15-Minute Reviews :: RSS Wizard v2.96.0.202
Hello all and welcome to today’s 15-Minute Review! Today’s application is RSS Wizard version 2.96.0.202 by ExtraLabs Software – An application to convert an HTML file into an RSS feed.
Software Description
As Giveaway of the Day states:
“RSS Wizard is an HTML to RSS converter than can generate the RSS feed out of virtually any web page without having to edit it first. RSS Wizard generates RSS 2.0 feeds and allows you to create, edit and publish an unlimited number of RSS channels. The program has a great collection of features such as the built-in scheduler, autodetecting of RSS tags, command line support, XML editor and built-in FTP client.
The program has been especially developed to meet the needs of both novice and advanced users. Now the RSS Wizard features a built-in scheduler so that now it can function in a 100% automatic mode creating excellent RSS channels without any user assistance.”
Quick Pros
- Ability to pull from both local file an a URL
- Build your own tags or use pre-existing code on a page
- Options to limit feed and description length
- Built-in FTP client handy to simplify entire process
- Scheduler to handle automatic updating of the XML file
- Produces a relatively-clean RSS file
Quick Cons
- Helpfile could be more descriptive on usage and how to pick good tags
- Options for limits and scheduling are global, not profile-by-profile
- FTP has no secure transfer option
- Occasional HTML-clearing issues (See demo page)
Sample
Expansion
The age of the internet is expanding rapidly; RSS feeds are quickly becoming a way to read sites which update frequently without having to browse to that site or handle the website’s layout. For many designers though, picking up a content management system or designing their own RSS aggregation is not high on their list of to-do, yet they understand the power which can be offered by adding an RSS feed to their page. RSS Wizard offers a way to handle RSS creation without the intervention of scripting languages to dynamically build.
RSS Wizard’s interface is clean and easy to follow. With the ability to set up multiple profiles, you can use this to track and RSS-ify many sites or pages on a site. I found the application easy except the exception of the tag system; The helpfile doesn’t describe the method of selecting good tags (if you choose not to incorporate your own comment tags that is) – While I got it right on the first try, this process may be difficult to comprehend for some. There are cases where you may have to incorporate your own comments tags specifically for the purpose of this application; This may be especially true if you don’t have distinguishable or reliable content end markers such as an div or similar; It is a great feature though for those who may be building a site from scratch to be able to use custom tags for easy marking of key points.
I was glad you could use not only local files for input purposes, but also remote files via HTTP. This allows you to pull the information from a remote site when you (or another) updates the HTML file from which the RSS is based on and upload an updated XML file.
There are options available to limit the feeds in item length as well as description length. This could be helpful in the case of a long page such as the XML I posted above and limiting the number of items, or cutting down on the description to encourage click-thrus if so desired. The only issue with the limit options is that they are global to all profiles; You can not set a different set of limits on each profile.
There is an FTP client built-in directly to the application and can be used with the scheduling as well to ensure your file gets uploaded regularily as well; This is handy for those who may not want to babysit a specific site for changes. My only quip with this is with data sniffing these days, the application should really incorporate secure FTP on some level, which is not available here.
As mentioned shortly above, there is a built-in scheduler function in the application that allows the RSS to be updated at specific time intervals you define. This would be handy for making this part self-sufficient for websites you manage and can put it to the back of your mind. With the ability to start minimized to the system tray, it can be an all-in-one package for managing your RSS on non-dynamic (or sites without the ability to generate their own RSS) pages. Again however, as noted above, the downfall is the scheduler pertains to all of the profiles at the same time rather than each profile having their own scheduler profiles.
During my tests of this application, while it worked really well the first time around and I got the hang of doing it quickly, it didn’t work totally 100 percent; If you’ll check down the page above for news, you will note that there was places where the application didn’t scrub the HTML totally; Leaving parts of Flash embedding (My fault for incorporating it on the main page), and one place where link color seemed to bleed over past the end of the link are two of the issues I spotted. Otherwise, if you steer clear of incorporating odd content into your feed pages, you should run smoothly.
Final Verdict
While there are many improvements that could be made to this application including improving the HTML filter, all-in-all this application is surprisingly powerful and could prove very useful to many people. The ability to quickly generate RSS feeds from your HTML files can be very lucrative alternative to trying to hand-build your own feeds all the time or building/finding a dynamic script on your own, especially for less-often updated pages. I do feel with the advent of many of the CMS systems out there this application will be found specific homes rather than net-wide acceptance, but those who need it will find great use in the application. For free, if you are a designer/developer, this may be a good tool to add to your arsenal. As for paying $29.95, while the application could use some brushing-up, it is worth the value to those who need it; If you save even an hour or two a month on hand-coding your XML files or initial time setting up a script to do so, you may as well go with this if it fits your needs.
Posted by BladedThoth on Thursday, July 19, 2007
