Syndicated accounts: how to create or subscribe? (original) (raw)

Syndicated account is a special account type that automatically adds content from regularly updated websites. Data gets added to such accounts via RSS or ATOM feeds from external resources (blogs, news websites, etc.).
A syndicated account can be created only by users with an active "Professional package". You can subscribe to an existing syndicated account the same way as to any other by simply adding it to your friends.

- Subscribing to a feed

You can subscribe to a feed in several places::

• on the existing feed page

• in your Friends Feed or on the syndication page

• in the feed’s profile or page – the same way you add a common account to Friends.

If you can’t find a feed you’re looking for, you can create one yourself.

- How to create a feed account

Please bear in mind that your account needs an active Professional package if you want to create a feed.
You can create a feed right in the Friends Feed via the ‘Add RSS feed’ button or on the Syndication page. Just enter the URL or ATOM address of the RSS in the corresponding field, and specify the account name. If such a feed already exists, you’ll be redirected to the feed subscription page.
Entry data is exported in XML-basedRSS or ATOM format.
Website feed’s URL or Atom address is normally positioned behind the XML button on the website’s main page. If you haven’t located the address, try contacting the webmaster or the website’s technical support.

- Recommendations for publishing a channel in LJ

• Before submitting an RSS feed to LJ, please check it with the validator. There must be no critical errors, but other errors are acceptable because of the markup specifics.

• Use tag to specify the unique entry id; it can be used to delete or edit an entry. If isn’t specified, the entry link will be used as the unique id. The entry then can be edited when the pubDate parameter is changed.

• Add the latest entries to the feed. Don’t repeat them and don’t submit too many entries at once.

• Publish entries whose size exceeds 300 characters. Shorter entries aren’t indexed and added to recommendations.

- Content requirements

All entries in the RSS feed must conform to the LiveJournal content publication terms. A feed and all its content can be deleted without explanation in case the terms are violated.

- Channel limitations

• No parameters intended for additional design and complex layout get processed. To have your content on the platform displayed correctly, we advise you to adhere to the set of elements specified in the technical requirements.

• Out of all media content, only images added to the entry via or

  . elements are processed. Videos and other media content won’t be processed. You can add a video by inserting an embed element.

• Journal entries are only available for two weeks from the moment they get added to the journal. After this period, they are deleted when the journal is updated regularly.

• Channels whose entries have no views for 3 months are added to the deletion queue. If after another 3 months the journal doesn’t get enough views, it is deleted.

- Technical requirements

• Only use the allowed HTML elements in the entry markup, as it guarantees that your materials will be displayed properly.

• Feed file volume cannot exceed 1200 kB

• If your entry contains images, it’s advised to use and
  elements. In the entry the image is displayed via the original link; if it is deleted from the original source, it won’t be available in the journal entry either. We recommend using images whose width exceeds 600 px. For images to be displayed correctly, we advise not to specify image size as attributes to the element.

• LiveJournal doesn’t add utm-tags to links within the content or to the entries. If you want to track conversions from LiveJournal, you’ll have to add tags yourself.

- Channel structure

LJ-supported markup for publishing entries. Mandatory attributes are marked in red.

• chanel — channel description

  • title — RSS channel name. It’ll be displayed in the blog’s header

  • link — domain of the website serving as the feed source

  • description —brief description of the channel, 180 symbols max. HTML markup isn’t supported. It’ll be be displayed in the journal profile

• item — entry data. Each item is published as a separate journal entry

  • link — link to an external resource entry. It also serves as a unique id for the material if a special guidisn’t specified

  • guid — unique entry id

  • title — entry header

  • pubDate — entry date in RFC 822 format

  • description — brief entry description field in case the entry has no content field. Please avoid using HTML in this one

  • content:encoded — the main field for broadcasting the entry content. The latter has to be wrapped in the section
    Recommended volume is above 300 characters. Shorter entries also get published but won’t be indexed or posted in recommendations.
    Markup supported within content:
    * p — paragraph;
    * a — links;
    * b — bold;
    * i — italic;
    * u — underlines;
    * s — strikethrough;
    * h1, h2, h3, h4 — headers;
    * blockquote — quotation;
    *

    • — bulleted list (no other formatting is supported within the list);
      *
      1. — numbered list (no other formatting is supported within the list);
         * h1, h2 — level one headers;
         * iframe — external source content insertion;
         * img — image insertion;
         * figure — captioned image insertion.