RSS Feed Action

Type of Action: Page Action (to use it, make sure nothing is selected on the page, go to Page>Page Actions to choose the Action from the list).

What the Action can do: This Action lets you do the following:
  • It lets you create an RSS feed for your site

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and it offers a way to give
visitors who subscribe to a site news of any changes. This can useful on
a something like a news site or weblog, where the content changes on a
very regular basis.



This Action lets you set up the RSS feed itself, and it can be made to
work in conjunction with the RSS Page Link Action so an RSS icon can be
made to appear in the visitor’s browser to alert them to the fact
that they can subscribe to the feed by clicking on the logo.



To create an RSS Feed in Freeway:

  • Select New Pages... from the Page menu.
  • Give your page a meaningful name such as "Latest News Feed" and click OK
  • Give the page a file name such as "feed.xml" (don't use an html or php extension) in the Page General pane of the Inspector palette
  • Open the Document Setup dialog from the File menu and click on the Upload tab. Enter your web address in the Web Address field (this is required by the Action) and click OK
  • Go to the Page menu, open the Page Actions submenu, and select RSS Feed
  • Select Actions from the Window menu to open the Actions palette
  • You will see two areas in the Actions palette, one labeled Feed and another labeled Items



In the Feed area you can set details that are specific to your feed.
  • Enter a title for your feed (such as "Latest News") in the Title field
  • Enter a description in the Description field
  • If the main language of the feed is not English, either select the correct language from the Language popup menu or enter the two digit code for your language
The Items section will contain all of your feed items.
  • Enter the title for your first feed item in the first Title field
  • Enter a brief description or summary in the Description field
  • Choose or enter a link to the full article from the Link popup
  • Click the Get Date button to get the current date. The date is used as a time stamp for the item that will always remain the same (unless you change it). It's important for this to be correct as it is used to order and sort the items in the live feed
  • If you want to add or remove feed entries use the + and - buttons alongside the last item. The Total Number field allows you to manually type in the number of items you want to be displayed, the maximum is 50



You can now preview your file in a browser to see your feed. However, you will eventually need to offer a link to the feed from a page of your site (normally the home page) by using the RSS Page Link Action.

When you have finished previewing your feed and setting up the link, the next time you upload your site files, Freeway will also upload the feed.xml file so the file is live on your web server.