[Web4lib] RSS and HTML (href) links

[Engel, Ryan]

Hi

 

We have a small collection of internal websites, and we share some
content between them via RSS.  This content sharing has been fairly
successful so far, but there is one piece of the puzzle that I cannot
make fit no matter what I try, making me wonder I'm trying to use RSS in
a way that it isn't meant to work.

 

Here's my setup:

I have a blog, and the blogging software (WordPress) I use creates a
feed (RSS 2 and Atom) that contains the full text of my post.

Within the body of a hypothetical blog post, I include a basic href=""
link to another website.

 

When I view the source of the RSS feed, I see two versions of my blog
post's content; one is bracketed with <description> tags and DOES NOT
contain my href link; the other is bracketed with <content:encoded> tags
and DOES contain my href link.  When I look at the RSS in a feed reader,
the href link does not appear.  The RSS feed does contain the usual link
from the title back to my blog post.

 

Aside from the title link, it seems that RSS does not currently support
href links; is that true?  If so, is there a way to re-assert links as
clickable links in the body content either in the feed directly or once
the feed reader reads the feed?  Am I trying to use RSS in a way that it
isn't meant to work?

 

I've tried searching for clues via Google search already with no useful
results, though I've had difficulty coming up with meaningful search
phrases.

 

Thanks

 

Ryan Engel

Librarian | CNN News Research and Archives | Atlanta

ryan.engel at turner.com