RSS Feed Displayed in a Webpage

There are ways to display RSS feed information directly from your RSS feed file and on to your own webpage as fully accessible HTML. The Department of Technology Services has established a RSS-to-HTML solution that you can obtain for free and install if you have a MS Windows server with ASP scripting enabled.

RSS Feed Via a Widget

When you utilize FeedBurner, you also get the option of publishing a widget being created by SpringWidgets. Another very easy and powerful service available to publish your feed via a widget (also shown below) is WidgetBox.com

A Social Bookmarking Button

The following button makes it easy for people to quickly bookmark your page within their preferred bookmarking service. Note: this can be placed on any webpage and is not dependent upon RSS at all. This free service is also provided by AddThis.com (Note also that the following button size is probably the most appropriate size and look for a government site.)

Also note: USA.gov utilizes this same social bookmarking service on their portal pages.

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RSS Feeds - Tools, Tips, & Techniques

RSS Feeds are utilized all over the Web. The most common use is when you go to a common news portal such as one provided by: Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, etc. In addition, many people are starting to utilize "feed readers" as a type of personalized managed portal tool to easily manage and read all the RSS subscriptions they have subscribed to.

Today many governmental agencies have already provided RSS feeds for their news releases and subscription notifications to the public. CA.gov has started a webpage that gathers the links to all the RSS feeds of State government into one convenient place for the public to be able to subscribe to.

Simply put, RSS is accomplished by publishing an XML file in RSS format. You could do this manually by going to the following website for the RSS 2.0 specification, and then fill in the information between the right tags (but this can become complex and unmanageable very quickly.)

(Note: for more information on RSS visit: WebContent.gov RSS)

If your website is served up based on a content management system (CMS), RSS is usually a built-in feature of your CMS. If you do not have a CMS, there are numerous tools you can utilize to create and manage your RSS file. Here are some better ones that are often utilized, and they are free:

• MiraByte Feed Writer
• RSS Builder
• Listgarden RSS Feed Generator Program

Periodically the eServices Office will hold free Feeds Publishing Workshops for agency webmasters to help them publish their web information utilizing the open RSS format.

Additionally, here's some simple instructions for publishing a feed using the RSSeditor

Once you generate your RSS file, upload it to your website and then provide a link to it from a webpage. However, to enhance how your RSS looks, its functionality and visibility, and track statistics on its use and performance, you will need to utilize other services.

The most common and powerful service for accomplishing much of this is called "Feedburner" (now owned and supported by Google) and it is free. Once you register your feed on FeedBurner, you will find a large set of new ways to enhance how your feed is published and read. (We recommend the Feedburner service because it will enable your feed to be found and read by a much greater audience by publishing your feed out to other websites and feedreader formats. For more information on how to best leverage the Feedburner service for your feed, go to FeedBurner - Optimize, Syndicate, and Track RSS Feeds )

Currently the State Portal "Highlights" section is available as an RSS Feed. The Portal leverages the FeedBurner service to enable an easier method for users to subscribe both by email or by their own feed reader of choice. CA.gov

Additionally, you can leverage other free services from SpringWidgets, WidgetBox and AddThis. This webpage demonstrates some of the capabilities of these free services.

Finally, in addition to FeedBurner there are other more "pinging" services available on the web also that will cause your feed to be indexed and consumed by many other services on the Web where the public frequents. The most commonly utilized one is the Pingomatic service that was actually started by the same company that started WordPress.com the, largest blogging service available on the Web. (Note: actually Feedburner utilizes Pingomatic as one of its pinging services.) Take a look at these pinging services, and the informational services they ping to select the best places to index and republish your feed information to reach the audience you are trying to reach:

• Pingoat
• Ping-O-Matic
• Feeds Pings

RSS Feed Displayed in a Webpage

There are ways to display RSS feed information directly from your RSS feed file and on to your own webpage as fully accessible HTML. The Department of Technology Services has established a RSS-to-HTML solution that you can obtain for free and install if you have a MS Windows server with ASP scripting enabled (demonstrated below).

If you cannot do Windows ASP on your server, there are numerous other server-side solutions available that you can install on your own server identified within the following article on the Web: RSS To HTML - How To Convert RSS Feeds Into Published Web Pages - A Mini-Guide

State of California Portal Highlights

Highlighted information from governmental agencies of the State of California.

• Furlough Fridays Begin July 10Thu, 2 Jul 2009 15:29:11 -0900
  Beginning July 10, 2009, State government offices will be closed three days a month. Refer to the list of furlough Fridays to see which days offices will be closed... more http://www.dpa.ca.gov/personnel-policies/furloughs/main.htm
• Facts About IOUsThu, 2 Jul 2009 15:26:49 -0900
  What is a registered warrant? A registered warrant is a ?promise to pay,? or an IOU, that is issued by the State when there are not enough funds to pay all of its General Fund obligations. Registered warrants bear interest and are redeemable by the State Treasury only when the General Fund has sufficient money. If the Legislature and Governor fail to enact budgetary solutions that provide enough cash for the State to pay all of its bills by July 2, the Controller will begin issuing registered warrants. Assuming there is adequate cash in the Treasury, those warrants may be redeemed on October 2, 2009. Both the issue and the maturity date will be printed on the warrant. If the Pooled Money Investment Board (PMIB) determines there is sufficient cash available for redemption at an earlier date, the warrants may be redeemed earlier than October 2, 2009... more http://www.sco.ca.gov/5935.html
• Waste WatchersWed, 24 Jun 2009 15:03:14 -0900
  Report Problems / Share Solutions Report wasteful practices in state government here. Also, if you have a suggestion for making government work better, please use this page to let us know.

State of California Portal Highlights - SpringWidget RSS Display

Here is an example of a SpringWidget displayed as a large object style. This particular SpringWidget has multiple RSS feeds from the State included in it. It is displayed here for your understanding, but it is not recommended that you display this within a State webpage unless you provide accessible access to the same content either on that page or a link to accessible content, because this widget is not visible to a reader for a person with a disability. Widgets can be re-installed by anyone on their: desktop, personal portal page (like Yahoo, iGoogle, etc.) or on their own blog, website or social website (like MySpace).

Note: you can adjust it to the size that makes sense for you.