Can you create a RSS feed for a site that isn't yours?
 

hi. I started using Liferea (LInux FEed REAder) and like it The only thing is not all the sites i check regularly offer a feed. Is it possible that i could create a feed for those sites or is that something that only the webmaster can do? My hunch is i can't but im pretty new to RSS so figured i'd ask.

The feed gets something from the site, either it's built manually or it's built with PHP from the database of the site. Unless you have database access to their site, the answer is no. Shoot off an e-mail and request it, site owners don't get input as much as you'd think.

Yeah. I'd be willing to learn how to do it and write as much of it as i could for the sites and just have them edit it as they see fit.

It's perfectly possible by parsing the HTML. Usually the data you want is in a div or other element with a certain id or class. If it's strict xhtml, you can use an XML DOM to get things done fairly easily.

i thought that might be possible but i think the tricky part would be to have a script to keep the feed updated. Well one of the sites on my feed wish list was PFO so i went to recommend it in the suggestions forums but there was already a post for it and Big K put up the link. Just didn't have a link to it on the front page. I thought it would be nice to some how have it go to the User Control page as well but then i figured if you get a reply to one of your questions it will be on the homepage at some point so i can just look at the post in the feed and look for any of mine.

edit: just realized that won't work the way i thought it would. If your thread is already on the homepage and gets a new reply you won't necessarily know because the feed has already said it was on the front page.