Can you create a RSS feed from a static web site? The answer is yes, and the product that can make it happen is RSS DreamFeeder by RNSoft. RSS DreamFeeder is a Dreamweaver extension. It shows up as a palette and enables you to rapidly create a RSS feed from a web site that you have uploaded as static pages. Locally, your site can be made in Dreamweaver from static text, or by merging local database data into Dreamweaver templates. You would do this using an extra application such as WebMerge and FileMaker Pro.

RSS or Real Simple Syndication is a must these days. RSS allows you to deliver news feeds to newsreaders like NewsGator. Through the years, it has evolved into a system that is one way for webmasters to reach a larger audience. When you subscribe to my feed, I can rely on you visiting my web site when you believe an article is worth reading. Before RSS, you would have either to visit my web site on a regular basis, or not at all. 

As a webmaster, I can’t be sure that all my content is appealing to you all the time. RSS is a godsend as it will give my readers the choice to quickly see from the heading and summary whether they want to get a closer look at what I’ve cooked up today.

With dynamic sites --sites that get their content through a database system-- RSS is really simple to set up: the Content Management System or Blogging system takes care of most of the technological hassle. All you have to do is provide some form to show the feed (usually through a template system) and feed the system with enough content.

RSS Made Easy

Static pages are written in HTML and there’s no way to automatically extract the content so that it will comply with RSS requirements. RSS files should be in XML, because they must be read by a user’s news reading application. You could code each page on a static site into a RSS page, but that’s almost impossible in terms of time. You can use an external newsfeed creating application like Feeder.

However, I can’t tell Feeder to take my folder of Dreamweaver-created web pages and extract all the information by itself. That’s exactly what I can do with RSS DreamFeeder. This extension lets me set a number of preferences that apply mainly to how Dreamweaver works with templates. If I was smart enough to set up my templating system so it makes sense from a page structure point of view, setting up RSS DreamFeeder is very easy.

Even if I made some stupid choices in my templating setup, RSS DreamFeeder will still be able to generate a news feed, but I’ll have to do some more preparatory work, in order for the extension to understand where the headline is, who wrote the article, etc.

When I first downloaded the extension, I first read the manual. The manual is excellent, because it covers everything, including how to get full control over your feed. However, the downside of cramming all that information into that one document had the side-effect that it initially made me believe DreamFeeder would be awfully complicated to set it up.

I can assure you that this isn’t the case. In fact, I let the manual where it was the first time that I tried out the extension because I wanted to see how far I would get without it. I got all the way to the end. The feed is on Thinck.com. It looks ugly, but that’s because I am too lazy to better structure those pages. Now my feed was a text feed. And that one was really very easy to puzzle together without the manual.

RSS DreamFeeder lets you start using its excellent Wizard, then fine-tune your feed using its Advanced tabs. Its biggest advantage is that it integrates completely with Dreamweaver’s workflow, which makes it a natural and easy way to generate a newsfeed for any sort of site.

It does become a bit complicated when you’re dealing with multi-media news feeds like podcasts however, but even then I found RSS DreamFeeder to understand to be way more simple than Feeder. Besides, if you want to get the most out of RSS DreamFeeder, the best you can do is to first set up your text feed without consulting the manual, to get a feel for the workflow of the program. Then, you can read the manual to see what is different with multimedia feeds, and what you can do to make your feeds better.

A good idea is also not to forget to ping the servers right from within the RSS DreamFeeder palette, like I did. I think I’m going to do that right now. What’s the use of having a newsfeed without anyone knowing about it?