The RSS <channel> element describes the RSS feed.
Look at the following RSS document:
As mentioned before, the <channel> element describes the RSS feed, and has three required child elements:
The <channel> element usually contains one or more <item> elements. Each <item> element defines an article or "story" in the RSS feed.
Furthermore, there are several optional child elements of <channel>. We will explain the most important ones below.
The <category> child element is used to specify a category for your feed.
The <category> element makes it possible for RSS aggregators to group sites based on category.
The category for the RSS document above could be:
The <copyright> child element notifies about copyrighted material.
The copyright for the RSS document above could be:
The <image> child element allows an image to be displayed when aggregators present a feed.
The <image> element has three required child elements:
The image for the RSS document above could be:
The <language> child element is used to specify the language used to write your document.
The <language> element makes it possible for RSS aggregators to group sites based on language.
The language for the RSS document above could be:
Element | Description |
---|---|
<category> | Optional. Defines one or more categories for the feed |
<cloud> | Optional. Register processes to be notified immediately of updates of the feed |
<copyright> | Optional. Notifies about copyrighted material |
<description> | Required. Describes the channel |
<docs> | Optional. Specifies a URL to the documentation of the format used in the feed |
<generator> | Optional. Specifies the program used to generate the feed |
<image> | Optional. Allows an image to be displayed when aggregators present a feed |
<language> | Optional. Specifies the language the feed is written in |
<lastBuildDate> | Optional. Defines the last-modified date of the content of the feed |
<link> | Required. Defines the hyperlink to the channel |
<managingEditor> | Optional. Defines the e-mail address to the editor of the content of the feed |
<pubDate> | Optional. Defines the last publication date for the content of the feed |
<rating> | Optional. The PICS rating of the feed |
<skipDays> | Optional. Specifies the days where aggregators should skip updating the feed |
<skipHours> | Optional. Specifies the hours where aggregators should skip updating the feed |
<textInput> | Optional. Specifies a text input field that should be displayed with the feed |
<title> | Required. Defines the title of the channel |
<ttl> | Optional. Specifies the number of minutes the feed can stay cached before refreshing it from the source |
<webMaster> | Optional. Defines the e-mail address to the webmaster of the feed |