Syndic8.com: http://www.syndic8.com/ I hope that this helps you with your task. Please let me know if there is any part of this Answer that you would like clarified before you rate and accept it. You can use the "Request Clarification" button above for this purpose. Best regards, aht-ga Google Answers Researcher