A Blog Not Limited

to web design, standards & semantics

Customizing ExpressionEngine RSS 2.0 Template

Aug 10, 2008

Published in

Like everything with this blog, I wasn't entirely satisfied with ExpressionEngine's out–of–the–box solution for my RSS feeds (surprise, surprise).

Some of the features I wanted that didn't come standard with EE's RSS:

  • Links and markup to display properly formatted
  • Display blog name
  • Display author name
  • Link to the category in which the article is published
  • Links to the tags with which the article is tagged
  • Tracking for links to support analytics
  • Two feeds; one for full articles and one for teasers
  • A "Continue Reading" link for the teaser feed

The Default

EE comes with a default RSS 2.0 template that certainly gets the job done.

With just a few modifications to the default EE tags to reference my database fields and templates:

{assign_variable:master_weblog_name="default_site"}
   changed to
{assign_variable:master_weblog_name="articles"}

<link>{title_permalink=site/index}</link>
   changed to
<link>{title_permalink=articles/index}</link>

<description>{exp:xml_encode}{summary}{body}{/exp:xml_encode}</description>
   changed to
<description>{exp:xml_encode}{intro}{remaining}{/exp:xml_encode}</description>

And this is the feed display in Google Reader (which is my preferred feed aggregator and what I used for testing this experiment):

Default ExpressionEngine RSS feed in Google Reader

Like I said, this gets the job done. Of course, that's not good enough for me, the perpetual perfectionist.

Formatting

The first thing I noticed about the default template was that my content lost all of the formatting associated with the various XHTML elements:

  • Links (<a>) didn't show up as hyperlinked text.
  • My headings (<h4>, <h5>, <h6>) didn't show leading or font weight and size.
  • Code snippets (<code>) displayed just like the rest of the text.
  • Paragraphs and lists (<p>, <ul>, <dl>, <ol>) also displayed like the rest of the text.
  • Images didn't display

Searching EE's Knowledge Base, I found How can I use HTML to format my RSS feed?.

I love it when solutions are simple!

So, a quick change to the RSS template, swapping the EE {exp:xml_encode} tag with CDATA in the <item> <description> element:

<description>{exp:xml_encode}{intro}{remaining}{/exp:xml_encode}</description>
   changed to
<description><![CDATA[{intro}{remaining}]]></description>

This change worked exactly as I expected in Google Reader. But, as the Knowledge Base article notes, this approach may not work in all aggregators.

Blog Name

Another thing I noticed was "missing" from the default RSS: the name of my blog, "A Blog Not Limited."

The default template was instead displaying the value generated by the EE {weblog_name} tag (contained in the <channel> <title> element). In this case, "Articles."

Depending on how you have EE configured and how you want your feeds to display, this default tag may be appropriate. Not for me. I wanted to display {site_name}.

So another quick change:

<title>{exp:xml_encode}{weblog_name}{/exp:xml_encode}</title>
   changed to
<title>{exp:xml_encode}{site_name}{/exp:xml_encode}</title>

I also noticed that the <channel> <link> element was referencing {weblog_url}.

Again, depending on your EE configuration, this value might be appropriate. However, for mine, the {weblog_url} references the URL to my articles, rather than the root of my site ({site_url}), which is what I wanted.

<link>{weblog_url}</link>
   changed to
<link>{site_url}</link>

Author Name

Also "missing" from my feed display: author name.

Looking at the XML, I noticed the <channel> <dc:creator> element and that it contained the EE {email} tag.

Logically, I assumed that this indicated the author/creator would display, but as an email address. Yet even the email address wasn't showing in Google Reader.

So I took a peek at the RSS 2.0 specification.

I immediately noticed that the XML elements in the RSS 2.0 specification didn't mirror all of those in the default EE template. I thought, perhaps, that was the reason why author name wasn't showing.

Off to Google.

Let's Talk Namespaces

After some searching, I discovered that EE's default RSS is extended with the Dublin Core namespace.

What is a namespace? In short, a namespace allows XML to be extended to include "custom" elements that are "defined" in the namespace.

This is a very base explanation, so if you must know more, check out Keven Hemenway's Extending RSS 2.0 With Namespaces or hit Google.

Now, back to the experiment and getting the author name to display, because the namespace elements wouldn't be the source of the missing author information.

According to the namespace, <dc:creator> should contain the name of the person responsible for content. For my purposes, this is {author}.

As such, I modified the XML:

<dc:creator>{email}</dc:creator>
   changed to
<dc:creator>{author}</dc:creator>

After waiting for Google Reader's cache to clear and grab the updated XML, I still didn't see author name displaying.

Returning to the namespace, I noticed that the example markup showed the <dc:contributor> element contained in the <item> element. So, I extrapolated this idea and moved the <dc:creator> element to be nested in <item>, rather than <channel>.

And that worked. Again, relatively simple.

Link to Category

Every article on my blog is "organized" by category, and I wanted to not only show the category, but also make the category a link to the category page on the blog.

Since the XML was already using EE's {exp:weblog:entries} tag, I realized it was just a matter of adding the {categories} tag (along with a bit of hard-coded markup for formatting).

So, I updated the <item> <description> element:

  1. <description>
  2.       <![CDATA[
  3.             {intro}{remaining}
  4.             <hr />
  5.             <p>Published in: {categories}<a href="{site_url}/articles/category/{category_name}{category_url_title}/">{category_name}</a>{/categories}</p>
  6.       ]]>
  7. </description>

Update: 8/14/2008

Turns out there is a better way to code the link to the category than what I had originally (hat tip, Ian).

Instead of using {category_name} in the URL, {category_url_title} is better because it:

  • Prevents any issues with broken URLs in the event the category name is more than one word, because it generates the URL of the category, not just the name.
  • Makes the URL component for category all lowercase, like the other URLs in the EE system.

I've modified all examples to show this change.

Links to Tags

In addition to categories, I also tag my blog articles. The tags are more specific than the categories and there can be more than one (whereas there is only one category per article).

For my RSS, I wanted to display the tags assigned to articles and make each one a link to that tag's page on the blog.

Taking the same approach as I did with categories, I added {exp:tag:tags} to the <item> <description> element:

  1. <description>
  2.       <![CDATA[
  3.             {intro}{remaining}
  4.             <hr />
  5.             <p>Published in: {categories}<a href="{site_url}/articles/category/{category_name}{category_url_title}/">{category_name}</a>{/categories}</p>
  6.             <p>Tagged as: {exp:tag:tags entry_id="{entry_id}" type="weblog" orderby="alpha" sort="asc" backspace="2"}<a href="{site_url}/articles/tag/{websafe_tag}/">{tag}</a>, {/exp:tag:tags}</p>
  7.       ]]>
  8. </description>

Note: In order to use the {exp:tag:tags} tag, you have to purchase and install Solspace's Tag Module.

Two Different Feeds

Some folks like feeds that are just teasers, with a short excerpt or introduction to the article that they can then go to the blog to read the full text. Others like the entire article in their feed.

I wanted to offer both options.

Now that my feed was displaying the content how I wanted in Google Reader, I simply created a new template from the modified one (copy/paste to the rescue).

I named the copied template "rss_intros" and renamed the modified template "rss_articles."

Teaser Feed

In the "rss_intros" template, I updated the <channel> <title> element to indicate the feed is a teaser:

<title>{exp:xml_encode}{weblog_name} ~ Article Teasers{/exp:xml_encode}</title>

Article Feed

In the "rss_articles" template, I also updated the <channel> <title>:

<title>{exp:xml_encode}{weblog_name} ~ Articles{/exp:xml_encode}</title>

Blog Templates

Next, I updated the <head> markup in my EE XHTML templates to include both feeds:

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Article teasers ~ A Blog Not Limited" href="/feeds/rss_intros" />
<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Full article content ~ A Blog Not Limited" href="/feeds/rss_articles" />

The addition of these <link> elements helps most browsers auto detect the feeds.

Continue Reading Teaser

While the "rss_intros" template already provides a link to the full article content via the article title, I always liked those feeds that offer a link after the introduction to read more.

A quick search in EE's forums turned up "Continue reading" link. How easy!

Working with the "rss_intros" template, I added the necessary conditional variables and markup to the <item> <description> element:

  1. <description>
  2.       <![CDATA[
  3.             {intro}
  4.             {if remaining}<p><a href="{title_permalink=articles/index}">Continue Reading</a></p>{/if}
  5.             <hr />
  6.             <p>Published in: {categories}<a href="{site_url}/articles/category/{category_name}{category_url_title}/">{category_name}</a>{/categories}</p>
  7.             <p>Tagged as: {exp:tag:tags entry_id="{entry_id}" type="weblog" orderby="alpha" sort="asc" backspace="2"}<a href="{site_url}/articles/tag/{websafe_tag}/">{tag}</a>, {/exp:tag:tags}</p>
  8.       ]]>
  9. </description>

Tracking with Google Analytics

I use Google Analytics to track activity on A Blog Not Limited.

I was first introduced to Google Analytics when my boss, Ian, decided we would use it at work for our sites and email campaigns. I also use it on my my design portfolio.

It is a powerful, yet relatively simple tool.

Based on what I had done at work for our email campaigns (and a friendly reminder from Ian), I realized I could track inbound links from my RSS using campaign tracking.

It is really just a matter of appending a query string to my inbound links. And Google Analytics has a handy little tool to make generating the query string easy: URL Builder.

Teaser Feed

I created the following query strings for my "rss_intros" feed and appended them to the relevant links:

Blog name link:
{exp:xml_encode}?utm_source=Teasers&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=BlogName&utm_campaign=blog{/exp:xml_encode}
Article title link:
{exp:xml_encode}?utm_source=Teasers&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=ArticleTitle&utm_campaign={url_title}{/exp:xml_encode}
Category link:
{exp:xml_encode}?utm_source=Teasers&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content={category_name}{category_url_title}&utm_campaign={url_title}{/exp:xml_encode}
Tag links:
{exp:xml_encode}?utm_source=Teasers&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content={websafe_tag}&utm_campaign={url_title}{/exp:xml_encode}
Continue Reading link:
{exp:xml_encode}?utm_source=Teasers&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=ContinueReading&utm_campaign={url_title}{/exp:xml_encode}
Article Feed

I created the following query strings for my "rss_articles" feed and appended them to the relevant links:

Blog name link:
{exp:xml_encode}?utm_source=Articles&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=BlogName&utm_campaign=blog{/exp:xml_encode}
Article title link:
{exp:xml_encode}?utm_source=Articles&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=ArticleTitle&utm_campaign={url_title}{/exp:xml_encode}
Category link:
{exp:xml_encode}?utm_source=Articles&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content={category_name}{category_url_title}&utm_campaign={url_title}{/exp:xml_encode}
Tag links:
{exp:xml_encode}?utm_source=Articles&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content={websafe_tag}&utm_campaign={url_title}{/exp:xml_encode}

Note: Because these query strings contain ampersands, I added EE's {exp:xml_encode} tag to convert the ampersand characters to entities.

Validation

With form and function complete, it was then time to validate. Searching Google, I found the Feed Validator for RSS and Atom and tested both of my feeds.

Fortunately, both were valid, but the validator offered a recommendation: Missing atom:link with rel="self".

So at the top of the feeds, following the other namespace declarations, I added:

xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"

And then in the <channel> element for each RSS file, I added:

<atom:link href="{site_url}/feeds/rss_intros/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />

or

<atom:link href="{site_url}/feeds/rss_articles/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />

Testing With Other Aggregators

While I exclusively use Google Reader, I realize not everyone does. So, I thought I would test my RSS in a couple other feed readers.

Without too much extra work or having to create a bunch of accounts, I tested Bloglines (for which I already had an account) and Safari.

Bloglines

While both of my feeds rendered as I wanted in Bloglines, I noticed this aggregator displayed additional information that I hadn't seen in Google Reader:

  • Content from the <channel> <description> element
  • Automatic display of category name from the <item> <dc:subject> element
  • Automatic link to blog article (displayed as "Link") after RSS content
Description

From the original EE RSS default markup, <channel> <description> was displaying the value from {weblog_description}, a value I hadn't set up in my EE install.

Plus, I didn't want to display the description for the "weblog." I wanted to display the description for my site … the same information I was using in the <head> <meta>.

So, I updated this markup:

<description>{weblog_description}</description>
   changed to
<description>Online repository for Emily P. Lewis' thoughts on web design, web standards, semantics and whatever else.</description>

Category

The automatic display of the category is somewhat redundant for both my feeds, since I had added that information already. However, the automatic display didn't provide a link to that category page on my site, as what I added did.

So, I can live with it … Not to mention, I wouldn't even begin to know how to suppress this other than by removing that field entirely.

And though that field is optional in the namespace, I also considered it may provide some other value of which I'm just not aware.

Automatic Link

As for the automatic "Link," it is redundant for my Teaser feed, which I modified to have the hard-coded "Continue Reading" link.

But there's definitely nothing I can do about it, as it is pulling the information from the required <item> <link> element.

I can certainly live with it, and I assume folks who use Bloglines as their primary aggregator are used to this functionality, so it shouldn't pose any confusion.

Safari

Both of my RSS feeds rendered pretty much the same in Safari as in Google Reader.

The only think I noticed is that Safari, like Bloglines, automatically generates a "Read more …" link at the end of the feed.

Same conclusion as with Bloglines: nothing I can do about it and not something I'm remotely worried about.

Final RSS

After all of these changes, my RSS feeds are exactly how I want them to be in Google Reader.

Teaser Feed
Teasers RSS feed in Google Reader
Final Markup
  1. {assign_variable:master_weblog_name="articles"}
  2. {exp:rss:feed weblog="{master_weblog_name}"}
  3. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="{encoding}"?>
  4. <rss version="2.0"
    xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
    xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
    xmlns:admin="http://webns.net/mvcb/"
    xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
    xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
    xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
  5. <channel>
  6. {exp:weblog:entries weblog="{master_weblog_name}" limit="10" rdf="off" dynamic_start="on" disable="member_data|trackbacks|pagination"}
  7. <title>{exp:xml_encode}{site_name}{/exp:xml_encode}</title>
  8. <link>{site_url}{exp:xml_encode}?utm_source=Teasers&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=BlogName&utm_campaign=blog{/exp:xml_encode}</link>
  9. <description>Online repository for Emily P. Lewis' thoughts on web design, web standards, semantics and whatever else.</description>
  10. <dc:language>{weblog_language}</dc:language>
  11. <dc:rights>Copyright {gmt_date format="%Y"}</dc:rights>
  12. <dc:date>{gmt_date format="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%i:%s%Q"}</dc:date>
  13. <admin:generatorAgent rdf:resource="http://expressionengine.com/" />
  14. <atom:link href="{site_url}/feeds/rss_intros" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
  15. <item>
  16. <title>{exp:xml_encode}{title}{/exp:xml_encode}</title>
  17. <dc:creator>{author}</dc:creator>
  18. <link>{title_permalink=articles/index}{exp:xml_encode}?utm_source=Teasers&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=ArticleTitle&utm_campaign={url_title}{/exp:xml_encode}</link>
  19. <guid>{title_permalink=articles/index}{exp:xml_encode}#When:{gmt_entry_date format="%H:%i:%sZ"}?utm_source=Teasers&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=ArticleTitle&utm_campaign={url_title}{/exp:xml_encode}</guid>
  20. <description>
  21. <![CDATA[
  22. {intro}
  23. {if remaining}<p><a href="{title_permalink=articles/index}{exp:xml_encode}?utm_source=Teasers&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=ContinueReading&utm_campaign={url_title}{/exp:xml_encode}">Continue Reading</a></p>{/if}
  24. <hr />
  25. <p>Published in: {categories}<a href="{site_url}/articles/category/{category_name}{category_url_title}/{exp:xml_encode}?utm_source=Teasers&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content={category_name}&utm_campaign={url_title}{/exp:xml_encode}">{category_name}</a>{/categories}</p>
  26. <p>Tagged as: {exp:tag:tags entry_id="{entry_id}" type="weblog" orderby="alpha" sort="asc" backspace="2"}<a href="{site_url}/articles/tag/{websafe_tag}/{exp:xml_encode}?utm_source=Teasers&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content={websafe_tag}&utm_campaign={url_title}{/exp:xml_encode}">{tag}</a>, {/exp:tag:tags}</p>
  27. ]]>
  28. </description>
  29. <dc:subject>{exp:xml_encode}{categories}{category_name}{/categories}{/exp:xml_encode}</dc:subject>
  30. <dc:date>{gmt_entry_date format="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%i:%s%Q"}</dc:date>
  31. </item>
  32. {/exp:weblog:entries}
  33. </channel>
  34. </rss>
  35. {/exp:rss:feed}
Article Feed
Articles RSS feed in Google Reader
Final Markup
  1. {assign_variable:master_weblog_name="articles"}
  2. {exp:rss:feed weblog="{master_weblog_name}"}
  3. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="{encoding}"?>
  4. <rss version="2.0"
    xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
    xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
    xmlns:admin="http://webns.net/mvcb/"
    xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
    xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
    xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
  5. <channel>
  6. {exp:weblog:entries weblog="{master_weblog_name}" limit="10" rdf="off" dynamic_start="on" disable="member_data|trackbacks|pagination"}
  7. <title>{exp:xml_encode}{site_name}{/exp:xml_encode}</title>
  8. <link>{site_url}{exp:xml_encode}?utm_source=Articles&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=BlogName&utm_campaign=blog{/exp:xml_encode}</link>
  9. <description>Online repository for Emily P. Lewis' thoughts on web design, web standards, semantics and whatever else.</description>
  10. <dc:language>{weblog_language}</dc:language>
  11. <dc:rights>Copyright {gmt_date format="%Y"}</dc:rights>
  12. <dc:date>{gmt_date format="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%i:%s%Q"}</dc:date>
  13. <admin:generatorAgent rdf:resource="http://expressionengine.com/" />
  14. <atom:link href="{site_url}/feeds/rss_articles" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
  15. <item>
  16. <title>{exp:xml_encode}{title}{/exp:xml_encode}</title>
  17. <dc:creator>{author}</dc:creator>
  18. <link>{title_permalink=articles/index}{exp:xml_encode}?utm_source=Articles&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=ArticleTitle&utm_campaign={url_title}{/exp:xml_encode}</link>
  19. <guid>{title_permalink=articles/index}{exp:xml_encode}#When:{gmt_entry_date format="%H:%i:%sZ"}?utm_source=Articles&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=ArticleTitle&utm_campaign={url_title}{/exp:xml_encode}</guid>
  20. <description>
  21. <![CDATA[
  22. {intro}{remaining}
  23. <hr />
  24. <p>Published in: {categories}<a href="{site_url}/articles/category/{category_name}{category_url_title}/{exp:xml_encode}?utm_source=Articles&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content={category_name}&utm_campaign={url_title}{/exp:xml_encode}">{category_name}</a>{/categories}</p>
  25. <p>Tagged as: {exp:tag:tags entry_id="{entry_id}" type="weblog" orderby="alpha" sort="asc" backspace="2"}<a href="{site_url}/articles/tag/{websafe_tag}/{exp:xml_encode}?utm_source=Articles&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content={websafe_tag}&utm_campaign={url_title}{/exp:xml_encode}">{tag}</a>, {/exp:tag:tags}</p>
  26. ]]>
  27. </description>
  28. <dc:subject>{exp:xml_encode}{categories}{category_name}{/categories}{/exp:xml_encode}</dc:subject>
  29. <dc:date>{gmt_entry_date format="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%i:%s%Q"}</dc:date>
  30. </item>
  31. {/exp:weblog:entries}
  32. </channel>
  33. </rss>
  34. {/exp:rss:feed}

Happy coding!

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♥ Share the Love

Ian's Gravatar

Ian opines:

08/16/2008

Another great article, Emily. I don’t know how I missed this the first time. I’ve applied some of your tips to my RSS feed. Thanks!

BTW: In Safari, long URLs in your code samples aren’t wrapping like they do in Firefox. Might want to put overflow:auto on those code containers. (or something)

Emily's Gravatar

Emily responds:

08/16/2008

@Ian - Thanks!

Not even sure if you can apply CSS to RSS. I’ll have to look into that. Thanks for pointing it out, though.

Man, everytime I get one task off my list for this blog, I end up adding another.

Ian's Gravatar

Ian opines:

08/16/2008

Actually, I was referring to the display of the code samples as rendered right here on your site, not in the RSS.

Emily's Gravatar

Emily responds:

08/18/2008

@Ian - Thanks for clarifying. I’ll keep it in mind, but I haven’t even begun browser testing. Probably won’t until I decide on the final design.

So, are you using Safari as your primary browser these days?

Ian's Gravatar

Ian opines:

08/19/2008

No, not my primary browser, but I do occasionally use it when I don’t feel like opening up yet another Firefox browser window.

John Mansfield's Gravatar

John Mansfield opines:

09/17/2008

Thanks for the great article.  I’ve had problems setting up my RSS feed and this post really helped.

I thought I had problems because I would make changes to my RSS template and then go to Google Reader and the changes were not reflected.  I gave up and after a day I logged back into Google Reader and the changes were there.  I still can’t get my feed to show correctly in Bloglines.

When reading your article, I noticed that you said you made a change to your template and then waited for Google Reader’s cache to clear.  I assume this is why I was not seeing my changes come through.  Is it normal that you could make changes to your templates and then need to wait some time to see the changes finally reflected in the reader?

Emily's Gravatar

Emily responds:

09/17/2008

@John - Thanks! Glad the article was helpful to you.

Regarding your question about the delay between RSS template changes and Google Reader, I do believe it is a cache or something along those lines. It happens to me every single time with Google Reader.

I rarely use Bloglines, but if there is a delay, I would imagine it is a similar situation.

I did find, upon the advice of a friend, that viewing my feeds in the Safari browser showed changes immediately upon saving. Maybe you should give that a shot.

Laurent's Gravatar

Laurent opines:

04/09/2009

Hi Emily,

Just used your wisdom for my RSS feed. Works like a charm.

Thank you so much for such a great tutorial !

Best,

Laurent.

Ian Alexander Wood's Gravatar

Ian Alexander Wood opines:

05/07/2009

Some really useful information in this tutorial. Thanks for sharing!

Jack's Gravatar

Jack opines:

06/11/2009

THANKS, very helpful for one of my client’s EE blogs. You are kickass.

Kurdt's Gravatar

Kurdt opines:

06/14/2009

Great tutorial Emily. Thanks for sharing. This will save me lots of time

Jason Armstrong's Gravatar

Jason Armstrong opines:

08/19/2009

What a fantastic post! Thanks so much for taking the time and effort to do this!

Jim's Gravatar

Jim opines:

08/19/2009

Wow wow wow.

This is the greatest article on setting up an RSS feed in EE that I have ever seen.

Thanks for taking the time to put this together!

John Faulds's Gravatar

John Faulds opines:

08/19/2009

Some really useful info in this article, thanks!

I’ve found reviewing changes to RSS templates to be a bit tricky in the past too. Firefox doesn’t refresh the cache very well; Opera does a better job. Haven’t tried Safari before.

John Faulds's Gravatar

John Faulds opines:

08/19/2009

By the way, speaking of Opera, just tried to submit the above comment using it and got this error message: Please enter no more than 0 characters.

Emily's Gravatar

Emily responds:

08/20/2009

@John - Thanks for pointing out the Opera error. Apparently it is a jQuery bug that has been fixed in the latest release. Will have to update that soon!

Kerry's Gravatar

Kerry opines:

09/15/2009

Great article - I’ve been using (near enough) the default RSS 2.0 template and this explained how to change everything that was bugging me about it.

Josh's Gravatar

Josh opines:

12/16/2009

Wonderful article, Emily! This certainly has helped develop my own EE RSS feed.

One suggestion: I noticed that some readers show the <dc:subject> items in the entry, so instead of line 28:

<dc:subject>{exp:xml_encode}{categories}{category_name}{/categories}{/exp:xml_encode}</dc:subject>

I’m using the following:

{categories}<dc:subject>{exp:xml_encode}{category_name}{/exp:xml_encode}</dc:subject>{/categories}

This way, each category will get it’s “own” dc:subject tag.

Edwin's Gravatar

Edwin opines:

03/16/2010

Thanks. I finally could get a full RSS-feed for use with Twingly.

Ryan Battles's Gravatar

Ryan Battles opines:

07/14/2010

Thanks for posting this.  I am in the process of reworking my own RSS feed for my web studio, and was looking for something to guide me like this article.  I’ve often wondered if the default template could be improved upon.

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