I'm not exactly sure why, but someone forwarded me the feedvalidator results of a NASA RSS feed, and they fail miserably.
There's empty <pubDate>s, javascript <link>s, unencoded HTML in the <description> that's not valid XML and therefore makes the entire document invalid, etc.
Quite frankly, coming from NASA, I found it somewhat amusing... I mean, it's not like this stuff is exactly rocket science, is it?
hi there,
I guess NASA deploys the right kind of developer for the right task.
Mission critical software gets the cool developers
whereas the not so mission critical stuff gets the usual developer
-- just about
every company out there sent invalid feeds till it is told about it!
BR,
~A
Send a note to Keith Cowing at NASAWatch.com. Keith likes skewering NASA for stuff like this.
NASA IT leaves ... a lot to be desired.
Posted by Geof F. Morris at January 29, 2006 7:53 PMI dunno, I've done simulations on masses doing re-entry and that was a helluva lot easier than trying to figure out what the hell the RSS2.0/Atom/RSS1 specs say.
Posted by Danno at January 30, 2006 2:02 AMIs this a live RSS feed?
http://www.nasa.gov/rss/ lists the NASA public feeds. I don't see a lab science one listed. The other RSS Feeds do validate. What website links to this bad feed?
Yes, those are "myNASA" channel RSS feeds and aren't checked frequently (hence they are not listed as regular feeds - an "easter egg" of sorts). I think you'll find that there's a perfectly simple explanation for this: it's generated by an automated process, and (surprise!) sometimes automated processes break.
Thanks for letting us know - albeit indirectly - so we can fix it!
[Paints a giant target on his back.]
Posted by Colin Enger at January 31, 2006 10:21 AMUnpaid? I donated a buck. It's a good program Luke.
Posted by Compugasm at February 10, 2006 2:13 AMMhhh, OFF TOPIC:
Is there a possibility to use FireFox as Feedbrowser in the preview window??
:)
Posted by Pash at February 13, 2006 6:28 AMHey mate, i was wondering if you were planning a new version of sharpreader anytime soon? its great!
Posted by john at February 22, 2006 1:41 PMI'D OFFER YOU A POSITION IF I WERE THEM. I'm just starting out. Mainly to see what it's all about. I'm a bored retired home user who is just amazed at how far computers have come and what they are capable of. Any tips you want to impart would be welcome. Have a nice day.
Posted by Jack Tracy at February 28, 2006 12:05 AMAgree with Christopher Bunk. imho, It could be done deliberately by NASA team for reasons yet to be figured out. I checked out the RSS Feeds page at http://www.nasa.gov/rss/ and there is no reference to the feed discussed. It could also have been just abandoned...
Posted by guest at March 9, 2006 8:00 PM