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PAGE OVERVIEW
Most of us have heard about it: RSS, PodCasting, and whatever they came up with for news feeds. 
But WHAT is RSS really? And how can you set it up for your own website of blog?
Intro to RSS:
Reading RSS Feeds:
RSS Feeds - technical details:
Making RSS Feeds:
Getting out there:
Note: The RSS standard is a standard that seems to be under a constant development, so some things might change, disappear, or be added in the future! |
Readers Per Operating System
The easiest way to read RSS Feeds is by using specific applications for that purpose.
The commonly allow an easy way to add feeds or even respond to your clicks on the RSS logo's on websites. Most of them have some nice features like categorizing the feeds and forwarding messages.
I personally prefer the RSS Readers from Konfabulator, Desktop Sidebar, and RSSReader.
But RSS options build into browsers can have it's charm as well.
Tip 1: More and more webbrowsers (FireFox, Opera, etc.) have build-in features to read RSS feeds!
Start one of these browsers and look in their help files how to work with RSS feed.
Tip 2: Konfabulator, a free widget engine by Yahoo! for Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh has plenty of widgets that support RSS feed right onto your desktop as well (that's what I use). Highly recommended not just for the cool RSS widgets!
| Win98 and later |
BlogExpress |
One of the easiest to use for new RSS Feed readers. |
| Win98 and later |
SharpReader |
Less userfriendly but very compact tool. |
| Win98 and later |
FeedReader |
More advanced features - maybe overkill for beginners. |
Win98 and later
Mac OS X
Linux i686 |
FireFox |
Mozilla based webbrowser with integrated RSS. |
| Mac OS X |
NetNewsWire |
The "lite" version is one of the cleanest RSS readers for the Mac. |
| Linux (Gnome2) |
Lifera |
Not for beginners, but definitly one of the better readers for Linux. |
Win98 and later
Mac OS X
Solaris
QNX
OS/2
FreeBSD
BeOS |
Opera |
Opera is one of the fastest browsers available and now comes with integrated RSS reader. |
WinXP/2000
Mac OS X |
Konfabulator |
Konfabulator does not just offer a huge collection of desktop widgets, but a lot of those widgets are able to read RSS feeds as well. |
| Win98 and later |
RSSReader |
Collects a lot of RSS Feeds and allows categorizing them. Advanced yet easy to use. |
| Webbased |
BlogLines |
Free webservice to read newsfeed (free account setup needed). |
| Webbased |
RocketInfo |
Also a free webservice to read newsfeed (also requires a free account setup). |
| Webbased |
Rnews |
Open source project; uses PHP and MySQL to do the reading.
You must install this on your webserver - so this is not for everybody. |
| Java |
Flock |
Java based RSS aggregator - so pretty much cross platform. |
Note: the webbased RSS Readers are OS independent.
Where do I find feeds?
Well, the best place to start is ofcourse Google. RSSReader's website has a nice list too.
LockerGnome has a nice list of RSS Feeds for computer fans, and an extensive list of RSS Readers.
You also might want to check out these sites: Carlo's bootleg, and NewsIsFree.
You will be suprised how many websites carry RSS feeds now a days.
Look for the grey/orange or just orange RSS / XML logo on your favorite website.
 or 
Some websites do not carry the logo and might require you to punch in the keyword "rss" in the searchbox they offer (if they offer it at all).
As explained in the introduction you commonly need to find the proper XML file.
This file is commonly hidden under the logo - meaning: clicking this button links to the required XML file.
Most browsers allow you to also right-click the logo and copy the link instead, so you can paste it into your RSS Reader.
Here for example some RSS Feeds I found at LockerGnome:
Some link examples I found just in e few seconds:
http://www.chip.de/rss/rss_topnews.xml
http://www.chip.de/rss/rss_downloads.xml
http://download.lockergnome.com/rss/
http://feeds.lockergnome.com/rss/windows.xml
http://www.winplanet.com/wp_u_xml.asp
As you see in the last example: this is an ASP file.
This site obviously generates it's feed using ASP as a scripting language.
Here there are 2 approaches;
either just call the file for what it is (.ASP or .PHP) or tell your webserver (Apache for example allows this) to associate .XML with the PHP or ASP scripting engine.
The 3rd link even has no filename whatsoever! Here most likely the .htaccess tells the webserver what to send.
Keep reading:
What is RSS - a short Intro
or
Generating RSS Feed using PHP and MySQL »
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