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Inspiring
February 13, 2009
Question

RSS Feed not validating

  • February 13, 2009
  • 5 replies
  • 840 views
H Ifolks,

I'm trying to validate my feed but keep getting problems can anyone see how I can fix this?

I have replaced the '=' with &##61; but it doesnt seem to like it for some reason.

This feed does not validate.

line 15, column 97: XML parsing error: <unknown>:15:97: not well-formed (invalid token) [help]
... age&#61;view-announcement&announcementid&#61;105</link>
    This topic has been closed for replies.

    5 replies

    matthiscoAuthor
    Inspiring
    February 19, 2009
    I can't thank you enough for that!

    Thats great!

    Thanks again!

    Matt
    Matt Gifford
    Participating Frequently
    February 19, 2009
    @matthisco

    thanks for the xml.

    I ran through it, and it now validates (according to feedvalidator.org).
    There are still a few recommendations that _could_ be added, but it works.

    Here's the result:

    <rss version="2.0">
    <channel>
    <title>title</title>
    <link> http://intranet/</link>
    <description>Announcements</description>
    <language>en-us</language>
    <copyright>Copyright 2009</copyright>
    <lastBuildDate>Thu, 19 Feb 2009 10:20:15 GMT</lastBuildDate>
    <item>
    <title>Launch Event of Sandwell's Primary Care Strategy</title>
    <description>&lt;p&gt;Sandwell's Primary Care Strategy is being launched&nbsp;on&nbsp;Tuesday March&nbsp;31st&nbsp;which will provide you with the opportunity to find out the plans for primary care of the coming year.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
    <link> http://intranet/?area=announcements/index&page=view-announcement&announcementid=111</link>
    <author>email@yourdomain.com</author>
    <pubDate>Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:37:00 GMT</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
    <title>REMINDER - High Street Closure</title>
    <description>&lt;p&gt;Please remember that West Bromwich High Street will be closed to traffic 12noon - 3pm today.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
    <link> http://intranet/?area=announcements/index&page=view-announcement&announcementid=110</link>
    <author>email@yourdomain.com</author>
    <pubDate>Wed, 18 Feb 2009 11:13:00 GMT</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
    <title>Unison AGM - Sandwell Health Branch</title>
    <description>&lt;p&gt;The Annual General Meeting (AGM) for the author of Unison is being held on Thursday 26th February.&lt;br /&gt;
    &nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
    <link> http://intranet/?area=announcements/index&page=view-announcement&announcementid=109</link>
    <author>email@yourdomain.com</author>
    <pubDate>Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:07:00 GMT</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
    <title>Telephone Lines at Vision Point </title>
    <description>&lt;p&gt;Telephone Lines Down at Vision Point&lt;/p&gt;</description>
    <link> http://intranet/?area=announcements/index&page=view-announcement&announcementid=108</link>
    <author>email@yourdomain.com</author>
    <pubDate>Tue, 17 Feb 2009 08:48:00 GMT</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
    <title>Creditor Payment Section - call times </title>
    <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;Creditor Payment Section - telephone call times &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
    <link> http://intranet/?area=announcements/index&page=view-announcement&announcementid=107</link>
    <author>email@yourdomain.com</author>
    <pubDate>Mon, 16 Feb 2009 11:59:00 GMT</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
    <title>Telephone Lines at Vision Point </title>
    <description>&lt;p&gt;Problem with phone lines.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
    <link> http://intranet/?area=announcements/index&page=view-announcement&announcementid=106</link>
    <author>email@yourdomain.com</author>
    <pubDate>Mon, 16 Feb 2009 11:41:00 GMT</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
    <title>Lidl Car Parking</title>
    <description>&lt;p&gt;From Monday other than authorised users (they know who they are) no member of PCT&nbsp;staff should park on the Lidl Car Park.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
    <link> http://intranet/?area=announcements/index&page=view-announcement&announcementid=105</link>
    <author>email@yourdomain.com</author>
    <pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2009 17:50:00 GMT</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
    <title>Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) Training </title>
    <description>&lt;p&gt;Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) Training&lt;/p&gt;</description>
    <link> http://intranet/?area=announcements/index&page=view-announcement&announcementid=104</link>
    <author>email@yourdomain.com</author>
    <pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2009 15:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
    <title>High Street CLOSURE - Weds 18th Feb</title>
    <description>&lt;p&gt;West Bromwich High Street will be closed to traffic 12noon - 3pm on Wednesday 18th February 2009.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
    <link> http://intranet/?area=announcements/index&page=view-announcement&announcementid=103</link>
    <author>email@yourdomain.com</author>
    <pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2009 14:28:00 GMT</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
    <title>Food Policy Team have moved</title>
    <description>&lt;p&gt;The Food Policy Team have moved - here are their new contact details.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
    <link> http://intranet/?area=announcements/index&page=view-announcement&announcementid=102</link>
    <author>email@yourdomain.com</author>
    <pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2009 13:19:00 GMT</pubDate>
    </item>
    </channel>
    </rss>

    I changed the ASCII characters back to '-' and '='. The main thing throwing issues was the ampersand near every 'announcementID' in each item link. The others were formatted to &, wheareas the announcementID just used '&'.

    I hope this helps.
    Any more problems, let me know.

    Matt
    Matt Gifford
    Participating Frequently
    February 13, 2009
    Can you send me a sample (the first 30+ lines if not all) of the actual XML?

    Cheers
    matthiscoAuthor
    Inspiring
    February 19, 2009
    Thanks for your replies.

    My xml is attached

    Thanks again
    Matt Gifford
    Participating Frequently
    February 13, 2009
    @matthisco

    what's the feed address/url you're trying to process?
    Are all ampersands converted to &?