By S. Housley
Displaying RSS
RSS offers webmasters a unique opportunity to display fresh content on websites.
While publishing an RSS feed is a great way to generate site interest and increase
communication, syndicating and displaying feeds from related relevant sources can
also generate interest, increase traffic and improve search engine ranking.
RSS Radars
Webmasters with limited time or capacity can syndicate related content.
In a nut shell, webmasters can create RSS radars by combining a mix of content from
related sources by grouping similarly-themed feeds. RSS feeds are updated at different
intervals, providing an ever-changing collection of related information.
RSS is a form of eXtensible Markup Language or XML. Viewing an RSS feed in a web
browser generally produces code that is not easy for website visitors to decipher.
As a result, webmasters use tools to display the content contained in an RSS feed.
Content contained in RSS feeds can be added to websites a number of different ways.
Each method for displaying the RSS feed has pros and cons associated with it. Webmasters
will need to determine which option will best meet their hosting and technology
needs.
Using Javascript to Display RSS
Javascript is the easiest way to display RSS feeds on a website. There are
a number of sites that will allow you to generate code that can be inserted into
a website. The javascript will auto-update, showing the latest headlines as the
feed is updated. Each time a visitor visits the website the javascript pulls the
data from the feed. Often, the various scripts can be customized so that the look
of the feed can be made to match a specific websiteeeds with hopes that the search
engines will devour and spider the contents, you will be disappointed. When javascript
is used to display RSS feeds, search engines do not actually "see" the contents
of the feed, meaning that the search engines will not index the contents of the
feed within the website.
Feedroll - Feedroll is a free service for syndicating RSS and ATOM news feeds
on your website. Simply select a feed, customize the design, then copy and paste
the code provided onto your page.
http://www.feedroll.com
Using PHP to Display RSS
PHP is a slightly more complex solution for displaying RSS. Like javascript,
as the contents of the feed updates, the web page contents will update as the page
is refreshed. The benefit of using PHP to display RSS is that the contents of the
feed displayed with the webpage can be spidered and indexed by search engines. The
result is a feed that always displays the most current information from the RSS
feed and the web page content is considered search engine spider and robot-friendly.
rss2html.php - The rss2html.php script allows users to create web pages that
will always display the most current information from the RSS feed, and because
the resulting page is pure HTML, it will be in a format friendly to search engine
robots. Using rss2html.php, webmasters can customize the format and look of the
web page created from the feed. The RSS feed's contents can easily be integrated
into an existing website's theme. The rss2html.php script parses the RSS file, extracts
the pertinent information, formats it, and serves it up as regular HTML.
http://www.feedforall.com/free-php-script.htm
FeedRoll Pro - FeedRollPro was really designed to enable publishers to syndicate
their own content on other sites. But it can be used to syndicate news feeds from
other sites on your own pages.
Using ASP to Display RSS
ASP is similar to PHP. The free ASP/ASP.NET scripts can be used to convert RSS feeds
into HTML and display on ASP/ASP.NET web-server.
rss2html.asp - ByteScout has implemented a guide for displaying of RSS/XML
feed using free RSS2HTML.ASP script in ASP or ASP.NET environment. This script can
be used free of charge on any ASP or ASP.NET web-server and generate HTML from RSS
feed. This free ASP script uses MSXML to load RSS feed from URL and display it.
You can use it as a standalone or call from script on HTML page to generate HTML
content from RSS feed and then display on your HTML page.
http://bytescout.com/how_to_display_rss_using_asp.html
RssFeed - RssFeed is an open-source custom ASP.NET server control that displays
the contents of a specified RSS feed in an ASP.NET web page.
http://www.scottonwriting.com/sowBlog/RssFeed.htm
If PHP or ASP is used to update feeds, the website will have free fresh, relevant
content each time the feeds referenced are updated.
Export RSS to HTML
If you wish to dress up the feed's appearance you can use a template exporting
the feed as HTML or an HTML table. Publishers can incorporate exported tables into
an HTML template using a server-side include. Each time the feed is updated, the
feed will need to be exported to HTML and uploaded along with the feed. Though this
only takes a few moments, exporting RSS to HTML does require webmaster intervention
to update the content. The end result, though, is a complete web page with an RSS
feed in it that will be search engine-friendly.
FeedForAll - FeedForAll allows users to export RSS feeds from RSS to HTML.
The look of the HTML can be modified to match an existing website's design.
http://www.feedforall.com
Using Services
There are a number of services available that host and display RSS feeds,
in many cases free of charge. Because these services operate on a different domain
server there is little benefit to end-users displaying their feeds in this fashion.
That said, the services are generally free of charge, so you get what you pay for.
RSS2HTML.com - Select a layout, color scheme and enter the URL of the feed.
A web page URL will be generated that will display the feed in the selected scheme.
http://www.rss2html.com
FeedBurner - FeedBurner provides a number of online services. Among them
is a service that displays RSS feeds on a website.
http://www.feedburner.com
Using XSL to Display RSS
Although using XSL and CSS stylesheets to display XML directly is easy to
understand in theory, it is rather tricky to implement in the real world and is
very tough for novices to use successfully. Webmasters must be fairly familiar with
CSS and XSL to have the formatting work well, and webmasters then have to address
browser incompatibilities and exceptions. As a result, not a lot of resources or
services yet exist to display RSS using XSL.
Using highly targeted feeds, webmasters can enhance their websites with themed content.
Ultimately, providing relevant, educational or newsworthy information from reputable
related sources will establish expertise in a specific area.
About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll software for creating, editing,
publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for NotePage
a wireless text messaging software company.
RSS Marketing Feed
