Why Well-Formed Web RSS Module is Popular - Syndicating Your Comments

There aren't many blogs out there that don't allow commenting of blog posts. However, RSS does not provide sufficient facilities for dealing with them. Sure RSS has the <comments> element, but it points to a HTML page that isn't machine readable. It is desirable to be able to deal with comments in the same way one deals with RSS feeds; through syndication. The RSS Well-Formed Web Module exists to fill this gap.

An example using the most popular element of the Well-Formed Web RSS Module is shown below:

   <?xml version="1.0">
                                                                                                                                           
   <rss version="2.0"
       xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
   >
                                                                                                                                           
       <channel>
           <title>Example</title>
           <description>An RSS Example with WFW</description>
           <lastBuildDate>Sun, 15 May 2005 13:02:08 -0500</lastBuildDate>
           <link>http://www.example.com</link>
                                                                                                                                           
           <item>
               <title>I like Root Beer</title>
               <guid>d77d2e80-0487-4e8c-a35d-a93f12a0ff7d:article:54321</guid>
               <pubDate>Sun, 15 May 2005 13:02:08 -0500</pubDate>
               <link>http://www.example.com/article/54321</link>
               <wfw:commentRSS>http://www.example.com/feed/rss/54321/comments</wfw:commentRSS>
           </item>
   
           <item>
               <title>Rain is Wet</title>
               <guid>d77d2e80-0487-4e8c-a35d-a93f12a0ff7d:article:54320</guid>
               <pubDate>Sun, 15 May 2005 10:55:12 -0500</pubDate>
               <link>http://www.example.com/article/54320</link>
               <wfw:commentRSS>http://www.example.com/feed/rss/54320/comments</wfw:commentRSS>
           </item>

           <item>
               <title>Huh?!</title>
               <guid>d77d2e80-0487-4e8c-a35d-a93f12a0ff7d:article:54319</guid>
               <pubDate>Sun, 15 May 2005 08:14:11 -0500</pubDate>
               <link>http://www.example.com/article/54319</link>
               <wfw:commentRSS>http://www.example.com/feed/rss/54319/comments</wfw:commentRSS>
           </item>
       </channel>

   </rss>

            

The <wfw:commentRSS> element is the reason that the Well-Formed Web RSS Module is popular. This element lets you syndicate your comments. The URI in the <wfw:commentRSS> element must point to an RSS feed containing the comments for the <item> it is contained in.