Cobwebs Of The Mind: Basics of Blogging Series: Part 20 - RSS - A Basic Template File to Create Your Very Own RSS Feed

This is a bare-bones RSS template. Well it is a bit more than "bare-bones" however, it only contains the information at the minimum you should have in your RSS file. My next two articles will have the "medium level" and "full level" (good if you intend to Podcast).

You can easily copy and paste this into a template. If you are not a techie and dealing with XML for the first time, use a decent text only editor, unless you can use FrontPage or DreamWeaver or a dedicated XML editor. Be careful of any extra charcters that you may sneak in with your typing, and remember not to touch the opening or closing brackets. If you do not know what you are doing do NOT touch the first three lines. The line beginning with the "channel" element is where you should begin to substitute the information on your feed.

Below we have two items in this channel. You can of course add as many items as your heart desires. Just keep on adding the entire section of beginning and ending with
<item></item>
and filling in the information.

The editing software forces an empty line between each command however in your Feed you should not have any empty lines. Just delete the lines with no information if you copy & paste.

First a template with information and then a template without.

<?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>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>
<pubdate>Mon, 5 Dec 2006 23:00:00 GMT</pubdate>
<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 - your lover will love. 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>
<pubDate>Sat, 10 Dec 2006 23:00:00 GMT</pubDate>

</item>
<item>

<title>Angel Face Cream</title>
<link>http://www.randypandy.com/cosmetics/angel.html</link>
<description> A new face cream which will get rid of all your wrinkles in 7 days or your money back! Buy the lover in your life the best present she ever had!</description>
<pubDate>Sat, 10 Dec 2006 23:00:00 GMT</pubDate>

</item>

</channel>

</rss>

Now Just the Bare Bones Template.

<?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>
<pubdate></pubdate>
<image>

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

</image>
<Item>

<title></title>
<link></link>
<description></description>
<pubDate></pubDate>

</Item>
<Item>

<title></title>
<link></link>
<description></description>
<pubDate></pubDate>

</Item>

</Channel>