15-Minute Reviews :: RSS Feed Creator Lite v2.3

Hello all and welcome to another 15-Minute Review! Today’s application is RSS Feed Creator Lite version 2.3 by Webvigour Software – An application to develop your own RSS feed and podcasts.

Software Description

As Giveaway of the Day states:

“RSS Feed Creator is a easy-to-use desktop RSS editor that allows you to create and maintain your own RSS newsfeeds and podcasts. RSS Feed Creator generates feeds using version 2.0 of the RSS standard and it is the best solution for WYSIWYG editing of RSS feeds and podcasts that does not require any basic knowledge of XML.

Besides, RSS Feed Creator can quickly convert HTML into RSS, supports uploading via FTP, works with graphics and exports using templates. With RSS Feed Creator, creating RSS feeds will become a pleasure!”

Quick Pros

• Wizard is easy to understand
• Adding more items or altering other information easy
• Ability to attach local files to item handy
• Miniature editor for descriptions offers extra graphical layout
• Export functionality to other file types handy
• Built-in FTP uploader for easy usage

Quick Cons

• Wizard does not pose all fields, only the most common ones
• No simple method of linking to attached local file – Have to type in enclosure URL
• Editor should have more functionality such as header support
• No way to set defaults for some of the optional fields besides duplicating
• No option for how many feed items to publish or which items to publish
• No information on how to add the RSS feed to your webpages

Expansion

With the expansion of the internet and adoption of new technologies such as RSS feeds, many applications are popping up to try to fill all the needs of those who wish to bring in another method of distribution to their website. RSS Feed Creator offers a way to manually creator your feeds.

Creating my first test feed, I used the wizard; The wizard was very easy to use, and while it doesn’t touch on the optional fields, it does help you get your first feed up and running with the required fields and set up multiple items within the wizard itself. From here you can add additional information to the feed including a feed image, then edit the items with any further information you need to add to your items as well. Even without the wizard this application is easy to get a new feed set up and adding new items to the feed. An interesting option field on the items is the local file; This means you can attach a local file as well as upload the file with the application (See below for more on the FTP.) – My biggest problem here is that the application while attached and uploads the file, it does not build the link for the enclosure URL for you, forcing you to still enter the enclosure URL rather than building the link for you; Just adds an extra step to the whole process.

An interesting tool in this application is the editor, for use for the descriptions. Using the editor, you can add a bit of formatting, insert links or images and so forth to your descriptions. That said, it would have been handy if it used header tags and other common tags as well, but this editor does give you a starting point to continue building.

Another interesting feature is the export functionality. ATOM, CSV, HTML pages and more; You can take your RSS file and convert it into other formats as well. It is a pity however that this wasn’t built as an additional feature on the uploader so that you could automatically generate the ATOM and HTML page as well as the RSS 2.0-format feed. The HTML feed could be useful for portable support in the form it is in.

Finally, the FTP uploader. Without having to step out of the application, you can upload the XML feed file, as well as the feed image and any attached local files. This can simplify the process by offering you a quick way to manage this portion of your website without much work.

Besides what is noted above, there a few other small issues I have with this application. First off, there is no way to set specific fields such as author, domain or URL to a default for the entire feed for when you create a new field. If you want to fill these out every time for your site, be prepared to type each time. As well, when you upload the feed, there is no way to choose how many feed items you’d like to upload, nor is there a way to designate specific items to publish; They’re small features but especially the ability to denote how many entries to upload is, in my opinion, fairly important.

Also, while this application is meant to help those looking to get an RSS feed set up on a site which does not dynamically generate the file, and aim to get people new to RSS into it, there is no help or tutorial on how to include it in your pages. It would be helpful to newcomers to RSS to give them at least a rough outline on how to include it to maximize visibility.

One final note; This application is the Lite edition; The Pro version appears to have more functionality such as import functionality, export template manipulation, XML editor and more.

Final Verdict

While this application does what it does pretty well, it does lack some of the features that might be found in other applications or even the author’s pro version. That said, while free, if you’d rather use this over the automatic generator of RSS Wizard (Reviewed a short time ago) or prefer to build your own RSS feeds like this (Which the ability to build the feed manually might be a definite benefit), this application may be for you. As for paying $23.95, I would find it difficult to pay this much when the Pro version is $29.95 and offers the Import wizard and other functionality; With that said, it also might be noted that the $23.95/$29.95 prices are for personal use only. The business licence price is $39.95/$49.95 price range, placing it well above the curve where I would purchase this application myself for my business – There are alternatives out there.

Posted by BladedThoth on Sunday, July 29, 2007