Rss- Need Help

Hi All
Please see below.

----- Original Message -----
From: Chris Pirillo
claude

Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2004 3:28 PM
Subject: RE: RSS- Need help


http://help.lockergnome.com/index.php?&showforum=33

:)

-----Original Message-----
From: Jean-Claude
Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2004 12:14 PM
To: chris.TakeThisOut@lockergnome.com

Subject: RSS- Need help


Hi Chris,
How are you ? I saw your RSS Quick Start article at http://rss.lockergnome.com/resources/artic...uickstart.phtml . It's the best source I've seen that explains the whole RSS thing in a simple way. However, I need your help in trying to fully understand the whole system or the process of RSS. I'm still a little unsure about the differences between readers, feeders, aggregates, weblogs , etc. I just found out about RSS this week and I've been reading a lot about it.

I have a web site and I would like to add XML's RSS to it but I'm new to the RSS technology. Currently, I manually insert news headlines into my site, which is timing consuming and inefficient. So, most of the time, my site has outdated news. I would like to automate the process. I would like to be cleared about a few things even though I think I get the idea.

Questions..
1) Are Aggregators really feeders or readers? Are webblogs really feeders or readers?

2) Can you explain the differences bewteen RSS readers that are downloaded on PCs -VS- others browser-based that are called blogs reader?

What do you recommend as a best PC version.

Can you explanin Others browser-based blogs (if I'm right) , do we have to mannually do anything (copying & pasting) latest information and FTP it to our web servers?
What do you recommend as a best browser-based reader/feeder?

3) Can I really automate the news update process on my site with RSS? Is it true? Or will I have to manually do some things myself?

4) As far as syndicating my own content to other sites, I've already created my own xml file using this tutorial ( http://www.searchenginewatch.com/sereport/...cle.php/2175271 ) but don't know what to do from there .

5) Lastly, refering to question 3 about , how do I put the syndicating yahoo.business rss feed below ( http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/business ) into my site or server?

Please Advise
Claude

OK you covered alot here, and some I can help with, some I can only guess at, because I haven't done it myself, or I didn't get enough detail from you.

1. An aggregator is a reader, for all intents and purposes they are the same concept. Typically readers do not remember settings, or offer (many?) additional features beyond reading a feed. Otherwise the terms are interchangeable.

2. There are advantages and disadvantages to each type of reader or aggregator. Web based readers (I use reader and aggregator interchangeably, OK), sometimes remeber what you've read, so it only downloads the newest articles, but this is just sometimes. Most PC based reader remember what you've already downloaded, and do not download the same articles more than once. PC based reader also ussually offer additional features.

Here is a topic on readers/aggregators

Quote:

Can you explanin Others browser-based blogs (if I'm right) , do we have to mannually do anything (copying & pasting) latest information and FTP it to our web servers? What do you recommend as a best browser-based reader/feeder?

I didn't really understand what you were getting at here, so...
A BLOG is a web log, like an online journal. Most can easily produce an RSS feed, so the readers don't have to go to the website to read new entries. Some aggregators will even let you post to certain BLOGS from the aggregator.

3.

Quote:

3) Can I really automate the news update process on my site with RSS? Is it true? Or will I have to manually do some things myself?

I don't know what your asking here, but...
Yes, you can write, borrow, buy a parser that will parse a feed from another site, and add it to yours. You need to get permission from the owner of the site you are taking the feed from, otherwise they could sue you for copyright infringement.

4. To get your feed syndicated you will need to go to a feed syndication site and list your feed, like you list your site in google.

5. You will need a parser, and permission from the site owner.

You should read the other threads in the General RSS stuff forum. There is a lot of great information here, and most of your questions are answered here, including the new ones you have after reading my post.

There is no completely automatic process, you will have to do some work. Once your set-up it could be completely automatic, assuming you don't want to add any of your own thought to the site, and none of your sources change the location of their feeds.