Rodent Regatta

After a great deal of trial-and-error, I’m still baffled by where to look, what to do and how to go about solving my syndication mess. All of these feeds validate using the Feed Validator. However, only the RSS 2.0 feed provides both the entry and the extended entry. What do I need to change in the Atom and RDF feeds to make them include extended entries from Movable Type?

All of this junk is so bizarre. Some lines are indented. Others are not. Some people have empty lines in the middle of their feeds, but many do not. New lines of code actually start on new lines in the feeds some people publish. Other times a brand new tag/line/whatever simply starts at the end of the previous line. Hah – and people say, “just use Notepad and ‘knock out’ a quick syndication feed.” So smug. Sometimes people have encode lines, but others do not. There is absolutely nothing uniform, consistent or predictable about how you’re supposed to do this.

The Syndication Feeds for http://www.rodentregatta.com:

Here’s the Atom feed:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="<$MTPublishCharset$>"?>
<feed version="0.3" xmlns="http://purl.org/atom/ns#" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xml:lang="en">

&nbsp;<title><$MTBlogName remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></title> &nbsp;<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="<$MTBlogURL encode_xml="1"$>" /> &nbsp;<modified><MTEntries lastn="1"><$MTEntryModifiedDate utc="1" format="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ"$></MTEntries></modified> &nbsp;<tagline><$MTBlogDescription remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></tagline> &nbsp;<id>tag:<$MTBlogHost exclude_port="1" encode_xml="1"$>,<$MTDate format="%Y"$>:<$MTBlogRelativeURL encode_xml="1"$>/<$MTBlogID$></id> &nbsp;<generator url="http://www.movabletype.org/" version="<$MTVersion$>">Movable Type</generator> &nbsp;<copyright><MTEntries lastn="1">Copyright (c) <$MTEntryDate format="%Y"$>, <$MTEntryAuthor encode_xml="1"$></MTEntries></copyright>
<MTEntries lastn="15"> &nbsp;<entry> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<title><$MTEntryTitle remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></title> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="<$MTEntryPermalink encode_xml="1"$>" /> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<modified><$MTEntryModifiedDate utc="1" format="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ"$></modified> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<issued><$MTEntryDate format="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S"$><$MTBlogTimezone$></issued> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<id>tag:<$MTBlogHost exclude_port="1" encode_xml="1"$>,<$MTEntryDate format="%Y">:<$MTBlogRelativeURL encode_xml="1"$>/<$MTBlogID$>.<$MTEntryID$></id> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<created><$MTEntryDate utc="1" format="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ"$></created> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<summary type="text/plain"><$MTEntryExcerpt remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></summary> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<author> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<name><$MTEntryAuthor encode_xml="1"$></name> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<MTIfNonEmpty tag="MTEntryAuthorURL"><url><$MTEntryAuthorURL encode_xml="1"$></url></MTIfNonEmpty> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<MTIfNonEmpty tag="MTEntryAuthorEmail"><email><$MTEntryAuthorEmail encode_xml="0"$></email></MTIfNonEmpty> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</author> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<MTIfNonEmpty tag="MTEntryCategory"><dc:subject><$MTEntryCategory encode_xml="1"$></dc:subject></MTIfNonEmpty> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<content type="text/html" mode="escaped" xml:lang="en" xml:base="<$MTBlogURL encode_xml="1"$>"> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<$MTEntryBody encode_xml="1"$> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<$MTEntryMore encode_xml="1"$> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</content> &nbsp;</entry>
</MTEntries>
</feed>

• * *

Here’s the RSS 2.0 feed:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="<$MTPublishCharset$>"?>
<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
<title><$MTBlogName remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></title>
<link><$MTBlogURL$></link>
<description><$MTBlogDescription remove_html="1" encode_html="1"$></description>
<language>en-us</language>
<copyright>Copyright <$MTDate format="%Y"$></copyright>
<lastBuildDate><MTEntries lastn="1"><$MTEntryDate language="en" &nbsp;format="%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S "$><$MTBlogTimezone no_colon="1"$></MTEntries></lastBuildDate>
<pubDate><$MTDate language="en" format="%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S "$><$MTBlogTimezone no_colon="1"$></pubDate>
<generator>http://www.movabletype.org/?v=<$MTVersion$></generator>
<ttl>60</ttl>
<docs>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss</docs>

<MTEntries lastn="15">
<item>
<title><$MTEntryTitle remove_html="1" encode_html="1"$></title>
<description><$MTEntryBody encode_html="1"$><$MTEntryMore encode_html="1"$></description>
<guid><$MTEntryPermalink encode_html="1"$></guid>
<category><$MTEntryCategory remove_html="1" encode_html="1"$></category>
<pubDate><$MTEntryDate language="en" format="%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S "$><$MTBlogTimezone no_colon="1"$></pubDate>
</item>
</MTEntries>
</channel>
</rss>

• * *

Here’s the Index.rdf feed:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="<$MTPublishCharset$>"?>

<rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:admin="http://webns.net/mvcb/" xmlns:cc="http://web.resource.org/cc/" xmlns="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/">

<channel rdf:about="<$MTBlogURL$>">
<title><$MTBlogName encode_xml="1"$></title>
<link><$MTBlogURL$></link>
<description><$MTBlogDescription encode_xml="1"$></description>
<language>en-us</language>
<dc:date><MTEntries lastn="1"><$MTEntryDate format="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S" language="en"$><$MTBlogTimezone$></MTEntries></dc:date>
<admin:generatorAgent rdf:resource="http://www.movabletype.org/?v=<$MTVersion$>" />

<items>
<rdf:Seq><MTEntries lastn="15">
<rdf:li rdf:resource="<$MTEntryLink$>" &nbsp;/>
</MTEntries></rdf:Seq>
</items>

</channel>

<MTEntries lastn="15">
<item rdf:about="<$MTEntryLink$>">
<title><$MTEntryTitle encode_xml="1"$></title>
<description><$MTEntryBody encode_xml="1"$><$MTEntryMore &nbsp;encode_xml="1"$></description>
<link><$MTEntryLink$></link>
<dc:subject><$MTEntryCategory encode_xml="1"$></dc:subject>
<dc:creator><$MTEntryAuthor encode_xml="1"$></dc:creator>
<dc:date><$MTEntryDate format="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S"$><$MTBlogTimezone$></dc:date>
</item>
</MTEntries>

</rdf:RDF>

Does the extended portion of this entry show up?

* * * UPDATE * * * No…Atom and RDF still do not provide the extended entry.

It should show up in Atom, RSS 2.0 and RDF.

Still modifying and doing trial-and-error work on all the syndication feeds. It really is a shame that the only tips for creating and offering these feeds is written by programmers for programmers.

Unfortunately, it is only a concern for readers that makes me obsess over them. I don’t use them at all, but I know others do.

When the Internet matures a bit, some will realize that this stuff ought to be available for people who have other interests besides code-for-the-sake-of-code.

* * * UPDATE * * * Unfortunately, the RSS 2.0 feed seems to be the only one that is providing the complete entries. The Atom and RDF feeds are displaying only the entry body, not the extended entry. Why?

What do you see in the Atom feed?

What do you see in the RDF feed?

What do you see in the RSS 2.0 feed?

This is a test of the type of feeds available from the Atom, RSS 2.0 and RDF templates.

This is the extended entry associated with the test.

I’ve spent some time again today editing the templates that create RSS, RDF and Atom feeds for this web site.

My hope is that you can still see the feeds in your news aggregators. I’m also of the opinion that you can now read my entire entry if you subscribe to my RSS 2.0 feed. The RDF feed provides only entry titles. The Atom feed seems to provide only the first part of any entry that has an extended entry.

Anyhow, your comments, suggestions and complaints are always welcome.

• * * UPDATE * * * For those of you who prefer to subscribe to Atom feeds, I can only apologize for the lack of complete entries. I’ve looked, but cannot find the solution to the problem of my extended entries not showing up in the feed. If you know how to fix this, please let me know. Thanks!