How to Build an RSS 2.0 Feed

Building RSS in Code

There are a myriad of ways to build an RSS feed with a scripting/programming language. While we can't teach you how to become a proficient programmer, we can provide sample code in a couple of languages to help you get started.

PHP 4

PHP is a very common scripting language used in web site development. This sample PHP script demonstrates one approach to generating an RSS feed:

<?php

// Declare variables
$channelTitle='Seize Her Salad';
$channelDescription='Yummy recipes and tasty tips from Seize Her Salad';
$channelLink='http://seizehersalad.com';
$channelPubDate='Sun, 05 Nov 2006 00:00:01 −0600';
$itemTitle='Fresh Food Tip';
$itemLink='http://seizehersalad.com/recipe?item=234';
$itemDescription="Today's fresh food tip from Seize Her Salad:  Want an easy way to
lose weight?  Cut out white flour &amp; white sugar from your diet.  This is also an
excellent way to reduce your risk of adult-onset diabetes!";
$itemPubDate='Sun, 05 Nov 2006 00:00:01 −0600';

// Build RSS
$rss = <<<EOD
   <rss version="1.0">
      <channel>
         <title>{$channelTitle}</title>
         <description>{$channelDescription}</description>
         <link>{$channelLink}</link>
         <pubDate>{$channelPubDate}</pubDate>
         <item>
            <title>{$itemTitle}</title>
            <link>{$itemLink}</link>
            <description>{$itemDescription}</description>
            <pubDate>{$itemPubDate}</pubDate>
         </item>
      </channel>
   </rss>
EOD;

// Display RSS
  header('Content-type: text/xml');
  echo "<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>\n";
  echo $rss;
?>

The above script has "hard-coded" variables ...