Need advice on working with RSS feeds

[skyway]

I have an online tool store for my family business, SkywayTools.com, selling automotive tools. I was able to obtain a feed from my supplier in an Excel spreadsheet. I want to feed this inventory into my online store, up to Google/Froogle and to some other places online - most of these require a different format for the feed, so I need to move around the columns of my spreadsheet.

Does anyone have advice on a working with RSS feeds? Do you have any web pages you could suggest that have a simple overview and instructions on how to work with large feeds? I have been given about 19000 items to work with and I'm intimidated by the size of the feed. I've also been having some difficulty opening the feed in my Excel and working with it. My programmer has been able to open it up with a 2000 version of Excel, but for some strange reason my 2003 version won't open the darned file up! I think I have to learn to work with this file myself, since I am going to have to update it at least quarterly.

Any words of wisdom would be gratefully considered.
- Sherry

[zbatia]

Sherry, I cannot give you a specific advice but you can find some info about RSS at our Index:
http://www.800-webdesign.com/web-master-links.html#rss

[trippleweb]

I would ask yourself how and who would benefit from this rss? Would people even be interested in a subscribing to a catalog rss? If you were going to use an rss you dont want to rely on an office file but the actual database itself.

If you were still keen on having an rss feed, I would suggest feeding an xml file showing spotlight products that are on sale.

Good luck.

[caromero1965]

RSS feeds are meant for feeding headline-type information, not the sort of bulk information delivery that would be typical of a catalog. Announcements of newly available products, for instance, or, as trippleweb says, items on sale, items back in stock after a long wait, articles about new uses for existing products... but not the catalog itself.

http://www.xml.com/lpt/a/2002/12/18/dive-into-xml.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(file_format) are good references that explains (at least in its first few paragraphs) what RSS is good for.

http://www.eopta.com/spec/rss-tutorial/ and http://www.packtpub.com/files/RSS_and_Atom_Book_Chapter1_what_are_newsfeeds.pdf also look interesting.

But it sounds like you need to do some more research on what RSS is and what it isn't, and other different ways you can publish a product database (in an excel sheet or whatever other format) as a group of Web pages.

[cparvin]

If you use a store such as ZEN-CART there are RSS modules that will publish various products from "all" to "new".

Conrad

[andersonweb]

Hi, Sherry,

If you have this data in an Excel spreadsheet, then I would think the best way to work with it is to import the data into your database. Then, if you need to output various XML files for use on Froogle and such, you can create a script to write it dynamically from the database.

I apologize if I've misinterpreted your question. But, based on your comment and my interpretation, this sounds like the easiest and most effective way to do what you're asking.

[TrafficProducer]

RSS Builder --- free --- (http://home.hetnet.nl/~bsoft/rssbuilder/index.htm) RSS Builder is an easy to use program to create RSS news feeds and podcasts for your web site. It provides a simple interface that lets you add topics, links, content, and enclosures, then publish the RSS (v2.0) feed to your web server, using the built-in FTP client.

More handy RSS links (http://www.acomputerportal.com/rss.html)

[nubby]

Does anyone know of an easy way to merge feeds and convert them to either html or javascript. I've tried several online tools to do this, but nothing quite does it adequately.

[incrediblehelp]

Nubby you try Carp (http://www.geckotribe.com/rss/carp/)?

[TrafficProducer]

Answer to the above question: RSSmesh script (http://www.feedforall.com/rssmesh.htm) is used to merge multiple RSS feeds into a single RSS feed.

(I have not trierd it)

[whipnet]

As stated above, rss is not used for inventory. It stands for really simple syndication and could be used to highlight current sale items.

If you open and save it as an excel file, it cannot be a feed. Its an excel file.

*

[Webnauts]

Nubby you try Carp (http://www.geckotribe.com/rss/carp/)?
Jaan do you recommend it?

[kgun]

Try RSS Feed Guide (http://www.rssfeedguide.com/).

There you also find more detailed info on Carp.

[Webnauts]

Carp is great.
Thanks Kgun! Then I will purchase it. By the way, are you back from your holidays? Or are you with a Laptop there? :)

[incrediblehelp]

Yes Webnauts I use Carp and like it.