RSS - Version 1.0 Tags and Syntax



Here is the structure of an RSS 1.0 document:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<rdf:RDF>

   <channel>
      <title>...</title>
      <link>...</link>
      <description>...</description>
      
      <image />
      <items>...</items>
      <textInput />
   
   <image>
      <title>...</title>
      <url>...</url>
      <link>...</link>
   </image>
   
   <item>
      <title>...</title>
      <link>...</link>
      <description>...</description>
   </item>
   
   ......More item tags.....
   <textInput>
      <title>...</title>
      <description>...</description>
      <name>...</name>
      <link>...</link>
   </textInput>

</rdf:RDF>

Here is the detail of all optional and mandatory tags related to RSS 1.0. Check out the given example to prepare an RSS v1.0 Feed for your website.

NOTE: All the tags are case-sensitive and should be used carefully.

XML Version Identifier

As an XML application, an RSS document is not required to begin with an XML declaration. It should start with an XML version identifier tag.

Syntax

  • <?xml version="1.0"?> or
  • <?xml version="1.0" encoding="[ encoding code here ]"?>

Here is a list of RSS v1.0 Supported Encodings.

Required

Always and exact. Optional encoding attribute (default is UTF-8).

rdf:RDF Tag

The outermost level in every RSS 1.0 compliant document is the RDF element. The opening RDF tag associates the rdf: namespace prefix with the RDF syntax schema and establishes the RSS 1.0 schema as the default namespace for the document.

Syntax

<rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" xmlns="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/">

Required

Always and exact.

Start Channel Tag

The channel element contains metadata describing the channel itself, including a title, brief description, and URL link to the described resource (the channel provider's home page, for instance).

The {resource} URL of the channel element's rdf:about attribute must be unique with respect to any other rdf:about attributes in the RSS document and is a URI which identifies the channel. Most commonly, this is either the URL of the homepage being described or a URL where the RSS file can be found.

Syntax

<channel rdf:about="{resource}">

Required

Required. Maximum 1 per RSS file.

Channel Title

An identifying string for a resource. When used in an item, this is the name of the item's link. When used in an image, this is the Alt text for the image. When used in a channel, this is the channel's title. When used in a textinput, this is the textinput's title.

Syntax

<title>TutorialsPoint</title>

Required

Required.

Max Length

1-40 characters.

Channel Link (URL)

The URL to which an HTML rendering of the channel title will link, commonly the parent site's home or news page

Syntax

<link>http://www.tutorialspoint.com</link>

Required

Required.

Max Length

1-500 characters.

Channel Description

A channel will have a description tag as described below:

Syntax

<description>Your source for tutorials, references and manuals!</description>

Required

Required.

Max Length

1-500 characters.

Channel Image Tag

Establishes an RDF association between the optional image element and this particular RSS channel. The rdf:resource's {image_uri} must be the same as the image element's rdf:about {image_uri}.

Syntax

<image rdf:resource="{image_uri}" />

Required

Required only if image element present in document body

Channel Item Tag

An RDF table of contents, associating the document's items with this particular RSS channel. Each item's rdf:resource {item_uri} must be the same as the associated item element's rdf:about {item_uri}.

An RDF Seq (sequence) is used to contain all the items rather than an RDF Bag to denote item order for rendering and reconstruction.

Note that items appearing in the document but not as members of the channel level items sequence are likely to be discarded by the RDF parsers.

Syntax

<items><rdf:Seq><rdf:li resource="{item_uri}" /> ... </rdf:Seq></items>

Required

Required.

Channel textInput Tag

Establishes an RDF association between the optional textinput element and this particular RSS channel. The {textinput_uri} rdf:resource must be the same as the textinput element's rdf:about {textinput_uri}.

Syntax

<textinput rdf:resource="{textinput_uri}" />

Required

Required only if the texinput element is present.

End Channel Tag

One end channel is required for a channel start tag.

Syntax

</channel>

Required

Required.

Image Start Tag:

An image to be associated with an HTML rendering of the channel. This image should be of a format supported by the majority of Web browsers. While the later 0.91 specification allowed for a width of 1-144 and height of 1-400, convention (and the 0.9 specification) dictate 88x31.

Syntax

<image rdf:about="{image_uri}">.

Required:

Optional; if present, must also be present in the channel element.

image title Tag

The alternative text ("alt" attribute) associated with the channel's image tag when rendered as HTML.

Syntax

<title>{image_alt_text}</title>

Required

Required if the image element is present.

Max Length

1-40 characters.

image url Tag

The URL of the image to used in the "src" attribute of the channel's image tag when rendered as HTML.

Syntax

<url>{image_url}</url>

Required

Required if the image element is present.

Max Length

1-500 characters.

image link Tag

The URL to which an HTML rendering of the channel image will link. This, as with the channel's title link, is commonly the parent site's home or news page.

Syntax

<link>{image_link}</link>

Required

Required if the image element is present.

Max Length

1-500 characters.

image End Tag

Closing tag for image tag.

Syntax

</image>

Required

Required; if image tag is present.

Item Start Tag

While commonly a news headline, with RSS 1.0's modular extensibility, this can be just about anything: discussion posting, job listing, software patch -- any object with a URI. There may be a minimum of one item per RSS document. While RSS 1.0 does not enforce an upper limit, for backward compatibility with RSS 0.9 and 0.91, a maximum of fifteen items is recommended.

{item_uri} must be unique with respect to any other rdf:about attributes in the RSS document and is a URI, which identifies the item. {item_uri} should be identical to the value of the <link> sub-element of the <item> element, if possible.

Recommended number of items per Feed are 1-15.

Syntax

<item rdf:about="{item_uri}">

Required

Required 1 or more.

Item Title Tag

The item's title.

Syntax

<title>{item_title}</title>

Required

Required; with each item tag.

Max Length

1-100 characters.

Item Link Tag

The item's URL.

Syntax

<link>{item_link}</link>

Required

Required; with each item tag.

Max Length

1-500 characters.

Item Description Tag

A brief description/abstract of the item.

Syntax

<description>{item_description}</description>

Required

Optional; with an item tag.

Max Length

1-500 characters.

Item End Tag

Closing tag for item tag.

Syntax

</item>

Required

Required; for each item tag.

Start Text Input Tag

An input field for the purpose of allowing users to submit queries back to the publisher's site. This element should have a title, a link (to a cgi or other processor), a description containing some instructions, and a name, to be used as the name in the HTML tag <input type=text name="[name]">

Syntax

<textinput rdf:about="{textinput_uri}">

Required

Optional; if present, must also be present in channel element.

Textinput Title Tag

A descriptive title for the textinput field. For example: "Subscribe" or "Search!".

Syntax

<title>{textinput_title}</title>

Required

Required if textinput is present.

Max Length

1-40 characters.

Textinput Description Tag

A brief description of the textinput field's purpose. For example: "Subscribe to our newsletter for..." or "Search our site's archive of...".

Syntax

<description>{textinput_description}</description>

Required

Required if textinput is present.

Max Length

1-100 characters.

Textinput Name Tag:

The text input field's (variable) name.

Syntax

<name>{textinput_varname}</name>

Required:

Required if textinput is present.

Max Length

1-500 characters.

Textinput Link Tag

The URL to which a textinput submission will be directed (using GET).

Syntax

<link>{textinput_action_url}</link>

Required

Required if textinput is present.

Max Length

1-500 characters.

Textinput End tag

CLosing tag for textInput.

Syntax

</textInput>

Required

Required with textinput.

rdf:RDF End Tag

This is closing tag for an RSS1.0 document.

Syntax

</rdf:RDF>

Required

Required.

Using Special Characters and HTML Entities

Although an RSS 1.0 file is an XML document, RSS 0.91 extends XML by supporting a full set of HTML entities. If you want to use special characters such as ampersands (&) in <url> or <link> tags, you must substitute the appropriate decimal or HTML entities for those characters.

Check for a complete set of HTML entities in our HTML tutorial.

RSS version 1.0 Example Feed

Here is the example Feed file, which shows how to write RSS Feed using version 1.0.

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<rdf:RDF 
   xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
   xmlns="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/">
   
   <channel rdf:about="http://www.tutorialspoint.com">
      <title>TutorialsPoint</title>
      <link>http://tutorialspoint.com/rss</link>
   
      <description>
         Online Tutorials and Reference Manuals
      </description>
   
      <image rdf:resource= "http://tutorialspoint.com/images/tp-logo.gif" />
   
      <items>
         <rdf:Seq>
         <rdf:li resource="http://tutorialspoint.com/rss/index.htm" />
         <rdf:li resource="http://tutorialspoint.com/php/index.htm" />
         </rdf:Seq>
      </items>
   
      <textinput rdf:resource= "http://www.tutorialspoint.com/tp-contact.php" />
   
   </channel>
   
   <image rdf:about="http://tutorialspoint.com/images/tp-logo.gif">
      <title>TutorialsPoint Logo</title>
      <link>http://tutorialspoint.com</link>
      <url>http://tutorialspoint.com/images/tp-logo.gif</url>
   </image>
   
   <item rdf:about="http://tutorialspoint.com/rss/index.htm">
      <title>A simple RSS tutorial</title>
      <link>http://tutorialspoint.com/rss/index.htm</link>
   
      <description>
         Learn RSS in simple and easy steps.
      </description>
   
   </item>
   
   <item rdf:about="http://tutorialspoint.com/php/index.htm">
      <title>A complete guide for PHP Programmers</title>
      <link>http://tutorialspoint.com/php/index.htm</link>
   
      <description>
         A free online guide for PHP. Learn PHP in very easy steps.
      </description>
   
   </item>
   
   <textinput rdf:about="http://www.tutorialspoint.com/tp-contact.php">
      <title>Contact TutorialsPoint</title>
   
      <description>
         Contact TutorialsPoint for more detail
      </description>
   
      <name>s</name>
   
      <link>
         http://www.tutorialspoint.com/cgi-bin/tp-contact.cgi
      </link>
   
   </textinput>
</rdf:RDF>

RSS 1.0 File Extension

A specific file-extension for an RSS 1.0 document is not required. Either .rdf or .xml is recommended, the former being preferred.

RSS 1.0 modules

RSS 1.0 modules are maintained in separate documents, available online at RSS 1.0 modules.

rss-feed-formats.htm
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