About RSS
What is RSS?
RSS is an acronym that stands for Real Simple Syndication, a basic
XML format that allows Web content such as headlines, news, and
blog content to be “fed” to a user and displayed in
a continuous update. Created in 1997, this format has become favored
as a way to efficiently share site content. Information in RSS is
defined by XML <item> tags, which separate each “story”
in an RSS feed.
The basic RSS feed is coded in one of the several available versions
of RSS code, like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"
?>
<!DOCTYPE rss (View Source for full doctype...)>
- <rss version="0.91">
- <channel>
<title>LNO News Portal</title>
<link>http://lno.lternet.edu/rss/news/</link>
<description>LTER Network Office Headlines</description>
<language>en-us</language>
- <image>
<title>LNO News Portal</title>
<url>http://lno.lternet.edu/rss/news/images/logo.gif</url>
<link>http://lno.lternet.edu/rss/news/</link>
</image>
<webMaster>tech_support@lternet.edu</webMaster>
- <item>
<title>Workshop on Data Discovery in the Biological Sciences</title>
<link>http://lno.lternet.edu/news/Article9.html</link>
<description>A workshop on Data Discovery in the Biological
Sciences was held February 7-9, 2005 at the University of New Mexico's
new Ecoinformatics Training and Software Usability Test Laboratory.</description>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>
On the user’s end, a news aggregator program will “read”
the RSS feed code and display the items in a format friendly to
the user. This is very good for keeping up to date on events and
information that change rapidly.
The LTER has several RSS feeds that any user may subscribe to.
All LTER RSS feeds are listed above and include network news and
news headline and opportunities such as employment, conferences,
and funding.
Subscribing to RSS
Subscribing to an RSS feed requires that the user has some form
of aggregator installed. Some browsers, such as Firefox, or the
Mozilla Thunderbird email client, have automatic aggregators that
can be easily accessed and activated through the browser itself.
Firefox has live bookmarks that function as RSS feeds, while Mozilla
Thunderbird allows you to subscribe via the “News & Blogs”
option and the feeds will be sent to you by email. All you need
to do is paste in the appropriate URL from http://www.lternet.edu/rss/
when prompted to in the subscription protocol.
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