About XML Feeds

[Anthony]

You are most likely wondering what you do with those little buttons you see on websites? You then click the button and end up at a page like this? You have copied the code into your website and nothing happens! That's because it is not actual XHTML raw code, it is and XML Feed that requires a parser to produce a viewable result on your website. The other alternative is by using software on your computer as a news reader.

Placing Code Into Your Website

The code you find at http://www.anthonyparsons.com/forum/rss.php you do not have to do anything with. The code is all put together through this site. You only required the URL of that page (as above).

There are two ways in which you can insert the code into your page. First, use a third party website to run the XML Parser.

http://jade.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/feed/ - This site you simply have to enter the URL and it will produce the script code to place within your website to view the feed live on your page. The second option, recommended, is you download a parser yourself, install on your server and change the details to reflect your parser location instead off the .edu site as in the first option.

For Example; to view my RSS feed using the first method, you would insert this script into your webpage:

<script language="JavaScript" src="http://jade.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/feed/rss2js.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.anthonyparsons.com%2Fforum%2Frss.php&chan=yes&num=0&desc=no&date=no"></script>

<noscript> <a href="http://jade.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/feed/rss2html.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.anthonyparsons.com%2Fforum%2Frss.php&chan=yes&num=0&desc=no&date=no">View RSS feed</a> </noscript>

Now using the recommended method, download a parser for free from:

http://diveintomark.org/projects/feed_parser/
http://magpierss.sourceforge.net/

Or just search for RSS Parser downloads or something along those lines, to find plenty more. Follow the instructions of the file download and remove the code [http://jade.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/feed/rss2js.php] above and replace with your file location, eg: [http://www.yourdomain.com/parser/rss.php].

Desktop Software

There are plenty of desktop RSS Aggregators available for free on the Internet. I use Sharp Reader myself because it's simple and straight to the point. Doesn't contain all the bells and whistles, simply designed to extract all my RSS Feeds that I have subscribed too so I can view them in one easy place. No more website jumping to read the news or what's happening at the forums.

For example; in Sharp Reader you would simply insert my forum XML URL, or even just forum URL as sharp reader will find any XML feeds from a website URL, and hit enter on your keyboard and the aggregator will retrieve the RSS feed to your desktop. You can browse what's new in forums, latest news coverage and more all from the one program.

That's what you do with RSS and XML feeds.

[Michael]

Soooo, this is like a news feed?

[Anthony]

Yes. If I replied to a thread here, then it would respond through the XML Feed to your desktop aggregator software. Basically, you could have all your forums that supply XML Feeds centrally located and view posts, respond to posts all through the software, without going to each forum.