What is Rss

An RSS document is made up of ‘items’, comprising a title, a link to the content
and a description of that item. For instance, for a news article, the title will be like
a headline, the link will take readers to the news article and the description will
summarize the news they’ll find on clicking the link to visit your site. The items
are grouped into a ‘channel’ or ‘feed’. This is the name you assign to your
ongoing series of RSS documents.
RSS documents are created in XML, or Extensible Markup Language, which is
fast becoming the markup language for the Web. HTML tags instruct the browser
how to display content (fonts, images or otherwise); XML tags define the nature
of the information. Do not panic! Proficiency in XML is not a prerequisite to create
RSS documents. The non-technical can seek the help of various tools of
conversion available.

The XML file can be updated manually or by using modules to increase the
speed of the process. The feed is prepared by transforming the RSS file into
HTML. A scripting command named server-side include is used to place the
content on the Web page as a template. Once the module has been developed,
it’s really just a matter of sitting back and letting the content stream in.
The files can be accessed from your own Web site or by registering your feed
with content aggregators, or sites that list various feeds. Individual RSS readers
can subscribe directly to your feeds through these options. Other Web sites can
also do the same, bringing more hits to your content!