RSSRSS Demystified Demystified

A presentation by Peter Bromberg, SJRLC (bromberg@sjrlc.org)

Syndication Syndication

Story is written

Story

is se

nt to

“the

wire”

Papers pick up

‘feed’ off the

wire

Story appears here

Syndication Syndication

Story appears hereHere

And HereAnd Here

And Here

And Here

Written once

Put on network

Appears in Appears in many many

paperspapers

Just like RSS. Just like RSS. Except…Except…

1.The ‘Article or “post” is written (usually on a blog)

2.The blog automatically creates a “Feed” and makes it available on the web

3.You use a “feed reader” to subscribe to the feed

4.You see updated headlines to your subscribed feeds in your feed reader.

It’s like creating your own customized newspaper!

RSS Syndication RSS Syndication

Article or “post” is written (usually on a

blog)

“Fee

d” is

avai

lable

on

the

web

You use feed

reader to

subscribe to the

feed

Article appears in your feed reader

1. The ‘Article or “post” is written (usually on a blog)

1. The ‘Article or “post” is written (usually on a blog)

You see updated headlines to your subscribed feeds in your feed reader.

2. Blog automatically creates a “Feed” and makes it available on

the web

2. Blog automatically creates a “Feed” and makes it available on

the webFeed subscription buttons Feed subscription buttons look like this:look like this:

Clicking on this button brings up the feed.

Do not be frightened by what you are about to see…

This is the feed This is the feed address. Highlight address. Highlight

and copy it.and copy it.

The rest of this gobbledygook is The rest of this gobbledygook is the XML code. Look away! Do not the XML code. Look away! Do not

concern yourself with it (unless concern yourself with it (unless your inner geek calls to you)your inner geek calls to you)

3. Use a “feed reader” to subscribe to the feed

•Bloglines (www.bloglines.com) is a free and popular Feed Reader

After Creating your free account, subscribe to the RSS feed by pasting the feed link into the

subscribe window

4. You see updated headlines to your subscribed feeds in your feed reader.

ALL My Feeds

Headlines from my blog. Click to read. You can

customize to see summaries too!

Feed we just

subscribed to

One Final bit of coolnessOne Final bit of coolness

In addition to reading feeds through In addition to reading feeds through a feed reader, you can “syndicate” a feed reader, you can “syndicate” the content to your own website or the content to your own website or intranet.intranet.

Let’s look at bloglines againLet’s look at bloglines again

My SJRLC FEEDS

One Final bit of coolnessOne Final bit of coolness

Now let’s look at these 3 feeds Now let’s look at these 3 feeds syndicated to a website…syndicated to a website…

One Final bit of coolnessOne Final bit of coolness

One Final bit of coolnessOne Final bit of coolness

You can generate javascript to do You can generate javascript to do this at: http://p3k.org/rssthis at: http://p3k.org/rss

Or use SuprOr use Suprglu: glu: www.suprglu.com to www.suprglu.com to see all your favorite feeds as one see all your favorite feeds as one webpage. Kinda like this… webpage. Kinda like this… sjrlc.suprglu.com sjrlc.suprglu.com

One Final bit of coolnessOne Final bit of coolness

Now go forth and syndicate

• Bloglines Feed Reader: www.bloglines.com

• Blogbridge Feed Reader: www.blogbridge.com

• Good article on Blogs and RSS: tinyurl.com/4s2hc

• RSS Flash Tutorial: www.palinet.org/rss/toti/tsstutorial.htm

• Sample blog: http://sjrlc.typepad.com

• Sample Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/sjrlc/news

• SJRLC Feeds: http://www.sjrlc.org/RSS

• Suprglu: www.suprglu.com

• Syndicate to your webpage: http://p3k.org/rss