![](media/image1.jpeg){width="0.7222222222222222in"
height="0.7222222222222222in"}

**RSS Feeds Seminar Reference Guide**

**Presented by Web Manager University**

Russell O'Neill (russell.oneill@gsa.gov)

Steve Fleckenstein (stevefleck@gmail.com)

April 12, 2007

Table of Contents

Introduction [1](#introduction)

Reading RSS Feeds with RSSOwl [1](#reading-rss-feeds-with-rssowl)

Step 1: Get RSSOwl [1](#step-1-get-rssowl)

Step 2: Add Feeds to RSSOwl [2](#step-2-add-feeds-to-rssowl)

Step 3: Read the Feed in RSSOwl [5](#step-3-read-the-feed-in-rssowl)

Creating and Editing RSS Feeds with Firefox's RSS Editor Extension
[7](#creating-and-editing-rss-feeds-with-firefoxs-rss-editor-extension)

Step 1: Get the RSS Editor Extension for Firefox
[7](#step-1-get-the-rss-editor-extension-for-firefox)

Step 2: Creating a New Feed [8](#step-2-creating-a-new-feed)

Step 3: Setting Up the Channel for the Feed
[9](#step-3-setting-up-the-channel-for-the-feed)

Step 4: Creating Items in the Feed
[10](#step-4-creating-items-in-the-feed)

Step 5: Saving Your Feed [11](#step-5-saving-your-feed)

Testing Your Feeds in RSSOwl [11](#testing-your-feeds-in-rssowl)

RSS Editor Channel Information in RSSOwl
[12](#rss-editor-channel-information-in-rssowl)

RSS Editor Items in RSSOwl [13](#rss-editor-items-in-rssowl)

Additional Feed Testing [14](#additional-feed-testing)

Coding Podcast Feeds [16](#coding-podcast-feeds)

Highlighting RSS Feeds In Modern Browsers
[18](#highlighting-rss-feeds-in-modern-browsers)

Submitting Your Government RSS Feed to FirstGov.gov
[19](#submitting-your-government-rss-feed-to-firstgov.gov)

Publishing and Managing Your Feeds
[20](#publishing-and-managing-your-feeds)

Basic Approach [20](#basic-approach)

Pings [20](#pings)

Tracking [20](#tracking)

Advanced Approach Using FeedBurner
[21](#advanced-approach-using-feedburner)

Pings [21](#pings-1)

Tracking [21](#tracking-1)

URLs Mentioned in this Reference Guide
[23](#urls-mentioned-in-this-reference-guide)

# Introduction

This document will provide a reference guide that you can turn to if you
forget a step that was demonstrated at the RSS seminar. It is our hope
that you'll use the seminar and this guide to create and publish RSS
feeds on your own website.

# Reading RSS Feeds with RSSOwl

## Step 1: Get RSSOwl

You will find the zip file for RSSOwl at
<http://internap.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/rssowl/rssowl_1_2_win32_bin.zip>
. You can also always download the latest version at
[http://www.rssowl.org](http://www.rssowl.org/)

> **Please note**, RSSOwl is just one of many non-web-based RSS readers
> available. For a good list of RSS readers, visit
> <http://dmoz.org/Reference/Libraries/Library_and_Information_Science/Technical_Services/Cataloguing/Metadata/RDF/Applications/RSS/News_Readers>

![](media/image2.png){width="5.625694444444444in"
height="2.9368055555555554in"}

The provided version of RSSOwl requires no installation. Simply extract
the zip file to a location of your choice. Open the created folder and
double-click rssowl.exe to start the program.

![](media/image3.png){width="2.6458333333333335in"
height="2.1326388888888888in"}To ensure RSSOwl appears like it does in
the screenshots throughout this section, please ensure that, on the view
menu, there are checkmarks next to "toolbar", "quickview", and
"favorites."

## 

## Step 2: Add Feeds to RSSOwl

Before you can add an RSS feed to RSSOwl, you have to find a feed you're
interested in. Many websites offer feeds to keep you updated on the
newest content being offered. Find a feed that interests you and copy
the URL for the feed.

![](media/image4.jpeg){width="7.25in" height="2.4in"}

Click the "New" button in RSSOwl to begin the process of adding the
feed.

![](media/image5.jpeg){width="7.25in" height="1.125in"}

> **Tip:** If you click the down arrow next to "New" you can select
> "Category" to create folders for your feeds (similar to how you can
> create folders in Internet Explorer to organize your bookmarks).
>
> ![](media/image6.wmf){width="6.04375in" height="3.189583333333333in"}

After clicking "new," RSSOwl will open a dialog-box that will let you
enter information about the feed, as described below. Once you enter the
information, click the "OK" button to add the feed.

![](media/image7.jpeg){width="8.629861111111111in"
height="4.222222222222222in"}

## Step 3: Read the Feed in RSSOwl

![](media/image8.jpeg){width="8.629861111111111in"
height="4.792361111111111in"}

On the right side of RSSOwl, you'll see a list of your favorites.
Double-click on your newly added feed to open a tab showing the feed's
items. Unread items will appear in bold. If you click an item, a more
detailed description will appear below. If the item interests you, you
can click the link to open a browser window to access the shown URL.

You can aggregate an entire folder of feeds by right-clicking the folder
and selecting "Aggregate favorites." In this way, you can see all items
from several feeds at once. You can, for example, open all computer news
feeds in one window, instead of having to open each one individually.

![](media/image9.png){width="1.8416666666666666in"
height="2.240972222222222in"}

# Creating and Editing RSS Feeds with Firefox's RSS Editor Extension

## Step 1: Get the RSS Editor Extension for Firefox

There are two major ways to create RSS feeds for your website. One
method involves using a content management system to automatically
generate feeds using the content already in the system. The other way is
to manually create feeds. This approach involves manually creating the
XML files that represent feeds. You can do this by hand...but an easier
method is to use an editor that will create the required XML structure
for you.

During the seminar, we worked with the RSS Editor extension for the
Firefox web browser. This extension makes it easy to create your own RSS
feeds. You can download Firefox at <http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/> . If
you want to use Firefox, but can't install software on your machine
because of security restrictions, you can try using PortableFirefox from
<http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable> .
PortableFirefox installs by just placing all the files needed to run
Firefox in the directory of your choice.

No matter how you install Firefox, just visit
<https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=344&application=firefox>
while in Firefox and click "install now" to install the RSS Editor
extension.

> ![](media/image10.jpeg){width="6.809722222222222in"
> height="3.5694444444444446in"}

## Step 2: Creating a New Feed

To start the RSS Editor, start Firefox as described above, and then
access the "Tools" menu. Select "RSS Editor." Finally, choose how you'd
like to see the editor. The screenshots in this section are from the
"Float" option.

![](media/image11.jpeg){width="2.4631944444444445in"
height="2.564583333333333in"}

![](media/image12.jpeg){width="5.85in" height="3.8319444444444444in"}

Once the editor is open, select the "File" menu and select "New" to
start a new feed. You can also select "Open" to open an existing feed on
your computer, or "Open URL" to open a feed from a website.

## Step 3: Setting Up the Channel for the Feed

The channel tab describes your feed. The information you enter here
should describe the contents of the entire feed. The fields are
described below for your reference.

![](media/image13.jpeg){width="7.75in" height="4.027083333333334in"}

## Step 4: Creating Items in the Feed

After you fill out the channel information, you can click on the items
tab to enter information about the items in the feed. It is by using
this tab that you will update your feed by removing old items and adding
new items. Again, a description of what to enter into each field is
described below.

![](media/image14.jpeg){width="8.5in" height="4.506944444444445in"}

## Step 5: Saving Your Feed

Once you create all of the items for your feed, and describe the overall
theme for your feed via the channel tab, you're ready to save your feed
for publication to your website. You do this in the standard way of
selecting "Save" from the "File" menu.

![](media/image15.jpeg){width="7.75in" height="3.817361111111111in"}

Congratulations! You are now ready to publish your feed to your website.
Once there, you link to the XML file just like you link to any page on
your website. However, it's often useful to provide a page describing
what RSS feeds are for your users who may not be aware of feeds or how
to use them. And remember: feeds should be updated on a regular basis!

## Testing Your Feeds in RSSOwl

You can test your RSS feeds in RSSOwl before publishing them. Simply
open RSSOwl and selection "File" then "Open." Select your feed and it
will open in RSSOwl like any other feed.

The picture below shows how the fields in the RSS editor are displayed
in RSSOwl.

### RSS Editor Channel Information in RSSOwl

![](media/image16.jpeg){width="9.369444444444444in" height="5.2125in"}

### RSS Editor Items in RSSOwl

The image below shows where items appear in RSSOwl.

![](media/image17.jpeg){width="9.25in" height="4.942361111111111in"}

The image below show where an item's details appear in RSSOwl.

![](media/image18.jpeg){width="8.75in" height="4.627083333333333in"}

## Additional Feed Testing

By reviewing your feed in RSSOwl you can quickly identify problems with
content and format. Taking a few extra steps can also help you ensure
that your feed is ready for publishing and promotion.

FEED Validator (
[http://www.feedvalidator.org](http://www.feedvalidator.org/) ) is a
great tool for validating RSS feeds. Simply post your feed XML file to
your server (it must be a server that can be accessed from outside your
firewall) and submit the feed URL to FEED Validator. The resulting
feedback will identify potential problems with your feed. Note that
feeds can be valid but still have problems that prevent them from being
optimally consumed by feedreaders and other tools; FEED Validator
specifically identifies those problems.

Testing in Bloglines (
[http://www.bloglines.com](http://www.bloglines.com/) ) can also help
you identify tweaks that will optimize your feed. For example, you can
check to ensure that your site's favicon shows in the feed listing in
the navigation pane. You can also check the feed image you included in
the \<image\> tag of your feed.

![](media/image19.jpeg){width="6.8909722222222225in" height="3.475in"}

The above example shows a podcast feed; you can Bloglines and other feed
readers to test podcasts as well as regular RSS feeds. When testing a
podcast feed you should also subscribe to the podcast via iTunes and
test your feed in iTunes to make sure it is optimized properly. See
<http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/itunes/it5-1.html> for more
information on subscribing to a podcast via iTunes. More information on
coding iTunes-friendly podcast feeds appears in the next section.

When testing earlier versions of your feed with external testing or
validation services you should use a feed that includes a small number
of items with recent publish dates. This will prevent the services from
caching older feed items that may be difficult to remove when you launch
the final version of your feed.

# Coding Podcast Feeds

Podcast feeds are simply RSS feeds with additional code that specifies
links to audio or video files. The \<enclosure /\> and \<guid\> tags
link to the media files on your server, for example:

> \<enclosure length=\"1836513\"
> url=\"http://www.yoursite.gov/audio/sample.mp3\"
> type=\"audio/mpeg\"/\>
>
> \<guid\>
>
> http://www.yoursite.gov/audio/sample.mp3
>
> \</guid\>

The enclosure length is the file size of your audio or video file in
bytes; you can obtain this by examining the properties of the media
file. Note that the single \<enclosure /\> tag is self-contained; there
is no closing tag.

While addition of the \<enclosure\> tag is sufficient to transform a
plain RSS feed into a podcast, you should also include iTunes-specific
tags in your podcast feed. According to FeedBurner, in April 2006 iTunes
accounted for over 50% of podcast subscriptions so it only makes sense
to optimize your feed for iTunes.

You will add code at the \<channel\> level of your feed that provides
information about the feed, and you'll also add code at the \<item\>
level to provide iTunes with information about each individual podcast
episode. iTunes tags all include the itunes text string; inclusion of
these tags will not interfere with consumption of the feed by other feed
readers.

One key channel-level tag identifies the category(ies) in which your
podcast will be shown in the iTunes Store (ITS). Users who browse
podcasts on ITS will be able to locate your podcast more easily if it
has the proper category tags. On the next page is the main Government &
Organizations screen on ITS:

![](media/image20.jpeg){width="7.375in" height="4.360416666666667in"}

The "standard" tagging for US Federal government podcasts is:

> \<itunes:category text=\"Government & Organizations\"\>
>
> \<itunes:category text=\"National\"/\>
>
> \</itunes:category\>

You'll find more information on iTunes podcast coding at

> <http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/podcaststechspecs.html>

# Highlighting RSS Feeds In Modern Browsers

![](media/image21.png){width="5.990972222222222in" height="2.74375in"}

Modern browsers (Firefox 1.5 and up, Opera 8 and up, Internet Explorer 7
and up, etc...) have the ability to highlight the RSS feeds on a site.
For example, Firefox 1.5 displays an icon
(![](media/image22.jpeg){width="0.16666666666666666in"
height="0.16666666666666666in"}) to indicate when a site offers RSS
feeds. A user can than click on the icon to show a list of the RSS feeds
available and allow them to quickly add a Firefox Live Bookmark for one
of the feeds.

So, how do you get these modern browsers to recognize the feeds on your
site? You add the following HTML to the \<head\> section of each of the
web pages on your site:

\<link rel=\"alternate\" type=\"application/rss+xml\" title=\"\[title of
feed\]\" href=\"\[URL for feed\]\"\>

You can place more than one of these \<link\> tags on your site if you
offer more than one feed. For example, MSNBC uses the following code to
get the effect shown above:

\<link rel=\"alternate\" type=\"application/rss+xml\" title=\"MSNBC -
Top Stories\"
href=\"http://rss.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032091/device/rss/rss.xml\"\>

\<link rel=\"alternate\" type=\"application/rss+xml\" title=\"MSNBC -
Most Viewed\"
href=\"http://rss.msnbc.msn.com/id/3058960/displaymode/1026/eventType/1/rss/rss.xml\"\>

# Submitting Your Government RSS Feed to FirstGov.gov

![](media/image24.jpeg){width="3.8652777777777776in"
height="4.5152777777777775in"}

Once you begin publishing RSS feeds to your Government sites, please let
FirstGov.gov know so that your feed can be added to the library of
Government feeds available at
<http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Reference_Shelf/Libraries/RSS_Library.shtml>
. A library of Government podcast feeds is available at
<http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Reference_Shelf/Libraries/Podcasts.shtml>

The easiest way to let FirstGov.gov know about your new feed is to use
the "Suggest-A-Link" feature that can be found on every page on
FirstGov.gov, or accessed at
<http://www.usa.gov/feedback/SuggestLinkForm.jsp> .

# Publishing and Managing Your Feeds

## Basic Approach

As mentioned above, the simplest way to publish your feed is to copy the
XML file to your web server and link to that file from other pages on
your site.

### Pings

While feed search engines and aggregators check for new versions of
feeds at least daily (some check as often as every 30 minutes) you
should use ping services to notify readers and aggregators when you've
published an updated feed. An initial ping to these services can also
notify them when you initially publish the feed, and pings are useful
when you want to make a time-sensitive feed item available immediately.

You can notify ping services manually by visiting a site and entering
feed URLs or automatically by submitting a ping to the service
programmatically whenever a feed is updated. Of course, automatic
notification is really only practical when you generate your feed
automatically (e.g., via a content management system).

For regular RSS feeds, you can use services like ping-o-matic (
[http://pingomatic.com](http://pingomatic.com/) ) &/or pingoat (
[http://pingoat.com](http://pingoat.com/) ) to easily notify multiple
aggregators and search engines. You can also ping bloglines at
<http://bloglines.com/ping> .

You can use these services to notify search engines and aggregators when
you update podcast feeds. To notify the iTunes Store about podcast
updates you should ping iTunes directly. You'll find more information on
iTunes pings is in the "Adding Episodes" section at

> <http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/podcaststechspecs.html>

### Tracking

Tracking RSS feed statistics is nearly impossible when publishing feeds
using the basic approach because subscriber activity is mingled together
with activities of search engines and feed aggregators. For example,
while a thousand users might subscribe to your feed via Bloglines they
will generally access the version of your feed that is cached on a
Bloglines server. You can't use traditional log file analysis to
determine hits to your feed file.

However, you can use log file analysis tools to track podcast-related
media file hits. Most tools can be configured to track statistics for
mp3 and mp4 file types. Of course, hits to media files generated via the
podcast feed become more difficult to measure if you also link to the
media files directly from other pages on your site.

While the basic approach offers advantages in terms of simplicity of
initial publishing and maintenance of total control over the feed, the
downsides to that approach are numerous. The additional work required to
send pings, along with the inability to gather meaningful metrics,
suggests that another approach to publishing and managing feeds should
be used.

## Advanced Approach Using FeedBurner

FeedBurner ( [http://www.feedburner.com](http://www.feedburner.com/) )
is a commercial feed publishing and management service. An in-depth
discussion of publishing feeds using FeedBurner is beyond the scope of
this document. But a few highlights of the service are worth mentioning.

### Pings

When you publish a feed using FeedBurner you can take advantage of the
PingShot ping service. This service automatically pings search engines,
aggregators and directories whenever your FeedBurner-published feed is
updated. Once you activate PingShot you will not have to perform any
additional steps (manual ping submissions, additional programming) to
send pings.

### Tracking

As of this writing, publishing feeds through FeedBurner provides the
only method to accurately track subscriber activity. The tracking tools
provide information on feed subscriber numbers, aggregator types, and
clickthroughs. This information can be used to measure the reach of your
feeds and provide ROI metrics to higher-level decision makers. On the
next page are sample FeedBurner statistics screen shots:

![](media/image25.jpeg){width="4.252083333333333in"
height="3.854861111111111in"}
![](media/image26.png){width="3.3097222222222222in"
height="2.415277777777778in"}

While it is easy to see the benefits of publishing feeds using
FeedBurner you should understand that initial feed publishing can be
more complicated and that you will end up relinquishing control of your
feeds to some extent. If you use the standard FeedBurner service,
subscribers to your feed will subscribe using a FeedBurner URL (e.g.
<http://feeds.feedburner.com/yourfeed> ) rather than a URL pointing to
your government domain. You can simulate the hosting of your feed on
your own domain by using FeedBurner's MyBrand service (see
<http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/publishers/mybrand> ), but this requires
advanced technical configuration and presents some additional challenges
when using a content delivery network such as Akamai.

For a more complete overview of Feedburner services visit

<http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/blogs>

and scroll down to the table outlining the different services.

A useful explanation of how FeedBurner works has been posted to the
FeedBurner blog at

<http://blogs.feedburner.com/feedburner/archives/2006/09/a_peek_inside_techcrunchs_100k.php>

# Gadgets

![](media/image27.png){width="2.375in" height="3.90625in"}Gadgets are
small applications that run on your computer's desktop all the time.
They allow users to get the information they need when they need it. RSS
feeds are a great example\...a RSS gadget allows you to view the latest
RSS feeds at any time, right from your desktop.

There are numerous providers of Gadgets (also called Widgets, depending
on the provider). Here's a list to get you started.

# URLs Mentioned in this Reference Guide

(listed in the order in which they were mentioned)

#### RSSOwl

http://internap.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/rssowl/rssowl_1_2_win32_bin.zip

[http://www.rssowl.org](http://www.rssowl.org/)

#### List of RSS Readers

<http://dmoz.org/Reference/Libraries/Library_and_Information_Science/Technical_Services/Cataloguing/Metadata/RDF/Applications/RSS/News_Readers>

#### Firefox RSS Editor Extension

<https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=344&application=firefox>

#### FEED Validator

[http://www.feedvalidator.org](http://www.feedvalidator.org/)

#### Bloglines

[http://www.bloglines.com](http://www.bloglines.com/)

**iTunes Podcast Subscription Tutorial**

<http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/itunes/it5-1.html>

#### Podcasting and iTunes: Technical Specification

<http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/podcaststechspecs.html>

#### U.S. Government RSS Library

<http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Reference_Shelf/Libraries/RSS_Library.shtml>

#### Podcasts from the U.S. Government

<http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Reference_Shelf/Libraries/Podcasts.shtml>

#### USA.gov Suggest-A-Link

<http://www.usa.gov/feedback/SuggestLinkForm.jsp>

**ping-o-matic**

[http://pingomatic.com](http://pingomatic.com/)

**pingoat**

[http://pingoat.com](http://pingoat.com/)

#### Bloglines ping

<http://bloglines.com/ping>

#### FeedBurner

[http://www.feedburner.com](http://www.feedburner.com/)

#### FeedBurner MyBrand

<http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/publishers/mybrand>

#### Feedburner Services Overview

<http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/blogs>

**A Peek Inside TechCrunch\'s 100k Subscriber Milestone (FeedBurner Blog
post)**

<http://blogs.feedburner.com/feedburner/archives/2006/09/a_peek_inside_techcrunchs_100k.php>

**Yahoo Widgets**

<http://widgets.yahoo.com/>

**Google Sidebar (part of Google Desktop search)**

<http://desktop.google.com/>

**Windows Sidebar**

<http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/features/details/sidebargadgets.mspx>

**Apple Dashboard**

<http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/dashboard/>