Prof. Burks Oakley II Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs Director, University of Illinois Online Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Illinois January 2006 The What, Why, and How of RSS

Really Simple Syndication RSS - Really Simple Syndication An RSS file is a small text file that provides a concise summary of the content of a web page The RSS file is revised every time the web page is updated RSS is used for information dissemination - requires very little bandwidth RSS written in XML (eXtensible Markup Language)

Definition of RSS [More than you want to know] RSS is a family of XML file formats for Web syndication used by news websites and weblogs. The abbreviation is used to refer to the following standards: –Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91) –Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0)

Definition of RSS The technology of RSS allows Internet users to subscribe to websites that have provided RSS feeds; these are typically sites that change or add content regularly. Unlike subscriptions to many printed newspapers and magazines, most RSS subscriptions are free.

RSS – The Essentials Essential elements of an RSS file –Title –Link (hyperlink) –Description RSS enables users to create customized sources of information Users “subscribe” to an RSS “feed” (The transmission or conveyance of a local radio or television program, as by satellite, on the Internet, or by broadcast over a network of stations.)

Example of RSS Feeds

NY Times Homepage - RSS NYT > Home Page New York Times > Breaking News, World News & Multimedia Mon, 12 Dec :05:00 EST Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company en-us …

RSS News Feeds – Health NY Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Miami Herald, BBC News s.xml

RSS Feed Aggregators Desktop software (stand-alone) –SharpReaderSharpReader –FeedReaderFeedReader –Wikipedia listingWikipedia listing Web-based –My Yahoo!My Yahoo! –NewsIsFree.comNewsIsFree.com –Wikipedia listingWikipedia listing

RSS Feeds for Health

Refresh Rate

Distribution via RSS Other information can be distributed by RSS –Web logs – “blogs” –Digital photo collections, such as FlickrFlickr –Audio blogs – “podcasts” –Social bookmarking sites, such as Del.icio.us Del.icio.us Podcast:

Subscribe to RSS Feed RSS feed for a blog

Subscribe to RSS Feed RSS feed for a digital photo collection

Subscribe to RSS Feed RSS feed for a social bookmarking site

Blogs

Digital Photo Collections

Audio Blogs - Podcasts

RSS – Del.icio.us bookmarks

Things you can do with RSS News syndication Search for information via RSS Aggregate your feeds Display news on your website Display news on your mobile device Collect all your in RSS Get RSS content through your Track Fedex packages discount air fares Bargains at Ebay Get stock updates Get the weather reports What people are saying about you, your company, your products What people are saying about you, your company, your products Music, radio shows, TV clips Stay updated on someone's schedule Get cinema schedule updates Read your favourite comics What other people are surfing Automatically backup your weblog posts Get software updates Get the latest bittorrent files and p*** Shopping deals at Amazon.com and others Shopping deals at Amazon.com and others What your friends and family would like for Christmas What your friends and family would like for Christmas Be notified of traffic conditions Be notified of updates in police and fire department logs Be notified of updates in police and fire department logs Web metrics Virus and security alerts Events and happenings in your city Gaming statistics Search for jobs Easing government bureaucracy Create your own news aggregator page Keep track of your notes Find recent photos taken near you Build maps Make Tag Clouds All those sites without RSS Become a comment blogger Patent Searching Keep your acquaintances updated with your latest contact details Keep your acquaintances updated with your latest contact details Ditch Your Girlfriend Print Your Feeds

Web Display of RSS Feeds Web display of syndicated content via RSS Online Learning Update –Portland Community CollegePortland Community College –Academic CommonsAcademic Commons –U of I OnlineU of I Online

Web Display of RSS Feeds

RSS to JavaScript Dynamic Pages –

RSS 2.0 and Atom 1.0 [More than you want to know] People who generate syndication feeds have a choice of feed formats. As of mid-2005, the two most popular formats are RSS 2.0 and Atom 1.0.RSS 2.0Atom 1.0 Blogger.com (owned by Google) uses Atom 1.0. Feedburner.com can convert Atom 1.0 feeds to RSS 2.0 feeds (this is a free service). Feedburner.com

RSS 2.0 and Atom 1.0 Many “RSS” feed aggregators, such as SharpReader and MyYahoo!, can “read” both RSS 2.0 and Atom 1.0. My Yahoo! supports RSS 0.90, 0.91, 0.92, 1.0, and 2.0 and Atom 1.0.

An (Optional) Assignment Create an account at Yahoo! (if you don’t have one already).Yahoo! Download and install a free, stand-alone feed aggregator, such as SharpReader.SharpReader Subscribe to at least one news feed and one blog feed using MyYahoo! (web-based) and the stand-alone feed reader.

The What, Why, and How of RSS Burks Oakley II web: Submit questions to Rob Reilly: This work is licensed under a Creative CommonsCreative Commons Attribution – NonCommercial - ShareAlike 2.5 LicenseAttribution – NonCommercial - ShareAlike 2.5 License.