What is RSS

1
What is RSS?
And how do I use it to make my life easier
2
But First My Conclusion
By the time I am done you will know what this
means
3
From Yahoo.comhttp//my.yahoo.com/s/about/rss/ind
ex.html
RSS is a popular way to pull in news and
information from across the Web. "Really Simply
Syndication" allows web sites and blogs to push
content to you easily. Say you come across a
blog you find fascinating. A click or two and it
now feeds directly to your My Yahoo! page. Works
the same for major media outlets like the New
York Times as for thousands of other sites across
the Web.
4
RSS is a marked up language just like HTML

• HTML
• Open and closed tags
• Few required tags
• Many optional tags
• Can be read by a browser
• Very free form in nature
• Usually hand coded

• RSS
• Open and closed tags
• Some required tags
• Some optional tags
• Can be read by a browser or aggregator
• Very structured in nature
• Usually generated by script

5
RSS Example Step by Step

• Information can be entered into a database
• A script uses this data and generates an RSS file

Static HTML can also be parsed by a script to
generate an RSS formatted file
6
All you need is the RSS URLExample
http//www.ri.gov/rss/1/pressrelease.rss
7
Sample RSS file with one channel (RISCA) and
three items.

• For each item
• Date
• Title
• Description
• Link

8
Making it look nice

• Parsers Allows you to display the RSS file on a
  web page
• Aggregators Allows you to display multiple
  files on a user configurable web page like My
  Yahoo or in a desktop RSS reader like Sage
• XLS Files Formats the actual RSS file to look
  good in a web browser, much like CSS does for an
  HTML page

9
A parser is a script which tells your webpage how
to display an RSS feed on that page.
RSS Parser Example Rex Parser, Magpie
10
An aggregator is an application or host which is
designed to display multiple RSS feeds
RSS Aggregator Exp MyYahoo, Sage, Pluck
11
An XLS file can be linked from within an RSS file
and will give a browser a default style sheet of
how to display the raw feed
RSS
XLS
Within Browser
12
Show me the Content!

• Look for the orange icon
• Yahoo search results
• RSS in Government (http//www.rssgov.com)
• RSS in News (http//www.feedster.com/)
• RSS in Blogs (http//www.blogdigger.com/)
• RSS in RI (http//www.ri.gov/rex/)

13
Embrace the Possibilities

• Information available on www.ri.gov/rex
• Other webmasters can help you
• We at RI.gov are ready to help as well