RSS 2.0 and Images

[parksch2]

Does anyone currently use image files in the <enclosure> tag on the
item level in RSS 2.0? I have summary images associated with each item
that I would like to put in my RSS feed. I tried to test it out on a
few RSS Readers and it didn't work so I'm wondering if this is correct.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Andy Dingley]

Does anyone currently use image files in the <enclosure> tag on the
item level in RSS 2.0?

Probably, but not me.

There's no clear way to include images in an RSS <item> - no matter
which version (This is a bad mistake in all versions, IMHO).

As a result, there are several ad hoc ways of doing it, but no clear
standardisation. You really have to make some big assumptions here
about how the clients will interpret your feeds.

I've even seen such kludges (Yahoo do this on inbound feeds) as
re-cycling the <image> element on the _channel_. This was originally
specced as a tiny "channel ID" icon, and would be pretty static. Yahoo
use it for content though - they expect that the "image for the first
item" will be referenced here, changing for each new item.

IMHO (and as I detest 2.0, then I'm not a good person to ask) then
<enclosure> isn't a good way to do this. It's intended (sic) for
content that is "outside" the core of the item's description.
Widespread usage of "newsfeeds" is such that a single image has a
status more significant than this and there really ought to be better
explicit support for it in RSS.