Make Your Own RSS PODCast Feed
What is an RSS PODCast Feed and how do I use it?
Subtitle: More than you ever wanted to know about RSS
Although there are some varying opinions,
the most common definition of RSS is that
it stands for Really Simple Syndication.
Although an RSS PODCast feed may be dynamically generated,
it appears to the subscriber (or consumer or user)
of the feed as a file that is retrieved.
Typically it is retrieved from a web server,
but if you have an RSS feed file on
your hard disk, you can open it.
Or you could make your own and open it!
An RSS feed, whether PODCast or other, is just a list of files.
The files in the list usually
contain audio, video, photos or other images.
So, to summarize, an RSS feed is a file
that contains a list of files.
This list of files represents audio files,
pictures, videos, images, or other data files.
The files are sometimes referred to as
episodes or programs if the feed is related
to something delivered on a regular basis.
So what's all the fuss?
And why does it seem to be so complicated?
Well the list inside the file is in a
special format or language called XML,
or eXtensible Markup Language.
Yes another TLA ... three letter acronym.
XML provides rules for putting data in a file
so that the parts of the file can be easily
identified. You "markup" the data by
surrounding the data elements in the file with
special markers and software, called
an XML parser, is able to locate and navigate
through the data in an easy way (well easy
for programmers). The "markers" are the <
and > symbols surrounding an the name of an element.
Sometimes this is referred to as a tag.
There is a tag for beginning a data item
and a tag for ending. So inside an XML file
you might find a "title" that looks like this:
<title>What is an RSS feed and how do I use it?</title>
If you know how web pages work, then you know they
use the HyperText Markup Language (HTML) and inside they
also have tags like this.
The ancestry of HTML and XML is much the same so this is not surprising.
However, HTML has a fixed or defined set of tags, whereas
XML lets you make up your own!
Make up your own?
How does anybody ever agree
on anything then?
Well I'm glad you asked!
XML also has the capability of checking the tags
you have used in XML file against a list of allowed tags,
called a schema.
Interestingly enough, this list of allowed tags is also in XML!
This process is called validation and an XML parser or
XML validator is used for this.
There is a web page
where you can validate RSS feeds
here.
So if you make a schema (or XML file) of tags and enough people
agree with you and start using it, you can exchange data in a
common, easily verifiable format.
That is exactly what RSS is.
RSS is a schema for an XML file.
The schema includes the tag names that were made up to
hold the information such as the title and author of the RSS feed,
and then there is a section for each file in the feed that
has
the name, title, location, length, description,
date created,
and author.
RSS newsreaders, RSS aggregators, iTunes, and many other programs
can get an RSS feed and use the RSS schema to validate it,
then retrieve the files in the list to your program to listen or
view or whatever!
If you want to subscribe to an RSS PODCast Feed with iTunes, I can show here:
How to Subscribe to an iPod-iTunes RSS Feed
If you want to make your own, you can find out the rules here:
Podcasting and iTunes: Technical Specification
Then you can use any old text editor to create an RSS Feed for your own files
that you can use locally. If you want to make an RSS Feed available to web
surfers over the Internet, you will have to make sure to put the RSS Feed file
on a web server AND make sure the files referenced in your RSS Feed are available
via a web server as well.
However there are picky rules about making XML files and further rules regarding
the RSS schema.
As an alternative you can use a web page I created that will help you generate
a valid RSS Feed that will display in your browser.
Then you can view the source and copy it to use on your local disk or save and
upload to web server.
Try it by clicking here!
This web page only lets you enter one file (or episode or program), but after you
see how it's done you can duplicate that section inside the file that is generated for you.
Comments? Suggestions? Other cool tools?
Let me know at iPod-Advisor.blogspot.com
Page contents: Make Your Own RSS PODCast Feed
Page keywords:
iPod, Apple iPod, iPod nano, MP3 player, MP3 players, iTunes, buy iPod, shop iPod, iPod advice, iPod recommendations, iPod reviews, iPod tips, iPod FAQ
Page URL: http://iPod-Advisor.com/Make-Your-Own-RSS-PODcast-feed.htm
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