Hey, FYI, I found a great link for creating an RSS page:

http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/website/view.cgi?dbs=Article&key=1059503386

I'm currently working on creating a test feed for a customer on my site http://www.z3links.com to use as a template and guide for creation.

I will update with further information when available.

Ok, I've made it work. It took a moment or three of wrangling but if you enter http://www.z3links.com/rss/z3.rss in your news reader, you will get a couple posts.

You can enter the URL in your browser and then view the source to see what I did.

Here is the RSS feed I wrote

http://www.gaspowered.com/xml.php

it's a php page that generates it...

I'm using Firefox 1.0.1 and for one reason or another, my RSS feed gets the default browser style applied to it and you'rs does not. You'rs just gets displayed as plain text...Wonder why...prolly the XML declaration you have at the top or something.

Anyway nice work.

Hey Bobum

Guess what... I'm back!! Btw, I saw your Winslow, Arizona pictures (dusty old cowtown huh?). Got a question. I'm trying to set up an RSS feed and I noticed you aren't beginning your code using this tag <?xml version="1.0"?>. Is it because your file extension is .xml.php? I set mine up as just .xml

When I try to use <?xml version="1.0"?> at the very beginning, the Feed Validator gives me this message
I've read others are having the same problem and apparently it has something to do with either a "white space" (??) or possibly some php coding needs altering. Can I eliminate it altogether or must I be using php (which I know nothing about)?

Hey Allen!!!

Now as far as your error... I'll bet that's w/ IE too, isn't it? It's because IE doesn't know what to do w/ certain doctypes... pos...

Hiya Josh... !

It wouldn't work with Firefox either. Yes, I finally downloaded Firefox, tried it, but still prefer IE. Firefox wouldn't even show the contents of the file because of this 'error'... only the same error message I got from the feed validator. I suppose if Firefox is also serving as a validator, that's probably good but I still would have liked to seen how my file looked. On the other hand, IE displayed the file contents but.... without mention of the problem. The URL of my test xml file is http://www.matrixbookstore.biz/feed1.xml

P.S.

If you or Bobum are running Firefox and can't bring it up... here is the file contents:



I know rss version 2 is the latest (which I've already tried) but if I can get the bug figured out, I can always try it again since the above code apparently complies. As I said earlier, the common problem (many have) is with <?xml version="1.0" ?> which, it is said, must precede the code.... yet Bobum isn't using it. I suppose I could try deleting it but I just thought perhaps the reason Bobum isn't may be tied to him using PHP. However I understand HMS doesn't support PHP.

P.S. To no avail, I also tried a .rss file extension (instead of .xml) but FrontPage wants to add .txt making it... feed1.rss.txt (which may or may not be a factor).

Update (edit): I got it!! I simply removed <?xml version="1.0" ?> and it validated. Also, the RSS Feed Validator couldn't find my file using www in my address (perhaps everyone needs to drop the www).

ALLEN!!! YER BACK!!!

WB Good buddy!

About RSS...
I went back into mine and actually added <?xml version="1.0" ?> at the top in testing after you noted that it wasn't there and it seemed to work just fine. I can't change it in production anymore since I am not with that company.


Here is a great article about creating a webpage to automatically generate your RSS feed.
http://www.4guysfromrolla.com/webtech/031303-1.shtml

BTW - an RSS feed doesn't HAVE to end in .rss or .xml - I could have called my page foobar.php and it would have still renderd as an XML file because of the script behind it generating the output - the output just has to be well formed XML and the browser should take care of the rest from there. You can see that mine is a .PHP page that generates the XML. This articles is .ASP You basically just pull your data form wherever you have it stored (most likely a database but it could be anything) then using a couple nested loops create the XML output.

Pretty easy to do once you get the structure correct.

Oh and Winslow Arizona looked to be a neat place at one time in the past - perhaps when Route66 was in it's heyday - but you are right - it's a dustbowl now. Kind of ashamed really - bout the only thing in town was that little corner where you could get your picture made with the "girl in the flatbed ford"

Thanks Bobum... I appreciate knowing about those latitudes allowed for RSS feeds. I'll also check out that website. Curious, it seems those who write about RSS have a hard time explaining it... I've had to visit about a dozen websites just to get the picture. Then you have those which are out-of-date, written in 2003 when RSS first appeared on the scene.

I'm still not ready though... I'm still trying to adapt a few webpages into being worthy of a feed. While a webpage which is continually being updated is an ideal candidate for an RSS feed (whatever the topic), there aughta be other good reasons although I haven't found any yet. The four topics I cover don't really change often enough... therefore not newsworthy in that regard... except for news about the International Criminal Court. Yet, I don't want to involve myself with its daily activities. Meanwhile I'm scratching my head for new ideas. In lieu of one however, maybe I won't do it.

As to Winslow, Arizona... it is sad but the fate of many small Arizona towns. Some have just withered up and died, now practically ghost-towns. The state only promotes and caters to Phoenix and Tucson.

I will agree with you on both points - RSS Feeds are only really good for frequently updated sites (such as news sites or even business sites if you want to push products to customers). If you don't have new books coming out every 2 or 3 days then you probably don't need an RSS Feed for your site. I'm pretty handy with RSS Feeds and building scripts to dynamically build the feed so if you have questions don't be afraid to ask.

And as to Arizona - it's ashamed to see that the little towns like Winslow are drying up and blowing away - but I have a prediction to make...in probably the next 10 to 15 years you will see a resurgance of those towns and that type of "Interstae Alternate" travel as MY generation gets older and starts to reach early retirement age. It seems that people that have grown up with the interstate system and all their "cookie cutter exits" are beginning to discover the charm of travelling off the beaten path more and more. They are beginning to discover the allure of finding "local favorites". I mean face it - right now if you and your family were travelling from Phoenix Arizona to Tallahassee Florida - it would all be via interstate. You would probably never hear anything like "Oh man, there is this great little restaurant in this town in east Texas you have to try. Oh what was the name of that town? Yea Longview that's it - they have the best barbecue there - it's called Bodacious Barbecue. When you're coming through Longview you can't miss it."

Why would that conversation never take place? Because the only thing you get via the interstate is the gratuitous :
McDonalds
BurgerKing
TacoBell
KFC
etc...

There's no personality in any of those places and they are teh same if you are in Prescott Arizona or Punxatawny Pennsylvania. And number two, because you'd blow through Longview at about 80mph and only stop if you needed gas or had to pee. And even then if you DID stop it would be at the exit...not in town.

Roads like Route66 in the west, Route 40, and smaller roads like US1 or Hwy19/98 here in Florida are beginning to see some growth & nostalgic interest and I think it'll boom in the future. It only makes sense...my generation has already done the Interstate thing - sure it makes travel easy - but it's not NEARLY as personable.

Amen to all that. We once drove to West Texas just to check out a back alley place serving Texas-style barbeque. It was fantastic. As far as small town reviving, I thought so 25 years ago but being premature... I lost a ton of money speculating. Before that happens tho, I will probably be pushing up daisys.

Confounded why my RSS Feed wouldn't validate if I put <?xml version="1.0" ?> at the top, I finally found the reason why. It must be placed at the very-very top... not a line or two down. This obviously was the 'white space' which must be avoided (as some referred to but without elaboration). Anyway, it now validates with everything onboard.

P.S. I erased something I posted on my previous post... it was intended to be funny but it was actually stupid and insensitive (I hope not too many saw it)

yup - errant whitespace in an XML document will cause it to not validate correctly...and that can be a PAIN to figure out sometimes...

Bobum... it now looks like I got everything working perfectly. I downloaded RSS Reader (the brand) as my, well, RSS reader. First though, I had to download Microsoft's .Net Framework 1.1 for this all to work (which took about 3 hours). My 3 pages may not be 'newsy' enough for an RSS feed but it should give me the experience I need. I've listed them with Feedster. I haven't added much text (for a synopsis) to read on an aggregator yet though... just a brief description. As it is, one would need to go to my webpage for the meat. Unless you have some thoughts, over the next few days I'll looking at other feeds to get an idea how to present a good synopsis. The URL of my file is http://www.matrixbookstore.biz/feed1.xml (you'll see how skimpy my synopsis is)

perfectamundo - I've added your feed to my reader (I use the Sage plugin for Firefox - not a standalone)

Now is your feed dynamic? Does it pull info from your website or when you change your site will you have to change your feed as well?