RSS Specification

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is an XML-based format used to publish frequently updated content such as blog posts, news headlines, and podcasts. The current standard is RSS 2.0. An RSS feed consists of a <channel> element containing metadata and a list of <item> elements. If you have any questions or comments, please contact me at rss@rss.dk.

📺 Channel Elements

The <channel> element describes the RSS feed itself.

Element	Required	Description
<title>	Required	The name of the channel / feed.
<link>	Required	The URL of the website associated with the feed.
<description>	Required	A brief description of the channel.
<language>	Optional	The language the channel is written in (e.g., en-us).
<pubDate>	Optional	The publication date of the feed content.
<lastBuildDate>	Optional	The last time the feed content changed.
<copyright>	Optional	Copyright notice for the content in the channel.
<managingEditor>	Optional	Email address of the person responsible for editorial content.
<webMaster>	Optional	Email address of the person responsible for technical issues.
<category>	Optional	One or more categories the channel belongs to.
<generator>	Optional	The program used to generate the feed.
<ttl>	Optional	Time to live — number of minutes the feed can be cached before refreshing.
<image>	Optional	A GIF, JPEG, or PNG image to display with the channel.

📰 Item Elements

Each <item> represents a single piece of content (e.g., a blog post or article).

Element	Required	Description
<title>	Optional*	The title of the item. Either title or description must be present.
<link>	Optional	The URL of the item's full content.
<description>	Optional*	A synopsis or full content of the item. Either title or description must be present.
<author>	Optional	Email address of the author of the item.
<category>	Optional	One or more categories the item belongs to.
<comments>	Optional	URL of a page for comments relating to the item.
<enclosure>	Optional	A media object (e.g., audio/video) attached to the item. Used for podcasts.
<guid>	Optional	A unique identifier for the item. Should be a permanent URL.
<pubDate>	Optional	The date and time the item was published (RFC 822 format).
<source>	Optional	The RSS channel the item came from (used for aggregators).

💻 Example RSS Feed

A minimal example of a valid RSS 2.0 feed:

                <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>

                <rss version="2.0">

                  <channel>

                    <title>My Blog Feed</title>

                    <link>https://example.com</link>

                    <description>Latest posts from My Blog</description>

                    <language>en-us</language>

                    <pubDate>Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>

                    <item>

                      <title>Hello World</title>

                      <link>https://example.com/hello-world</link>

                      <description>My first blog post.</description>

                      <pubDate>Mon, 01 Jan 2024 10:00:00 GMT</pubDate>

                      <guid>https://example.com/hello-world</guid>

                    </item>

                  </channel>

                </rss>