Feed format specification

RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is an XML-based format that is widely used for syndicating content from sources such as Web sites and blogs to readers who have subscribed to the feeds. The input to the Web Content Integrator is a content feed which complies with the RSS 2.0 format. The core feed format is relatively simple, with only a limited number of elements that need to be specified for each item in the feed. However, the RSS 2.0 specification allows the base format to be extended using XML namespaces to support additional functionality. In order to enable a deeper level of control over how items are created in Web Content Management, an RSS extension has been defined which contains elements that map to many of the attributes of the Web Content Management object model.

• Feed format overview

  RSS 2.0 is a dialect of XML, and all RSS files must comply with the XML 1.0 specification as published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). RSS feed files typically have file extensions of either .rss or .xml. The Web Content Integrator does not impose any file naming conventions on the feed producer.

• RSS Namespace Extension for Web content

  Web Content Management items contain a set of controls which are used to store information for various purposes. The elements in this namespace roughly map to the fields that are available on those controls. Depending on the type of the item, it may or may not contain certain controls so some of the elements in the namespace are only relevant to specific item types. All of the elements in this namespace are sub-elements of <item>, none are used at the <channel> level.

• Handling embedded links

  From time to time, the content being retrieved by the Web Content Integrator will contain embedded links to images, files and other content within the feed. You can use the link tag in your feed to represent embedded links so that they are converted into links to other Web Content Management items that are created when the feed is processed.

• Example feeds

  View some example feeds which illustrate how to represent the various item types within a feed.

• RSS Namespace Extension for the Feed Service

  The RSS namespace extension is used to exchange control information between the feed producer and consumer applications.

Parent topic:

Work with IBM Web Content Integrator

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