Please DO Feed the Sites: What Is RSS? November 18, 2006
Posted by ptvGuy. Comments: 6 comments
…an indispensable part of standard web development…
Before I begin this discussion explaining RSS to you as if I were this fount of knowledge that clearly recognized its value from the very first moment I saw it, the fact is that my initial impression after a cursory look-over several years ago was that it was only useful to blogs and news-oriented sites. Outside of syndicating teasers of news headlines and blog posts, not a single aspect of its current usage occurred to me, and I never expected it to become an indispensable part of standard web development or to redefine the web as I knew it. So, if you can forgive me that incredible oversight, then we can get on with this…
RSS as an Update Announcer
…users are notified whenever there's new content posted to the feed…
To explain what RSS is and why it has everyone so excited, let me just start out on common ground with something we already know, a traditional website. Traditionally, a website contained whatever content may have been put on it and that content may be static or may change constantly. The problem here has always been that a user had no way of knowing when or if that content had changed other than checking back periodically or being notified by someone.
RSS solved that problem by "announcing" content updates. A site owner creates a special file called an RSS file along with a link to it, and this creates a "web feed." A web feed is a data format used for sending users content updates. Users have the option of "subscribing" to this feed either through a stand-alone desktop application called a "feed reader," through an online content aggregator like Newsburst, or, increasingly, directly through their standard web browser. Once subscribed, users are notified whenever there's new content posted to the feed. That's all well and good, but it doesn't end there.
RSS Web Feeds
…a web feed is actually just an extremely simple text document…
An RSS web feed is actually just an XML-based file that sits on a site like any other file and contains whatever content the site owner wants to put into it for distribution. It can be created and maintained manually or dynamically (preferably the latter.) Part 3 of this series will cover the creation of such feeds. There's not really a lot to it.
I don't want to lose you in the terminology or the acronyms here. An XML document–especially of the type we're talking about here–is an extremely simple text document. The markup has certain similarities to HTML, but where HTML defines how to display the content, XML categorizes the content (for instance, identifying title, description, author, etc.) and does it in a machine-readable format which means that different software on different operating systems on different platforms can easily access and display that content. This is the part that allows for syndication. Numerous applications exist that look for such files, read the content, and parse it back out for use elsewhere.
RSS for Content Syndication
…content syndication is the primary use of RSS…
Content syndication is (by definition) the primary use of RSS. Originally, RSS files listed just the title of a piece, the author, the date of publication, a link back to the original content, and a quick summary to act as a kind of teaser to get you to go back to the original site to read the article–hence the mistaken view that it was only good for blog posts and news headlines. Now it includes syndication of full content–including HTML–along with "enclosures" to contain multimedia content like images, audio files, and video files and that content is being used in ever more imaginative ways. This needn't scare you away from using it.
RSS Content Usage
…the underlying workhorse or building block of Web 2.0…
Primarily, RSS syndicated web content simply turns up in some form of RSS reader for the usage of an individual who wants to remain informed of content updates on your site. However, this syndication of content along with the inherent extensibility of XML allows for a kind of web presence and sharing of content that was never available before. It's the underlying workhorse or building block of the entire "Web 2.0" movement.
Web content stored and distributed in this manner can be accessed and processed in ways similar to database applications allowing your content to simply be replicated elsewhere or become the basis for an application built on the underlying data. It can turn up as content on another website. It's absolutely adored by search engines (practically search bot candy) which will often index it far faster and with better results than equivalent content on a standard HTML page.
Think syndication, not coordination. Simple web services, like RSS…are about syndicating data outwards, not controlling what happens when it gets to the other end of the connection. This idea is fundamental to the internet itself, a reflection of what is known as the end-to-end principle.
–Tim O'Reilly, What Is Web 2.0?
As much as I agree with the ideal expressed here by Tim O'Reilly, I tend to take a more pragmatic approach. I encourage you, if you're considering RSS syndication of your content, to set up a Creative Commons License allowing for the distribution of your content while requiring the retention of source attribution and backlinking. It's not that you don't want anyone else to use your content, but you should get something out of it as well. The idea here is not only to increase your web presence but also your underlying user base.
What Is RSS
With all this background in mind, we can get more directly into what RSS actually is. Wikipedia puts it this way:
RSS is a family of web feed formats. The initials "RSS" are variously used to refer to the following standards:
- Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0)
- Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91, RSS 1.0)
- RDF Site Summary (RSS 0.9 and 1.0)
and Tim O'Reilly refines that further (as is his disposition):
RSS is now being used to push not just notices of new blog entries, but also all kinds of data updates, including stock quotes, weather data, and photo availability. This use is actually a return to one of its roots: RSS was born in 1997 out of the confluence of Dave Winer's "Really Simple Syndication" technology, used to push out blog updates, and Netscape's "Rich Site Summary", which allowed users to create custom Netscape home pages with regularly updated data flows. Netscape lost interest, and the technology was carried forward by blogging pioneer Userland, Winer's company. In the current crop of applications, we see, though, the heritage of both parents.
–Tim O'Reilly, What Is Web 2.0?
The hardcore purists out there aren't going to be too happy with this series of articles, because my focus, as I start describing how to create an RSS feed in the next article, will be on RSS 2.0, Dave Winer's "Really Simple Syndication." I've chosen that particular "flavor" of RSS because it allows me to really bring home the incredible simplicity of syndicating web content. My point here is to encourage more RSS usage, not scare anyone away.
What Are The Benefits of RSS?
…every single person reading your feed has willingly opted-in…
I've only touched on some of the benefits of having an RSS feed. Things like the inherent search engine optimization are secondary to the incredible expansion of your audience that comes about through content syndication. You reach people that you would never have reached before. You're able to communicate with them and show them the value of your station as a resource.
It's perfectly acceptable to sell advertising on your feed and include membership/support reminders. Keep this in mind always, unlike other methods of boosting membership, every single person reading your feed has willingly opted-in to receive your message. They won't consider it spam.
RSS was designed to empower the user to view the content he or she wants, when it's wanted, not at the behest of the information provider.
–Tim O'Reilly, What Is Web 2.0?
Where Do I Get The Content?
…even the tiniest station websites have content to syndicate…
The question of where to get the content to feed out always amazes me–especially in relation to a public television station website. Unless your site is absolutely static, unless there's nothing there that changes, unless it's the online equivalent of a pre-printed brochure, you have content to syndicate. Even the tiniest station websites are not excluded from this, because it's not about having money for great content productions.
If your station updates any of the following items on their website–even if it's only once or twice a month–you have content to syndicate:
- Program Highlights
- Station Events
- Station News Announcements
- Community Events
- Newsletters (including RTL and non-member-based eguides)
- Upcoming Pledge Drives
- Auction Announcements
- Etc., etc., etc.
Each of these can be fed into separate RSS files and syndicated separately. Each of them can be used to expand the station branding, presence, user base, message, and support reminders. Each of them will take their own roads through the Internet and reach people you would never have reached otherwise.
Some Final Words
RSS is an incredibly powerful tool easily implemented with enormous benefits going far beyond the station itself. I implore you, if you haven't done it already, then, for the good of your station, for the good of your users, and for the good of public broadcasting as a whole, please, please, feed your site.
Thank you all, code well, and good night.
KIXE Redesign: Frontpage and the Anal Coder July 30, 2006
Posted by ptvGuy. Comments: 7 comments…many of my projects will be coming as new web content…
I apologize to everyone for having been too busy to post anything here for the last month, but many of my projects will be coming your way as new station web content very soon. However, to get back into the swing of things, I bring you the KIXE redesign. I have maintained the KIXE website (such as it is) for several years now with a complete redesign always pending but never approved. It's horrible design and coding has always been a thorn in my side and, with the launch of their new logo and look, I've finally gotten the go-ahead.
KIXE is a small-market station based in Redding, California and serving an incredibly huge geographic area covering most of the northern end of the state–ten counties in all. This area runs the gamut from rural to mountainous to desert to farmland to just plain sparsely populated. Many of the people served by this station live in small towns and isolated communities, and home-schooling is quite common. If ever there was a place that could benefit from all of the incredible content (especially educational resources) that a PBS station website can bring, this is it.
…Piefecta is a beautiful piece of coding and highly adaptable…
There are a number of challenges to be met in getting KIXE's site up to standards. There's the usual content rescue wherein I have to find all of the actually useful content and extract it from the coding nightmare that it's currently buried in. There's the fact that it's hosted on a Windows 2003 server with a number of other sites, and I don't have the usual server control that I've been getting so spoiled on. There's the addition of an online auction and an eGuide that will require initial setup and long-term maintenance–probably with Microsoft Access interaction. However, the greatest challenge here–and I'm gritting my teeth and going forward anyway–is the absolute reliance on Microsoft Frontpage.
I'm not a Microsoft basher, so if you were hoping for a tirade on that subject, you'll have to look elsewhere. The web is full of them; they're not hard to find.
That kind of stuff always reminds me of those guys that see you putting a tiny nail in the wall with a little utility hammer and start in making derisive comments about what they call "housewife hammers." You have to cut off people like that before they start telling you how many ounces their "real hammer" is and let them know that the point is the job and not the tool. Best answer for that kind of stuff: "I could do it with a rock; I'm sorry that it requires so much more for you to accomplish the same thing."
…reworked it to cover one, two, and three column layout from a single CSS file…
So, how does one go about creating an accessible, standards-based, cross-browser compatible, dynamic website with a tool like Frontpage? Frankly, you cheat. You do as much as possible directly in the code, and you start with a standards-based design and rework it to fit your job. KIXE wants a site based on the PBS Be More Station Website Prototype which varies between differing static pages having one- to three-column rigid layouts and a header and footer. Therefore, I've decided to adapt the Piefecta layout to the prototype to achieve a standards-based, rigid-column design. [Thank you John and Holly.]
Piefecta is a beautiful piece of coding and highly adaptable. I've reworked it to cover one-, two-, and three-column layout from a single CSS file and even added in support for the three faux columns found in the center column of the homepage. If you'd like to see where this is at right now, then visit the KIXE test page. There are still a lot of internal styles to work in, but the primary layout is there and waiting to be filled.
…added in support for the three faux columns found in the center…
If you look closely, then you'll see that I've actually used a few proprietary Frontpage extensions for server side includes. This makes up for the fact that I don't have the .htaccess control of an Apache server here to hide my server processing in a plain HTML file. I don't want to create a site laid out with all the files having SHTML or ASP extensions as those tend to confuse people, so I will be making use of what the server offers me. I will be using both standard and timed Frontpage includes to run basic server preprocessing from a plain HTML file.
Keep checking back here as I update you not only on the progress of this redesign, but also on some great new tools that you'll be wanting to add to your station website soon.
Thank you all, code well, and good night.
