Make RSS Feeds

What do Tags Mean

RSS like HTML, uses tags in brackets <> to define its contents. In an RSS feed, most fields are optional, others are not. The following guide will assist you in determining which tags are valid, and what the content of tags should contain. If you find creating a feed by hand difficult, consider using FeedForAll as it will create all of the tags for you!

Required Channel Elements <channel></channel>

title	The name of the channel similar to the title of a website or web page. example - Make RSS Feeds tag - <title></title>
link	The url to the html website example - http://www.make-rss-feed.com tag - <link></link>
description	The phrase or sentence describing the content of the entire feed. example - Details RSS feed creation in a step by step fashion tag - <description></description>

Optional Channel Elements

These tags are not required but can be added to enhance the RSS feed.

pubDate	The publication date for the content in the channel. The date must confirm to RFC 822 format example - Aug, 22 2004 00:12:30 EST tag - <pubDate></pubDate>
lastBuildDate	The date the feed was last updated. example - Aug, 22 2004 00:12:30 EST tag - <lastBuildDate></lastBuildDate>
language	The language the channel is written in. List of language formats. example - en-us tag - <language></language>
copyright	Copyright notice for content in feed. example - Copyright 2004, NotePage, Inc. tag - <copyright></copyright>
webmaster	Email address for individual responsible for technical issues related to the feed example - webmaster@notepage.net tag - <webMaster></webMaster>
managingEditor	Email address for individual responsible for editorial content example - webmaster@notepage.net tag - <managingEditor></managingEditor>
category	Category or categories that the channel's contents fit. example - newspapers tag - <category></category>
generator	Program used to generate the channel example - feedforall tag - <generator></generator>
ttl	Time to live indicates the amount of time (in minutes) that indicates how long a channel should be cached before refreshing from the source. example - 120 tag - <ttl></ttl>
docs	An url that points to the documentation of the RSS format used in the feed. example - http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/ tag - <docs></docs>

Contents of Channel tags based on above:

<title> Make RSS Feeds </title>
<description> Details RSS feed creation in a step by step fashion </description>
<link> http://www.make-rss-feeds.com </link>
<pubDate> Aug, 22 2004 00:12:30 EST </pubDate>
<lastBuildDate> Aug, 22 2004 00:12:30 EST </lastBuildDate>
<language> en-us </language>
<copyright> Copyright 2004, NotePage, Inc.</copyright>
<webMaster> webmaster@notepage.net </webMaster>
<managingEditor> webmaster@notepage.net </managingEditor>
<category> newspapers </category>
<generator> feedforall </generator>
<ttl> 120 </ttl>
<docs> http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech </docs>

</channel>

step 2 RSS Tags

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