Integrating RSS into Your Web site Part 1: Introduction Michael Sauers Technology Innovation Librarian Nebraska Library Commission Computers in Libraries 15 April 2007

2

3 Introductions Name Library Position Does your library use RSS? If so, how? Why are you here?

4 What is RSS? Depending on who you ask it stands for either Really Simple Syndication, Rich Site Summary, or RDF Site Summary. Really Simple Syndication is the de facto definition today. RSS is an XML language for syndicating news items on the Internet.

5 The History of RSS RSS 1.1 (update to RSS 1.0), RSS 3.0 (a new, independent project), and Simple Sharing Extensions (an update to RSS 2.0 by Microsoft) have all been proposed but have had no impact yet.

6 How does RSS work? The information provider creates an RSS file. Users subscribe to the file via an aggregator. When the author updates the RSS file, the user is automatically notified of the new items and may read them on their schedule.

7 Implications of RSS Information received in a single location Information received in quickly Reduced need to visit the originating Web site

8 Are there different versions of RSS? Yes. In fact, there are currently eight different versions: RSS 0.90, 0.91, 0.92, 0.93, 0.94, 1.0, 2.0, & Atom Feeds Each has different features from the authors point of view. Todays aggregators support all of the versions transparently. RSS 2.0 & Atom are the most common.

9 BCR: The Third Indicator The Third Indicator, published monthly, is a technical memo focusing on OCLC products and services. It includes general OCLC news as well as detailed technical information on cataloging, reference and resource sharing. Announcements of new OCLC developments are also included. Tue, 21 Sep :37:39 GMT ListGarden Program WorldCat Resource Sharing Training l If you'd like to see what WorldCat Resource Sharing looks like and learn more about it, visit the OCLC Web site at or view the WorldCat Resource Sharing tutorial at www5.oclc.org/downloads/tutorials/firstsearch/sv/rsbasics/intro/index.html /. Tue, 21 Sep :29:47 GMT thirdind What does RSS look like?

10 How can I find feeds? Feedster Bloglines Blogrolls A list of blogs/feeds read by another blogger Look for the orange icon…

11 How do I subscribe to a feed? Look for an orange icon: Depending on your aggregator, the subscription procedure may range from copying and pasting the link to right- clicking and selecting subscribe.

12 More RSS icons Support the Common Feed Icon by Rogers Cadenhead common-feed-icon

13 A standard icon? The move is to establish this icon, originally proposed by the Firefox, folks as the syndication icon. Microsofts Internet Explorer 7 will use this icon.

14 Podcasts Uses RSS to syndicate audio content RSS 2.0 –Like adding an attachment to an Audio Formats –MP3 (Open Source) –AAC (Apple Proprietary) iPod not necessary

15 Podcasts in iTunes

16 Notable Feeds Librarian.net LISNews The Shifted Librarian theshiftedlibrarian.com The Travelin Librarian travelinlibrarian.info Tame the Web tametheweb.com/ttwblog Unshelved PaperCuts papercuts.tscpl.org Gizmodo Security Now! Inside The Net & This Week in Tech (TWiT) thisweekintech.com Boing Boing boingboing.net Google News isbn.nu del.icio.us flickr

Integrating RSS into Your Web site Part 2: Reading Feeds Michael Sauers, BCR Internet Librarian October 2006

18 What is an Aggregator? An aggregator is a type of software that retrieves syndicated Web content that is supplied in the form of a web feed (RSS, Atom and other XML formats), and that are published by weblogs, podcasts, vlogs, and mainstream mass media websites. -Wikipedia Its what you need to retrieve and read RSS feeds.

19 What are the different types of aggregators? Standalone Clients –FeedReader, Radio UserLand PIM add-ins –Pluck, NewsGator, intraVnews Browser add-ins –Firefox, Sage Web-based –Bloglines, NewsIsFree A list is

20 RSS file in Firefox

21 RSS file in IE6

22 RSS file in IE7b3

23 RSS file w/ associated style sheet

24 Why do I need an aggregator? Most importantly it makes the content of the feed readable Checks for updates automatically Notifies you of new information Displays only new items for you May allow you to sort and save information

25 Types of Aggregators Client Add-on Built-in Server-based Web-based service

26 FeedReader (client)

27 Pluck (add-on for IE)

28 Firefox 1.5

29 Netscape 8

30 IE7beta 2

31 Feed on Feeds (server)

32 Bloglines (Web-based service)

33 Subscribing to a feed

34 Bloglines Toolkit (for Firefox)

35 Subscribing via the Toolkit

36 The Bloglines Bookmarklet

Integrating RSS into Your Web site Part 3: Creating Feeds Michael Sauers, BCR Internet Librarian October 2006

38 How do I create a feed? Hand-rolled You type the markup and the content Semi-automated You type the content, software generates the markup. Fully-automated You put the content in your blog and software generates a feed based on that content.

39 FeedSpring

40 FeedSpring

41 FeedSpring

42 FeedSpring

43 FeedSpring

44 FeedSpring

45 FeedSpring

46 FeedSpring Limitations –Local installation limits mobility and posters to a single computer. –No built-in FTP. Must transfer the.xml file to the server manually. –Still in beta (but what isnt these days?)

47 RapidFeeds: FeedManager

48 RapidFeeds: FeedManager

49 RapidFeeds: FeedManager

50 RapidFeeds: FeedManager

51 RapidFeeds: FeedManager

52 RapidFeeds: FeedManager

53 RapidFeeds: FeedManager

54 RapidFeeds: FeedManager

55 RapidFeeds: FeedManager

56 RapidFeeds: FeedManager Limitations –Registration does not work with newer e- mail addresses. (Insisted my.info address was invalid.) –Does not allow publishing to another server so if the company disappears, your feed goes with it.

57 ListGarden

58 ListGarden

59 ListGarden

60 ListGarden

61 ListGarden

62 ListGarden Limitations –Depending of type of server installed on, may not be secure. (i.e. no passwords on cgi-bin directories.)

63 RSSxl

64 RSSxl

65 RSSxl

66 RSSxl

67 RSSxl Limitations –Solid knowledge of HTML required to get parsing correct. –Works better on pages with simpler layouts. –The validation code will change each month and you will need to visit this page for the new code. (Though Ive found feeds continue to work without updating the code.) –If you are using this tool to publish an RSS feed from your website, then you must include a visible HTML link to on your site next to the link to your feed like the following: Powered by RSSxl

68 Sabifoo

69 Sabifoo

70 Sabifoo

71 Sabifoo

72 Sabifoo

73 Sabifoo Limitations –Third party service could disappear at any time. –Doesnt always work well with Yahoo! Messenger and AIM. –Does not interpret HTML in posts.

74 Twitter What are you doing now? Post via: –Web site –Clients –IM –SMS

75 Twitter

76 Twitter

77 Twitter Limitations –140 characters per post

78 RSS Calendar

79 RSS Calendar

80 RSS Calendar

81 RSS Calendar

82 RSS Calendar

83 RSS Calendar

84 RSS Calendar

85 RSS Calendar Limitations –No importing from existing calendars

Integrating RSS into Your Web site Part 4: Republishing Feeds Michael Sauers, BCR Internet Librarian October 2006

87 Integrating feed content into your Web site Grab content from multiple RSS feeds Reduce and/or mash it Republish it on your site

88 rss viewer

89 rss viewer

90 rss viewer

91 rss viewer

92 rss viewer Limitations –Third party –Has a way to combine multiple feeds (feed combiner) but only those that are pre- programmed

93 RapidFeeds: MySite

94 RapidFeeds: MySite

95 RapidFeeds: MySite

96 RapidFeeds: MySite

97 RapidFeeds: MySite

98 RapidFeeds: MySite

99 RapidFeeds: MySite

100 RapidFeeds: MySite

101 RapidFeeds: MySite Limitations –Registration does not work with newer e- mail addresses. (Insisted my.info address was invalid) –Code supplied is longer than all others as it contains all the CSS. Would want to move that to an external file.

102 RSS2HTML

103 RSS2HTML

104 RSS2HTML

105 RSS2HTML

106 RSS2HTML

107 RSS2HTML

108 RSS2HTML

109 RSS2HTML

110 RSS2HTML Limitations –Third party service. –Minimal customization / limited to their templates / cant make it look like your site. –Did not work well on some feeds and not at all on others. (No luck with GoogleNews. Mixed results with Flickr.) –Given a URL to embed with, not a script, which forces embedding via iframe.

111 Feed2JS

112 Feed2JS

113 Feed2JS

114 Feed2JS

115 Feed2JS

116 Feed2JS Limitations –Third party (but you can download and install it on your own server which is recommended)

117 FeedDigest

118 FeedDigest

119 FeedDigest

120 FeedDigest

121 FeedDigest

122 FeedDigest

123 FeedDigest

124 FeedDigest

125 FeedDigest

126 FeedDigest

127 FeedDigest

128 FeedDigest Limitations –Third party service. –Limited to five feeds in free version.

129 Scrolling RSS News Ticker

130 Scrolling RSS News Ticker

131 Scrolling RSS News Ticker

132 Scrolling RSS News Ticker

133 Scrolling RSS News Ticker Limitations –Third party –Shows small advertisement

134 RSS Scrollbox Widget

135 RSS Scrollbox Widget

136 RSS Scrollbox Widget

137 RSS Scrollbox Widget

138 RSS Scrollbox Widget Limitations –Third party –Shows small advertisement Ad free, local-hosted version available for $35.

139 Grazr

140 Grazr

141 Grazr

142 Grazr

143 Grazr

144 Grazr Limitations –Third party

145 LibraryThing Blog Widget

146 LibraryThing Blog Widget

147 LibraryThing Blog Widget Limitations –Requires JavaScript –Requires LibraryThing account

Integrating RSS into Your Web site Part 5: Advanced Feed Manipulation Michael Sauers, BCR Internet Librarian October 2006

149 FeedBlendr

150 FeedBlendr

151 FeedBlendr

152 FeedBlendr

153 FeedBlendr Limitations –Could not get OPML importing to work. –Third party service could disappear at any time. –If this blend is not accessed for more than 2 weeks, it will be removed from the database and will need to be recreated.

154 FeedBurner

155 FeedBurner

156 FeedBurner

157 FeedBurner

158 FeedBurner

159 FeedBurner

160 FeedBurner

161 FeedBurner

162 FeedBurner

163 FeedBurner

164 FeedBurner

165 FeedBurner

166 FeedBurner

167 FeedBurner

168 FeedBurner

169 FeedBurner

170 FeedBurner Limitations –Since by using this you get a new feed URL, it is not recommended you use it on existing feeds. –Your feed will be relying on a third party to work. If the company goes under, your feed will disappear.

171 Feed Crier

172 Feed Crier

173 Feed Crier Limitations –Only three feeds for free –Free version advertisement supported –Works only with AIM

174 ZapTXT

175 ZapTXT

176 ZapTXT

177 ZapTXT

178 ZapTXT

179 ZapTXT Limitations –Cant handle feeds that require logins –Sometimes reports a feed as not valid and theres nothing you can do about it. –Searches on multiple keywords are OR searches. AND searches dont seem to be possible.

180 Mail2RSS

181 Mail2RSS

182 Mail2RSS

183 Mail2RSS

184 Mail2RSS Limitations –Bloglines doesnt like the RSS2.0 feeds, use the 1.0 link instead –Mail automatically deletes after seven days –Feeds are limited to 20 items –Potential security issue when using Subscribe with Bloglines bookmarklet (next slide)

185 Mail2RSS

186 RssFwd

187 RssFwd

188 RssFwd

189 RssFwd

190 RssFwd

191 RssFwd

192 RssFwd Limitations –Some (including me) argue that converting RSS to defeats the purpose of RSS.

193 Feed2Podcast

194 Feed2Podcast

195 Feed2Podcast

196 Feed2Podcast

197 Feed2Podcast Limitations –Your feeds are read by a computer generated voice. –Non-English words are not well supported.

198 Contact information Michael Sauers