How (or even if) you use RSS on your Drupal site is a decision that all site builders should consciously make. I provided an overview of the RSS features in Drupal in a previous post. Since writing that post I have extended my use of RSS in Drupal via the CCK module.
One of the things that is new to CCK in Drupal 6 is the ability to add RSS specific display settings. The settings (pictured below) allow you to indicate whether a field that has been added with CCK should be displayed in the RSS feed or not. This feature allows an increased level of customization since you can choose what to display on a field-by-field basis. Some might choose to leave it alone and display everything in the RSS feed but some types of fields (like embed codes for instance) may not render well in RSS feed readers or when imported to other sites.
I'm using this feature to add a special "RSS Only" signature to items that are in the main RSS feeds on the site. The message won't be seen when people view the posts on my site but will be seen when content is consumed via the RSS feed, including when other sites import and display the content from the RSS feed.
There are a couple of good reasons to consider adding a signature to your Drupal RSS feeds. If your post contains additional content that might not be seen via the feed you can help the reader by letting them know that this is the case. You can also link to your content licensing guidelines to inform people what constitutes proper use. The second point is important these days since importing and re-distributing RSS content has become much more popular. While some sites like Drupal Planet aggregate as a service to the community, there are other spam sites that import content while placing banner ads all around it. Adding an RSS signature to your feeds can't prevent improper use of content, but it does serve notice that you may take action if someone does use your content improperly.
Creation of the RSS signature was very easy with the CCK module.
- I added a new field with a type of 'text' and a form element of 'Text Area (Multiple Rows)'
- I configured the field to be required and have a 'default value' that contained the message I wanted to add to my feeds
- I edited the basic 'display fields' settings and set the field to 'hidden' for both the teaser and full node
- I checked the rss 'display fields' and set the field to 'default'
Now when I create a new post I see the following field in my post editing view. I leave the field as is but I could edit it on a post-by-post basis if I wanted to.
The only shortcoming that I have found with this approach is that previous posts won't have the RSS signature added unless I go back an publish them again. This is certainly a case where an RSS signature module would be of great assistance. I don't have the skills as of yet to write such a module, so until one shows up this is the method that seems to work best.
Bookmark or Share Post
As we start 2009 I want to share some knowledge about how I keep up with what's going on in the Drupal community. Keeping up with the Drupal community is important to me because.I believe that in order to be successful in mastering Drupal you need to immerse your self in the world of Drupal.
One of the best features of Drupal is the fact that the system generates many RSS feeds. RSS is great. It allows your visitors to subscribe to new content on your site in any number of ways. But sometimes the RSS capabilities of Drupal are a bit confusing to users. In this drop I'll do what I can to simplify the issue for you.
