feed your appetite for RSS.(really simple syndication)

Byline: Bobby Pickering

Feed your appetite for RSS

Setting up RSS and Atom feeds for automatically-updating news is a growing part of information provision. Bobby Pickering reviews an in-depth guide

Content syndication feed technologies are rapidly becoming a major part of the information environment. Many info pros will have been involved in setting up desktop news aggregation services for users, into which RSS (Really Simple Syndication) and Atom feeds are linked.

If you've already got an idea of what this about, this typically in-depth and wide-ranging O'Reilly manual will give you enough "under the bonnet" guidance to turn you into an expert -- or the RSS grease monkey for your organisation.

The book is ostensibly for web developers and website authors, so it is technically detailed. But it doesn't throw you in at the deep end -- an introductory overview of news aggregation and a brief history of the development of feed technology set the scene well (though it limits itself to a selection of the major aggregation software that's available).

For RSS 2.0 feeds, the most up-to-date iteration, there is a top-down explanation of how RSS is structured, and the sub-elements within a standard feed are explained. For those who have learnt basic HTML, and then moved onto XML, this will be straightforward to follow -- and will involve getting to grips with the coding elements of a whole new structural environment.