Basics of Blogging Series: Part 17 - RSS - The Elements Within the "Item" Element

Now we have covered the major points in the "Channel" element, we will now cover the Item element. Hang on to your seats, but you should breeze through this part fairly easily already. Remember our purpose is to create an RSS feed template that you can use, and what is known as a "well-formed XML document" which will pass validation with flying colors! (And make you into a techie as well!)

(For the techies among us I am not going into the "dc:" tags from RSS 1.0 For those who are interested they should take a look at W3C docs on RSS 2.0 and also view the RSS 2.0 specifications.)

First to get you familiar with the lingo we will use here, these are the possible inclusions in your "Item" tag. Some of them should be familiar. Pay Attention that the syntax is NOT the same for some specifically for enclosure & source.

1. <title></title>


2. <link></link>


3. <description></description>


4. <author></author>


5. <category></category>


6. <comments></comments>


7. <enclosure "information of enclosure goes here" />


8. <guid></guid>


9. <pubdate></pubdate>


10. <source url="http://www.yaddayadda/yadda.rss">Babble</source>

Some of the above are simple, others can get complicated. So we will work on this step by step and in the end you will have an incredible RSS feed. Remember you do NOT need to place all of these in your feed. You can get away with the title, link & description (and you should put the pubdate in as well). HOWEVER, these are important commands and some like enclosure can open up worlds of possibilities for you.

So first the descriptions and explanations.

1. Our Title here is the title of this item within the Channel. Remember this is our "Chapter Heading". Fairly easy. So here we would want to put, "Heaven Scent Perfume At 50% Discount." So this is how our title will read:
   <title>Heaven Scent Perfume At 50% Discount</title>


2. Next comes our all important link. Where to find the data. So here Randy has a whole web page devoted to selling Heaven Scent perfume.
   <link>http://www.randypandy.com/perfumes/heavenscent.html</link>


3. Okay our description is cool. Hey all we want here is to define the perfume. Right? Well, lets do that for the time being.
   <description>Heaven Scent Perfume the Smell your lover will die for.  Created especially by Skunk Perfumes it is their newest and best selling perfume on the market today. Purchase a beautifully shaped skunk bottle with this incredible perfume and get a whopping 50% off! And if you purchase over $100 we will throw in Free overnight delivery as well!</description>
   (Now don't get carried away just yet. Sure we have a description. But what if we want to get a picture in that description? What if we want the user to see in his aggregator not just words but an image as well? Well, that can be done too, BUT you will have to wait for my next installment!)


4. Okay author is really simple stuff, except Randy Pandy's wife, Sandy, is in a huff cause she is the one who has written all the publicity material. So here we will give her credit with her email as well.
   <author>sandy@randypandy.com (Sandy Pandy - The Queen of Scent)</author>


5. First & foremost the category term is not limited to one. You can place as many categories as your little heart desires. What is the category? Well here Randy wants to put, "Perfume" and Sandy wants to put "On-Line Shopping", and Randy's kids want to put "Skunk Perfume" cause they think it is cool. (You can even put a URL in there with an "href") So our category may look like this:
   <category>Perfume</category>
   <category>On-Line Shopping</category>
   <category>Skunk Perfume</category>
   <category domain="http://www.perfumesoftheworld.com/greatsmells">Skunks</category>
   Don't worry! For our final XML file we will just use one category.


6. Best way to explain comments is to understand that this is URL which points to a page which is actually comments about "Heaven Scent Perfume". Randy & Sandy maintain a page for each item where clients can leave their remarks (this can also be a blog as well). So here we would put:
   <comments>http://www.randypandy.com/perfumes/comments/skunkyheavenscent.html</comments>


7. Enclosure is the MAGIC of RSS. Pure Magic. It is what allows you to Podcast and VideoCast and do all that incredible stuff with RSS. However, this will be discussed at length in a following article. What we want to know here is that in enclosure I can put an image, a video, a voice recording etc. So let us say I want to release "Summertime" by Janis Joplin (swooning here!) in my RSS. Here is where I would put the information on the file.
   <enclosure url="http://www.randypandy.com/mp3s/janis/summertime.mp3" length="5588242" type="audio/mpeg"/>
   The Url to the file. followed by the "weight" of the file (exactly how big it is) and this goes for jpg, mpg etc. and the type of file. (Again
   we will lay all this out in another article). So far so good? But Sandy (remember her?) she does not like Janis. And besides she feels that we should put the Heaven Scent Song inside the enclosure. So our enclosure will really look like this:
   <enclosure url="http://www.randypandy.com/mp3s/heavenscentcomm.mp3" length="4368242" type="audio/mpeg"/>


8. A GUID means "Globally Unique Identifier". By giving your item a "barcode" you can allow the aggregator to determine if it has to be updated or not. You can tell it if the link is permanent or not called a "PermaLink" (which is familiar to Bloggers).
   <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.randypandy.com/perfumes/heavenscent.html</guid>


9. Okay I expect you to know pubdate already!
   <pubDate>Sat, 10 Dec 2005 23:00:00 GMT</pubDate>


10. The source command requires a URL and is used to give credit to the source of the article. This is used mostly when publishing to a Blog from somewhere else so the URL of the source is saved. So when we publish to RandyPandy.com all this information on his perfume it would read:
    <source url="http://www.yaddayadda/hs.xml">Secret Source of Heaven Scent Publicity</source>

Now don't go get confused. The only serious commands here are description and enclosure. And yes we will get a bit into "description" in our next article, and round out missing information on "enclosure" as well.

Okay lets see what are rss.xml file which will make our RSS feed looks like until now. (Due to the demands of the editing software used some of the commands appear as if on two lines. This is fine. When you create your template in the end just remember that everything between the first < and the last > is one command!)

<channel>

<title>Randy Pandy's Perfumery</title>
<description>RSS Feed for The Great Perfume Products Sold At Randy's Pandy's Perfumery</description>
<copyright>"Copyright 2006 Randy Pandy's Perfumery - All Rights Reserved"</copyright>
<link>http://www.randypandy.com</link>
<language>en-us</language>
<managingEditor>randypandy@randypandy.com (Randy Pandy)</managingEditor>
<webMaster>webmaster@randypandy.com (Pandy Randy)</webMaster>
<category>Ecommerce</category>
<pubdate>Mon, 5 Dec 2005 23:00:00 GMT</pubdate>
<lastBuildDate>Sun, 4 Dec 2005 23:00:00 GMT</lastBuildDate>
<image>

<title>Randy Pandy's Perfumery</title>
<width>142</width><height>99</height>
<link>http://www.randpandy.com</link>
<url>http://www.randpandy.com/images/randylogo.jpg</url>

</image>
<item>

<title>Heaven Scent Perfume At 50% Discount</title>
<link>http://www.randypandy.com/perfumes/heavenscent.html</link>
<description>Heaven Scent Perfume the Smell your lover will die for. Created especially by Skunk Perfumes it is their newest
and best selling perfume on the market today.  Purchase a beautifully shaped skunk bottle with this incredible perfume and get a whopping 50% off! And if you purchase over $100 we will throw in Free overnight delivery as well!</description>
<author>sandy@randypandy.com (Sandy Pandy - The Queen of Scent)</author>
<category>Perfume</category>
<category>On-Line Shopping</category>
<comments>http://www.randypandy.com/comments/skunkheaven.html</comments>
<enclosure url="http://www.randypandy.com/mp3s/heavenscentcomm.mp3" length="4368242" type="audio/mpeg"/>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.randypandy.com/perfumes/heavenscent.html</guid>
<pubDate>Sat, 10 Dec 2005 23:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.yaddayadda/hs.xml">Secret Source Publicity</source>

</item>

</channel>

There you have the basics of Channel.
Our next article will discuss the innards of "description" & "enclosure".

---

Previous Articles In This Series:

1. The Basics of Blogging and Web Site Creation - Part One: Content Is King


2. The Basics of Blogging and Web Site Creation - Part Two: Introduction To Keywords


3. Part Three - Keywords, Tags, Categories - Oh Vey! I Am So Mixed Up!


4. Blogging & Website Basics - Part Four: So How The Hell Do I Get Bonafide Links To My Blog?


5. Blogging - Part Five: Trying to Understand the Psychology Behind It All


6. Blogging - Part Six: Viral Technology - An Introduction


7. Blogging - Part Seven: Article Submission As A Tool To Extend Your Reach


8. Basics Of Blogging Series - Part Eight: Using Email As An Advertising Tool


9. Basics of Blogging Series: Part Nine - RSS Mania Addiction An Introduction To RSS and the Terminology


10. Basics of Blogging Series: Part Ten - Outline of How to Create an RSS Feed


11. Basics of Blogging Series: Part Eleven - Debunking a Few RSS Myths


12. Basics of Blogging Series: Part Twelve - The RSS Feed Template File


13. Basics of Blogging Series: Part Thirteen - The Basic Elements in the "Channel" Element


14. Basics of Blogging Series: Part 14 - How the RSS Feed Works & Some Programming Constructs


15. Basics of Blogging - Part 15 - Editor Tools - Qumana & Performancing Extension for Firefox


16. Basics of Blogging - Part 15A - Qumana's Drop Pad


17. Basics of Blogging Series: Part 16 - RSS Channel Sub-Elements Specifically "Image" (& How To Use It)

Click Here For The Cumulative Index To All Posts @ Cobwebs Of The Mind

Tags: email, technology, blogging, web site creation, content, writing, books, Search Engines, SEO, site rank, page rank, RSS, Podcast, VideoCast
Categories: technology, internet, Basics of Blogging Series, What Is RSS? Series
Basics of Blogging Series: Part 17 - RSS - The Elements Within the "Item" Element

Basics of Blogging Series: Part 16 - RSS Channel Sub-Elements Specifically "Image" (& How To Use It)

Now we have covered some of the major points in the "Channel" element, we will now cover the various sub-elements in the channel element - specifically the "image" element. Crtitical Point - None of these are required EXCEPT for the command line of:
<channel></channel>

However it would be to your best interest to include some of them. Our purpose is to create an RSS feed template that you can use, and what is known as a "well formed XML document" which will pass validation with flying colors! (And make you into a techie as well!)

Those of you who understand RSS templates might ask why I am concentrating so much on the Channel element and it is a valid question. The thing is that possibilities within a Channel element are all meant to actually "publicize" the information for your entire web site. If you are CNN or Microsoft or the New York Times you have nothing to worry about. But if you are like the majority of us out there, then every bit of information you can get into your RSS template may help. Additionally, it is simply good practice to include some of these elements as the more RSS spreads the more they will be used.

First let me briefly cover the three sub-elements which you will almost NEVER find in an RSS template. (You can easily skip this part, unless you want to understand most of the innards of the RSS 2.0 specification.)

• Cloud sub-Element - This sub-element which will appear as follows:
  <cloud></cloud>.
  Its purpose is to allow a processes to register with a cloud to be notified of updates to the channel. In other words the Cloud acts as a
  farm to feed out RSS feeds to "computers" connected to it. Sort of like a buffer.

• textinput sub-element - This sub-element is strange in that I have yet to find a use or clear description of what it is supposed to do. Mostly ignored by all.

• 
  ttl sub-element - This sub-element announces announces its ttl = "Time To Live" to the aggregators before they should refresh the information from the source. An example of this would be:
  <ttl>180</ttl>
  Which tells aggregator that it has 180 minutes before it must return to refresh the information from the source. (If you read Part Five of the series you will know this is sometimes an important sub-element.)
  
  

  Okay now we are ready for Channel sub-element of image. The image defined here is the image usually asscociated with your RSS feed or your web page. In other words usually it is your LOGO. Since your LOGO is of critical importance, as most people are visual and they do associate pictures with names, (as the Internet proves over and over again), you should take the time to get this into your RSS template. It is fairly simple so follow these four options within the sub-element of image. Ready?
  

  
  
  
  
  • First we continue the list (from article four and repeated below at the end with the "image" command. No Biggie here. Just typing or cut and paste.
    <image>
  
  
  
  
  
  
  • Next we have the "Title" command. In here usually goes the name of the Business. "Randy Pandy's Perfumery" in our case. That is easy enough.
    <title>Randy Pandy's Perfumery</title>
  
  
  
  
  
  
  • This next one is optional but good practice. This tells the parser how big your logo graphic is, by width and height. If you don't know, just call up in a directory and run your mouse over the file or ask for its properties by right-click. It will tell you the height and width. Remember this is an RSS file, so make the logo a small size and keep its weight down. Good practice is no bigger than 250(w) X 150(h) (and that is huge) and no heavier than 20k (and that is heavy!) We will go for 142X99
    <width>142</width><height>99</height>
  
  
  
  
  
  
  • Now you tell the parser in the "Link" command just where your web site is. That is simple and we have done that already. So..
    <link>http://www.randpandy.com</link>
  
  
  
  
  
  
  • And finally in the "URL" you tell the Parser through your RSS file just where the LOGO can be found on your web site. (Do not link it to your home computer as that is NOT your web server!)
    <url>http://www.randpandy.com/images/randylogo.jpg</url>
  
  
  
  
  
  
  • And finally we close off the "image" tag.
    </image>
    
  
  
  
  

  See that was not that hard was it?
  Okay lets see what are rss.xml file which will make our RSS feed looks like until now.

  
  

  
  <channel>

  
  

  
  

  <title>Randy Pandy's Perfumery</title>
  <description>RSS Feed for The Great Perfume Products Sold At Randy's Pandy's Perfumery</description>
  <copyright>"Copyright 2006 Randy Pandy's Perfumery - All Rights Reserved"</copyright>
  <link>http://www.randypandy.com</link>
  <language>en-us</language>
  <managingEditor>randypandy@randypandy.com (Randy Pandy)</managingEditor>
  <webMaster>webmaster@randypandy.com (Pandy Randy)</webMaster>
  <category>Ecommerce</category>
  <pubdate>Mon, 5 Dec 2005 23:00:00 GMT</pubdate>
  <lastBuildDate>Sun, 4 Dec 2005 23:00:00 GMT</lastBuildDate>
  <image> 

  
  

  
  

  <title>Randy Pandy's Perfumery</TITLE>
  <WIDTH>142</WIDTH><HEIGHT>99</HEIGHT>
  <link>http://www.randpandy.com</link>
  <url>http://www.randpandy.com/images/randylogo.jpg</url>

  
  

  
  

  
  </IMAGE>

  
  

  
  

  
  
  That's it for the Channel element! YEAH!
  And guess what? You can get away without using most of these commands.
  However as I keep on saying, it is good practice to use most of them.

  
  

  ---

  
  

  Previous Articles In This Series:

  
  
  
  
  1. The Basics of Blogging and Web Site Creation - Part One: Content Is King
  
  
  2. The Basics of Blogging and Web Site Creation - Part Two: Introduction To Keywords
  
  
  3. Part Three - Keywords, Tags, Categories - Oh Vey! I Am So Mixed Up!
  
  
  4. Blogging & Website Basics - Part Four: So How The Hell Do I Get Bonafide Links To My Blog?
  
  
  5. Blogging - Part Five: Trying to Understand the Psychology Behind It All
  
  
  6. Blogging - Part Six: Viral Technology - An Introduction
  
  
  7. Blogging - Part Seven: Article Submission As A Tool To Extend Your Reach
  
  
  8. Basics Of Blogging Series - Part Eight: Using Email As An Advertising Tool
  
  
  9. Basics of Blogging Series: Part Nine - RSS Mania Addiction An Introduction To RSS and the Terminology
  
  
  10. Basics of Blogging Series: Part Ten - Outline of How to Create an RSS Feed
  
  
  11. Basics of Blogging Series: Part Eleven - Debunking a Few RSS Myths
  
  
  12. Basics of Blogging Series: Part Twelve - The RSS Feed Template File
  
  
  13. Basics of Blogging Series: Part Thirteen - The Basic Elements in the "Channel" Element
  
  
  14. Basics of Blogging Series: Part 14 - How the RSS Feed Works & Some Programming Constructs
  
  
  15. Basics of Blogging - Part 15 - Editor Tools - Qumana & Performancing Extension for Firefox
  
  
  16. Basics of Blogging - Part 15A - Qumana's Drop Pad
  
  
  
  

  Click Here For The Cumulative Index To All Posts @ Cobwebs Of The Mind

  
  

  Tags: email, technology, blogging, web site creation, content, writing, books, Search Engines, SEO, site rank, page rank, RSS, Podcast, VideoCast
  Categories: technology, internet, Basics of Blogging Series, What Is RSS? Series
  Basics of Blogging Series: Part 15 - RSS Channel Sub-Elements Specifically "Image" (& How To Use It)

  
  

  

  
  

Getting Wasted - Writing & Publishing Short Stories

For a moment in time, I am going to interrupt my series on Blogging, and go back to my original love in life, writing. Posts on writing make up quite a few posts at Cobwebs Of The Mind and it is also for that reason that I started this blog. I am one of those writers who has tasted the sweet nectar of publication a few times, and yet, seeks a great deal more.  The reasons I write are varied. Yet today I truly write because it is a love of the craft and a desire to move people, make them think, make them feel, that motivates me. The following appears on my web site about writing, but I will also put it here.

"In my younger days I wrote because I thought I had something to say and wanted to be rich and famous, (I kid you not.)
Then I wanted to touch people, move them, see them cry or smile or argue over my words.
When my second children's book was published, oh so many years ago, and I was walking down a street and saw it in the window of a bookstore in Jerusalem (imported all the way from the USA), I decided I wrote because of the feeling it gave me at that moment.
As the years went by, I abandoned the rich and famous desire, and I realized that to touch people you had to be real - first and foremost to yourself - and I understood that the feeling of seeing your book in the window of a bookstore or listed at Amazon, while incredible, does not last.
I realized that all the above were excuses. Simply put, I write for me. To bring out the raw, the untouched, the hidden emotion and the passion. To let that voice express itself, first and foremost to my own conscious mind. I write to let the story out so I can read it for myself.
And when I do that, I know I will touch others. I know the book will always be in the window of my mind and that too is an exhilarating experience. And though I have no clue if I will ever be famous or rich, I do know I have made my own world richer, and I know myself that much better."

One of the areas of writing which is probably the most difficult to break into is the short-story genre. I do realize that many individuals have actually broken into full-blown writing careers after having a short story or stories published. I began writing short stories many years ago, (too many to count), and had very little luck with placing them. The two literary agents I have had during these years, have for whatever reasons, ignored the short stories as a "stand-alone" part of my writing career. Without a literary agent it makes the job of submission and acceptance so much harder. Of course this could all be due to the fact that my short stories just don't stand up to par and just don't "make the cut", as it were. That I accepted as the reason and truth behind not being able to sell a short story for many years. However the short stories that I did write and continue to write over the years, traveled with me, from place to place and computer and computer. I never totally wiped them off the disk, nor did I stop writing them. Every now and again I would put pen to paper and somehow the story would start to flow and the words would come out.

As I have already written elsewhere, my short story collection grew and soon without any conscious decision I was calling this collection by the name"Ancient Tales, Modern Legends". It was a way of making these "stories" real to me. A way of making sure I did not loose that last vestige of hope, that all writers have, worthy or not, that their work or works will someday see publication.

This past year, through a series of totally unrelated incidents in the "virtual world" of the Internet, I landed at a newly developing Web Publication Site for short stories, called thedeepening.com. Four editors had just embarked upon a new venture, not an ezine, not a fly by night venture, but a legitimate venture with ISSN registration, to publish short stories. Upon reading their demands for publication, I sighed softly to myself, and knew that they would never pick anything I wrote to publish in thedeepeing.com. The funny thing was, I had not thought for a very long time about getting these stories published. They had been placed on the back-burner. However, a few days before landing at the home page of thedeepening.com, I was asked by a publisher who was discussing a possible work, for what I thought to be my best short story or chapter. A former agent of mine had once expressed the opinion that she thought "The Sunflower" was nearly my best piece (I do not agree by the way) and that is what I sent to this publisher.

I almost navigated away from thedeepening.com. But then I realized that was being silly. I had these stories sitting on my hard disk and in my head, and at this point they were not doing anyone any good, so why not at least try? It took me 15 minutes to pull "The Sunflower" up and reformat it according to guidelines and submit it. It was accepted that very day, and the rest is history.

 thedeepening.com has accepted five of my short stories so far and rejected one, (which I was pretty sure they would reject but I am sticking to my stubborn guns on that story.) I have had the pleasure of exchanging quite a few emails with some of the editors, and their comments which are usually great for my ego, have made me more aware once again of the short story genre. Though I  cannot say, in all honesty, that I have had any agent or publisher banging down my doors as a result. Which brings me to the last story accepted and to be published at thedeepening.com in July, entitled "Reverieing". (No that is not a spelling mistake!)

"Reverieing" is a new story, not one pulled out of the hard disk after years of dormancy. It is a story that for many reasons "wasted me" while writing it, trying to keep myself from becoming too closely entangled with my protagonist. Yesterday I received the electronic galleys of the story, and  I had to go over them for possible mistakes etc. And so I had to read what I wrote yet again, something I do not like doing, once a story is finished. And again the story wasted me. Left me numb. Left me with a feeling of total abandonment.

And I asked myself. Is  a short story that I wrote supposed to leave me like that? Should I not be removed from the venture? Should I not be looking upon it with an objective, non-caring eye? I know not that answer to those questions. I know that Reverieing came from a place deep within me that we all must find from time to time no matter how painful it is and no matter where the road of discovery will eventually lead to.

Yes, I wish I could sell these stories and more, my collection called "Ancient Tales, Modern Legends" to a publisher and of course get an agent who really can make the deals happen. Yes I wish I could use that a springboard into a full time writing career. And yes, I still dream of those possibilities. For now though, I find that after years on the shelf, my short stories are sold and are actually being read. That is a trip for me, no doubt about it. Maybe somewhere in the future, I may get the luck again, and have the right agent land on thedeepening.com and read some of the stories I wrote and be interested enough to take me on as a client. And until that time, I rest with the knowledge that at least some of the subscribers to  thedeepening.com have read, felt and enjoyed some of my writing.

---

Click Here For The Cumulative Index To All Posts @ Cobwebs Of The Mind

Tags: books, novels, literary, agents, short stories, memoirs, Israel, fantasy literature, legends, tales, Jerusalem
Categories: short stories, writing, on writing series
Getting Wasted - Writing & Editing & Publishing Short Stories

Basics of Blogging - Part 15A - Qumana's Drop Pad

In my last post, comparing Qumana and Performancing, each for their own use, I came back to find an interesting note from Tris Hussey who is involved with the development of Qumana. It was placed and published as a comment to Part 15 of this series. Interestingly enough for me, I did not mention Qumana's big plus which they tout - the "DropPad". To be honest, I rarely use it. The problem with techies of course is that we have to type, look at source code, make sure it is 100% and are very much "into" our own way of doing things. What the DropPad essentially does, is it acts as my own personal BLOG clipboard. I can go on my  happy way through the net or my own computer, and pick up text or pictures (has to be direct not links) and drag them to the orange DropPad (a box you can set on your screen with the Qumana Q in it.) However, this only works when you gathered information for a new post. It does not insert anything to a post you are already working on. While this is GREAT for many people, my writing works differently. I first write, then decide what graphics I will include.

BUT if you are posting an article straight from a Word Document, this is a GODSEND. Just drag it to the DropPad with graphics, doubleclick on the DropPad and voila a new post opens with the article and graphics in it.

So Qumana gets points for their DropPad. I would love to see it work with a Post I am already editing though. And I hope they are working on this. Then the DropPad will be seriously useful for an old techie like me.

If you read the last article I mentioned that Performancing does not have a spell checker. I think I did not emphasize the need for a spell checker in blogging software enough. I published the last post using Performancing, noticed a ton of spelling errors, synchronized the post in Qumana, edited it in Qumana and spell-checked it then republished it with Qumana. Together they are an unbeatable team. It only remains to be seen, if Qumana as a stand-alone gets most of the othere "needs" into their editor, and if Performancing does it for the Firefox users as well.

Qumana did some work in Beta 3.0 V.4 in their editing department. Now it has a choice of fonts and sizes without resorting to source code. Unfortunately, it begins with a "default font" and if you want to change fonts you pick from a drop-down list. What the default font is - is anyone's guess. However there is NO place to set your default font or font size. So if I want to publish default "Arial" font I first must make sure that I Select All then change all to Arial. What's up with that folks? Give us a place in "Preferences" to set the default font and size. If you introduce such a greatly needed enhancement, finish it up.

Until Qumana gives me the ability to save my color schemes in the advert section, I will not write about it or try it. For someone like me with a black background on the blog, the "default" color scheme is useless, and I will not go through fixing the color scheme for every advert I place. Give us a pallete where I can save the color scheme to my computer! Just like the Google Adsense Pallete.

---

Previous Articles In This Series:

1. The Basics of Blogging and Web Site Creation - Part One: Content Is King


2. The Basics of Blogging and Web Site Creation - Part Two: Introduction To Keywords


3. Part Three - Keywords, Tags, Categories - Oh Vey! I Am So Mixed Up!


4. Blogging & Website Basics - Part Four: So How The Hell Do I Get Bonafide Links To My Blog?


5. Blogging - Part Five: Trying to Understand the Psychology Behind It All


6. Blogging - Part Six: Viral Technology - An Introduction


7. Blogging - Part Seven: Article Submission As A Tool To Extend Your Reach


8. Basics Of Blogging Series - Part Eight: Using Email As An Advertising Tool


9. Basics of Blogging Series: Part Nine - RSS Mania Addiction An Introduction To RSS and the Terminology


10. Basics of Blogging Series: Part Ten - Outline of How to Create an RSS Feed


11. Basics of Blogging Series: Part Eleven - Debunking a Few RSS Myths


12. Basics of Blogging Series: Part Twelve - The RSS Feed Template File


13. Basics of Blogging Series: Part Thirteen - The Basic Elements in the "Channel" Element


14. Basics of Blogging Series: Part 14 - How the RSS Feed Works & Some Programming Constructs


15. Basics of Blogging - Part 15 - Editor Tools - Qumana & Performancing Extension for Firefox
    Click Here For The Cumulative Index To All Posts @ Cobwebs Of The Mind

Tags: email, technology, blogging, web site creation, content, writing, books, Search Engines, SEO, site rank, page rank, RSS, Podcast, VideoCast
Categories: technology, internet, Basics of Blogging Series, What Is RSS? Series
Basics of Blogging - Part 15A - Qumana's Drop Pad

Basics of Blogging - Part 15 - Editor Tools - Qumana & Performancing Extension for Firefox

Interrupting the RSS posts in the next Post. However this is also important for Blogging.

If you use Firefox you may want to consider using the Perfomancing Editor extension for dealing with your blogs. Since I am a Firefox avid user, and use IE only when demands are such that I MUST use IE, the Performancing editor extension is impressive. It lacks the organizational facilities of Qumana, which I am quickly becoming an avid fan of, but it certainly is a more robust editor (at this point in time.)

Qumana allows you to stay organized in your posts. It has a wonderful "refresh posts" button, so even though I am publishing this post in the Perfomancing extension, I will be able to refresh posts for Cobwebs Of The Mind in Qumana and see it there with all source code as well. Qumana keeps me ordered and on time. However, it lacks, as of this posting, certain basic functions in its editor, which I know they are getting around to. You cannot yet color text without going into the source code. You cannot yet preview your post either. Both these capabilities including font size are offered in Perfomancing. I especially love the preview feature, something I have found sorely lacking in Qumana 3.0 beta.

The image screen in Qumana is a pleasure to deal with and now with Beta 3.0 v.4 is a dream come true with its options. However, it does not easily allow for uploads, whereas in Performancing you can use their ftp upload. (I happen to upload all pics etc. using an external FTP program and then grab them straight with the URL, but that is how I like working.) Though in the end Performancing does NOT offer anywhere near all the abilities that Qumana offers, such as alt text, title text, alignment etc.

A suggestion for both programs. What is sorely lacking as well, is an option in the link command. Link commands all work pretty much the same, however, if I want to link to a site and make sure it opens in a separate window, I must go into the code usually, and place a target ="_blank" in the href. It would be a pleasure if every time I added a link I would have the option of picking between the possibilities much like the options in the image link screen.

Performancing does NOT have any spell check routine. Qumana does, though in Qumana there is no option to "add" to a dictionary (which should be on your hard disk) and no option to "ignore all". Thus if I am writing a post and use a word that is not in their dictionary, but I want to use anyway, Qumana will mark each entry of this word as misspelled. Additionally since I cannot create my own dictionary add-on, it will always mark this word wrong, no matter what post I am in. However, a spell check is better than no spell check. That is for sure!

Be aware that since there is no possibility in Performancing to "synchronize" you have to be able to keep track of your posts and keep track of their changes. Also be aware that it can only be used in Firefox and not in IE. So if you are an IE user you are out of luck. Perfomancing has some interesting tools, such as the ability to see your blogs standing in Technorati, and add both Technorati and del.icio.us tags at the same time. Qumana allows for Technorati in the same manner.

If you copy a URL for instance, and then want to link in Qumana it will automatically show up in the link box without the need to paste it. In Performancing this does not happen. You must open the link option and paste the URL automatically.

<b> <p></p>

I happen to like the way Performancing handles the line breaks and their tags (listed right above) much more than the way Qumana does. In Performancing they are simpler. I often find that in Qumana I am getting way too many extra lines when I publish, especially in Firefox. (This is something Qumana should work on.)

Qumana is stand alone and is organized. Performancing is great to blog immediately while in Firefox. In the future I will combine both of them in order to allow for a more robust method of blogging.


Performancing Extension for Firefox can be downloaded at Mozilla Extensions or at their web site: Performancing (which also contains some other free statistical aspects if you sign up!)


Qumana can be found at Qumana's Web Site

Both get 3 stars, bordering on a fourth, if they continue to progress. Blogging is serious business these days and these tools make it all so much easier. All in all both these tools are a plus for your arsenal. Both of them serve a purpose and serve it well. Both can and should be used. They can be made better, but both are FREE products, and certainly outstanding in what they deliver.

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Previous Articles In This Series:

1. The Basics of Blogging and Web Site Creation - Part One: Content Is King


2. The Basics of Blogging and Web Site Creation - Part Two: Introduction To Keywords


3. Part Three - Keywords, Tags, Categories - Oh Vey! I Am So Mixed Up!


4. Blogging & Website Basics - Part Four: So How The Hell Do I Get Bonafide Links To My Blog?


5. Blogging - Part Five: Trying to Understand the Psychology Behind It All


6. Blogging - Part Six: Viral Technology - An Introduction


7. Blogging - Part Seven: Article Submission As A Tool To Extend Your Reach


8. Basics Of Blogging Series - Part Eight: Using Email As An Advertising Tool


9. Basics of Blogging Series: Part Nine - RSS Mania Addiction An Introduction To RSS and the Terminology


10. Basics of Blogging Series: Part Ten - Outline of How to Create an RSS Feed


11. Basics of Blogging Series: Part Eleven - Debunking a Few RSS Myths


12. Basics of Blogging Series: Part Twelve - The RSS Feed Template File


13. Basics of Blogging Series: Part Thirteen - The Basic Elements in the "Channel" Element


14. Basics of Blogging Series: Part 14 - How the RSS Feed Works & Some Programming Constructs
    

Click Here For The Cumulative Index To All Posts @ Cobwebs Of The Mind

Tags: email, technology, blogging, web site creation, content, writing, books, Search Engines, SEO, site rank, page rank, RSS, Podcast, VideoCast
Categories: technology, internet, Basics of Blogging Series, What Is RSS? Series
Basics of Blogging - Part 15 - Editor Tools - Qumana & Performancing Extension for Firefox

Basics of Blogging Series: Part 14 - How the RSS Feed Works & Some Programming Constructs

In my last article on the major aspects of the "Channel", <channel> </channel> element, I promised to continue with the sub-elements of the Channel. This I will do in the next article. The time has come to explain how an RSS feed works, as it is critical to understand just what some of the RSS template commands want from us as well as our readers (in their options command.) No doubt towards the end of the series I will return to this information, however before getting into some possibilities in the template file, it is important to understand just what is going on "behind the scenes."

Years ago before the Internet, Windows and all HTML hit our PC universe, most of us were plugging away with our computers if we were programmers. I certainly was one of those nutty programmers trying to decipher the innards of Dbase II (yeah I am THAT OLD... pfffffttttttt). At that time instead of the Unicode sets and the various language sets, you were basically limited to the 256 code table of "ASCII". So what that meant was if you had special characters they sat in the Ascii table above the 128 margin (as below was reserved for English and special characters). That was great for those who wanted to see only English. But in languages such as Hebrew, not only did you have a right to left orientation, but there came to be known, for years, the infamous ALT-141 character problem. Alt-141 was assigned to a Hebrew character "mem-sofit". The problem was it was also assigned to a "back space". So instead of users getting a "mem-sofit" when they hit the character they would invariably erase the letter before! So if you were programming a database for instance, and you wanted the user to input information, you literally had to write an entire key-map utility to trap keys and to re-map them while the user was typing in order to display the correct character. It was a royal pain in the butt.

Why do I suddenly go into nostalgia of ASCII and pre-windows? You think we have come a long way? Think again!

One of the most annoying, impossible, crazy conventions is what HTML does with four specific characters. (Indeed to format this document correctly for an article I must go through a great deal more typing.) Some, and only some, of these are:

• < (less than sign) which is created by typing "&lt;"


• > (greater than sign) which is created by typing "&gt;"


• & (The ampersand sign itself) which is created by typing "&amp;"


• " (quote character) which is created by typing "&quot;"

(Of course, there is also the left quote, the right quote, the copyright symbol and on and on and on!)

The normal "Ampersand" which we use often "&" is not beloved by HTML and certainly RSS. Indeed try putting the innocent & into your RSS file "text" without normal conventions and the feed wont validate. You will "grrrrr" and curse up a storm, if you are like me and use the & every other word. HTML and all programmers are familiar with this "little annoyance". Most are not. After all we do see the & all over the web.

So an IMPORTANT RULE FOR NON-PROGRAMMERS. Do not incorporate a plain ampesand "&" into the "TEXT" areas of your document, or the right and left "<>" signs (which are often used in programming).

The Cache
Okay NEXT piece of information which you really should understand about RSS and the RSS feeds.
You come across one of those beautiful little orange buttons and say "Oh Boy! GREAT! Here goes another feed into my Parser!" Or you are even more tricky and smart, and incorporate one of those feeds into your web pages (we will discuss how to do this in a later article!) Before you just go on your happy way, there is one term you should understand and know - CACHE.

You see every time you happily tell your parser to re-read the RSS file, it says to itself, "Okay. This owner of ours is a real nuisance. Once again we have to go travel on the Net, find the file at the web site, make a connection and download the information." And of course having no ability to tell you to have patience, it goes on its happy way. So it shakes hands with the file on the web and downloads that information. HOWEVER, a few thousand other people are also shaking hands with that same file. And every time it shakes hands it adds to bandwidth usage. Now the creator of the file knows this. What the creator also expects is that your RSS reader sets its cache to something normal like only "reloading" its memory once every 60 minutes or 120 minutes or even only once a day. That is the reason, by the way, that Parsers have a cache command, and RSS templates have Date commands, and even as you will learn a "TTL" - "time to live" command.

And if you are one of those who puts the RSS feed up on your web page, and set the cache to "0" then every single time someone hits that web page, the page has to go out to find the feed and update the contents. Thus you are adding to bandwidth usage and some RSS farms request that you are careful how and when you set your cache.

Now maybe this post should have waited, as it does not directly follow. But in our next post on sub-elements, and then following that on the "items" the nature of the text and understanding how RSS works is critical.
I hope this helps.

---

Previous Articles In This Series:

1. The Basics of Blogging and Web Site Creation - Part One: Content Is King


2. The Basics of Blogging and Web Site Creation - Part Two: Introduction To Keywords


3. Part Three - Keywords, Tags, Categories - Oh Vey! I Am So Mixed Up!


4. Blogging & Website Basics - Part Four: So How The Hell Do I Get Bonafide Links To My Blog?


5. Blogging - Part Five: Trying to Understand the Psychology Behind It All


6. Blogging - Part Six: Viral Technology - An Introduction


7. Blogging - Part Seven: Article Submission As A Tool To Extend Your Reach


8. Basics Of Blogging Series - Part Eight: Using Email As An Advertising Tool


9. Basics of Blogging Series: Part Nine - RSS Mania Addiction An Introduction To RSS and the Terminology


10. Basics of Blogging Series: Part Ten - Outline of How to Create an RSS Feed


11. Basics of Blogging Series: Part Eleven - Debunking a Few RSS Myths


12. Basics of Blogging Series: Part Twelve - The RSS Feed Template File


13. Basics of Blogging Series: Part Thirteen - The Basic Elements in the "Channel" Element

Click Here For The Cumulative Index To All Posts @ Cobwebs Of The Mind

Tags: email, technology, blogging, web site creation, content, writing, books, Search Engines, SEO, site rank, page rank, RSS, Podcast, VideoCast
Categories: technology, internet, Basics of Blogging Series, What Is RSS? Series
Basics of Blogging Series: Part 14 - How the RSS Feed Works & Some Programming Constructs

Basics of Blogging Series: Part Thirteen - The Basic Elements in the "Channel" Element

Now that you are familiar with templates, or at least what an RSS Template should look like, and some of the possibilities within the template, let us attack the "Channel" description. This article will deal with Channel Main Elements. The next article will deal with Channel sub-elements more specifically the "image" element.

I am again reminding you. That most blog software today will take care of RSS and Atom technology automatically. You have nothing to do nor do you have to worry about it. However, if you want to create a specialized RSS feed, one which contains only specific information, or one which can be fed out in numerous formats, you will have to learn the rudiments of RSS feeds and how they work. For those of you not interested in doing this, skip the articles on RSS, or just peruse them to get your feet wet.

Crtitical Point - None of these are required EXCEPT for the <CHANNEL></CHANNEL> command line.
However it would be to your best interest to include some of them.

In the previous article we described a channel, but it will do good to go over it again.

Look on a Channel as how you choose to define the information you are going to put into the RSS file (remember it is rss.xml for our series.) For instance if you are putting out an RSS file to get people to look at your Web Site which has information about and sells Perfume, your channel would be:

<title>Randy Pandy's Perfumery</title>
and read in the RSS File as:

<CHANNEL>

<title>Randy Pandy's Perfumery</title>

That is pretty easy isn't it?
Just keep on telling yourself that it is all that easy. Do not sweat the little stuff.</p>

Next comes the Description of your Channel.
So how are we going to define your Channel?
Hmmm...let's see:
"RSS Feed for The Great Perfume Products Sold At Randy's Pandy's Perfumery"
which would like:
<description>RSS Feed for The Great Perfume Products Sold At Randy's Pandy's Perfumery</description>

Hey not so bad is it? See I told you!
Okay now the next command - Copyright.
That should be easy. After all we are going to release everything we write out into the Internet Virtual world and we would like to mark the text with just some sort of ownership statement. That is your copyright.

<copyright>Copyright 2006 Randy Pandy's Perfumery - All Rights Reserved</copyright>

Okay next command - The "link" command.
You do want to be able to give any viewers the ability to know just where to find these great deals on perfume, don't you? After all the whole purpose of creating this "x####ooo&^%$#(((__" feed is to get them to BUY from you! So the link command tells them where you are and how to get to you.
Let us say your website is at the directory:
http://www.randypandy.com
So your link command will look like:
<link>http://www.randypandy.com</link>

Okay Next is Language. Why you ask do we need a language command? Well it is part of the RSS specifications and it is important for the Readers to know just what langauge you are using. It also helps search engines know what language this is. And anything you can do to be helpful to Search Engines is critical. And here we have to be careful. Most of us will be writing in English. But what happens if the RSS feed is in another language?
Well the code works like this.
language-code = primary-code ( "-" subcode )
So if you were writing in English from the United States your code would be:
en-us
You do not need the subcode. "en" would be enough.
(If you need a langauge code table try: http://www.purplepages.ie/RSS/netscape/languages.html
or some two letter codes are: fr (French), de (German), it (Italian), nl (Dutch), el (Greek), es (Spanish), pt (Portuguese), ar (Arabic), he (Hebrew), ru (Russian), zh (Chinese), ja (Japanese), hi (Hindi), ur (Urdu), and sa (Sanskrit).)

So our next line will read:
<language>en-us</language>
(Remember the "-us" is purely optional.)

Now we come to the "last build date". Again the reason for this is simple. To let search engines and users know when was the last time you updated the file. However, here too, there are some caveates. You must follow specifications on Dates. Let us remain simple here.
Each Day & Month is represented by a 3 letter character, as follows:
Days:
Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun
Months:
Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

Now as to time, well let us not get complicated. We can use GMT, EST, CST, MST, PST etc.
Most RSS feeds will prefer to use the GMT as it is basically universal and can be checked on the internet fairly simply.
So finally our date will look like this:
<lastBuildDate>Sun, 4 Dec 2005 23:00:00 GMT</lastBuildDate>

Okay before we end the BASIC aspects of the Channel description let us just include some of the other possiblities here (the last three are real technical so we will leave them out of our feed.)

• pubDate - this is along the same syntax as our lastbuilddate and just tells people when you publish the file. Usually used for newspapers and the like to flip automatically each day.


• managingEditor - this is the email address for person responsible for content of the feed. So here we would put: randypandy@randypandy.com (Randy Pandy)


• webMaster - this the email address for the person responsible for technical issues relating to channel. So here we would put: webmaster@randypandy.com (Pandy Randy)


• category - This is used to specify one or more categories that the channel belongs to. So here we may put: "E-commerce"


• generator - This is A string indicating the program used to generate the channel.


• skipDays - A hint for aggregators telling them which days they can skip.


• skipHours - A hint for aggregators telling them which hours they can skip.

So what are we left with?
Well here we go (including also pubdate, managing editor, webmaster & category):

<CHANNEL>

<title>Randy Pandy's Perfumery</title>
<description>RSS Feed for The Great Perfume Products Sold At Randy's Pandy's Perfumery</description>
<copyright>"Copyright 2006 Randy Pandy's Perfumery - All Rights Reserved"</copyright>
<link>http://www.randypandy.com</link>
<language>en-us</language>
<managingEditor>randypandy@randypandy.com (Randy Pandy)</managingEditor>
<webMaster>webmaster@randypandy.com (Pandy Randy)</webMaster>
<category>Ecommerce</category>
<pubdate>Mon, 5 Dec 2005 23:00:00 GMT</pubdate>
<lastBuildDate>Sun, 4 Dec 2005 23:00:00 GMT</lastBuildDate>

The <channel> tag should now make sense to all of you. Remember, all you need is the actual <channel> </channel> and nothing else. However, it would be wise to also include in your RSS feed, the <title>, <description>, <copyright> and <link> tags and perhaps the <lastBuildDate>. And remember to open and close! <title> </title>.

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Previous Articles In This Series:

1. The Basics of Blogging and Web Site Creation - Part One: Content Is King


2. The Basics of Blogging and Web Site Creation - Part Two: Introduction To Keywords


3. Part Three - Keywords, Tags, Categories - Oh Vey! I Am So Mixed Up!


4. Blogging & Website Basics - Part Four: So How The Hell Do I Get Bonafide Links To My Blog?


5. Blogging - Part Five: Trying to Understand the Psychology Behind It All


6. Blogging - Part Six: Viral Technology - An Introduction


7. Blogging - Part Seven: Article Submission As A Tool To Extend Your Reach


8. Basics Of Blogging Series - Part Eight: Using Email As An Advertising Tool


9. Basics of Blogging Series: Part Nine - RSS Mania Addiction An Introduction To RSS and the Terminology


10. Basics of Blogging Series: Part Ten - Outline of How to Create an RSS Feed


11. Basics of Blogging Series: Part Eleven - Debunking a Few RSS Myths


12. Basics of Blogging Series: Part Twelve - The RSS Feed Template File

Click Here For The Cumulative Index To All Posts @ Cobwebs Of The Mind

Tags: email, technology, blogging, web site creation, content, writing, books, Search Engines, SEO, site rank, page rank, RSS, Podcast, VideoCast
Categories: technology, internet, Basics of Blogging Series, What Is RSS? Series
Basics of Blogging Series: Part Thirteen - The Basic Elements in the "Channel" Element

Basics of Blogging Series: Part Twelve - The RSS Feed Template File

Okay now roll up your sleeves, close the door, take the phone off the hook and get ready. You are going to begin to create an RSS feed. To recap we have on the drawing board:

1. What you want to go into the feed


2. Patience


3. A place to put it up on the net


4. Patience


5. A small smattering of technical knowledge


6. Patience

The very first thing we need to do is understand the makeup of our "rss.xml" file. Well actually the very first thing we need to do is get a template to understand the makeup. We will go from the simple to the more complicated, so don't get stressed.

We will be showing code here. Please bear in mind that blogging software does not lend itself easily to putting down code and thus in the coding sections you will see lots of empty lines. These lines can be erased if you copy and paste. Additionally for viewing I have indented the sections. However you do not need these indents in real code. It just makes it much easier to follow the code flow. Additionally, Firefox and IE interpert the line breaks differently. You will see more empty lines in Firefox. (Without really killing myself with an incredibly amount of extra coding, there is nothing to do about that.)

First point to remember. The template below does NOT include all possible options and/or variations. We will go from simple to complex. And I do not expect anyone to be able to get all the possible permutations at one shot. What we are simply trying to do is explain the layout so you can get the schema into your head and understand the various possibilities.

Of course if you are really into discovering all the techie jargon and possibilities about XML I suggest to start off at: http://www.feedvalidator.org/docs/rss2.html. This will lead you slowly and surely into the possibilities of RSS template creation and all its permutations.

If you are a "techie" or the inner workings of HTML and XML are not a mystery to you, then the template below will be fairly self-explanatory. However, if you are new to the world of XML and especially RSS then it would be a good idea to take the few minutes to study this template and all the explanations.

One of the points to remember is that if you do a Google or Yahoo search for "RSS templates" or something along that line you will come up with a great many articles. Unfortunately, most of those articles are written on a level that demands you have some expertise in these areas. Below I am going to try and explain in "layman" terms what each entry means.

If you know any HTML you will know that HTML is a markup language which demands "tags" to do something. These tags are enclosed in <>. The HTML tags  usually (not always) demand an opening and a closing. The opening is <> and the closing is a matching tag with the / added, thus </>. So in order to print bold we would enclose a word or phrase as such. <b>This will be bold.</b> And it will look as follows: This will be bold. (There are a few commands that will Bold depending on the version and sophistication of HTML that you are using). Italics would be: <i>This will be italic.</i>. This will be italic. And combining the two will be: <b><i>This will be bold and Italic.</i></b> This will be bold and Italic. The code is in the source code (the viewer obviously does not see the source code!)

(I do not wish to confuse any readers here but certain characters in HTML must be typed out with their own code. It depends on your editor, (whether the editor pre-processes the code and translates it for you). For instance, the < will look like in a pure HTML coded page as "&lt;" and the quotation mark will look like: "&quot;". The copyright symbol is produced by typing "&copy;". There are quite a few special codes but today most of the editors do the work by themselves.)

XML has its own markup language. All the commands like HTML are enclosed in <> as you can see below. As in HTML some of them have just opening tags, while most have opening and closing tags. If you do not close a tag then the file has no clue you have moved on to the next level. REMEMBER THAT! Some commands demand that the "command" or "code" be placed between the < opening and the ending > such as the first line in the template:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8">

Other commands demand a beginning and an end marker such as <item> </item>. As in HTML the marker with the / (slash) such as </item> tells XML you are at the end of the entry marked as <item>.

Okay first the Template then we will begin to divide it up.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8">
<?xml-stylesheet type='text/css'>
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">

<channel>

<title>" "</title>
<description>" "</description>
<copyright>" "</copyright>
<link>" "</link>
<language>" "</language>
<lastBuildDate>""</lastBuildDate>
<image>

<title>" </title>
<width></width><height></height>
<link></link>
<url></url>

</image>
<item>

<title></title>
<link></link>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<pubDate></pubDate>
<description></description>

</item>

</channel>

</rss>

Don't get scared. It really is not as difficult as it looks. Okay now I did promise "layman" terms so here goes. Lets divide this template up into THREE sections.
Section One - Heading XML Section

<?xml version="1.0"  encoding="utf-8"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type='text/css' >
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">

This section tells the reader/parser/file just what the file is. In effect without too much detail at the moment it announces to the world:
"Hello. I am an XML file and I adhere to the RSS XML template version 2.0 as proposed at http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/."
(Well it means a lot more and a lot less but that is good enough for now.)
Now for the next parts. It is a linear table as usually all logic in computers is. This is not the place to get into arguments of logical systems however we do think in a linear format. So there are two parts.

1. Define the Channel


2. Define each item in the channel

What is a Channel? Well lets look on it as how you choose to define the information you are going to put into the file. For instance if you are putting out an RSS file to get people to look at your Web Site which has information about and sells Perfume, your channel would be that. Thus the title would read:

<TITLE>Randy Pandy's Perfumery</TITLE>

As you can see from the template above the channel is defined by the following parameters.

<channel>

<title>" "</title>
<description>" "</description>
<copyright>" "</copyright>
<link>" "</link>
<language>" "</language>
<lastBuildDate>""</lastBuildDate>

(Remember if you look at the bottom of the file you will find the end Channel marker which is of course </channel>.



Now the next level as we drill down is the item (items within the channel).

<item>

<title></title>
<link></link>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<pubDate></pubDate>
<description></description>

</item>

Again each item will have a title. The item title here may be:
<TITLE>Seduction - The Perfect Unisex Scent</TITLE>

As you can see the file follows a logical template drilling down from:

• XML lines - "Hello World I am an XML file"


• Channel - "Hello World. This is my Channel and the overall topic we will be discussing in the Channel." (and all the info you want to give on it.)


• Item - "Hello World. I am an item in the above channel. Here is my information, my pictures, my source and where you can find me."
  
  And remember at the end you will need the closing for both Channel and RSS:
  </channel>
  </rss>
  
  If you are an author or writer think of it like this:

• XML Lines describe the genre - Say "Hello World This is a book on fantasy"


• Channel Line describes the book - Say "Hello World this is a book whose title is "Randy Pandy's Perfumery"


• Item Lines describe each chapter - "Hello World this is a chapter "Seduction - The Perfect Unisex Scent"

Don't get worried yet. I am not going to leave you high and dry. In my next article I will teach you how to fill out each item in the Channel and Item declarations. When we are done with that, you should be able to create a fairly decent XML file and template.

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Previous Articles In This Series:

1. The Basics of Blogging and Web Site Creation - Part One: Content Is King


2. The Basics of Blogging and Web Site Creation - Part Two: Introduction To Keywords


3. Part Three - Keywords, Tags, Categories - Oh Vey! I Am So Mixed Up!


4. Blogging & Website Basics - Part Four: So How The Hell Do I Get Bonafide Links To My Blog?


5. Blogging - Part Five: Trying to Understand the Psychology Behind It All


6. Blogging - Part Six: Viral Technology - An Introduction


7. Blogging - Part Seven: Article Submission As A Tool To Extend Your Reach


8. Basics Of Blogging Series - Part Eight: Using Email As An Advertising Tool


9. Basics of Blogging Series: Part Nine - RSS Mania Addiction An Introduction To RSS and the Terminology


10. Basics of Blogging Series: Part Ten - Outline of How to Create an RSS Feed


11. Basics of Blogging Series: Part Eleven - Debunking a Few RSS Myths

Click Here For The Cumulative Index To All Posts @ Cobwebs Of The Mind

Tags: email, technology, blogging, web site creation, content, writing, books, Search Engines, SEO, site rank, page rank, RSS, Podcast, VideoCast
Categories: technology, internet, Basics of Blogging Series, What Is RSS? Series
Basics of Blogging Series: Part Twelve - The RSS Feed Template File