RSS (Really Simple Syndication)

What is RSS?

RSS is a Web content syndication format.

Its name is an acronym for Really Simple Syndication.

RSS is a dialect of XML. All RSS files must conform to the XML 1.0 specification, as published on the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) website.

At the top level, a RSS document is a <rss> element, with a mandatory attribute called version, that specifies the version of RSS that the document conforms to. If it conforms to this specification, the version attribute must be 2.0.

Subordinate to the <rss> element is a single <channel> element, which contains information about the channel (metadata) and its contents.

First we document the required and optional sub-elements of <channel> and then document the sub-elements of <item>. The final sections answer frequently asked questions, and provide a roadmap for future evolution, and guidelines for extending RSS.

The RSS Profile contains a set of recommendations for how to create RSS documents that work best in the wide and diverse audience of client software that supports the format.

RSS documents can be tested for validity in the RSS Validator.