Content Syndication With Rss

by Hammersley, Ben

• ISBN13: 9780596003838
• ISBN10: 0596003838
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-03-01
• Publisher: Oreilly & Associates Inc

Summary

RSS is sprouting all over the Web, connecting weblogs and providing news feeds. Originally developed by Netscape in 1999, RSS (which can stand for RDF Site Summary, Rich Site Summary, or Really Simple Syndication) is an XML-based format that allows web developers to describe and syndicate web site content. Using RSS files allows developers to create a data feed that supplies headlines, links, and article summaries from a web site. Other sites can then incorporate them into their pages automatically. Although RSS is in widespread use, people struggle with its confusing and sometimes conflicting documentation and versions.Content Syndication with RSSis the first book to provide a comprehensive reference to the specifications and the tools that make syndication possible.Content Syndication with RSSoffers webloggers, developers, and the programmers who support them a thorough explanation of syndication in general and RSS in particular. Written for web developers who want to offer XML-based feeds of their content, as well as developers who want to use the content that other people are syndicating, the book explores and explains metadata interpretation, different forms of content syndication, and the increasing use of web services in this field.This concise volume begins with an introduction to content syndication on the Internet: its purpose, limitations, and traditions, and answers the question of why would you consider "giving your content away" like this? Next, the book delves into the architecture of content syndication with an overview of the entire system, from content author to end user on another site. You'll follow the flow of data: content, referral data, publish-and-subscribe calls, with a detailed look at the protocols and standards possible at each step. Topics covered in the book include: Creating XML syndication feeds with RSS 0.9x and 2.0 Beyond headlines: creating richer feeds with RSS 1.0 and RDF metadata Using feeds to enrich a site or find information Publish and subscribe: intelligent updating News aggregators, such as Meerkat, Syndic8, and Newsisfree, and their web services Alternative industry-centric standards If you're interested in producing your own RSS feed, this step-by-step guide to implementation is the book you'll want in hand.

Author Biography

Ben Hammersley is an English emigre, living in Sweden, with his wife, three greyhounds, a few hundred deer, and a two-way satellite connection. For a day job, he writes for the British national press, appearing in The Times, The Guardian, and The Observer, but in his free time, he blogs excessively at www.benhammersley.com and runs the Lazyweb.org ideas site. As a member of the RSS 1.0 Working Group, he survived the Great Fork Summer, and as a journalist he has been accosted by the secret police of two countries. To this day, he doesn't know which was worse.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Introduction	1	(9)
What Is Content Syndication?	1	(1)
A Short History	1	(7)
Why Syndicate Your Content?	8	(1)
Legal Implications	8	(2)
Content-Syndication Architecture	10	(6)
Information Flow and Other Metaphors	10	(2)
And at the Other End	12	(1)
Structuring the Feed Itself	12	(2)
Serving RSS	14	(2)
The Main Standards	16	(10)
RSS 0.91	16	(2)
RSS 0.92	18	(3)
RSS 2.0	21	(2)
RSS 1.0	23	(3)
RSS 0.91, 0.92, and 2.0 (Really Simple Syndication)	26	(16)
RSS 0.91	26	(5)
RSS 0.92	31	(2)
Creating RSS 0.9x Feeds	33	(6)
Once You Have Created Your Simple RSS Feed	39	(3)
Richer Metadata and RDF	42	(13)
Metadata in RSS 0.9x	42	(5)
Resource Description Framework	47	(3)
RDF in XML	50	(5)
RSS 1.0 (RDF Site Summary)	55	(17)
Walking Through an RSS 1.0 document	57	(3)
The Specification in Detail	60	(4)
Creating RSS 1.0 Feeds	64	(8)
RSS 1.0 Modules	72	(38)
Module Status	72	(38)
RSS 2.0 (Simply Extensible)	110	(7)
The Specification in Detail	110	(4)
Module Support Within RSS 2.0	114	(1)
Producing RSS 2.0 with Blogging Tools	115	(2)
Using Feeds	117	(15)
Using RSS Feeds Inside Another Site	117	(7)
Other Outputs and Selective Parsing	124	(8)
Directories, Web Aggregators, and Desktop Readers	132	(17)
Directories: Introducing Syndic8	132	(8)
Web Aggregators: Introducing Meerkat	140	(4)
Desktop Readers	144	(5)
Developing New Modules	149	(12)
Namespaces and Modules with RSS 2.0	149	(1)
Case Study: mod_Book	150	(5)
Extending Your Desktop Reader	155	(1)
Introducing AmphetaDesk	156	(5)
Publish and Subscribe	161	(18)
Introducing Publish and Subscribe	161	(3)
Rolling Your Own: LinkPimp PubSub	164	(2)
LinkpimpClient.pl	166	(13)
A. The XML You Need for RSS	179	(11)
B. Useful Sites and Software	190	(5)
Index	195