?updates to an RSS feed

Posted: Sat Nov 12, 2005 10:26 pm

I have a single RSS feel file that is found here: http://WritingForResults.net/rssfeed.xml. Its sole purpose is to let users know when there has been an update to my Web site and direct people to a page that lists updates.

This means, to my mind, that from time to time I need only revise the dates in the RSS file, upload it, and an RSS reader should pick up on the new feed. However, I find that that is not the case. The reader picks up on it only if I change other data in the item to something that has never been posted before.

Is there a way that I can get RSS readers to pick up on it when nothing other than the date has changed? If you can provide guidance on this, I would be most grateful.

Regards,

Rob Parkinson

Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2005 12:55 pm

Can I take it from the lack of response on this one that there is no answer to my question?

Regards,

Rob Parkinson

Joined: 27 Aug 2004 Posts: 804

Sorry for the lack of response. Somehow it slipped bye and got marked as read, without a response.

The feed readers SHOULD first look at a feed's PubDate to see if anything has changed in the whole feed. If the feed's PubDate has changed, they SHOULD then look through the feed for any items that have a new PubDate, and display those items.

Firstly, are you updating both the feed's PubDate and the Item's PubDate?

Secondly, what SHOULD happen and what actually happens in various readers my be different things. It could be that some readers are going beyond the PubDate values and comparing the actual text of the items to the previously loaded versions. If that is the case, I guess the feed reader isn't following the intensions of the RSS specification, but following behavior that may be more desiralble to their users. I don't think there is much you can do about that except make some sort of insignificant change to the item's text.

Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2005 11:16 pm

Many thanks for your helpful response.

I do change both the feed's PubDate and the item's PubDate, and the reader doesn't pick up on it. As you say, however, that may be just a quirk of the reader I'm using.

I will follow your advice and make sure I make a small change in the text each time I upload the file.

Again, thank you for your help.

Regards,

Rob Parkinson

Joined: 02 Jan 2006 Posts: 11 Location: Bristol, UK

I have the same problem as Rob. I've tried all the tricks mentioned - changing published date on both the feed and the item, both with and without changing the actual item; I've then uploaded the changed versions. The problem is described below. By the way, did your feed ever work, Rob?

Part of my web site gets up to 1500 visits per week. It's about the Origin of English Sayings and consists of an index page of Sayings with links to other pages dealing with individual alphabetical letters, or groups of them; a total of 17 pages including the index. I've managed to build an .rss link with all of these pages, and to included a feed on the index page; I've uploaded both these files. The .xml file was generated by the assesment version of FeedforAll, which I'll buy if I can make the feed work.

In order to test the link, when on-line, I've registered that I want to receive the links. This is in both my browser, Opera, and an rss reader - Feedreader. The links all come up in both facilities. What then doesn't happen is for updates of my pages to be detected (the updates being done by all the methods described above). Even if I click 'update this feed', the updates are not detected. I've tried this also on my son's, separate, computer to see if the feed works there - it doesn't.

What I want is to create a feed that will detect the occasional updates of my pages. I have visitors from all over the world and I thought that it would be sensible to supply updates through rss technology so that people could visit when something changed. At the moment it seems that my Spirit is willing, but my Flesh is very weak! The rss feed can be seen at http://www.briggs13.fsnet.co.uk/Idioms.xml

I've also tried this with a Charity site that I run, only wanting to update the Index page from time to time. The .xml file here is very small, but has the same problem.

James Briggs

Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2006 2:04 pm

Sorry hear about what's happening, James. Your problem is much more severe than mine. I found that if I changed the text of the item, the reader picked up on it.

One thing occurred to me that is of some value. There is a site that validates RSS files online. You will find it here: http://feedvalidator.org/

I ran your RSS file through the validator, and it confirmed that the file is valid. That does not resolve the problem, but it at least lets you know that there is not a problem in the way the RSS file is set up.

I also added your RSS feed to my own reader, and found that it yielded no results, even though the file has a number of items listed. I am only an amateur in this field, so I'm afraid I can't offer any guidance on what is happening there. Perhaps the wizards who run this site will be able to provide some insight.

Regards,

Rob Parkinson

Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2006 2:27 pm

James:

This is a post script to my note above. I think I made a mistake in setting up your file on my RSS reader. I tried again, and it did indeed yield results. I got a series of links: Letter A, Letter B, Letter C etc.

That leaves me wondering if the problem could be one of two things:

There might be something wrong with the reader you are using (I am using RSSReader ( http://www.rssreader.com/ ).
Could you have made the same mistake I made in setting up the file on your reader?

Hope that's helpful.

Regards,

Rob Parkinson

Joined: 27 Aug 2004 Posts: 804

I tested your feed (http://www.briggs13.fsnet.co.uk/Idioms.xml) using FeedDemon, and it seems to be working fine.

Can you provide a link to the feed reader that isn't working for you? I will give it a try too.

Joined: 02 Jan 2006 Posts: 11 Location: Bristol, UK

Thanks for your help. The reader I'm using is http://www.feedreader.com/
but the reader in Opera is not working either.
I have noticed that my feedreader will update on the next day, but not on the day that I make modifications to the rss feed.
James

Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2006 12:28 pm

One idea occurred to me that might be helpful, James. Does your reader work for any other feeds? Here is the BBC's feed, which is updated regularly throughout the day:
http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk/rss/newsonline_world_edition/front_page/rss.xml

Does your reader pick up on that feed?

Regards,

Rob Parkinson

Joined: 02 Jan 2006 Posts: 11 Location: Bristol, UK

Rob,
The feeder came with a plethora of supplied feeds. All work, or did until I got rid of them! I've subscribed to your BBC one. This works as expected.
I wonder why mine won't?!!
I'm now going to update the Feed and Item A dates and times on my problem feed. I'll also edit the A page. This will be about 14:50 GMT. If you still have my items within my feed, the A should update. However, if you've already deleted them, an update will bring up all the items, not just the A page. It's just updated single pages that I want.
James

Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2006 11:15 pm

No luck, I'm afraid James. I just checked, and I have only the full list from before, with Letter A dating from January 2.

I'm afraid I can't offer any insight on what is happening there, as I really am just a user, not a tech support type.

Regards,

Rob Parkinson

Joined: 02 Jan 2006 Posts: 11 Location: Bristol, UK

Rob,
Thanks. I thought that my feed might update on the next day, but this is not the case. Thus, I'm completely stuck - nothing works except on first subscribing to the feed. No updates. However, I have noticed that, if I delete the feed and then resubscribe, all the updates appear, along with all of those items which were never updated. Curious.
Thanks again. I take it that your feed/s now work?
James
PS Does anyone have any idea?

Joined: 27 Aug 2004 Posts: 804

I just went to your feed (using FeedDemon), and it shows the letter A item being updated sometime this morning (Jan 5). Does that mean it is working for me?

Joined: 02 Jan 2006 Posts: 11 Location: Bristol, UK

It seems so!
However, neither Feedreader, Opera or Firefox have managed to update.