RSS and Atom: Understanding and Implementing Content Feeds and Syndication: A clear and concise guide to strategy, structure, selection with in depth ... coverage of feed formats and XML vocabularies [Paperback]

Heinz Wittenbrink (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 8, 2005

This is a concise yet comprehensive guide to feeds and syndication for content professionals, web developers and marketing teams who want to understand what RSS and content syndication is, how it works, what it can for them, and how they can get it up and running. The feed formats and vocabularies are covered in depth, and the book does require some familiarity with XML, but no scripting or development expertise is necessary. This book has been written for content professionals, web developers and marketing teams who want to understand what RSS and content syndication is, how it works, what it can for them, and how they can get it up and running. It assumes a solid knowledge of XML and how the web works, but is not intended to be the exclusive province of the technically minded.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Heinz Wittenbrink was born in 1956 in M¿lheim (Ruhr region). He studied literature and philosophy and worked as an editor and then a senior editor for the Bertelsmann Group. He was responsible for several CD ROMs with encyclopedic content, and later, for the development of the first free German encyclopedic website http://www.wissen.de. In 2000 he moved to a Munich-based web agency, and in 2002, founded his own company for online publishing. Since 2004 he has been a professor for web publishing at the University for Applied Sciences in Graz/Austria. He has written books and online teaching material on XML, HTML and CSS. Heinz used RSS for the first time when he developed a news service for a major German magazine publisher. He sees the ease of use and the extensibility of modern syndication formats as their major advantages. He is convinced that RSS and its successors will soon develop from syndication formats used in special contexts (news publishing, weblogs, and so on) to general formats for publishing and archiving online content.

Product Details

• Paperback: 250 pages
• Publisher: Packt Publishing (November 8, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1904811574
• ISBN-13: 978-1904811572
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,331,548 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Technical overview and details, April 15, 2007

By 

Rene (Austria) - See all my reviews

This review is from: RSS and Atom: Understanding and Implementing Content Feeds and Syndication: A clear and concise guide to strategy, structure, selection with in depth ... coverage of feed formats and XML vocabularies (Paperback)

I already got some review copies of Packt books and successfully specifically asked for reviewing this one. My idea was to fix my sites' rss feed and get an overall feel for rss "behind the curtains"

This book delivers, as it describes all kind of "rss slangs" like rss 2, rss 1 and atom in understandable, yet technical English. If you've never did some html code or similar things, this book is not for you. But if you are technical minded and would like to understand rss, you might want to give it a closer look.

5.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting Read, September 13, 2006

By 

Derek Strickland "Application Architect" (Clearwater, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: RSS and Atom: Understanding and Implementing Content Feeds and Syndication: A clear and concise guide to strategy, structure, selection with in depth ... coverage of feed formats and XML vocabularies (Paperback)

The book has an excellent perspective. The author seems to look at the technologies to some degree from the perspective of market opportunity, which I like. Additionally, his language is both erudite and accessible; no small feat. All in all, an excellent resource if you need a briefing on this topic.

4.0 out of 5 stars Good overview on the two syndication standards, July 14, 2006

By 

Rich Manalang "rmanalan" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: RSS and Atom: Understanding and Implementing Content Feeds and Syndication: A clear and concise guide to strategy, structure, selection with in depth ... coverage of feed formats and XML vocabularies (Paperback)

"RSS and Atom" provides a good overview of the primary syndication formats on the internet. A lot of this information is already available on the internet, but this book brings it all together including the history of the varying RSS formats to the evolution of the Atom standard. It also provides detailed information about each standard, the relationship to OPML and RDF, and an appendix that serves as a great reference tool for any developer who has to work with these standards.