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Web Feed Generator

Create low-maintentance news feeds for your next Web project.

HTML notes

This screen is part of a Web Feed Reference section for the Web Feed Generator. Please ask us if you cannot find the answer to your question.

Q:What is HTML?

A: HTML is the technical term for the format used to create normal Web pages. The "M" stands for markup, which is a standard way of marking text so that Web browsers can display it as a heading, paragraph or a list, for example. Each part of the Web page is known as an element, which may be nested one within another, and elements may have attributes that are like special instructions to help the Web browser display the page correctly.

When you open a Web page in your Web browser, the HTML is normally hidden behind the scenes, so you do not have to read it directly. Most Web browsers have the option to "View source" that will show you the markup itself.

The Web Feed Generator downloads your Web page and converts the text to a Web Feed.

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Q:What is a meta element?

A: An HTML meta element is where an item of metadata about a Web page is stored. A Web page may contain many meta elements to represent any number of metadata items, but these records are not normally displayed by your Web browser. They are mainly intended to be read by search engines and other metadata tools.

The two key parts of a meta element are its name attribute, which is a label for the type of metadata it contains, and the content attribute, which contains the detail of the item. For instance, a copyright statement says who the copyright belongs to and would be recorded as below in HTML. 

<meta name="copyright"
  content="Copyright &copy; 2004 Metacentric Internet Limited.">

There is no single standard for recording metadata, but it is better to follow a standard and declare what it is. A common way of declaring a metadata scheme is to prefix the name attribute with an identifier, like DC for the Dublin Core scheme, which also has its own label for copyright information (below in XHTML). 

<meta name="DC.Rights"
  content="Copyright &copy; 2004 Metacentric Internet Limited." />

A meta element may also have a scheme attribute that states the standard format in which the detail is recorded. This helps avoid any confusion between American and British date formats, for instance. A date may be encoded according to the World Wide Web Consortium's Date Time Format (W3CDTF), as below. 

<meta name="DC.Date.created" scheme="W3CDTF" content="2004-04-14" />

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Q:What is a fragment anchor?

A: A fragment anchor is a unique reference point in a Web page that can be used as the end point for a hyperlink. You may hear them called accelerators, ID links or jump points, they let you jump to the marked point in the document.

Fragment anchors are usually marked in HTML with an id attribute on an anchor element, and are often paired with identical name attributes for compatibility with very old browsers, as below. 

<h2>
  <a id="proceedings-5" name="proceedings-5">
    Proceedings of the fifth international conference</a>
</h2>

Fragment anchors usually mark an important part of a Web page, so the Web Feed Generator uses fragments to generate individual items for a news feeds.

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Q:What is an HTML element?

A: HTML elements are like containers that hold the text of a Web page. There are a range of elements with distinct names and they are designed to contain particular types of text. For instance, a main heading should be marked with an <H1> element, a lower level heading with <H2> , by wrapping the text in start and end tags. 

<h1>
  The main page heading
</h1>

There are also HTML elements to contain different types of lists, paragraphs, addresses and quotations. And you can nest other elements within these higher level containers, such as <strong> and <em> to add emphasis to segments of text.

There are standard ways of ordering and nesting HTML elements that are recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium. The Web Feed Generator is designed to work with Web pages that use these standard forms but does allow some common exceptions to the rules.

Q:What is an HTML attribute?

A: HTML attributes are like brief notes attached to HTML elements that specify additional features. For instance, the type attribute of a form input element says whether it is a text field, hidden, a submit or reset button. 

<input type="text" name="email" />

Common examples of HTML attributes are the unique id value on fragment anchors and the name and content attributes of meta elements. Attributes cannot be repeated within an element, but some allow a list of values to be given.

In some cases, the text of attributes is restricted to specific values and there is a standard range of attributes that can be assigned to each element, as recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium. The Web Feed Generator is designed to work with Web pages that follow these standards but does allow some common exceptions to the rules.

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Q:What is a link element?

A: HTML link elements are used to refer to documents and other supplementary information associated with a Web page. A Web page may contain many link elements, but these records are not normally displayed in the main window of your Web browser (some show links in a special menu bar above the main window).

One important use for link elements is to declare the metadata scheme used in the meta elements of a Web page. For instance, if you are using the Dublin Core metadata scheme, your metadata items will be prefixed DC and you should add a link like the one below to signify what it means. 

<link rel="schema.DC"
  href="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
  title="Dublin Core Element Set"/>

The rel attribute "schema.DC" states that any meta elements with the prefix "DC" refer to the Dublin Core element set, like the examples below. The href attribute is a unique identifier in the form of a URL. The title attribute is optional. 

<meta name="DC.Publisher"
  content="Metacentric Internet Limited" />
<meta name="DC.Type"
  scheme="DCMIType"
  content="Text" />
<meta name="DC.Format"
  scheme="IMT"
  content="text/html" />
<meta name="DC.Language"
  scheme="RFC1766"
  content="en-GB" />

By quoting the metadata scheme in the link element, the individual meta elements are understood to have the specific meaning defined by the Dublin Core scheme.

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Q:What is XHTML?

A: XHTML is the technical name for a format used to create Web pages. XHTML is based on the original language of Web pages (HTML), but has extra rules about the way it is written. This combination makes Web pages in XHTML compatible with most modern Web browsers and allows software systems to process the text and extract information much more readily.

The Web Feed Generator is designed to work equally well with Web pages created in HTML and XHTML, provided they follow the standard formatting rules recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

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Q:How can I validate my Web page?

A: A number of Web authoring programs have HTML validation tools built in to them, to check your Web pages are properly formatted according to Web standards. You can also check your pages using the Internet services below; both allow you to paste the address of your Web page into a form to check your site directly, or upload a copy of your page from your computer.

  • The W3C HTML & XHTML Validator is provided by the World Wide Web Consortium, the body that defines Web standards.
  • The WDG HTML Validator is provided by the Web Design Group and has lots of supporting information to help you correct any problems.

The Web Feed Generator cleans up many common HTML errors and permits some markup that is not allowed in the standards, so it is not suitable for checking your Web pages.

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Q:What are access keys?

A: Access keys are a Web page accessibility feature for blind or partially sighted people or those with reduced muscular control. For example, using Internet Explorer, press the Alt key and number 5 key on your keyboard together and the main Customer log in link will be selected. Press Enter to go to that page.

How can a blind person use a Web site? There are software tools called screen readers that read the text of computer screens out loud, like Professor Stephen Hawking's voice synthesiser. Features like access keys allow them to jump to another page without having to "read" the whole screen.

Q:What are Web standards?

A: Web standards are like operational standards in any industry, they help ensure that Web pages will work properly with all Web browsers and adapt well to the way different people configure their computers. Another great advantage of Web pages that follow Web standards is that they download and display quickly.

Unfortunately, some Web designers who are keen to show off their technical flair or graphical prowess do not always heed these standards and their pages may not display properly in any browser but their own.

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Q:What is an auto-discovery link?

A: An auto-discovery link is a special type of HTML link that you put in the head section of your Web page. Some Web browsers will alert their users with a news feed icon when they find this type of link on a page, which may encourage them to subscribe to your feed. News feed search engines also use these links to locate new feeds when they index your site. 

<link rel="alternate"
  href="http://www.metacentric.net/RSS?siteID=1&amp;url=/news/index.jsp"
  type="application/rss+xml"
  title="RSS news feed" />

See the finding feeds with auto-discovery guide on our screen shots page to see how these links work.

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