Creating clean RSS errors

martin_narg · 10-21-2010, 01:33 PM

Hey all

Currently writing a PHP app, part of which generates RSS feeds.

I'm wondering whats the best way to output error messages to a dynamically created RSS page.

For example if a user isn't logged in to my app and tries to access a feed url, I'd like to output a handle-able 'You don't have permission to access this' message.

I'm wondering if anyone knows how RSS readers generally handle errors (HTTP error codes would definitely be one) but is there a generic, widely used way of putting error messages into the XML document itself to be cleanly handled? Is the best way just to create an item node with the error details within it?

Cheers for your responses.

m_n

MattF · 10-21-2010, 07:14 PM

Just send a 204, (no content), or 404 response. Whichever you prefer. No point in shunting output to the client just to tell them they can't view the feed, and if you use the 204, it won't alter their cached version of the feed if the current reason is simply because they're not logged in or suchlike.

martin_narg · 10-22-2010, 11:23 AM

That's cool thanks, I think I'll just do that.

Cheers for the shout on the caching, not something I'd thought of.

m_n