package syndic

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Syndic.Rss2: compliant with RSS 2.0.

module Error : module type of Syndic_error

The common signature that all error modules must (at least) satisfy.

type image = {
  1. url : Uri.t;
    (*

    The URL of a GIF, JPEG or PNG image that represents the channel.

    *)
  2. title : string;
    (*

    Describes the image. It's used in the ALT attribute of the HTML <img> tag when the channel is rendered in HTML.

    *)
  3. width : int;
    (*

    Width of the image in pixels. Maximum value is 144, default value is 88.

    *)
  4. height : int;
    (*

    Height of the image in pixels. Maximum value is 400, default value is 31.

    *)
  5. description : string option;
    (*

    contains text that is included in the TITLE attribute of the link formed around the image in the HTML rendering.

    *)
}

An image is an optional sub-element of channel, which contains three required (url, title, link) and three optional (width, height, description) sub-elements.

See RSS 2.0 about <image>.

type cloud = {
  1. uri : Uri.t;
    (*

    The URI of the cloud (domain, port, path).

    *)
  2. registerProcedure : string;
  3. protocol : string;
}

cloud is an optional sub-element of channel. It specifies a web service that supports the rssCloud interface which can be implemented in HTTP-POST, XML-RPC or SOAP 1.1.

Its purpose is to allow processes to register with a cloud to be notified of updates to the channel, implementing a lightweight publish-subscribe protocol for RSS feeds.

See RSS 2.0 about <cloud>

<cloud domain="rpc.sys.com" port="80" path="/RPC2" registerProcedure="myCloud.rssPleaseNotify" protocol="xml-rpc" />

In this example, to request notification on the channel it appears in, you would send an XML-RPC message to rpc.sys.com on port 80, with a path of /RPC2. The procedure to call is myCloud.rssPleaseNotify.

type textinput = {
  1. title : string;
    (*

    The label of the Submit button in the text input area.

    *)
  2. description : string;
    (*

    Explains the text input area.

    *)
  3. name : string;
    (*

    The name of the text object in the text input area.

    *)
}

A channel may optionally contain a textInput sub-element, which contains four required sub-elements.

The purpose of the <textInput> element is something of a mystery. You can use it to specify a search engine box. Or to allow a reader to provide feedback. Most aggregators ignore it.

See RSS 2.0 about <textinput>

type category = {
  1. data : string;
  2. domain : Uri.t option;
}

category is an optional sub-element of item.

  • data is A forward-slash-separated string that identifies a hierarchic location in the indicated taxonomy. Processors may establish conventions for the interpretation of categories.
  • domain, if provided, a string that identifies a categorization taxonomy.

See RSS 2.0 about <category>

Two examples are provided below:

<category>Grateful Dead</category> 
<category domain="http://www.fool.com/cusips">MSFT</category>

You may include as many category elements as you need to, for different domains, and to have an item cross-referenced in different parts of the same domain.

type enclosure = {
  1. url : Uri.t;
  2. length : int;
  3. mime : string;
}

enclosure is an optional sub-element of item. It has three required attributes.

  • url says where the enclosure is located (must be an http url),
  • length says how big it is in bytes, and
  • mime says what its type is, a standard MIME type.

See RSS 2.0 about <enclosure>

<enclosure url="http://www.scripting.com/mp3s/weatherReportSuite.mp3" length="12216320" type="audio/mpeg" />
type guid = {
  1. data : Uri.t;
    (*

    Must be unique

    *)
}

guid is an optional sub-element of item. "guid" stands for globally unique identifier. It's a string that uniquely identifies the item. When present, an aggregator may choose to use this string to determine if an item is new.

See RSS 2.0 about <guid>

<guid>http://some.server.com/weblogItem3207</guid>

There are no rules for the syntax of a guid. Aggregators must view them as a string. It's up to the source of the feed to establish the uniqueness of the string.

If permalink is true, the reader may assume that it is a permalink to the item, that is, a url that can be opened in a Web browser, that points to the full item described by the <item> element. An example:

<guid isPermaLink="true">http://inessential.com/2002/09/01.php#a2</guid>

If permalink is false, the guid may not be assumed to be a url, or a url to anything in particular.

type source = {
  1. data : string;
  2. url : Uri.t;
}

source is an optional sub-element of item.

  • data is the name of the RSS channel that the item came from, derived from its <title>.
  • url links to the XMLization of the source.

The purpose of this element is to propagate credit for links, to publicize the sources of news items. It can be used in the Post command of an aggregator. It should be generated automatically when forwarding an item from an aggregator to a weblog authoring tool.

See RSS 2.0 about <source>

<source url="http://www.tomalak.org/links2.xml">Tomalak's Realm</source>
type story =
  1. | All of string * Uri.t option * string
    (*

    All(title, xmlbase, description)

    *)
  2. | Title of string
  3. | Description of Uri.t option * string
    (*

    Description(xmlbase, description)

    *)
type item = {
  1. story : story;
  2. content : Uri.t option * string;
  3. author : string option;
  4. category : category option;
  5. comments : Uri.t option;
  6. enclosure : enclosure option;
  7. guid : guid option;
  8. pubDate : Syndic_date.t option;
  9. source : source option;
}

A channel may contain any number of items. An item may represent a "story" — much like a story in a newspaper or magazine; if so its description is a synopsis of the story, and the link points to the full story. An item may also be complete in itself, if so, the description contains the text (entity-encoded HTML is allowed; see examples), and the link and title may be omitted.

  • title : The title of the item.
  • link : The URL of the item.
  • story : The item synopsis.
  • content : The possible full story ((_,"") if not present). (Extension of RSS2, see http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/) The first element of the couple is the possible value of xml:base. It can be used to resolve URIs.
  • author : Email address of the author of the item.
  • category : Includes the item in one or more categories.
  • comments : URL of a page for comments relating to the item.
  • enclosure : Describes a media object that is attached to the item.
  • guid : A string that uniquely identifies the item.
  • pubDate : Indicates when the item was published.
  • source : The RSS channel that the item came from.

See RSS 2.0 about <item>

type channel = {
  1. title : string;
  2. description : string;
  3. language : string option;
  4. copyright : string option;
  5. managingEditor : string option;
  6. webMaster : string option;
  7. pubDate : Syndic_date.t option;
  8. lastBuildDate : Syndic_date.t option;
  9. category : string option;
  10. generator : string option;
  11. docs : Uri.t option;
  12. cloud : cloud option;
  13. ttl : int option;
    (*

    See RSS 2.0 about <ttl>

    *)
  14. image : image option;
  15. rating : int option;
  16. textInput : textinput option;
  17. skipHours : int option;
  18. skipDays : int option;
  19. items : item list;
}

Here's a list of the required channel elements, each with a brief description, an example, and where available, a pointer to a more complete description.

  • title: The name of the channel. It's how people refer to your service. If you have an HTML website that contains the same information as your RSS file, the title of your channel should be the same as the title of your website.
  • link: The URL to the HTML website corresponding to the channel.
  • description: Phrase or sentence describing the channel.

Here's a list of optional channel elements.

  • language: The language the channel is written in. This allows aggregators to group all Italian language sites, for example, on a single page. A list of allowable values for this element, as provided by Netscape, is here. You may also use values defined by the W3C.
  • copyright: Copyright notice for content in the channel.
  • managingEditor: Email address for person responsible for editorial content.
  • webMaster: Email address for person responsible for technical issues relating to channel.
  • pubDate: The publication date for the content in the channel. For example, the New York Times publishes on a daily basis, the publication date flips once every 24 hours. That's when the pubDate of the channel changes. All date-times in RSS conform to the Date and Time Specification of RFC 822, with the exception that the year may be expressed with two characters or four characters (four preferred).
  • lastBuildDate: The last time the content of the channel changed.
  • category: Specify one or more categories that the channel belongs to. Follows the same rules as the <item>-level category element. See category.
  • generator: A string indicating the program used to generate the channel.
  • docs: A URL that points to the documentation for the format used in the RSS file. It's probably a pointer to http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification. It's for people who might stumble across an RSS file on a Web server 25 years from now and wonder what it is.
  • cloud: Allows processes to register with a cloud to be notified of updates to the channel, implementing a lightweight publish-subscribe protocol for RSS feeds. See cloud.
  • ttl: ttl stands for time to live. It's a number of minutes that indicates how long a channel can be cached before refreshing from the source.
  • image: Specifies a GIF, JPEG or PNG image that can be displayed with the channel. See image.
  • rating: The PICS rating for the channel.
  • textInput: Specifies a text input box that can be displayed with the channel. See textinput.
  • skipHours: A hint for aggregators telling them which hours they can skip. This element contains up to 24 <hour> sub-elements whose value is a number between 0 and 23, representing a time in GMT, when aggregators, if they support the feature, may not read the channel on hours listed in the <skipHours> element. The hour beginning at midnight is hour zero.
  • skipDays: A hint for aggregators telling them which days they can skip. This element contains up to seven <day> sub-elements whose value is Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Aggregators may not read the channel during days listed in the <skipDays> element.

See RSS 2.0 about <channel>

val parse : ?xmlbase:Uri.t -> Xmlm.input -> channel

parse xml returns the channel corresponding to xml.

Raise Error.Expected, Error.Size_Exceeded or Error.Item_expectation if xml is not a valid RSS2 document.

val read : ?xmlbase:Uri.t -> string -> channel

read fname reads the file name fname and parses it. For the optional parameters, see parse.

val to_atom : ?self:Uri.t -> channel -> Syndic_atom.feed

to_atom ch returns an Atom feed that (mostly) contains the same information.

  • parameter self

    the URI from where the current feed was retrieved. Contrarily to Atom, RSS2 has no provision to store the URI of the feed itself. Giving this information will add an entry to the links field of Atom feed with rel = Self.