[DJ-R] RSS Feeds

   

Just recently we've added some RSS/XML Feeds to the DJ Topics and Gallery on DJ-Resource. On the internet there is an unwritten rule to use a certain symbol to indicate that the link behind it is an RSS/XML feed. On DJ-Resource there are currently 2 feeds available :

1. ////www.djresource.eu/rss-topics.php
   Syndicates the latest 15 added site topics, feeding the titles and short descriptions.
   
   
2. ////www.djresource.eu/rss-gallery.php
   Syndicates the latest 15 added images to the Gallery in a message with the title and album in a friendly way
   
   

What is RSS ?
RSS is not a standard or data format itself, it's un embrella that holds several formats that all do the same, but only in a slightly different way. RSS is a way of syndicating information in a very easy way and it is said that the meaning of RSS is Real Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary. Allthough there are total of 7 different RSS feeds, most are comatible with eachother.
RSS is what you call the feed, XML is that standard 'language' that is used in the feed. There is not 1 standard way of calling this type of data-stream. We'll be calling this an XML feed because that language in which the stream is has a clear name, the RSS protocall could be any of the ones on the following table. On DJ-Resource we use v2.0.

RSS/XML
The difference between RSS and XML is easy to explain : RSS is the name that is given to the way of syndicating and distributing the information. XML is the language in which the information is written.

 

More information about RSS and what it is can be found on these website :

• Official RSS 2.0 Specifications (at Harvard Law)
  http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss
  
  
• Userland
  http://rss.userland.com/
  
  
• General Info
  http://rss.pagina.nl/

Overview of all types

Version	Owner	Status	Recommendation
0.90	Netscape	upgraded to 1.0	Don't use
0.91	UserLand	upgraded to 2.0 (still used much)	Use for basic syndication.
0.92, 0.93, 0.94	UserLand	upgraded to 2.0	Use 2.0 instead
1.0	RSS-DEV Working Group	Stable core, active module development	Use for RDF-based applications or if you need advanced RDF-specific modules
2.0	UserLand	Stable core, active module development	Use for general-purpose, metadata-rich syndication

 

How can I read it ?
To read an XML feed you need a feed-reader installed on your PC. This is a very small programm that reads the news-headlins from site like you're checking mail. This can save you some time becasue you can keep track of a certain websites headline by running this program which will warn you when any of your feeds have new information.

The program I use is Feedreader which isa freeware Windows application that reads and displays Internet newsfeeds aka ATOM and RSS feeds based on XML. It supports ATOM and all major RSS formats. You can check the project page on Sourceforge to get the latest version and follow the developing process: http://sourceforge.net/projects/feedreader/.

WebMasters
When your a webmaster you could also include a XML feed in your website. Websites that are collecting RSS or XML feeds are called Aggrigators and there are lots of them. Most are setup to serve as a mass-data collecting centre. But if you want to include the latest headlines from www.djresource.eu to your site you could read any of our feeds and display the information in a news-column on your website. It's usual that you ALWAYS include the link to the information of the original site when displaying info from a feed on you website.

 

There are 2 more feeds to get from DJResource :

1. ////www.djresource.eu/rss-news.php
   Syndicates the latest 15 added news items.
   
   
2. ////www.djresource.eu/rss-forum.php
   Syndicates the latest 15 added images to the Gallery in a message with the title and album in a friendly way
   
   
   And these feeds we're already present :
   
   
   
3. ////www.djresource.eu/rss-topics.php
   Syndicates the latest 15 added site topics, feeding the titles and short descriptions.
   
   
4. ////www.djresource.eu/rss-gallery.php
   Syndicates the latest 15 added images to the Gallery in a message with the title and album in a friendly way