RSS Channel

Element	Description
<category>	Defines one or more categories the channel belongs to
<cloud>	Allows notification of updates.
<copyright>	Notifies about copyrighted material
<docs>	An URL to documentation on the RSS version the channel is using
<generator>	If the channel is created using an automatic generator, this is defined here
<image>	Inserts a picture to the channel.
<language>	Describes what language the channel uses. By using this tag it is possible for RSS aggregators to group sites based on language.
<lastBuildDate>	Defines the last date the channel was modified
<managingEditor>	Defines an e-mail address for the editor of the site
<pubDate>	Defines the last publication date for the channel
<rating>	Parental control rating of the page
<skipDays>	Defines days where it is unnecessary for RSS aggregators to update the feed
<skipHours>	Defines hours where it is unnecessary for RSS aggregators to update the feed
<textInput>	Creates a text input for the channel
<ttl>	(ttl = time to live) Defines how many minutes the channel can stay cached before refreshing
<webMaster>	Defines an e-mail address for the webmaster of the site

The <item> element

The <item> element is where you link to and describe the update on your site.

The RSS <item> is where updates are show. It is kind of like a headline for an article. <item> elements are created every time there is an update on your site that you would like displayed in your RSS feed.

There are many optional <item> elements, but either the <title> or the <description> are required.

A RSS should include the <title>, <link> and <description> elements.

The first element is your news item's title.This give short description of your site and also your RSS feed.

<title>Vyom's New Tutorial</title>

The next element is the link to the part of your site the item is referring to:

The next line is the RSS feed description. This should describe your RSS feed item.

<description>BizLiner RSS Tutorial</description>

Optional Elements in <item>

Element	Description
<author>	Defines the author of the item.
<category>	Places the item in one or more of the channel categories.
<comments>	An URL to a comment's page for the item.
<enclosure>	Describes a media object related to the item
<guid>	GUID = Globally Unique Identifier. Defines a unique identifier to the item.
<pubDate>	The publication date for the item.
<source>	Is used to define a third party source.

The <channel> element usually contains one and more than one <item> elements. Each <item> element defines an article or "story" in the RSS feed.

Furthermore, there are several optional child elements of <channel>. We will explain the most important ones below.

The <category> Element:

The <category>child element is used to specify a category for your feed.

The <category> element makes it possible for RSS aggregators to group sites based on category.

The category for the RSS document above could be:

<category>Tutorial </category>

The <copyright> Element:

The <copyright>child element notifies about copyrighted material.

The copyright for the RSS document above could be:

The <image> Element:

The <image> child element allows an image to be displayed when aggregators present a feed.

The <image> element has three required child elements:

<url> - Defines the URL to the image

<title> - Defines the text to display if the image could not be shown

The image for the RSS document above could be:

<image>

<url>http://www.academictutorial.com/images/rss.gif </url>
<title>academictutorial.com </title>
<link>http://www.academictutorial.com </link>

</image>