Introduction’s is expanded as Really Simple Syndication for web feed formats used to publish

frequently updated works such as blog entries, news headlines, audio and video in a
standardized format. Web feed benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content
automatically.RSS feeds can be read using software called an “RSS reader”, ”feed reader”,
or aggregator which can be web based, desktop based or mobile device based. A
standardized xml file format allows the information to be published once and viewed by
many different programs. The RSS reader checks the user’s subscribed feeds regularly for new
work, downloads Any updates that it finds, and provides a user interface to monitor and read
the feeds.

What is RSS?

 RSS stands for Really simple syndication

 RSS allows you to syndicate a site content
 RSS defines an easy way to share and view headlines and content.
 RSS files can be automatically updated
 RSS allows personalized views for different sites
 RSS is written in xml.

How RSS works?

 RSS is used to share content between websites.

 With RSS,you register your content with companies called aggregators
 Create an RSS document and save it with an .xml extension.
 Upload the file to your website.Next,register with an RSS aggregator
 Each day the aggregator searches the registered websites for RSS
documents,verifies the link,and displays information about the feed so
clients can link to documents that interests them.

RSS Example:

RSS documents use a self-describing and simple syntax.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?>

<rss version="2.0">

<channel>
  <title>W3Schools Home Page</title>
  <link>http://www.w3schools.com</link>
  <description>Free web building tutorials</description>
  <item>
   <title>RSS Tutorial</title>
   <link>http://www.w3schools.com/rss</link>
   <description>New RSS tutorial on W3Schools</description>
  </item>
  <item>
    <title>XML Tutorial</title>
    <link>http://www.w3schools.com/xml</link>
    <description>New XML tutorial on W3Schools</description>
  </item>
</channel>
</rss>

The first line in the document - the XML declaration - defines the XML version and the
character encoding used in the document.

The next line contains the <channel> element. This element is used to describe the RSS feed.

The <channel> element has three required child elements:

 <title> - Defines the title of the channel (e.g. W3Schools Home Page)
 <link> - Defines the hyperlink to the channel (e.g. http://www.w3schools.com)
 <description> - Describes the channel (e.g. Free web building tutorials)

The <item> element has three required child elements:

 <title> - Defines the title of the item (e.g. RSS Tutorial)

 <link> - Defines the hyperlink to the item (e.g. http://www.w3schools.com/rss)
 <description> - Describes the item (e.g. New RSS tutorial on W3Schools)

RSS is written in xml

Because RSS is xml,keep in mind that

∞ All elements must having a closing tag

∞ Elements are case sensitive
∞ Elements must be properly nested
∞ Attribute values must always be quoted.

How to use RSS?

1 - Using RSS on a desktop

RSS feeds are displayed by Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2. An RSS reader (or aggregator)
may also be installed on the operating system (Windows, Linux, Mac OS, etc...). resources.
Accessing the content depends upon the reader. This may be accomplished just by a click on
an "add" button to get the URL of the RSS feed, and let it added to a list of feeds.
2 - Using a feed on a website

The RSS feed is displayed as a list of titles (and optionally summaries). A click on a title
displays the new. Titles are updated automatically. A script in PHP or other language, builds
the list each time the page is displayed by loading the RSS file and extracting the data from
it. Some links to such tools are provided in resources.

How to publish news in an RSS feed?

There are several means to generate RSS feeds.

 Using the RSS library of PHP. A PHP script will build the XML file from titles and
descriptions of pages from the content of a page.
 Use a specialized tool to extract the data from a page.

Main RSS tags

rss. The global container.

channel. A distributing channel. It has several descriptive tags and holds one or
several items.

</rss>

Required tags for the channel

 title. The title of the channel. Should contains the name.

 link. URL of the website that provides this channel.
 description. Summary of what the provider is.
 one item tag at least, for the content.

<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
    <title>Xul</title>     
    <link>http://www.xul.fr/en/</link>
    <description></description>
    <item>
    </item>    
</channel>
</rss>

ptional tags for the channel

 language. The human language used for the text.

 docs. Where to find the doc for the format of the file, may be Harvard.
 webMaster. E-mail.
 pubDate. Publishing date.
 etc. See in the specification for more.
Items of the channel

Each item tag must hold these tags:

 title. Title of the article.

 link. The URL of the page.
 description. Summary of the article.

    <item>
        <title>Xul news</title>         
        <link>http://www.xul.fr/en-xml-rss.html</link>
        <description>... some text... </description>
    </item>
  

ptional tags for the channel

 language. The human language used for the text.

 docs. Where to find the doc for the format of the file, may be Harvard.
 webMaster. E-mail.
 pubDate. Publishing date.
 etc. See in the specification for more.

Items of the channel

Each item tag must hold these tags:

 title. Title of the article.

 link. The URL of the page.
 description. Summary of the article.

    <item>
        <title>Xul news</title>         
        <link>http://www.xul.fr/en-xml-rss.html</link>
        <description>... some text... </description>
    </item>
  

And some optional info for this article

 pubDate. Publishing date.

 guid. A string of character that is unique to designate this item.
  category. The category of the article.
 etc.

1) Define the source, by the channel tag

The channel will be the same for all your RSS feeds. These tags are required:
- title: the title of your website, may be the one in the title tag of the home page.
- link: the URL of your website: example: http://www.xul.fr
- description: description of your website, about 200 characters, this may be the text
assigned to the content attribute of the description tag, in the head section of the home page

 <channel>
    <title>XUL and XML</title>
    <link>http://www.xul.fr/en/</link>
    <description>XML graphical interface etc...</description>
  </channel>

2) Add an image

This is optional. Design a small image (88x31 for example) in a common format (gif, jpg, png)
and put in into the same directory that the RSS file.
The "image" tag is a sub-element of the channel tag
- url is the address of the image itself.
- link is the address of the page displayed when one clicks on the image.

<channel>
    <title> </title>
    <link> </link> 
    <image>
        <url>http://www.xul.fr/xul.gif</url>
        <link>http://www.xul.fr/en/index.php</link>
    </image>
 </channel>

3) Add a new

Now, we will add a web page to display an information. This is an "item" tag, a sub-element of
channel, and this components are required:
- title: the title of the article.
 link: the URL of the page.
- description: a summary of the article, about 200 characters.

Convert Feeds to A Database?

The RSS2SQL script allows you to easily create SQL databases from RSS feeds. When using
RSS2SQL script the publisher has complete control over the content in the resulting database.
Administrators and publishers control which RSS feed fields are used in the database, giving
them the flexibility to determine what data is inserted into the database.

What are the benefits to having an RSS feed?

RSS is beneficial to both publishers and website visitors. To keep things simple I have listed
just a few of the benefits for both publishers and website visitors.

RSS benefits for publishers:

1. Reaching new audiences through syndication

2. Improved search engine optimization
3. Easier and less expensive vehicle for communication than email.
4. Additional way to communicate with customers or potential customers.

RSS benefits for website visitors:

1. Website visitors do not have to release personal information in order to subscribe to an RSS
feed.
2. 100% opt-in, users control the content they wish to receive.
3. Faster method for scanning content (saves time)

RSS HeaderLiner is a webpage where

 You enter the basic information (title, description, link) into the website form.
 The website adds the XML RSS Feed Tags and generates the RSS Feed code.
 You cut-and-paste the code into the RSS Feed file.
 FTP or Upload the RSS Feed to the server.

Conclusion:
RSS is a wonderful tool to keep users informed about updates to web sites or podcasts.Sites
that frequently change or update information,such as new sites,or catalog sites that
frequently post new products or new articles,will find RSS a very useful tool.