Rss Feeds

[kaseytraeger]

My question is about RSS, and since I don't really know what it is, I'm not sure which forum it belongs in ... Backend? Scripting? Forum moderators, will you please move this to a more appropriate forum? Thanks.

 

OK, on to my question.

 

I just installed the MT-Blacklist plugin to my blog. In reading the documentation about keeping MT-Blacklist up-to-date with current spammer info, there was discussion about using an RSS feed to keep it updated on my web site. I had no idea what RSS was, so I did a bit of reading about it on the XML.com web site. What did I learn? I learned that

RSS is a format for syndicating news and the content of news-like sites...

As it more closely pertains to my situation (blogs), I also learned that

Many weblogs make content available in RSS. A news aggregator can help you keep up with all your favorite weblogs by checking their RSS feeds and displaying new items from each of them.

 

My questions...

1. Do I actively install an RSS feed into my blog, or is it coded within the XHTML?

2. Once an RSS feed is "installed," will I need to do anything to make it update, or is it automatic? I've had to clear some cache in my brain and create a new "RSS" subfolder, which I'm now filling with information. So please pardon me if I speak in newbie tones. But in my very simplistic view of RSS at this point, I see it as being a service that goes out and pings some other website, then does an "are you there"/"handshake" kind of thing which, if successful, will allow it to bring fresh information back to my web site.

3. MT-Blacklist offers RSS feeds in format 1.0 or 2.0. Which format should I use, and why? What is the benefit of one format over the other? From my reading, format 2.0 seems simpler while 1.0 seems more complex. Based on that numbering, that would seem backwards (you'd expect 1.0 to be simpler than 2.0), but from what I read, that's how I understand it to be. I'd appreciate any clarification if I'm wrong.

3. Does TCH have a beginner's tutorial on RSS? If not, does someone here know enough about it to give me an overview of it and what it can do, in kindergarten-like terms? What I read on XML.com was nice-enough, but it was just a teensy bit over my head until I have enough of a grasp of what RSS is and its uses.

 

Thanks all

 

TGIF!

[vfwlkr]

If you're using MT, its probably already creating a file called index.rdf in your blog directory.

[TCH-Bruce]

From this page: http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/12/18/dive-into-xml.html

 

RSS is a format for syndicating news and the content of news-like sites, including major news sites like Wired, news-oriented community sites like Slashdot, and personal weblogs. But it's not just for news. Pretty much anything that can be broken down into discrete items can be syndicated via RSS: the "recent changes" page of a wiki, a changelog of CVS checkins, even the revision history of a book. Once information about each item is in RSS format, an RSS-aware program can check the feed for changes and react to the changes in an appropriate way.

 

This page also has information on the different formats of RSS.

 

Moveable Type creates several index files for RSS feeds.

atom.xml

index.rdf

index.xml

 

You would need a news aggregator to display the content properly. I use Abilon (Windows only and free) for my aggregator.

Edited May 7, 2004 by TCH-Bruce

[LisaJill]

There are a lot of different formats that you can have with RSS feeds as well. You can have excerpts of your posts, full posts (my preference), posts with comments, comments only, etc etc.

 

I use Bloglines (so that I can check my rss feeds remotely as well) (http://www.bloglines.com) to get my rss feeds. MT creates feeds with excerpts of those three types automatically, but if you wanted to deliver a different type or multiples, you can edit them in the Templates screen or add new ones via adding a new Index Template.

 

Also, be careful with hotlink protection; because if you decide to turn off direct hotlinking it can cause problems. I also allowed Bloglines to grab my pictures for display; but there are so many out there it's hard to guess for everyone. =)

 

As far as preferred format; I tend to stick with RSS 1 or Atom. RDF is just an older version of RSS as far as I understand it; and RSS is now widely supported. Atom is still new but is also fairly widely supported. I use my atom feed to syndicate my site to livejournal, which is kind of neat for my lj friends (lj people sometimes don't like to have to go elsewhere *grins* stereotype, but I've found it true!)

 

I even deleted my rdf feed from my site and stuck only with the .xml (rss 1.0) feed; as I like to keep up fewer templates, not more.... well that was when I was using MT, with my new site I keep available rss 1.0 and atom. =)

[kaseytraeger]

As far as preferred format; I tend to stick with RSS 1 or Atom.  RDF is just an older version of RSS as far as I understand it; and RSS is now widely supported.

...

I even deleted my rdf feed from my site and stuck only with the .xml (rss 1.0) feed; ...

Lisa,

 

I just went to the site that Bruce posted. I'm confused by what I saw on that page when trying to match it to your explanation.

 

The web site says that RSS 1.0 is recommended for use in RDF-based applications or if you need advanced RDF-specific modules. But you said that you deleted the RDF feed from your web site and stuck with the RSS 1.0 XML feed.

 

I hate to be a nin-come-poop lame-brainer, but I'm not following the jargon. Are there actually two different types of RSS 1.0? That being one type that's RDF-based and another that's XML-based? I don't understand how you could delete the RDF feed but still have RSS 1.0. Of course, I may be misunderstanding the information posted on the page Bruce provided, which is probably the case.

 

Ya know, I love learning new stuff, :Nerd: (that's brainy me trying to learn!) but sometimes the learning curve just kills me!

[LisaJill]

I am really very bad with the jargon, and all this rss stuff sort of sends me in a spin too.

 

But basically, in Movabletype, the .rdf file is RSS 1.0. The .xml file is RSS 2.0. So I sticked with the newer version rather than keeping up several templates (I already had approximately 26 in my main weblog, and 40 placed through other weblogs)

 

To my knowledge, anyone tht could read the .rdf could read the .rss; so for the purposes of weblogging in general, there was no reason I could see to bother keeping up both templates. =)

 

Does that make sense?