User guide

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via a "Syndicate This" link. Text "RSS" links sometimes (there are lots of variations) point to a
web page explaining the nature of the RSS feeds provided and how to find them. The buttons
are often linked directly to the RSS feed file itself.
Once you know the URL of an RSS feed, you can provide that address to an RSS aggregator
program and have the aggregator monitor the feed for you. Many RSS aggregators come
preconfigured with a list to choose from of RSS feed URLs for popular news websites.
How is the RSS feed file produced?
Unless you are maintaining a website or want to create your own RSS feed for some other
purpose, how the RSS feed is produced should not be of concern and you ma ywant to skip this
section.
The special XML-format file that makes up an RSS feed is usually created in one of a variety of
ways. Most large news websites and most weblogs are maintained using special "content
management" programs. Authors add their stories and postings to the website by interacting
with those programs and then use the program's "publish" facility to create the HTML files that
make up the website. Those programs often also can update the RSS feed XML file at the same
time, adding an item referring to the new story or post, and removing less recent items. Blog
creation tools like Blogger, LiveJournal, Movable Type, and Radio automatically create feeds.
Websites that are produced in a more custom manner, such as with Macromedia Dreamweaver
or a simple text editor, usually do not automatically create RSS feeds. Authors of such websites
either maintain the XML files by hand, just as they do the website itself, or use a tool such as
Software Garden, Inc.'s ListGarden program to maintain it. There are also services that
periodically read requested websites themselves and try to automatically determine changes
(this is most reliable for websites with a somewhat regular news-like format), or that let you
create RSS feed XML files that are hosted by that service provider.
Tying it all together
Here is a diagram showing how the websites, the
RSS feed XML files, and your personal computer
are connected:
The diagram shows a web browser being used to
read first Web Site 1 over the Internet and then Web
Site 2. It also shows the RSS feed XML files for both
websites being monitored simultaneously by an RSS
Feed Aggregator.
Other uses – RSS Aggregates and Readers
In addition to notifying you about news headlines and changes to websites, RSS can be used
for many other purposes. There does not even have to be a web page associated with the items
listed -- sometimes all the information you need may be in the titles and descriptions
themselves.
Some commonly mentioned uses are:
• Notification of the arrival of new products in a store
• Listing and notifying you of newsletter issues, including email newsletters