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RSS, an acronym for Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication, is a useful way to make a list of updated or new information online available in a concise format for other sites and RSS readers. RSS is essentially an XML document with links and metadata conforming to a specific standard.

More on RSS Feeds in Cascade

An RSS Feed is a way of syndicating web content in an XML format that is understood by a wide variety of programs, such as news readers, web browsers, and mail programs. There are many different versions of RSS, with the most popular being 0.91, and the most recent being 2.0.

Cascade Server makes it easy to author RSS feeds with out-of-the-box XSL stylesheets that can turn an index block into an RSS feed syndicating items such as news, press releases, or anything else that needs to be syndicated. In addition, external RSS feeds can be aggregated using Cascade Server's XML feed blocks.

Cascade Server also uses RSS feeds to syndicate workflow information from the user's dashboard.

For a discussion of the various versions of RSS, see the article on XML.com.

RSS Format

An RSS feed consists of channels, which are then broken up into individual items. Both channels and items have a title, link, and description. The format of a RSS 2.0 feed is as follows:

 <rss version="2.0"> <channel> <title>News</title> <link>http://www.hannonhill.com</link> <description>Hannon Hill News</description> <language>en-us</language> <pubDate>Tue, 10 Jun 2003 04:00:00 GMT</pubDate> <generator>Cascade Server</generator> <webMaster>webmaster@hannonhill.com</webMaster> <item> <title>News Item 1</title> <link>http://www.hannonhill.com/news/item1.html</link> <description>Description of news item 1 here.</description> <pubDate>Tue, 03 Jun 2003 09:39:21 GMT</pubDate> <guid>http://www.hannonhill.com/news/item1.html</guid> </item> <item> <title>News Item 2</title> <link>http://www.hannonhill.com/news/item2.html</link> <description>Description of news item 2 here.</description> <pubDate>Fri, 30 May 2003 11:06:42 GMT</pubDate> <guid>http://www.hannonhill.com/news/item2.html</guid> </item> <item> <title>News Item 3</title> <link>http://www.hannonhill.com/news/item3.html</link> <description>Description of news item 3 here.</description> <pubDate>Tue, 20 May 2003 08:56:02 GMT</pubDate> <guid>http://www.hannonhill.com/news/item3.html</guid> </item> </channel> </rss>

Creating an RSS Output

Creating an RSS output is exactly like creating any other output: You'll need to create a new template, configuration set, and content type. You'll also need to attach an XSLT format to the template to generate the RSS XML.

You will need to decide whether your RSS output will be attached to an existing Content Type or whether you will want to create a new Content Type strictly for RSS feeds. For example, if you already have a "News Index" Content Type, publishing to http://SiteUrl/news/index.html, you could add an additional output to this Content Type that could publish your feed to http://SiteUrl/news/index.xml.

If your Site will contain multiple RSS feeds, you may prefer instead to have an entirely separate page for your RSS feeds and you can then assign the Content to be formatted at the page level of each. In that case you would need to create a whole different Content Type for your RSS feeds.

Because RSS feeds are typically only used with a limited number of pages, it is generally beneficial to only use the RSS Configuration on Content Types that are not frequently used within your Site. This will prevent slow loading of pages that do not actually need the RSS output.

To create a RSS output, you will need the following:

1. Template for the RSS output
2. XSLT or Velocity Format to format the content appropriately
3. Index Block for retrieving the content for the RSS output
4. RSS Configuration for attaching your RSS output to a page

Below are guidelines for creating each of these items.

Creating the RSS Template:

1. In the Home area, create the Template for RSS output. This Template has only one region and no other markup, because all of the RSS feed's content will be generated by the XSLT:
2. Save the template to establish the region.
<system-region name="DEFAULT"/>

Creating an XSLT Format to generate the RSS feed's XML content

If you do not have your own XSLT format, use the following sample code, also included in the Cascade Server default database as /common/stylesheets/output/rss20 - javascript: <?xml version="1.0"?> <xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0" xmlns:date-converter="ext1" xmlns:xalan="http://xml.apache.org/xalan" exclude-result-prefixes="date-converter"> <!-- URL prefix for news item links --> <xsl:variable name="website_prefix">http://www.myorganization.org</xsl:variable> <!-- File extension used --> <xsl:variable name="file_extension">.html</xsl:variable> <!-- RSS extension to use --> <xsl:variable name="rss_extension">.rss</xsl:variable> <!-- Name of RSS generator --> <xsl:variable name="rss_generator">Cascade Server</xsl:variable> <!-- Web master's email address --> <xsl:variable name="web_master">webmaster@myorganization.org</xsl:variable> <!-- Path in the CMS --> <xsl:variable name="site_path"/> <!-- Match on the root index block --> <xsl:template match="system-index-block"> <xsl:variable name="currentPage" select="calling-page/system-page"/> <rss version="2.0"> <channel> <!-- write RSS header information --> <xsl:apply-templates mode="current" select="$currentPage"/> <!-- write top 20 items, make sure pages have last-published-on element --> <xsl:apply-templates select="//system-page[not(@current)]"> <xsl:sort order="descending" select="start-date"/> </xsl:apply-templates> </channel> </rss> </xsl:template> <!-- Matches on the current system page, the news type page --> <xsl:template match="system-page" mode="current"> <title> <xsl:call-template name="get-name-from-metadata"/> </title> <link> <xsl:value-of select="$website_prefix"/> <xsl:value-of select="substring-after(path,$site_path)"/> <xsl:value-of select="$rss_extension"/> </link> <description> <xsl:value-of select="summary"/> </description> <pubDate> <xsl:choose> <xsl:when test="start-date"> <xsl:value-of select="date-converter:convertDate(number(last-published-on))"/> </xsl:when> <xsl:when test="created-on"> <xsl:value-of select="date-converter:convertDate(number(created-on))"/> </xsl:when> <xsl:otherwise/> </xsl:choose> </pubDate> <generator> <xsl:value-of select="$rss_generator"/> </generator> <webMaster> <xsl:value-of select="$web_master"/> </webMaster> </xsl:template> <!-- Match on first 20 invidiual news item pages --> <xsl:template match="system-page"> <xsl:if test="position() &lt; 21"> <item> <title> <xsl:call-template name="get-name-from-metadata"/> </title> <link> <xsl:value-of select="$website_prefix"/> <xsl:value-of select="substring-after(path,$site_path)"/> <xsl:value-of select="$file_extension"/> </link> <description> <xsl:choose> <xsl:when test="summary"> <xsl:value-of select="summary"/> </xsl:when> <xsl:when test="description"> <xsl:value-of select="description"/> </xsl:when> <xsl:otherwise> No description. </xsl:otherwise> </xsl:choose> </description> <pubDate> <xsl:choose> <xsl:when test="start-date"> <xsl:value-of select="date-converter:convertDate(number(start-date))"/> </xsl:when> <xsl:when test="created-on"> <xsl:value-of select="date-converter:convertDate(number(created-on))"/> </xsl:when> <xsl:otherwise/> </xsl:choose> </pubDate> <guid><xsl:value-of select="$website_prefix"/>/<xsl:value-of select="@id"/></guid> </item> </xsl:if> </xsl:template> <xsl:template name="get-name-from-metadata"> <xsl:choose> <xsl:when test="title"> <xsl:value-of select="title"/> </xsl:when> <xsl:when test="display-name"> <xsl:value-of select="display-name"/> </xsl:when> <xsl:otherwise> <xsl:value-of select="name"/> </xsl:otherwise> </xsl:choose> </xsl:template> <!-- Xalan component for date conversion from CMS date format to RSS 2.0 pubDate format --> <xalan:component functions="convertDate" prefix="date-converter"> <xalan:script lang="javascript"> function convertDate(date) { var d = new Date(date); // Splits date into components var temp = d.toString().split(' '); // timezone difference to GMT var timezone = temp[5].substring(3); // RSS 2.0 valid pubDate format var retString = temp[0] + ', ' + temp[2] + ' ' + temp[1] + ' ' + temp[3] + ' ' + temp[4] + ' ' + timezone; return retString; } </xalan:script> </xalan:component> </xsl:stylesheet>
1. You will have to attach the Format to the Default region to generate the RSS feed's XML content. This should be done by Editing your RSS Template. Go to the Regions tab and choose the Format icon in the Default section. Use the chooser to pick the RSS format within your Cascade instance. Be sure to Submit your changes on the Template.
2. The included XSLT will use the current page's title and summary to provide the title and description of the RSS feed, and it will use all other pages in the index block to generate the RSS feed's items.

Creating Index Block(s) for RSS feeds:

The following steps should be used for creating an Index Block of each Content Type that will be output as an RSS Feed.

1. In the Home area, locate the folder you would like your Index Blocks to be stored. Click on the New menu within the top menu bar and hover over Default. Click on Block. Select Index Block for the Block Type. Click on Submit
2. Give the Block a System Name (generally something like news, events, etc). For "Index Type" select Content Type Index. Using the Content Type chooser, select the appropriate Content Type that you would like your RSS feed to display.
3. "Max Rendered Assets" can be left at 0 for unlimited rendering of items. Unless you customize your RSS output to contain Data Definition content, you can leave "Page XML" as Do not render page XML inline. "Indexed Asset Content" should have the following items selected System Metadata and User Metadata. "Other Indexed Info" will need Append Calling Page Data selected.
4. Click Submit to save your Index Block.

Once the Template, Format, and Block(s) have been created, the Template must be assigned to the appropriate Configuration Set. It is the Configuration Set that will determine in which format(s) content will be output in.

In the Administration area, you can create a completely new Configuration Set for the RSS feed; or if you are simply adding a feed to existing pages, you may add the RSS Configuration to the appropriate Configuration Set.

Assigning your RSS output to an existing Content Type:

1. Locate the Configuration Set the Content Type is utilizing.
2. Click on the Edit tab for the Configuration.
3. In version 6.7 and later, select the Add new configuration button. Enter RSS for the Name and locate your RSS Template using the Template chooser.
4. In versions prior to 6.7, select the Configurations tab. Scroll to the bottom and enter RSS for the Name and locate your RSS Template using the chooser. Select Add this new configuration and wait for the screen to refresh to the new Configuration.
5. In the "Output File Extension" field enter .xml and select XML in the "Type of Data" dropdown.
6. In the Default region, use the Block chooser to locate your Index Block of content to be rendered in your RSS Feed. Click Submit to save your changes to the Configuration Set.
7. You can now go view your RSS output on pages using this Configuration Set. After locating a page using this Configuration Set, simply click RSS in your Output options.
8. Your RSS ouput will now publish like any other page type but the RSS feed will have the .xml extension.

Creating a new Content Type for your RSS output:

1. You will need to create a new Configuration Set for your RSS Content Type.
2. In the Administration area go to the Configuration Sets area.
3. Click on New Configuration Set.
4. In version 6.7 and later, enter RSS in the Name field. Enter RSS for the Name and locate your RSS Template using the Template chooser.
5. In versions prior to 6.7, enter RSS in the Name field and select the Configurations tab. Enter RSS for the Name and locate your RSS Template using the Template chooser. Select Add this new configuration and wait for the screen to refresh to the new Configuration.
6. In the "Output File Extension" field enter .xml and select XML in the "Type of Data" dropdown.
7. In the Default region, use the Block chooser to locate your Index Block of content to be rendered in your RSS Feed. Click Submit to save your changes to the Configuration Set.
8. Go to the Content Types area and select New Content Type. Enter RSS in the "Name" field and use the Configuration Set chooser to locate the RSS Configuration that you created. Select a Metadata Set using the Metadata chooser. The Metadata can be the Default set as long as the user remembers to fill in the Title and Summary fields on the RSS pages. Click Submit to save this Content Type.
9. This RSS Content Type can now be assigned to Pages. In the Home area, go to the New menu, hover over Default, and select Page. Go to the System tab and enter your desired page name. Use the Content Type chooser in this pane to select your RSS Content Type. Click Submit to save this page.
10. Your page should now display an RSS feed of the Content Type selected in the Index Block.
11. If you have multiple RSS feeds of different Content Types, you can just reuse this RSS Content Type and on each individual page assign the appropriate Index Block of content. To override the Index Block assigned at the Configuration level, click Edit on the RSS page and select the Configurations tab. Locate the Default region and use the Block chooser to locate the Index Block of content that you would like in your RSS feed page. Click Submit to save this change.

Using External RSS Feeds

Cascade Server allows for the inclusion of external RSS feeds in internally managed pages through the use of an XML Feed Block.

To incorporate an external RSS feed:

1. In the Home area, navigate to the folder where you want to store your XML feed block. This will typically be an internal or common folder where all such blocks are stored.
2. Select New -> Default -> Block.
3. Select Feed Block and click Submit.
4. On the Content Pane, enter the external URL for the feed you wish to use.
5. On the System Pane, enter a name for your new feed and click Submit.
6. This new XML Feed Block can now be plugged into a page region along with a custom XSL format, and the rendered content from the external feed will appear on the page. For an example of an XSL format that renders an RSS feed as XHTML, see /common/stylesheets/output/rss2xhtml in Cascade Server.

    

ADDITIONAL NOTES - Although the Feed Block will be updated automatically any time additions or changes are made to the external feed, Cascade Server publishes the resulting page as static HTML. To keep your content up to date, it's best to set up a frequent publishing schedule for pages using external feeds. 

RSS Feed References

• Subscribe - E-mail Alerts

Downloads

• format-date.xsl

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