RSS Feeds in Movable Type

Note: Most of the changes contained in this document are now part of the Movable Type default templates. This document isn’t really useful anymore.

Movable Type automatically creates an RSS feed for you each time you add a new item to a blog. This document explains how to change the RSS template to change the language, include an image, include your contact information, and identify the feed creator. Once you have made these changes, you will need to rebuild the indexes so your RSS feed will be published with the new template.

Editing the template

To edit the RSS template, log into Movable Type and select a blog to edit and click Manage Blog.

Click List And Edit Templates.

Click XML RSS Index.

You are now looking at your default template. Unless you’ve made changes, it should look like this:

  <?xml version="1.0"?>

  <rss version="0.91">

    <channel>

      <title><$MTBlogName$></title>

      <link><$MTBlogURL$></link>

      <description><$MTBlogDescription$></description>

      <language>en-us</language>

  <MTEntries lastn="15">

      <item>

        <title><$MTEntryTitle encode_html="1"$></title>

        <description><$MTEntryExcerpt encode_html="1"$></description>

        <link><$MTEntryLink$></link>

      </item>

  </MTEntries>

    </channel>

  </rss>

Setting the language

If your blog is in a language other than US English, you should change the template to reflect your language. You can easily do this by changing the line that says <language>en-us</language>. You will need to look up your two letter country code and your language code by clicking the links below:

• Country Code
• Language Code

The format you will use is <language>country-language</language>.

Adding Author Email

Inserting tags with your email address will allow people to contact you should there be a problem with your RSS feed or if they have questions about it’s use.

The webMaster tag can be placed anywere after <channel> but before <MTEntries lastn="15">. We will put it right after the language tag. Create a new line after <language>...</language> and type <webMaster>youremail@yoursite.com</webMaster>.

Adding an Image

An image is a great way to identify your site. If you have a small graphic, you can include it into your RSS feed. Many feed readers, news aggregators, and directories will display this image any time your RSS feed is shown.

The image tag set can also be placed anywere after <channel> but before <MTEntries lastn="15">. We will put it right after the webMaster tag. Insert the following on a blank line after <webMaster>...</webMaster>

	<image>

		<link><$MTBlogURL$></link>

		<url>http://www.kalsey.com/images/kalsey_btn.gif</url>

		<title><$MTBlogName$></title>

	</image>

Change the URL to the full URL of your image. Include the http:// and your domain.

Identifying the feed creator

Syndic8 is a directory of RSS feeds. One of the features of the directory is that they catalog the name and version of the product that created the feed. To get your feed cataloged, all you need to do to identify your feed is add a specially formatted comment near the top of your template.

<!-- generator="Movable Type/1.4" --> should be added right after <?xml version="1.0"?>.

Adding a last update date

Including the date the feed was last updated makes it easy to see if your feed is fresh. After the set if image tags, insert a blank line and type <lastBuildDate><$MTDate format="%B %d, %Y %I:%M %p"$></lastBuildDate>

Putting it together

Once you are done, you should have something like this:

  <?xml version="1.0"?>

  <!-- generator="Movable Type/1.4" -->

  <rss version="0.91">

    <channel>

      <title><$MTBlogName$></title>

      <link><$MTBlogURL$></link>

      <description><$MTBlogDescription$></description>

      <language>en-us</language>

	  <webMaster>youremail@yoursite.com</webMaster>

  	  <image>

		  <link><$MTBlogURL$></link>

		  <url>http://www.yoursite.com/imagesyourimage.gif</url>

		  <title><$MTBlogName$></title>

	  </image>

	  <lastBuildDate><$MTDate format="%B %d, %Y %I:%M %p"$></lastBuildDate>

  <MTEntries lastn="15">

      <item>

        <title><$MTEntryTitle encode_html="1"$></title>

        <description><$MTEntryExcerpt encode_html="1"$></description>

        <link><$MTEntryLink$></link>

      </item>

  </MTEntries>

    </channel>

  </rss>