How to set up an RSS feed for your website.

[shevek]

Me again today!

To be honest, even after researching, I feel like a total noob about implementing RSS on my website, so I need to ask for help. I have two sites in there that update periodically, my Steam Deck modding journal and my Toybrick castle journal. I would love to offer people to subscribe via RSS so they know when a new entry is made on these instead of having to manually check.
I just honestly have zero idea how to do it or what to look out for especially in regards to edits - will all edits be regarded as new activity and sent out, or how can I signify a new post when they're all on the same page and just separated by dates?

I would love your input.

[Còbra!]

I use easy feed editor to make the feeds, and then to insert them into the website I use this code:

Code

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS feed" href="yourfeed.xml" />

This is the code to tell the browser "Hey, we have an RSS feed!" and the browser adds the icon to the URL, or whatever they do with the feeds.

I also extract from the RSS feed to populate my website's news section using Javascript:

Code

let xmlContent = '';
        let news = document.getElementById('news');
        fetch('rss.xml').then((response)=> {
            response.text().then((xml)=>{
                xmlContent = xml;

                let parser = new DOMParser();
                let xmlDOM = parser.parseFromString(xmlContent, 'application/xml');
                let entries = xmlDOM.querySelectorAll('item');

                entries.forEach(entry => {
                    let entryblock = document.createElement('div');
                    entryblock.setAttribute("class", "newsItem");
                    //author
                    let content = document.createElement('strong');
                    const date = new Date(Date.parse(entry.children[1].innerHTML));
                    content.innerText = date.getDate() + "/" + (date.getMonth() + 1) + "/" + date.getFullYear() + " ";
                    entryblock.appendChild(content);
                    
                    content = document.createElement('span');
                    console.log(entry);
                    content.innerHTML = entry.children[2].childNodes[0].nodeValue;
                    entryblock.appendChild(content);
                    
                    news.appendChild(entryblock);
                });
                
            });
        });   

The children and where they are depend on what details you add to your feed (Like author, tags, preview image, etc.).

Hope this helps

[Memory]

[removed by author]

[tarraxahum]

I use easy feed editor to make the feeds,

holy heck where was this when I was figuring out RSS for my sites >:(

gotta save for future use

[Melooon]

@m15o offers a web service that automatically generates feeds for you if you have your blog formatted in a certain way on your site - you just need to enter your page URL and it'll make the feed for you - https://forum.melonland.net/index.php?topic=379.0

I use it on my site (along with my own custom feed gen) and it seems to work pretty well! 

[shevek]

Thank you all a lot, I will look into it! the solution by m15o might even work the best, since I already use their layout for these pages! I even saw the HTML Journal thing on statuscafé, but I never knew it was about RSS feeds.

[Memory]

For editing RSS by hand (which is not too hard):

This line goes into the head part of every HTML page to detect your RSS feed:

Code

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Feed" href="feed.xml">

The RSS file is a simple text file (in my example, it's called "feed.xml"). In your HTML code, link to the RSS file like you would link to an image on your page. As I have the RSS file and the HTML pages in one directory, I can link directly to it without needing to specify any further directories (see under "href", there is just the file name of the RSS file).


The feed.xml looks like this:

Code

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<rss version="2.0">
  <channel>
    <title>Goose Attack Feed</title>
    <link>http://goose-attacks.at/</link>
    <description>New geese attack information on this feed!</description>
    <language>de-de</language>
    <copyright>Gans</copyright>
    <pubDate>20.04.21</pubDate>

  <item>
   <title>New old scrap!</title>
   <category>Tech</category>
   <description>Lots of new scrap available!</description>
   <link>scrapyard.htm</link>
   <author>Gans</author>
   <guid>scrapyard.htm</guid>
   <pubDate>01.12.22</pubDate>
  </item>

  </channel>
</rss>

When you have something new to present, you just copy one block between the <item>-tags and alter all the things. That's not the automated professional way, but if you're just using it, let's say, monthly, it's not that much work.

[EdgyRabbid]

⚑ Moderators Note ⚑

Merged into an older thread ^^

So.

I had an idea to set up an RSS feed on my website to link all my favourite websites, but im not sure how to make an RSS feed on my website. How do i do it?

[hikatamika]

Depends on how your site is written.

Do you write every page as a document from scratch? Use source documents put together by a static site generator? Use PHP?
The answer will vary depending on what's true for your site.

Here's a really good reference on absolutely, from-scratch, handwritten, RSS feeds and entries.