[5.0] More (different) RSS issues

DWL-SDCA · July 12, 2016

From my own site SafetyLit.org I am able to subscribe to feeds through Zotero but I don't receive any items. Subscribing through Firefox live bookmarks displays the feed items. Is this an issue with how we structure the feeds or is it a Zotero issue.

See, for example:

http://www.safetylit.org/rss/xml/age_elder_adults.xml

Thank you.

adomasven · July 13, 2016

Zotero fails, because the rss feed doesn't specify neither a <guid> element, nor a rdf:about attribute in an <item> element, which are used as unique permanent identifier URLs to identify feed items.

I have submitted a PR to include <link> elements as well, so it will most probably be fixed in next release candidate https://github.com/zotero/zotero/pull/1063

In general, though, you should include those elements for better overall RSS reader support. Example feeds that do this:

- rdf:about http://www.inderscience.com/current_issues/ijhvs.rss
- <guid> http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/HomePage.xml

DWL-SDCA · July 13, 2016

Thank you, Adomasven. So the answer seems to be 'both'. I will fix my site within the next 24 hours. Perhaps, your comment will help us to be more specific when writing to publishers about similar problems with their feeds.

dstillman · July 13, 2016

To be clear, the feed wasn't wrong — 'guid' is optional according to the RSS 2.0 spec (and rdf:about is from RSS 1.0, which is a different format). The guid (assuming it doesn't change) ensures that feed readers can identify items even if the link changes, but Zotero was mistakenly discarding items without one.

dstillman · July 13, 2016

Fixed in r21, available now.