RSS Feed
Digest
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.
Concept
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.
Technical
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 0.91 feed is as follows:
Creating an RSS Output
Creating an RSS output is exactly like creating any other output: You'll need to create a new target, destination, and template. You'll also need to attach an RSS XSL format and include links between the individual templates.
To create an RSS output:
- In the Administration area, create a new target under the main site target for your new output. Targets should typically be named according to the type of output they represent, so call this one RSS.
- Create a new corresponding destination. The transport can remain the same across all outputs.
- Once you have finished creating the target and destination, return to the Home area and create/upload an RSS template.
- When creating the template, you will have to assign a target. Select your recently created RSS target.
- You will also have to attach an XSL format to the default region to style the content in RSS format. If you do not have your own XSL format, try one of the sample XSL formats that come with the default database: /common/stylesheets/output/rss091.
- RSS feeds are typically rendered from index blocks. If you are setting up an RSS feed for only one page on your site, you may assign the index block to the default region at the template level. Otherwise, leave the default block assignment blank, and it will inherit the index block at the page level.
- Once the template has been created, it must be assigned to the appropriate configuration set. It is the configuration set that will determine which formats 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.
- Now any page that is based on this configuration set will have the RSS configurations applied to it.
ADDITIONAL NOTE - Because RSS feeds are typically only used with a limited number of pages (typically pages that index other content), it is generally beneficial to create a new configuration set that will be used only for those pages.
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:
- 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.
- Select New -> Default -> Block.
- Select Feed Block and click Submit.
- On the Content Pane, enter the external URL for the feed you wish to use.
- On the System Pane, enter a name for your new feed and click Submit.
- 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.