Changing feeds to reflect edited or deleted posts - best practices?

[geordie007]

hi. really need some advice as google isn't helping.

i've created a bespoke cms/blogging tool for my own site using php and mysql. i'm currently using a php function to generate an rss 2.0 feed - containing the 12 most recent posts - whenever i add a new post. all seems to be working fine, and the feed validates.

my question is this: what is the accepted method with dealing with edited or deleted posts? if i edit a post, this will call my function again, but obviously my original post will be sitting in someone's reader. is there a way of flagging this as an updated post or something? and what about a publish date? do i create a new publish date, or should i continue with the original publish date, or is there an rss 2.0 tag like rePubDate or something?

i just can't seem to find any general advice relating to the fact that you may want to change your feed in some way rather than just adding to it. i can't imagine that it's possible to recall a feed, so surely there is an accepted 'best practice' for when this situation arises.

any advice, help or links to some guides on this would be greatly appreciated. thanks in advance.

danny

[geordie007]

so is there no one in an rss area of a webmasters forum that has created their own rss feed for their site?

[Jordo needs a drink]

Normally you would show your 12 new posts as different items with the newest post being the first item and your oldest being the last item. Whenever you edit or add a new post, it will become the first item with the others moving down and the last post dropping off the list. If you delete a post, then it should just disappear from your feed. Anytime you change your feed (add, edit, or delete a post) you should update the publish date, because this is what flags the readers as to how fresh the feed is.

[geordie007]

thanks Jordo. anyone else?