XML Hacks

Create an RSS 2.0 Document

Create an RSS 2.0 document from a template.

RSS 2.0 is an update of RSS 0.91, and so does not follow the RDF approach taken by RSS 1.0. After RSS 0.91 and RSS 1.0, it is the third most popular RSS format. You can find the spec for RSS 2.0 at http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss. It is similar to RSS 0.91, but offers some clarifications and additional elements.

The following, news.xml , is a minimal example of RSS 2.0:

<rss version="2.0">
 <channel>
  <title>Wy'east Communications</title>
  <link>http://www.wyeast.net</link>
  <description> Wy'east Communications is an XML consultancy.</description>
  <item>
   <title>Legend of Wy'east</title>
   <link>http://www.wyeast.net/wyeast.html</link>
   <description>The Native American story behind the name Wy'east.</description>
  </item>
 </channel>
</rss>

Like RSS 0.91, RSS 2.0 doesn’t declare a namespace for its own elements. Also like 0.91, rss is the document element. It must have a version attribute with a value of 2.0.

The channel element is required, as are its children title, link, and description. The language element is required as a child of channel by 0.91, but under 2.0 it is optional. The image element is also required by 0.91; it’s optional under 2.0. Table 6-2 compares the required and optional elements of channel in 2.0 and 0.91. The purpose of each is briefly described.

Table 6-2. Child elements of channel in RSS 2.0 and RSS 0.91

Element	Purpose	RSS 2.0	RSS 0.91
title	Title of channel	Required	Required