Structure of the Atom Feed

Here is how the XML of a good Atom feed should look:

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<feed xmlns:g="http://base.google.com/ns/1.0" xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xml:lang="en-us">
  <id>http://viatropos.com/blog/</id>
  <uri>http://viatropos.com</uri>
  <title><![CDATA[Viatropos' Feed]]></title>
  <subtitle type="xhtml">
    <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
      <p class="vcard">
        Thoughts and musings of <a href="http://viatropos.com/"
        class="url fn">Lance Pollard</a>, a <span
        class="title">programmer</span> living in <span class="adr"><span
        class="locality">Berkeley</span>, <abbr class="region"
        title="California">CA</abbr></span>.
      </p>
    </div>
  </subtitle>
  <link href="http://viatropos.com/" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/>
  <link href="http://viatropos.com/blog/" rel="alternate" type="text/html"/>
  <icon>http://viatropos.com/images/icons/viatropos-favicon.png</icon>
  <logo>http://viatropos.com/images/icons/viatropos-site-icon.png</logo>
  <author>
    <name>Lance Pollard</name>
    <email>[email protected]</email>
    <uri>http://viatropos.com/</uri>
  </author>
  <rights type="xhtml">
    <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
      Copyright &#169; 2010
      <a href="http://viatropos.com/">Lance Pollard</a>.
      <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/" rel="license">Some rights reserved (CC BY-SA 3.0).</a>
    </div>
  </rights>
  <entry>
    <id>http://viatropos.com/blog/optimizing-your-blogs-rss-and-atom-feeds</id>
    <title type="xhtml">
      <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Optimizing Your Blog's RSS and Atom Feeds</div>
    </title>
    <link href="http://viatropos.com/blog/optimizing-your-blogs-rss-and-atom-feeds" rel="alternate"/>
    <published>2010-07-30T00:00:00Z</published>
    <updated>2010-07-30T00:00:00Z</updated>
    <author>
      <name>Lance Pollard</name>
    </author>
    <category label="Feed" term="feed" scheme="http://viatropos.com/tags/"/>
    <category label="Rss" term="rss" scheme="http://viatropos.com/tags/"/>
    <category label="Atom" term="atom" scheme="http://viatropos.com/tags/"/>
    <category label="Syndication" term="syndication" scheme="http://viatropos.com/tags/"/>
    <category label="Xml" term="xml" scheme="http://viatropos.com/tags/"/>
    <summary type="xhtml">
      <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Feeds are one of the most important parts of publicizing and marketing your site. But if you’re building a site from scratch, knowing everything a feed should include is a lot to grasp. This outl...</div>
    </summary>
    <content type="xhtml">
      <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
        <h1>Optimizing Your Blog's RSS and Atom Feeds</h1>
        ...
      </div>
    </content>
  </entry>
</feed>

Key Parts of the Atom Feed

Atom Feed Head Elements

  • title
  • subtitle
  • author
  • rights
  • icon
  • logo
  • link to self
  • link to html version

Atom Feed Entry Elements

  • title
  • summary
  • link to html version
  • content
  • categories

Structure of the RSS Feed

Here is how the XML of a solid RSS feed should look:

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<?xml version="1.0"?>
<rss xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" version="2.0">
  <channel>
    <title>Viatropos' Feed</title>
    <link>http://viatropos.com</link>
    <description>Creativity and Emergence</description>
    <lastBuildDate>Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:04:07 -0700</lastBuildDate>
    <image>
      <url>http://viatropos.com/images/icons/viatropos-site-icon.png</url>
      <title>Viatropos' Feed</title>
      <link>http://viatropos.com/</link>
      <description>Creativity and Emergence</description>
    </image>
    <item>
      <title>Optimizing Your Blog's RSS and Atom Feeds</title>
      <link>http://viatropos.com/blog/optimizing-your-blogs-rss-and-atom-feeds</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Feeds are one of the most important parts of publicizing and marketing your site. But if you&#8217;re building a site from scratch, knowing everything a feed should include is a lot to grasp. This outl...]]></description>
      <content:encoded>Feeds are one of the most important parts of publicizing and marketing your site. But if you&amp;#8217;re building a site from scratch, knowing everything a feed should include is a lot to grasp. This outl...</content:encoded>
      <guid>http://viatropos.com/blog/optimizing-your-blogs-rss-and-atom-feeds</guid>
      <author>Lance Pollard</author>
      <category><![CDATA[feed]]></category>
      <category><![CDATA[rss]]></category>
      <category><![CDATA[atom]]></category>
      <category><![CDATA[syndication]]></category>
      <category><![CDATA[xml]]></category>
    </item>
  </channel>
</rss>

Resources