Creating RSS feeds

The root element

The first element in an RSS document is the root rss element.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0">
</rss>

The channel element

The next required element is the channel element.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0">
   <channel>
   </channel>
</rss>

Within each RSS feed the channel document must have the following elements: title, link, description. These elements are used to give a title to the feed (name of the channel), a link to the website where the feed comes from and a description of the feed.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0">
   <channel>
      <title>Pixelcode news</title>
      <link>http://pixelcode.co.uk</link>
      <description>Pixelcode news articles.</description>
   </channel>
</rss>

Optional channel elements

The following are optional channel elements.

Element Description
language The language of the feed. Values can be found at the RSS website.
copyright A copyright notice for the channel.
pubDate The date of the latest addition in this format.
lastBuildDate The date that the channel was last changed in this format.
managingEditor Email address of the editor of the feed.
webMaster Email address of the web master relating to the feed.
generator Name of the program used to make the feed.
docs A link to the RSS home page.
ttl Time to live, specifies the number of minutes before the feed is refreshed.
image An image to be displayed alongside your feed.

More optional channel elements.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0">
   <channel>
      <title>Pixelcode news</title>
      <link>http://pixelcode.co.uk</link>
      <description>Pixelcode news articles.</description>
      <language>en</language>
      <copyright>Pixelcode 2008</copyright>
      <pubDate>Mon, 6 Oct 2008 12:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <lastBuildDate>Mon, 6 Oct 2008 12:00:00 GMT</lastBuildDate>
      <managingEditor>editor@myfeed.co.uk</managingEditor>
      <webMaster>webmaster@myfeed.co.uk</webMaster>
      <generator>MyGenerator v2.0</generator>
      <docs>http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification</docs>
      <ttl>60</ttl>
      <image>
         <url>http://pixelcode.co.uk/feed.png</url>
         <title>Pixelcode news feed</title>
         <link>http://pixelcode.co.uk</link>
         <!-- the values below are the maximum values for width and height -->
         <width>144</width>
         <height>400</height>
      </image>
   </channel>
</rss>

The item element

Item elements are where the data are stored. They must contain either a title or description.

Element Description
title A title of the item.
link Link to the relevant URL.
description Description of the current document.
author Author of the current item.
comments Link to a page that contains comments about the feed.
guid A string unique to that feed.
pubDate Date when the item was published in this format.
source The RSS feed that the item relates to.

More optional item elements.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0">
   <channel>
      <title>Pixelcode news</title>
      <link>http://pixelcode.co.uk</link>
      <description>Pixelcode news articles.</description>
      <language>en</language>
      <copyright>Pixelcode 2008</copyright>
      <pubDate>Mon, 6 Oct 2008 12:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <lastBuildDate>Mon, 6 Oct 2008 12:00:00 GMT</lastBuildDate>
      <managingEditor>editor@myfeed.co.uk</managingEditor>
      <webMaster>webmaster@myfeed.co.uk</webMaster>
      <generator>MyGenerator v2.0</generator>
      <docs>http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification</docs>
      <ttl>60</ttl>
      <image>
         <url>http://pixelcode.co.uk/feed.png</url>
         <title>Pixelcode news feed</title>
         <link>http://pixelcode.co.uk</link>
         <!-- the values below are the maximum values for width and height -->
         <width>144</width>
         <height>400</height>
      </image>

      <item>
         <title>News item 1</title>
         <link>http://pixelcode.co.uk</link>
         <description>Description of item 1.</description>
         <author>Pixelcode</author>
         <comments>http://pixelcode.co.uk/comments/1/</comments>
         <guid>http://pixelcode.co.uk/news/1/</guid>
         <pubdate>Mon, 6 Oct 2008 12:00:00 GMT</pubdate>
         <source url="http://pixelcode.co.uk/feed.rss">Pixelcode news</source>
      </item>
   </channel>
</rss>

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