RSSFaq?

Is there a Faq for this?

[Clark]

I'm sure a lot of people would have questions on RSS if they even knew how to begin. But a lot of people find this to be chinese to them. So anybody interested in starting a Faq (if there isn't one already somewhere)?

My question to start things off. Let's say you are an affiliate and a seller provides you a nice feed, what should the data look like and what do you do with it?

[rogerd]

Clark, if the vendor is providing a feed they probably have some instructions on how to use it on your site. You'll need a parsing script of some kind. If the vendor is a major one, you'll probably find third party scripts available.

You can decide how you want to use the feed - you could create a whole site or section using feed data, or you could integrate the feed into your site in a context-relevant way. For example, if you have a page about widget polishing, you might be able to select items related to widget polishing and display those items with current pricing, etc. (I do this with Amazon data and a third party script - this approach replaces old hard links that were frequently out of date and which didn't have current pricing or product data.)

For starters, check the vendor and see if they recommend any scripts or software solutions; if you can find a script written for that vendor's data, implementation will be easy.