RSS Module
Basics: This module will pull items from any RSS feed into your lens.
Purpose: To easily add frequently updated content, dynamically.
Description: Using this module, you can add RSS feeds to your lens. You can do so by solely pulling in items' headlines -- or by including longer-text excerpts, as well. Because RSS feeds are updated depending on their source's publication schedule, your RSS module will be updated as often as the feed is.
How to Use:
1. While in a lens's workshop, click on the Add a Module button.
2. Go to the "Add Unique Content" tab.
3. Next to the RSS: Add Your Own Feed module, click on the Add button.
4. Hit the Save button.
5. Scroll to find the newly added RSS module, and click on the Edit button
6. Type in a title for the module (like "New Entries from My Blog"). You can also add a subtitle and a description for the module by entering text in those respective fields.
7. Paste in the URL of the RSS feed you'd like to feature. You can also paste in the URL of a web site with a feed. If that site only offers one feed on the page you used, it'll automatically determine the feed's address.
8. Indicate how many headlines you'd like to include.
9. Do you want to include just the headline, a 100-word excerpt or everything available from the feed? Tell Squidoo.
10. Indicate how often you'd like the RSS module updated.
11. If you'd like to feature more links than just the headline, indicate that you want to display HTML. Saying yes here will also occasionally pull in images from blog entries.
12. When you're done, hit the Save button.
How to Find an RSS Link on a Web Page
In the SquidU forum, a lensmaster asked how to find an RSS feed's address on a given web page. Our chief engineer, Gil, offered the following how to by way of example:
"I'll walk you through the cancer site to show you how I found it.
"1. Visited cancer.org
"2. Looked for a feed there (I scanned the page looking for the words "Feed", "XML", or "RSS". I also looked for things that were orange, as the feed buttons are usually bright orange.
"3. Couldn't find any feeds there so I clicked "Site Index" at the top top right.
"4. On the Site Index page I knew I would be looking for something related to news. After all, news is what we usually try to get from feeds. At the bottom right in the "For Everyone" section I saw a "News and Features" link. Clicked on that.
"5. On the left hand side - bingo - I found an orange XML button, indicating that a feed was close. Clicked on the XML button.
"6. On the RSS News Feeds page there are URLs of different feed formats. Any of those should work in Squidoo. Just copy the link and paste it into the feed url of your RSS module."
To learn more about RSS, check out Ken Yarmosh's RSS 101 lens.
