How to Build an RSS 2.0 Feed

Modules and Extensions for RSS

The RSS specification allows for third-party modules and extensions to RSS through the mechanism of XML namespaces. Namespaces are an XML-based mechanism that allows you to insert new elements that have meaning from an outside context. Namespaced elements are easy to spot in XML because of a prefix in the element name, in this format:

<prefix:element></prefix:element>

The ability to expand RSS feeds with external namespaces means that you can add new functionality or information for special needs. This chapter gives you a brief look at some of the more popular modules and provides links to more information on each.

(For a deeper explanation of how to use namespaces in RSS 2.0 feeds, read: http://www.disobey.com/detergent/2002/extendingrss2/.)

Dublin Core

The Dublin Core (http://dublincore.org) data standard is an initiative to formalize metadata for use in the Semantic Web. The Dublin Core module for RSS provides a namespace that allows you to add that metadata to your RSS 2.0 feed.

The namespace for this module is:

xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"

The elements in this module are all prefixed with "dc". They include:

<dc:title/>
<dc:creator/>
<dc:subject/>
<dc:description/>
<dc:publisher/>
<dc:contributor/>
<dc:date/>
<dc:type/>
<dc:format/>
<dc:identifier/>
<dc:source/>
<dc:language/>
<dc:relation/>
<dc:coverage/>
<dc:rights/>

For information on how to use each of these elements within RSS, visit: http://web.resource.org/rss/1.0/modules/dc/.

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