RSS & mRSS

Can I use RSS feeds with Mobile Roadie?

Yes, RSS feeds can be imported via the CMS to populate content for the 'News' section of the app. MRSS feeds can be used to import media content like vidoes and audio. 
 

Why isn't my feed being imported by the CMS?

The feed must conform to RSS 2.0 specifications in order for the Mobile Roadie platform to validate and import content. To pinpoint possible errors with a feed, please use an RSS validator likehttp://validator.w3.org/feed/ where you simply have to past the URL for your feed to get a report. If you're not familiar with making or using RSS feeds then we recommend using an option like FeedBurner.

RSS 2.0 Standard Information

More information about the RSS 2.0 standard can be found below.

Source: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-rss20/

Overview of RSS 2.0

RSS is a dialect of XML, and is used for syndicating Web content and metadata. RSS 0.91 is the most commonly used of several versions available. For new RSS feeds, it's better to use version 2.0 because it is the current spec and, as mentioned above, it's backward compatible with 0.91.

Dave Winer authored version 2.0 of the spec. He intentionally avoided changes to the specification that would make it more difficult to use, or that would break existing applications. Winer sums up his philosophy like this: "Keep it simple. That's the value of RSS. Anyone who can understand a little HTML can understand RSS. That's important!"

The spec is published under a Creative Commons license (see Resources). This means that you're free to copy and distribute the spec, make derivative works, and to use it freely in commercial work. An advisory board is responsible for updating the spec, advocating for it, and documenting it.

Form of an RSS file

An RSS file is made up of a <channel> element and its sub-elements. <channel> contains elements that represent metadata about the channel -- such as a <title>, <link>, and <description> -- in addition to the channel content itself, in the form of items. Items typically make up the bulk of the channel, and contain content that changes frequently.

The channel

A channel typically has three elements that tell you about the channel itself:

• <title>: The name of the channel or feed.
• <link>: The URL of the Web site or site area associated with this channel.
• <description>: A brief explanation of what the channel is.

Many channel sub-elements are optional. The commonly-used <image> element contains three required sub-elements:

• <url>: The URL of a GIF, JPEG, or PNG image that represents the channel.
• <title>: Describes the image. It is used in the ALT attribute of the HTML <image> tag when the channel is rendered in HTML.
• <link>: The URL of the site. When the channel is rendered as HTML, the image can act as a link to the site.

<image> also has three optional sub-elements:

• <width>: Number indicating the width of the image in pixels. The maximum value is 144 and the default value is 88.
• <height>: Number indicating the height of the image in pixels. The maximum value is 400 and the default value is 31.
• <description>: Contains text that is included in the title attribute of the link that's formed around the image when rendered.

In addition, many other optional channel elements can be used. Most of these are self-explanatory:

• <language>: en-us
• <copyright>: Copyright 2003, James Lewin
• <managingEditor>: dan@spam_me.com (Dan Deletekey)
• <webMaster>: dan@spam_me.com (Dan Deletekey)
• <pubDate>: Sat, 15 Nov 2003 0:00:01 GMT
• <lastBuildDate>: Sat, 15 Nov 2003 0:00:01 GMT
• <category>: ebusiness
• <generator>: Your CMS 2.0
• <docs>: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss
• <cloud>: Allows processes to register with a "cloud" to be notified of updates to the channel, implementing a lightweight publish-subscribe protocol for RSS feeds.
• <ttl>: Time to live, a number representing the number of minutes a feed can be cached before it should be refreshed.
• <rating>: The PICS rating for the channel.
• <textInput>: Defines input box that can be displayed with the channel.
• <skipHours>: A hint for aggregators that tells them which hours can be skipped for updates.
• <skipDays>: A hint for aggregators that tells them which days can be skipped for updates.

Items

Items are usually the most important part of a feed. Each item can be an entry on a weblog, a complete article, a movie review, a classified ad, or whatever you want to syndicate with your channel. While other elements within a channel may stay constant, items are likely to change frequently.

You can have as many items as you want. The previous spec had a limit of 15 items, and this is still a good upper limit if you want to ensure backwards compatibility.

Elements of news items

An item typically contains three elements:

• <title>: This is the name of the item. In standards use, this is translated into a headline within HTML.
• <link>: This is the URL of the item. The title is commonly used as a link, pointing to the URL contained within the <link>element.
• <description>: This is usually a summary of or commentary on the URL that is pointed to in the link.

All elements are optional, but an item must contain either a <title> or a <description>.

Several other optional elements of items can be used:

• <author>: E-mail address of the author.
• <category>: Supports organizing entries.
• <comments>: URL of a page for comments on the item.
• <enclosure>: Supports media objects associated with the item.
• <guid>: A permanent link that is uniquely tied to the item.
• <pubDate>: When the item was published.
• <source>: The RSS channel that an item comes from. This can be useful when items are aggregated together.

Listing 1 is an example of an RSS 2.0 file. Notice that the channel is contained within <rss version="2.0">. This very basic example shows how items and images are contained within the channel. The elements shown are the most commonly used channel sub-elements.

Listing 1. A simple RSS 2.0 file

				<?xml version="1.0"?>
<rss version="2.0">
    <channel>
    <title>The channel's name goes here</title>
    <link>http://www.urlofthechannel.com/</link>
    <description>This channel is an example channel for an article.
    </description>
    <language>en-us</language>
    <image>
      <title>The image title goes here</title>
      <url>http://www.urlofthechannel.com/images/logo.gif</url>
      <link>http://www.urlofthechannel.com/</link>
    </image>
    <item>
      <title>The Future of content</title>
      <link>http://www.itworld.com/nl/ecom_in_act/11122003/</link>
      <description> The issue of people distributing and reusing
      digital media is a problem for many businesses. It may also be
      a hidden opportunity. Just as open source licensing has opened
      up new possibilities in the world of technology, it promises to do
      the same in the area of creative content.</description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Online Music Services - Better than free?</title>
      <link>http://www.itworld.com/nl/ecom_in_act/08202003/</link>
      <description>More people than ever are downloading music from 
      the Internet. Many use person-to-person file sharing programs like 
      Kazaa to share and download music in MP3 format, paying nothing. 
      This has made it difficult for companies to setup online music 
      businesses. How can companies compete against free?</description>
    </item>
  </channel>
</rss>

What's the difference between RSS and MRSS?

How often are feeds updated in the app?

Mobile Roadie's system looks for new content in feeds every 24 hours, but if end-users are actively checking sections within the app, they will trigger a refresh if new items have been added to the feed.