how to create rss feeds
 

How to Create RSS Feeds

Since any RSS-file is a specially formatted XML file, it can be edited with any XML-editor. And since XML-files are just plain text you can use any text editor, even Notepad, to create your first feed.

When manual feed creation becomes a headache, consider using RSS Creation Software

Step-by-Step guide to Creating an RSS Feed

Follow these steps to create a simple RSS feed manually.

1: Create an empty text file

Use Windows Notepad or any other text editor.

2: Add XML Declaration Tag

Since RSS is a dialect of XML, the first line in the feed must be the XML declaration.

<?xml version="1.0"?>

3: RSS Channel

Now it is time to add the rss XML tag, and the channel tag. All feed contents will go inside these two tags.

<rss version="2.0">
<channel>

4: RSS Feed Properties

Next step is to place information about the RSS feed such as it's title, it's description, it's language and a link to it's web-site. And finally add the lastBuildDate field which should be the date and time that the feed was last changed. This field is optional, but highly recommended.

<title>John Smith News</title>
<link>http://JohnSmithHomepage.com</link>
<description>Latest stories form John Smith</description>
<lastBuildDate>Mon, 12 Sep 2005 18:37:00 GMT</lastBuildDate>
<language>en-us</language>

5: Adding Items to your RSS Feed

Every RSS feed consists of items, and each item is an RSS Feed has a title, link, description, publication date, and (optionally) guid (unique identifier).

<item>
<title>My First Article</title>
<link>http://JohnSmithHomepage,com/Article1.html</link>
<guid>http://JohnSmithHomepage,com/Article1.html</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 12 Sep 2005 18:37:00 GMT</pubDate>
<description>It's my first article. Hello World!</description>
</item>
<!-- insert more items here -->

6: Add closing tags for Channel and RSS.

</channel>
</rss>

7: Validate your new RSS feed

After you have created your RSS Feed, validate it

Sample feed

Here's a sample RSS file which can be used as a template for your first feed:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<rss version="2.0">
  <channel>
    <title>John Smith News</title>
    <link>http://JohnSmithHomepage.com/</link>
    <description>Latest stories form John Smith</description>
    <language>en-us</language>
    <lastBuildDate>Tue, 10 Jun 2003 09:41:01 GMT</lastBuildDate>

    <item>
      <title>My First Article</title>
      <link>http://JohnSmithHomepage,com/Article1.html</link>
      <description>It's my first article. Hello World!</description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 03 Jun 2003 09:39:21 GMT</pubDate>
    </item>
    
    <item>
      <title>My Second Article - I have bought a cat</title>
      <link>http://JohnSmithHomepage,com/Article2.html</link>
      <description>I've boght a cat. Now I have a pet.</description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 17 Jan 2007 10:39:21 GMT</pubDate>
    </item>
	
  </channel>
</rss>