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What is RSS?
| RSS In Human Speak | RSS In Technical Terms |
|---|---|
What can I do with this? How do I use it? Do I really need it? Can't I do without it? RSS is a thing by which you can know when a page has changed - e.g. new content was added or something was deleted or someone wrote a comment, etc. Instead of opening a page several times a day to check if there's something new, use RSS - it will check automatically per given time interval and play a sound and a pop-up window on your screen to let you know. RSS is especially useful in blogs and forums because it can notify you as soon as someone has replied to a post of yours. And how exactly do I get to know when something has changed in a page? First of all you need to have a type of program called "RSS reader". "Ough - so I'd have to download something, then install it, then adjust settings and so on…!?" - Yes. :) The good news is that you need to do it only once and that once you do it, you'd never regret the effort. Once you have chosen a specific "RSS reader" ("how do I choose which?" - will get to this later), downloaded it, installed it, adjusted its settings, you can go to a web page you would like to monitor for changes. If the web page was made to support RSS this tiny orange icon: should appear next to the web address. Maybe you have already seen it but paid no attention to it.When you click on it what happens is that "you get subscribed to the RSS feed of the page". This means that the address of the page has already entered into your RSS reader and the reader can track it and notify you when there is something new. Notification happens according to the options of your particicular reader - usually a small pop-up window, sound alert, animation in the icon in the system tray, etc. Note that you must set your RSS reader to be the reader by default. (Somewhere in the "Options"/ "Settings" menu). Otherwise clicking the orange icon will subscribe you in the browser's built-in RSS readers and most browsers do not have good RSS readers. So where do I find good readers? The Wikidot Community maintains a list of recommended RSS readers - take a look at it. When it comes to computers things are easier done than said… "Oughhh. Isn't all described above too complicated? I don't think I have time for it", you may say. Well, if you really need to keep on track with news, changes in certain web pages or replies to your posts, then RSS is the most efficient way for you to stay updated. And choosing a program, installing it, managing the settings is not like moving a mountain after all. Described in text the whole thing seems long, tedious, complicated and even dangerous for your computer. :) But actually doing it is easy. Just unlike most other things in life which are easier said than done… :) |
What does the abbreviation "RSS" mean? - read here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/3223484.stm How exactly does it work? - to get the general idea: http://www.wizard-creek.com/rss/tutorial/rss-how-does-it-work.htm http://silverpop.com/rssdirect/about_rssdirect/rss_tech.html - detailed technical explanation: http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/12/18/dive-into-xml.html http://www.webreference.com/authoring/languages/xml/rss/intro |
RSS applications in Wikidot
- RSS allows you to import content to your wiki from RSS Feeds.
- It also allows you to syndicate your content to other wikis.
- Third, it allows you to keep informed of changes to wikis.
Keep Informed of Changes to Wikis Using RSS
RSS Feeds Provided by Wikidot
These feeds are automatically provided by Wikidot for each wiki-name.wikidot.com Wiki. They work no matter whether an appropriate link is provided on the site or not (i. e. you can simply enter them into your RSS reader and they will work).
| Tracks on wiki-name.wikidot.com… | RSS Feed (with examples for community.wikidot.com) |
|---|---|
| any changes to pages | http://wiki-name.wikidot.com/feed/site-changes.xml |
| any changes to pages in category-list (a list of comma-separated category names)1; the feed is named feed-title (a string with all spaces replaced by “+”-signs) | http://wiki-name.wikidot.com/feed/pages/category/category-list/t/feed-title |
| any changes to pages tagged with tag-list (a list of comma-separated tag values)2; the feed is named feed-title (a string with all spaces replaced by “+”-signs) | http://wiki-name.wikidot.com/feed/pages/tags/tag-list/t/feed-title |
| any new forum threads | http://wiki-name.wikidot.com/feed/forum/threads.xml |
| any new forum threads in category number category-nr | http://wiki-name.wikidot.com/feed/forum/ct-category-nr.xml |
| any new forum posts3 | http://wiki-name.wikidot.com/feed/forum/posts.xml |
| any new forum posts to thread number thread-nr | http://wiki-name.wikidot.com/feed/forum/t-thread-nr.xml |
| any new posts to the per page discussion on page page-id4 | http://wiki-name.wikidot.com/feed/page/comments-page-id.xml |
| any new forum posts to category number category-nr | http://wiki-name.wikidot.com/feed/forum/cp-category-nr.xml |
The following RSS feed needs authentication. To use it, you must be admin of the wiki-name site. You'll find username and password to authenticate with on
- wiki-name site's Site Manager, Notifications page (http://wiki-name.wikidot.com/admin:manage/start/notifications), or on
- My account, Watched..., Via RSS feed, or on
- My account, Account settings under heading “Notifications — online & private RSS & email”.
| Tracks on wiki-name.wikidot.com… | RSS Feed (with example for community.wikidot.com) |
|---|---|
| if a new member applies, a new member joins, or has accepted the invitation | http://wiki-name.wikidot.com/feed/admin.xml |
Wikidot RSS Feeds You Can Configure
Note: since the introduction of Email notifications (aka Watching) the “Watched pages” feature (now called “Old watched pages”), has become obsolete and will be removed in the future
If you want to be informed of changes to specific pages from one or more Wikidot Wikis, you can mark those pages by adding them to your “Watched pages”. To set a page “watched”, open it, click on the “history” option at the bottom, and then click on “add to watched”. Note that you can not watch more than 10 pages.
Similar to the above, if you want to be informed of new posts to specific threads from one or more Wikidot Wikis, you can mark those threads by adding them to your “Watched discussions”. To set a thread “watched”, open it, click on “ +more options” at the top, then click on “add to watched”. Note that you can not watch more than 10 threads.
You can check which pages and/or threads you've added to “Watched” by going to My account and clicking on Watched..., Pages or Watched..., Discussions.
To set up an RSS feed for your watched pages and threads, go to My account and click on Watched..., Via RSS feed where you'll find the following RSS feeds. Note that these feeds need authentication. On the same page you'll also find userid and password that you should supply for authentication.
| Watch… | RSS Feed |
|---|---|
| pages | http://www.wikidot.com/feed/watched/page-changes.xml |
| discussions/threads | http://www.wikidot.com/feed/watched/forum-posts.xml |
Other Wikidot Feeds
Depending on the Wikidot site, there may be other RSS feeds available to you. Examples are:
| Description | RSS Feed |
|---|---|
| Tracks any news on www.wikidot.com | http://www.wikidot.com/feed/front/start:start/news.xml |
| Tracks the www.wikidot.com Changelog | http://www.wikidot.com/feed/front/changelog/changelog.xml |
| Notifications related to your account (including new unread private messages) | http://www.wikidot.com/feed/account/notifications.xml |
| Tracks any news on www.wikidot.org | http://www.wikidot.org/feed/front/start/news.xml |
RSS Readers
Need a good RSS Reader? Here are a few :
freeware desktop readers:
- RSSOwl — A Free Java RSS / RDF / Atom Newsreader
- Great News — Another fast and free reader
shareware desktop readers:
- WebSite-Watcher — RSS reader, Newsgroup reader and web page monitor in one
- Orbiscope Observer — another full capability reader
- Right Web Monitor
- NewzCrawler
online readers:
- http://web.appstorm.net/roundups/rssfeeds/the-5-best-google-reader-alternatives-you-should-be-using/
MyHomePage
Online services that allow to customize your "MyHomePage":
Feed agregators
- feedburner.com
- feedblitz.com
- Rssmix.com merges several feeds into a single one
- page2rss.com creates a feed for any page of the web
Related Pages
Backlinks
These pages link back to this one. You may find them helpful.
Authors
ErichSteinboeck. Please visit his/her userPage.