The GXtips move is getting along. It consists of clear and practical advice that simplifies the tasks at the time of working. This time, Gustavo Carriquiry, Artech’s Operations Manager, explains what RSS files are, how they can be integrated into business applications and how to publish them using GeneXus.

The "RSS" (Really Simple Syndication) files have been a standard for a long time for the publication of news/new items in various sites. Lately it has had a greater reach and they are not just the news of a few sites that use them, but a lot of sites offer information in this format and they are also used with other purposes or scopes.

Business applications in particular have started to use them as a means to provide “feeds” to other applications or end users that use standard "RSS readers" (or RSS Aggregators). It enables a user or application to be “subscribed” to a site, a part of one or even a specific application in a very simple way.

Its main advantages are: Simplicity (as indicated by its name) and the fact that they are a universal standard. An RSS file is basically an XML file that has certain preestablished “elements”, some “required” (mandatory) and other “optional”. The RSS version to be used determines which “elements” are available. In turn, an RSS Feed is basically a program that provides “RSS”, that is a URL that returns those XML.

Today’s business applications basically work based on the fact that both the users (at least a clear profile of them) and the use they will make of the application (the features it has to cover and how) are known, as are the other applications (information consumers) with which it will interact.

In the case of RSS it is not so, or at least, not necessarily. An application, in addition to fulfilling its purpose and integrating with the rest of the applications (via “trays”, web services, etc. or even RSS), can provide information in a standard way so that other users or applications that have not been originally considered can consume it. RSS is one of the basis on which "mashups applications"are created.

From the point of view of the user, having RSS “external” to the company (news sites, indicators, general information, etc.) which give a “world vision” is very useful. It obtains it in unified format, with the frequency it determines, etc.

Paradoxically, it obtains “internal” information (generated in the same company) by other means (typically by e-mail or by accessing specific applications) without taking advantage of the existence of RSS. Why not offer internal information in the same way that information is provided/consumed in the world around us?

To learn how to publish RSS feeds using GeneXus, read the full article in the GeneXus Community Wiki.