How to make an automatically updating RSS feed?

[kayak]

Hello all,

Firstly I know absolutely nothing about RSS feeds!

I am looking to send some property information to a classified site and they have asked for an RSS feed.

I have had a quick read and it seems easy enough to actually make one but very labour intensive.

What I am looking at doing is having an automatically updating RSS feed from my properties page, so that when I update the properties, the RSS feed automatically updates and so does this website.

Is this possible?
Is this easy?

The actual page I would be looking to link from is http://www.maverickpropertymanagement.co.uk/properties.htm

All properties have an individual page and all the pages are static.

Many thanks in advance.

John

 

[Astaroth]

If the pages are static then you cannot "automatically" update an RSS feed.

RSS is basically simply an XML file in a specific format which can be a static file that you update as and when you update properties or can be dynamically generated but given your properties arent dynamically generated there doesnt seem much benefit in spending time, effort and money making the RSS feed dynamic unless you decide to move away from static properties to db driven.

 

[kayak]

Yes I will be moving away from static pages when I update my website to run directly from my software.

I would have still thought it saved me a lot more time with an RSS feed as otherwise every time I add a property or delete a property and therfore create or remove a page (using a CMS) I'm looking at going through my feed and adding or deleting lines of text.

Surely if I just set it up, once it was done it would never have to be done again? Or are you just saying its impossible?

Kind regards,

John

 

[Astaroth]

It is certainly possible and you can have a page that dynamically generates the XML/ RSS - we have implemented this type of code many times. I was saying it is questionable on its worth of dynamic XML with static properties but certainly if you are looking to move to a dynamic properties set up then the XML should also be dynamic and is fairly easy to implement.

 

[kayak]

I assume that making this feed would be outside my skill base?!

So how much would I roughly be looking at?

I don't know if it makes a difference but I use a SOAP base property management system, so if it can come straight from there I am laughing!

Kind regards,

John

 

[Astaroth]

SOAP & .Net are very easy to integrate with each other and as long as the scripting is fairly well documented it should be relatively quick to make an RSS feed from it subject to your exact requirements.

PHP isnt my area at all but my understanding is that it isnt as quick to integrate with SOAP but if you find someone who has worked with the script before they can probably come in at a similar price point.

 

[kayak]

I'm in way over my head here!

Here is a link to the SOAP documentation but it all means nothing to me as do terms like PHP!

http://www.letmc.com/Wiki/DocumentView.aspx?doc=developer-centre

Am I looking at £10 or £1000 just to create a feed from my software or website?

Kind regards,

John