RSS Tags

All RSS files share a similar structure. Any RSS feed has Channel and Item tags. These tags are either required or optional.

Required channel elements

Title
Name of the RSS channel. For example, it can be the same as the website title.

Description.
Short description of the RSS channel.

Link
Link to the website the channel is related to.

Optional channel elements

Language
The language the channel is written in.

Copyright
RSS channel copyright information.

managingEditor
Email-address of the person responsible for the channel content.

webMaster
Email-address of the person responsible for channel publishing.

pubDate
Date of publishing according to the Date and Time Specification of RFC 822.

lastBuildDate
The last time the content of the channel changed, according to the Date and Time Specification of RFC 822.

Category
Specify one or more categories that the channel belongs to.

Generator
Title of the program used to generate the RSS feed.

Docs
Link to the RSS specification, used for creating the channel.

Ttl
Ttl means ‘time to live’ and specifies channel validity in minutes.

Image
Specify the image file (GIF, JPEG or PNG), which will be displayed in the RSS channel. The following parameters are accepted:

Title
This is usually the same text as RSS Title.

Description
Description of the image file, which will be displayed if the file is unavailable.

Link
Link to the page the channel is related to.

URL
URL of the JPEG, GIF or PNG file, which is linked to the RSS channel.

Width
Image width.

Height
Image height.

skipHours
The period during which RSS readers cannot check the channel for updates, in hours.

skipDays
The period during which RSS readers cannot check the channel for updates, in days.

Required item elements

Title
Item name of the RSS channel.

Description
Short description of the item.

Link
Link to the webpage containing the full description of the event.

Optional item elements

Author
Email-address of the message author.

Category
Item category.

Comments
Link to the webpage containing comments on the item.

Enclosure
This describes the media-object connected to the Item. The following parameters are supported:

URL
Link to the object file

Length
Size of the file in bytes.

Type
File type according to the MIME specification.

Guid
Unique string used to identify the item.

pubDate
Item date of publishing, according to the Date and Time Specification of RFC 822.

RSS extensions.

To extend the standard RSS specifications, special modules defined by namespaces are used.