SEMESTER PROJECT

ANALYSIS OF “RSS” ENVIRONNEMENT

by professor

YAPO Jaurès Tanguy Carlo Vaccari

INTRODUCTION

I- WHAT IS RSS

II- RSS, QUICK STORY

III- CARACTERISTICS OF RSSa- The Channel Tag

b- Compulsory properties

c- Optional properties

IV- SYNTAX OF RSS SOURCES CODEa- Header file

b- Syntax of channel tag

c- Syntax of channel properties

d- Sample coding

V- HOW TO ACCESS RSS FEEDSa- Through web browsers

b- Online facilities

c- Aggregators

VI- WHO CAN ACCES RSSa- Webmaster

b- End-user

VII- USAGE OF RSS, SOME FIGURES

VIII- PERSONAL OPINIONa- RSS, survival or decline?

b- RSS, challengers and potential successors

CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

HOW CAN I…?

OBSERVATION

- EXPANSION OF THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

- RECENT RECORDS REVEALED MORE THAN TWENTY (20) BILLIONS OF

WEBSITES

- USER WILL NEED MONTHS EVEN YEARS OF BROWSING TO COVER THE

COUNTLESS WEB PAGES THAT MAY BE AVAILABLE

SOLUTION

- CREATION OF RSS

RSS IS AN APPLICATION IN XML FILE FORMAT THAT OFFERS WEB USERS THE

POSSIBILITY TO KEEP TRACK OF THEIR FAVOURITE WEBSITES FOR A SMOOTH

BROWSING. ESPECIALLY UP-TO-DATE WEB PAGES AT A GLANCE, WITHOUT

NECESSARILY STEPPING INTO THE RELEVANT WEBSITES.

INTRODUCTION

STANDING FOR REALLY SIMPLE SYNDICATION, A RSS FEED IS A

COMPUTING TECHNOLOGY USING THE 1.0 VERSION OF XML

(EXTENSIBLE MARK-UP LANGUAGE) FORMAT.

RSS HELPS BROWSERS SORT WEB CONTENTS THEY WISH TO

INTERACT WITH; WHICH CONTENTS ARE IN GENERAL

AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED PROVIDED UPDATES ARE AVAILABLE.

RSS FEED IS ALSO A POWERFUL TOOL TO WEBMASTERS TO

SYNDICATE (CLUSTER) NUMBER OF OTHER WEBSITES LINKS ON

THEIR WEBSITES FOR AN EASY BROWSE OF USERS ACCORDING TO

THEIR INTEREST.

SO, RSS FEED CAN BE REGARDED AS THE WEB-ON-DEMAND.

GENERALLY, RSS FEED ARE USED BY SITES MANAGING BLOGS,

NEWS, DOWNLOADS.

WHAT IS RSS?

- March 1999: NETSCAPE created RSS 0.90 (RDF - Resource Description

Framework- SITE SUMMARY)

- July 2000: upgrade to RSS 0.91 (Rich Site Summary) by DAN Libby with

(USERLAND), a simple version of xml (no more RDF specification)

- April 2001: RSS 1.0 by Aaron Hillel SWARTZ based on RDF then

September 2002 RSS 3.0 (not xml format)

- September 2002: Dave WINER launches RSS 2.0 at Harvard University then

RSS 2.01 in November 2002

Note: RSS 0.91 has been upgraded to various versions namely 0.92, 0.93, 0.94

RSS, QUICK HISTORY

HISTORY MAP OF RSS

figure 2.1

RSS, QUICK HISTORY

- ON A WEBSITE YOU CAN IDENTIFY RSS WITH THESE ICONS SUGGESTED BY

MOZILLA AND VALIDATED BY RSS BOARD

- SOME WEBMASTERS MAY USE THE FOLLOWING ICONS

figure 2.2

CARACTERISTICS OF RSS

In a practical way, a RSS FEED is a hyperlink made up of three important parts: the URL of

the site, the TITLE and a SHORT SUMMARY of the topic it refers to.

a- The Channel Tag

Syntactically, the main component of RSS FEED is the channel tag along

with a set of properties that are also tags.

1- Compulsory properties

- Title tag: refers to the name given to the channel serving as reference to

browsers

- Link tag: is the URL address of the website the feed serves

- Description tag: a short comment on the related topic

- At least one Item tag: specifies the contents of the feed.

Item tag also includes sub tags such as title, URL, description, PUBDATE etc.

CARACTERISTICS OF RSS

2- Optional Properties

- Language tag: setting the language in which feed contents the

be generated

- Webmaster tag: providing few informations on the webmaster

- Pubdate tag: that displays the date of the last publication for

the content

- Docs tag: is the link of the website that refers to the files or to

specification on the format used (Harvard specification)

CARACTERISTICS OF RSS

a- Header File

Any RSS FEED starts with the XML and RSS

TAGS that specify their version.

sample coding

<?xml version=”1.0” ?>

<rss version=”2.0”>

<channel>

…..

</channel>

</rss>

SYNTAX OF RSS SOURCE CODE

b- Syntax of Channel Tag and its Properties

<channel><title> MY_RSS_FEED_HEADLINE </title><link> http://innovation2013unicam.wikispaces.com </link><description> This is the wiki for unicam2013/2014 computer science Master students…</description><item> …</item>< language> en-gb </language><pubdate> sun, 26 jan 2013 </pubdate></channel>

SYNTAX OF RSS SOURCE CODE

c- Sample Coding<?Xml version=”1.0” ?>

<rss version=”2.0”>

<channel>

<title> MY_RSS_FEED_HEADLINE </title>

<link> http://innovation2013unicam.Wikispaces.Com </link>

<description> This is the wiki for unicam2013/2014 computer science…</description>

<item>

<title> Semester Project </title>

<link> http://innovation2013unicam.Wikispaces.Com/yapo+juares/rss_project </link>

<description> As a 1st year computer science student at Unicam, YJT undertook a

project in Innovation & New Tech. in the field of aggregatin. He has …</description>

</item>

</channel>

</rss>

SYNTAX OF RSS SOURCE CODE

A- Web Browsers

Almost all recent browsers incorporate RSS FEEDS reader on their interface

- Internet Explorer7 and Later Versions

- Displays RSS icon on the toolbar.

- When a site runs RSS FEED, Internet Explorer highlights the RSS icon

figure5.1: WEBSITE WITHOUT RSS FEED

HOW TO ACCESS RSS FEED

figure5.2: WEBSITE WITH RSS FEED

HOW TO ACCESS RSS FEED

- To read a feed, user click on the feed icon button on the toolbar to select desired feeds (if

the website offers many feeds)

- Then select “subscribe to this feed” button

- Make desired set up (create/select folder, rename, add to favourite bar),

- Then click on subscribe. The feed is saved in the favourite centre.

figure 5.3: SAVING OF RSS FEED

HOW TO ACCESS RSS FEEDS

- Firefox

- Safari

- Opera

b- Online Facilities- Netvibes

- Mon Yahoo!

- Iwake

- Sys Monitor

- Pretty RSS

c- Aggregators- Rssowl

- Feedreader

- Vienna

- Netnewswire

- Bloglines

HOW TO ACCESS RSS FEEDS

a- Webmaster

A webmaster can include RSS FEED to its websites to:

- Ease the browsing of his users

- Keep in touch with its public

- Customize its contents with respect to the topics discussed in the website

- Make advertisement for other websites

b- End-user

Any web user can access feeds to:

- Organize his web usage timing

- Focus only on topic of his interest

- Control the daily updates of his favourite websites etc.

User is prompted to a simplified web page consisting of a set of links, that contains a

TITLE, a URL and a DESCRIPTION of the related topic.

WHO CAN ACCESS

- SURVEY IN SEPTEMBER 2007 ON FRENCH WEB USERS’ INTERACTION WITH RSS FEEDS

figure 7.1

USAGE OF RSS, SOME FIGURES

figure 7.2

USAGE OF RSS, SOME FIGURES

USAGE OF RSS, SOME FIGURES

figure 7.3

figure 7.4

USAGE OF RSS, SOME FIGURES

figure 7.5

USAGE OF RSS, SOME FIGURES

a- RSS, Survival Or Decline?

- INTRODUCTION OF RSS INCREASES BROWSING ACTIVITY

- INCREASE OF COMPANY SELLING. ACCORDING TO MARKETINGSHERPA, 75

MILLION CONSUMERS AND BUSINESS PEOPLE IN USA AND UK USE RSS

REGULARLY

- RSS PROVIDES UNIQUE NEWS AUTOMATICALLY TO ANY USERS

- OFFERS THE ABILITY TO DISPLAY LATEST NEWS OF A WEBSITE ON SOCIAL

NETWORKS DIRECTLY

- ENABLES CUSTOMIZED CONTENTS ACCORDING TO THE RECIPIENT:

. Facebook users are fans of entertainments. so, it is the best area for kidding materials

. On Twitter, we share latest news. so, suitable for exclusivities, latest offers, scoops

. The scope of LinkedIn covers jobs offers, services providers

- OFFERS POSSIBILITY TO A WEBMASTER TO ACCESS AND SPREAD NEWS

FROM OTHER WEBSITES

- HIGHLIGHTS A WEBSITE BY SEARCH ENGINES INDEXING

PERSONAL OPINION

However, RSS shows some weaknesses:

- In a regulation viewpoint, RSS is not a specified format i.e the standard

is not approved by any international board like W3C, IANA (Internet

Assigned Numbers Authority)

- Feeds updates require constant manual interventions of the webmaster

- Provides contents that require specific tools to read them

- Feeds face bugs issues

- Some aggregators are not free

- Lost of data. Google has recently killed off the GOOGLE READER

destroying users’ data (since July 15, 2013)

PERSONAL OPINION

A- RSS, Challengers And Potential Successors

1- ATOM

- ATOM IS SPECIFIED (IETF) LANGUAGE CREATED TO OVERCOME RSS

UNCONTROLLABLE SPECIFICATION CRISIS

- ABLE OF READING FEEDS, IT ALLOWS USERS TO WRITE TO THE WEB

2- E-NEWSLETTER : DOCUMENT THAT INFORMS, ANNOUNCES, REMINDS,

ADVISES, INSTRUCTS, ADVERTISES AND COMMUNICATE WITH DELIVERY

FREQUENCY, CONTAINS UPCOMING INFORMATIONS

3- PINTEREST: ONLINE CATALOG OF INSPIRATION THAT PROVIDES UPDATES,

IDEA, GUIDANCE WHEN WORKING ON A PROJECT

4- PODCAST

5- WIDGET

PERSONAL OPINION

TO SUM UP, EVEN THOUGH RSS IS LARGELY USED, IT IS NOT REALLY

PERCEIVED BY USERS.

MARKETINGSHARPA STATES OUT OF 75 MILLION OF USERS, 50

MILLION REALLY HAVE NO IDEA ABOUT THE APPLICATION

THIS SITUATION LEADS TO THE FOLLOWING OBSERVATIONS:

- LACK OF PROMOTION ON THE APPLICATIONS

- APPLICATIONS ARE MOSTLY USED BY PROFESSIONALS OF THE

INTENDED FIELD

- THEY DISAPPEAR EARLY

CONCLUSION

- Innovation and New Technologie Course materials

- http://opikanoba.Org

- http://atomenabled.Org/

- http://www.Mnot.Net/rss/tutorial

- http://t37.Net/resultats-de-lenquete-sur-lusage-des-flux-rss-chez-les-

internautes-francophones.Html

- http://www.Xul.Fr/xml-rss.Html#fonctionnement

- http://www.Clubic.Com/r/rss/

- http://www.Rssboard.Org/

- http://blog.Creationdln.Ca/redaction/pourquoi-installer-un-flux-rss-sur-

son-site-internet--442.Html

- http://www.Bloomonline.Co.Nz/2013/05/whats-the-difference-between-

a-blog-and-a-newsletter/

- http://www.Usda.Org/trifold/IS02503.Pdf

- http://www.createmixedmedia.com/blogs/the-creative-life/and-what-

the-heck-is-pinterest

- http://weblogs.about.com/od/choosingabloghost/p/What-Is-

Pinterest.htm

- http://webapp.wisestamp.com/

- https://forms.Bl.Uk/newsletters/index.Aspx/subscribe.Html

- http://www.Businesspundit.Com/what-is-a-newsletter-good-for-anyway

BIBLIOGRAPHY

NOW

THE CHOICE IS YOURS TO…