Preserving html formatting

[Dodger212121]

Hi,

Here are 2 pages, on our site, that I would like to create RSS feeds for - both are dynamic in that there is new material each week.

<snip>

Series of plant/gardening tips

<snip>

The Car Review is the target here. I have already created a RSS feed for this one - actually the news publishing software does this - but my question for both is how to preserve the html formatting - as in paragraphs are separated, Bold text is preserved in the feed as bold, etc...

Also - both of these features have corresponding mp3 files generated each week - could those be incorporated as a podcast type of feed?

Thanks
Dodge

[edited by: werty at 5:06 pm (utc) on Feb. 28, 2006]
[edit reason] Removed links - Please see TOS #13. [/edit]

[Iguana]

Hi Dodger. Welcome to WebmasterWorld.

I'm confused as to why you want to preserve formatting on your rss feeds? If people wanted to see your formatting then surely they would go to your webpage. If you do leave your HTML tags in your feed then it is up to the RSS Reader/Aggregator as to what they do with it. Some will use it, some will escape it (e.g you would see <B>Hello</B> in the text, others will remove it.

As far as Podcasts are concerned, a Podcast is just an <item> in a RSS2.0 feed with an <enclosure> that points to an MP3 file. So you can easily add in your mp3 files.

[Dodger212121]

I see ... I think. It's not necessary to include the entire article in the feed - simply a short description and the link to the webpage containing the article? That sounds reasonable... I guess I thought that folks would want to read it within their news readers.

Thanks!
Dodge

[Iguana]

No, why not include the whole article in the feed. But the content is not meant to include any HTML markup.

[Dodger212121]

When I include the entire feed - it is jumbled all together as there are no paragraphs as in the original [html ] web column.

[edited by: engine at 12:43 pm (utc) on Mar. 2, 2006]