XML for the Rest of Us
Before we start down the path of RSS, we must first take a brief look at XML. A quick note, if you are one of the few that knows what XML is without my over simplified explanation please advance to Jason’s Technical Forum Blog. However, for the "rest of us", here I go:
XML stands for "Extensible Markup Language", and has a striking resemblance to HTML. But all we really need to know about XML is that it is a published and standard format for developers to normalize and store data in a consistent format. This could range from Metadata stored for software programs to operate (such as BlueVue), or actually contain full data stores of information such as Customer Records (like the data contained in a BlueVue report).
XML is the underlying technology for RSS. In essence, an RSS feed is merely an XML file in a specific format. You’ve probably seen that there are different formats for RSS (RSS .91, RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0 and ATOM). These are simply different layouts for the information contained in the file.
Here is an example of an RSS 2.0 layout taken from the feed for this blog:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<title>Latigent Call Center Intelligence Blog</title>
<description>Views and Information on Call center Intelligence and Technology</description>
<link>http://www.latigent.com/blogs/ccintelblog.aspx</link>
<link>http://www.latigent.com/</link>
<url>http://www.latigent.com/images/logorss.gif</url>
</image>
<title>ACCE Seattle Sept 19-21</title>
<link>http://www.latigent.com/Blogs/ccintelblog.aspx#Sept._13,_2005_-_Chris_Crosby,_President/CEO_</link>
<pubDate>9/13/2005 8:33:42 AM</pubDate>
<description>Stop by ACCE booth 122 and demo some of the new features in BlueVue</description>
</item>
<title>ACCE Follow-up</title>
<link>http://www.latigent.com/Blogs/ccintelblog.aspx#Sept._22,_2005_-_Chris_Crosby_</link>
<pubDate>9/22/2005 11:33:42 AM</pubDate>
<description>Thank you to everyone that took the time to stop by our booth at ACCE this week.</description>
</item>
<title>RSS- My New "Thing"</title>
<link>http://www.latigent.com/Blogs/ccintelblog.aspx#Sept._23,_2005_-_Chris_Crosby_0</link>
<pubDate>9/23/2005 08:33:42 AM</pubDate>
<description>As those of you who know me can attest, I tend to get very excited when I start to explore new technologies, and it usually prompts a million-and-one ideas to enhance the Latigent software offering for our customers. Well, the latest darling of my eye is RSS, or Really Simple Syndication.</description>
</item>
<title>XML for the Rest of Us</title>
<link>http://www.latigent.com/Blogs/ccintelblog.aspx#Sept._28,_2005_-_Chris_Crosby_0</link>
<pubDate>9/28/2005 16:33:42 AM</pubDate>
<description>Before we start down the path of RSS, we must first take a brief look at XML. A quick note, if you are one of the few that knows what XML is without my over simplified explanation please advance to Jason’s Technical Forum Blog. However, for the "rest of us", here I go:</description>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>
The standard RSS formats create normalization for the raw data, and thus allow any RSS reader on the planet to transform it into useful information, and present it to people like you and I in a "Really Simple" format.
