About RSS

What does RSS stand for?
RSS stands for Rich Site Summary, or Really Simple Syndication, depending on who you ask.

What does RSS do?
Imagine a way for you to have all the news pages (news, sports, entertainment, etc...) and articles you might normally have to go surfing for, website to website, delivered directly to one place; much like all your email is delivered to your email program. You can, very generally, think of RSS as an "email program for web pages".

For example: I go to the websites of Dallas Summer Musicals, CNN, the Dallas Mavericks, Sports Illustrated, and, let's say the Wall Street Journal. I use these examples because I know they offer RSS feeds.

For automatic RSS feeds, perhaps like newslines on your MyYahoo! or iGoogle homepage, etc..., just click on our link, then select where you want our news to be listed, and you're finished! If you were to choose your Google homepage, then it would automatically appear! (Same with MyYahoo! etc...)

For manual setup RSS, at each site, I would subscribe to their RSS feed, or channel. Then, at a pre-determined interval of time, my RSS reader would go to all those websites for me, and get all the articles; bringing them back and displaying them in my RSS reader (Aggregator) so that I can browse article titles just like I would email subject-lines. Then, when I select one of the titles, the full web page with the article I selected appears in the view-pane, just like an email would in your email program when you select one of the subject lines.

Then, let's say every 100 minutes (you can set this yourself), my RSS reader goes back to all those websites to see if there are any more new articles. If there are, it delivers the new content to my reader. Content already downloaded once won't be included in subsequent downloads.

Does Dallas Summer Musicals offer RSS ?
Yes

What kind of information will I find in DSM RSS releases ?
Our feed will center on show reviews, press releases, and news articles in general for or about DSM. Basically a central clearing house for DSM news from media agencies like CNN, The Dallas Morning News, Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, etc....

How do I subscribe to DSM's RSS feed ?
Once you have an RSS reader, you can get the DSM feed by clicking here. This link can also be found on the homepage. If you do not yet have a RSS reader, read the section below on where to get one.

Step 1: Using the pull-down menu, select your preferred program to subscribe to the feed.

Step 2: Click on the "Subscribe Now" button.

Step 3: Follow the online directions for the program you selected.

Step 4: You're finished! DSM content should now be accessible. If you chose Google, for instance, our content would default to the upper left-hand corner of your MyGoogle homepage, unless you have chosen a different layout for your page previously.

Step 5: Read your DSM content!

What do I need to use RSS?
Before you can read RSS, you must first install a RSS Aggregator (reader), like the one listed in the above process, or you can choose an RSS reader that you have installed (or want to install) on your computer.. Some email programs, such as Mozilla's Thunderbird have the ability to read RSS built in, others do not. If your email client (program) does not have this ability, don't fret because a great many RSS readers are available. Here are a few options, you may have to experiment to see which one you like best:

Top Picks:

Windows: FeedDemon*

Mac OS X: NetNewsWire

Linux: Straw

Web: Bloglines

*FeedDemon, although not free, is my favorite thus far. It comes with a great many RSS channels pre-programed for ease.

More options:

Windows: SharpReader

Windows: FeedReader (free)

Win/Mac/ Linux: AmphetaDesk (more technical)

Windows: NewsGator (a plug-in to read RSS from within Microsoft Outlook)

Web: NewsIsFree (create your own news page from website sources you're interested in.