RSS news feed
RSS stands for really simple syndication. Websites are able to distribute information (for instance, news stories, headlines, event information, project updates, or excerpts from discussion forum) in a computer-readable format through an RSS news feed.
At present, Te Kete Ipurangi offers an RSS news feed of Just Up http://www.tki.org.nz/e/tki/news/index.php#justup, and the What's New and Editor's Choice on the Governance Community News page, http://www.tki.org.nz/e/community/governance/ and English Community News page http://www.tki.org.nz/e/community/english/.
What this means is:
- as an individual, you can receive news from different sources without having to search through websites all the time. Once you have installed a special browser called an aggregator on your computer, it sends an alert to your desktop when new articles have been published on particular sites (for instance, TKI and other trusted news sites like BBC online, Wired). The aggregator keeps track of your favourite sites and which articles you have read. See below for a list of software you can download.
- as an administrator of a website, you can display summaries of and links to the latest news and information from other sites. Keep your school website populated with free, up-to-date content from TKI, and other trusted news services.
You can learn more about RSS at http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/forum/fall03/rss.html.
RSS readers and aggregators
Google search result for a list of RSS readers and aggregators
directory.google.com/Top/Reference/Libraries/Library_and_Information_Science/
Technical_Services/Cataloguing/Metadata/RDF/Applications/RSS/News_Readers
For PC
FeedReader www.feedreader.com (1.23Mb)
Mac OS X
NetNewsWire ranchero.com/netnewswire (free 30 day demo, then USD39.95)
Safari RSS reader: http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/safari/
Mac OS X (2.4Mb)
Linux:
Straw (for GNOME) www.nongnu.org/straw
Web
If you can't install applications on your computer (for security reasons) then try
www.FeedReader.net which will let you paste in the URL and view it online.
How to use an aggregator (step by step)
- Select an aggregator from the list above that is appropriate for your computer.
- Download and install it on your computer. Follow the installation instructions that come with it.
- Start the program.
- Open your web browser and go to www.tki.org.nz/e/community/english (one of the TKI pages that has the RSS links).
- Scroll down the page. You will see a heading "Syndicate English What's New". Below it are two links: RSS 1.0 and RSS 2.0.
- Click on either of these links. A page of strange text will appear. This is the computer-readable format of the news.
- Go to the address bar of your browser and copy the page address. It might look something like www.tki.org.nz/e/community/english/eng_whatsnew_e.xml.
- In your aggregator, create a New Feed and paste in the link.
- Click the Accept or OK or Browse button and you should now be viewing the latest news from the site you selected
To find more news feeds, browse through your favourite websites, and look for small orange XML logo or a link that says RSS. It is often at the bottom of the home page. Follow the same steps to add a new feed to your aggregator.
How to display RSS on your own website
There are two ways to get RSS content displayed on your website. The easy way and the hard way.
The easy way
If you are using a content management system, it may include RSS
viewing tools. Check the documentation for details. It may be as simple
as pasting in the URL and configuring a few parameters.
If you have a hand-coded html website, or your content management system does not support incoming RSS, then you can use a third party RSS parser like www.feedroll.com/rssviewer. This company will monitor and cache the news feed for you, and provides simple javascript to include in your web page to display the content. The drawback is your site will have to display adverts, or you will have to pay for the service.
The hard way
Write some code. How much code and in what language depends on the
software installed on your web server. There are any number of RSS
parsers available in PHP, Perl, Python, Java, but this is a fast moving
field. Probably the best way is to search on Google for "RSS Parser"
and see what looks easiest to use.
A good introduction to the technical side of RSS can be found at http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss, or just try 'RSS tutorial' on Google.
Note: It is generally considered good manners to cache RSS data. If you have a busy website, you should not be requesting the RSS data from a third party site every time one of your pages is visited. Generally you should poll the RSS feed once an hour or once a day, and parse and store the results locally.
Technical notes
RSS is a broad name for a number of technologies that have evolved since 1997. It has followed the usual tortuous route of competing standards and incompatible versions. There are now two main formats:
- RDF (resource description framework or RSS1.0). See www.w3.org/TR/rdf-primer for the official primer.
- RSS2.0: for general purpose syndication
Many websites offer RSS feeds in both formats. Which format should you use? Whatever is easiest and most compatible with your software. It looks as though both standards will be around for the foreseeable future.
Further reading: The article 'What is RSS' at www.xml.com has a good summary: www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/12/18/dive-into-xml.html. webdesign.about.com/cs/rss/a/aa052603a.htm has some good introductory material and links to useful tools.