Integrating RSS into Your Web site Part 1

Integrating RSS into Your Web site Part 1: Introduction Michael Sauers Technology Innovation Librarian Nebraska Library Commission Computers in Libraries 15 April 2007

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Introductions • • • Name Library Position Does your library use RSS? If so, how? Why are you here? 3

What is RSS? • Depending on who you ask it stands for either “Really Simple Syndication”, “Rich Site Summary”, or “RDF Site Summary”. • “Really Simple Syndication” is the de facto definition today. • RSS is an XML language for syndicating news items on the Internet. 4

The History of RSS • RSS 1. 1 (update to RSS 1. 0), RSS 3. 0 (a new, independent project), and “Simple Sharing Extensions” (an update to RSS 2. 0 by Microsoft) have all been proposed but have had no impact yet. 5

How does RSS work? • The information provider creates an RSS file. • Users subscribe to the file via an aggregator. • When the author updates the RSS file, the user is automatically notified of the new items and may read them on their schedule. 6

Implications of RSS • Information received in a single location • Information received in quickly • Reduced need to visit the originating Web site 7

Are there different versions of RSS? • Yes. In fact, there are currently eight different versions: RSS 0. 90, 0. 91, 0. 92, 0. 93, 0. 94, 1. 0, 2. 0, & Atom Feeds • Each has different features from the author’s point of view. • Today’s aggregators support all of the versions transparently. • RSS 2. 0 & Atom are the most common. 8

What does RSS look like? <? xml version="1. 0" encoding="UTF-8" ? > <rss version="2. 0"> <channel> <title>BCR: The Third Indicator</title> <link>http: //www. bcr. org/publications/thirdind /</link> <description>The Third Indicator, published monthly, is a technical memo focusing on OCLC products and services. It includes general OCLC news as well as detailed technical information on cataloging, reference and resource sharing. Announcements of new OCLC developments are also included. </description> <last. Build. Date>Tue, 21 Sep 2004 21: 37: 39 GMT</ last. Build. Date> <generator>List. Garden Program 1. 01</generator> <docs>http: //blogs. law. harvard. edu/tech/rss </docs> <item> <title>World. Cat Resource Sharing Training</title> <link>http: //www. bcr. org/publications/thirdind/2004/august/augsharetrain 04. htm l</link> <description>If you'd like to see what World. Cat Resource Sharing looks like and learn more about it, visit the OCLC Web site at www. oclc. org/ill/migration/ or view the World. Cat Resource Sharing tutorial at www 5. oclc. org/downloads/tutorials/firstsearch/sv/rsbasics/intro/index. html /. </description> <pub. Date>Tue, 21 Sep 2004 19: 29: 47 GMT</ pub. Date> <guid is. Perma. Link="false">thirdind-2004 -08 -21 -19 -29 -47</ guid> </item> </channel> </rss> 9

How can I find feeds? • Feedster • Bloglines • Blogrolls A list of blogs/feeds read by another blogger • Look for the orange icon… 10

How do I subscribe to a feed? • Look for an orange icon: • Depending on your aggregator, the subscription procedure may range from copying and pasting the link to rightclicking and selecting “subscribe”. 11

More RSS icons • “Support the Common Feed Icon” by Rogers Cadenhead http: //www. cadenhead. org/workbench/news/2872/supportcommon-feed-icon 12

A standard icon? • The move is to establish this icon, originally proposed by the Firefox, folks as the syndication icon. • Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 7 will use this icon. • http: //www. feedicons. com/ 13

Podcasts • Uses RSS to syndicate audio content • RSS 2. 0 <enclosure> – Like adding an attachment to an e-mail • Audio Formats – MP 3 (Open Source) – AAC (Apple Proprietary) • i. Pod not necessary 14

Podcasts in i. Tunes 15

Notable Feeds • Librarian. net www. librarian. net • LISNews www. lisnews. com • The Shifted Librarian theshiftedlibrarian. com • The Travelin’ Librarian travelinlibrarian. info • Tame the Web tametheweb. com/ttwblog • Unshelved www. overduemedia. com • Paper. Cuts papercuts. tscpl. org • Gizmodo www. gizmodo. com • Security Now! www. grc. com/securitynow. htm • Inside The Net & This Week in Tech (TWi. T) thisweekintech. com • Boing boing. net • Google News • isbn. nu • del. icio. us • flickr 16

Integrating RSS into Your Web site Part 2: Reading Feeds Michael Sauers, BCR Internet Librarian 2006 22 October 2006

What is an Aggregator? • An aggregator is a type of software that retrieves syndicated Web content that is supplied in the form of a web feed (RSS, Atom and other XML formats), and that are published by weblogs, podcasts, vlogs, and mainstream mass media websites. -Wikipedia • It’s what you need to retrieve and read RSS feeds. 18

What are the different types of aggregators? • Standalone Clients – Feed. Reader, Radio User. Land • PIM add-ins – Pluck, News. Gator, intra. Vnews • Browser add-ins – Firefox, Sage • Web-based – Bloglines, News. Is. Free • A list is available @ http: //www. lights. com/weblogs/rss. html 19

RSS file in Firefox 20

RSS file in IE 6 21

RSS file in IE 7 b 3 22

RSS file w/ associated style sheet 23

Why do I need an aggregator? • Most importantly it makes the content of the feed readable • Checks for updates automatically • Notifies you of new information • Displays only new items for you • May allow you to sort and save information 24

Types of Aggregators • • • Client Add-on Built-in Server-based Web-based service 25

Feed. Reader (client) 26

Pluck (add-on for IE) 27

Firefox 1. 5 28

Netscape 8 29

IE 7 beta 2 30

Feed on Feeds (server) 31

Bloglines (Web-based service) 32

Subscribing to a feed 33

Bloglines Toolkit (for Firefox) 34

Subscribing via the Toolkit 35

The Bloglines Bookmarklet 36

Integrating RSS into Your Web site Part 3: Creating Feeds Michael Sauers, BCR Internet Librarian 2006 22 October 2006

How do I create a feed? • Hand-rolled You type the markup and the content • Semi-automated You type the content, software generates the markup. • Fully-automated You put the content in your blog and software generates a feed based on that content. 38

Feed. Spring 39

Feed. Spring 40

Feed. Spring 41

Feed. Spring 42

Feed. Spring 43

Feed. Spring 44

Feed. Spring 45

Feed. Spring • Limitations – Local installation limits mobility and posters to a single computer. – No built-in FTP. Must transfer the. xml file to the server manually. – Still in beta (but what isn’t these days? ) 46

Rapid. Feeds: Feed. Manager 47

Rapid. Feeds: Feed. Manager 48

Rapid. Feeds: Feed. Manager 49

Rapid. Feeds: Feed. Manager 50

Rapid. Feeds: Feed. Manager 51

Rapid. Feeds: Feed. Manager 52

Rapid. Feeds: Feed. Manager 53

Rapid. Feeds: Feed. Manager 54

Rapid. Feeds: Feed. Manager 55

Rapid. Feeds: Feed. Manager • Limitations – Registration does not work with newer e-mail addresses. (Insisted my. info address was invalid. ) – Does not allow publishing to another server so if the company disappears, your feed goes with it. 56

List. Garden 57

List. Garden 58

List. Garden 59

List. Garden 60

List. Garden 61

List. Garden • Limitations – Depending of type of server installed on, may not be secure. (i. e. no passwords on cgi -bin directories. ) 62

RSSxl 63

RSSxl 64

RSSxl 65

RSSxl 66

RSSxl • Limitations – Solid knowledge of HTML required to get parsing correct. – Works better on pages with simpler layouts. – The validation code “will change each month and you will need to visit this page for the new code. ” (Though I’ve found feeds continue to work without updating the code. ) – “If you are using this tool to publish an RSS feed from your website, then you must include a visible HTML link to www. wotzwot. com on your site next to the link to your feed like the following: ‘Powered by RSSxl’” 67

Sabifoo 68

Sabifoo 69

Sabifoo 70

Sabifoo 71

Sabifoo 72

Sabifoo • Limitations – Third party service could disappear at any time. – Doesn’t always work well with Yahoo! Messenger and AIM. – Does not interpret HTML in posts. 73

Twitter • What are you doing now? • Post via: – Web site – Clients – IM – SMS 74

Twitter 75

Twitter 76

Twitter • Limitations – 140 characters per post 77

RSS Calendar 78

RSS Calendar 79

RSS Calendar 80

RSS Calendar 81

RSS Calendar 82

RSS Calendar 83

RSS Calendar 84

RSS Calendar • Limitations – No importing from existing calendars 85

Integrating RSS into Your Web site Part 4: Republishing Feeds Michael Sauers, BCR Internet Librarian 2006 22 October 2006

Integrating feed content into your Web site • Grab content from multiple RSS feeds • Reduce and/or mash it • Republish it on your site 87

rss viewer 88

rss viewer 89

rss viewer 90

rss viewer 91

rss viewer • Limitations – Third party – Has a way to combine multiple feeds (feed combiner) but only those that are preprogrammed 92

Rapid. Feeds: My. Site 93

Rapid. Feeds: My. Site 94

Rapid. Feeds: My. Site 95

Rapid. Feeds: My. Site 96

Rapid. Feeds: My. Site 97

Rapid. Feeds: My. Site 98

Rapid. Feeds: My. Site 99

Rapid. Feeds: My. Site 100

Rapid. Feeds: My. Site • Limitations – Registration does not work with newer e-mail addresses. (Insisted my. info address was invalid) – Code supplied is longer than all others as it contains all the CSS. Would want to move that to an external file. 101

RSS 2 HTML 102

RSS 2 HTML 103

RSS 2 HTML 104

RSS 2 HTML 105

RSS 2 HTML 106

RSS 2 HTML 107

RSS 2 HTML 108

RSS 2 HTML 109

RSS 2 HTML • Limitations – Third party service. – Minimal customization / limited to their templates / can’t make it look like your site. – Did not work well on some feeds and not at all on others. (No luck with Google. News. Mixed results with Flickr. ) – Given a URL to embed with, not a script, which forces embedding via iframe. 110

Feed 2 JS 111

Feed 2 JS 112

Feed 2 JS 113

Feed 2 JS 114

Feed 2 JS 115

Feed 2 JS • Limitations – Third party (but you can download and install it on your own server which is recommended) 116

Feed. Digest 117

Feed. Digest 118

Feed. Digest 119

Feed. Digest 120

Feed. Digest 121

Feed. Digest 122

Feed. Digest 123

Feed. Digest 124

Feed. Digest 125

Feed. Digest 126

Feed. Digest 127

Feed. Digest • Limitations – Third party service. – Limited to five feeds in free version. 128

Scrolling RSS News Ticker 129

Scrolling RSS News Ticker 130

Scrolling RSS News Ticker 131

Scrolling RSS News Ticker 132

Scrolling RSS News Ticker • Limitations – Third party – Shows small advertisement 133

RSS Scrollbox Widget 134

RSS Scrollbox Widget 135

RSS Scrollbox Widget 136

RSS Scrollbox Widget 137

RSS Scrollbox Widget • Limitations – Third party – Shows small advertisement • Ad free, local-hosted version available for $35. 138

Grazr 139

Grazr 140

Grazr 141

Grazr 142

Grazr 143

Grazr • Limitations – Third party 144

Library. Thing Blog Widget 145

Library. Thing Blog Widget 146

Library. Thing Blog Widget • Limitations – Requires Java. Script – Requires Library. Thing account 147

Integrating RSS into Your Web site Part 5: Advanced Feed Manipulation Michael Sauers, BCR Internet Librarian 2006 22 October 2006

Feed. Blendr 149

Feed. Blendr 150

Feed. Blendr 151

Feed. Blendr 152

Feed. Blendr • Limitations – Could not get OPML importing to work. – Third party service could disappear at any time. – “If this blend is not accessed for more than 2 weeks, it will be removed from the database and will need to be recreated. ” 153

Feed. Burner 154

Feed. Burner 155

Feed. Burner 156

Feed. Burner 157

Feed. Burner 158

Feed. Burner 159

Feed. Burner 160

Feed. Burner 161

Feed. Burner 162

Feed. Burner 163

Feed. Burner 164

Feed. Burner 165

Feed. Burner 166

Feed. Burner 167

Feed. Burner 168

Feed. Burner 169

Feed. Burner • Limitations – Since by using this you get a new feed URL, it is not recommended you use it on existing feeds. – Your feed will be relying on a third party to work. If the company goes under, your feed will disappear. 170

Feed Crier 171

Feed Crier 172

Feed Crier • Limitations – Only three feeds for free – Free version advertisement supported – Works only with AIM 173

Zap. TXT 174

Zap. TXT 175

Zap. TXT 176

Zap. TXT 177

Zap. TXT 178

Zap. TXT • Limitations – Can’t handle feeds that require logins – Sometimes reports a feed as “not valid” and there’s nothing you can do about it. – Searches on multiple keywords are “OR” searches. “AND” searches don’t seem to be possible. 179

Mail 2 RSS 180

Mail 2 RSS 181

Mail 2 RSS 182

Mail 2 RSS 183

Mail 2 RSS • Limitations – Bloglines doesn’t like the RSS 2. 0 feeds, use the 1. 0 link instead – Mail automatically deletes after seven days – Feeds are limited to 20 items – Potential security issue when using Subscribe with Bloglines bookmarklet (next slide) 184

Mail 2 RSS 185

Rss. Fwd 186

Rss. Fwd 187

Rss. Fwd 188

Rss. Fwd 189

Rss. Fwd 190

Rss. Fwd 191

Rss. Fwd • Limitations – Some (including me) argue that converting RSS to e-mail defeats the purpose of RSS. 192

Feed 2 Podcast 193

Feed 2 Podcast 194

Feed 2 Podcast 195

Feed 2 Podcast 196

Feed 2 Podcast • Limitations – Your feeds are read by a computer generated voice. – Non-English words are not well supported. 197

Contact information Michael Sauers msauers@travelinlibrarian. info http: //travelinlibrarian. info/ http: //del. icio. us/travelinlibrarian/cil 2007/rss 198