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Error-Free Feed-Validation Links for Feedburner-Redirected Feeds

[ WordPress RSS Feed ] Just a quick tip on how to create error-free links to feed validation services for feeds that are redirected through Feedburner. For example, let’s say our site’s main feed is originally located at:

http://domain.tld/feed/

If we wanted to provide our visitors with a link that would enable them to automatically validate our feed using a free service such as feedvalidator.org1, we would create the link as follows:

<a href="http://feedvalidator.org/check.cgi?url=http%3A%2F%2Fdomain.tld%2Ffeed">Validate our Feed</a>

..which would do the job nicely. However, if we are redirecting our feed through Feedburner, the previous link will return an error, as the feed URL now registers as the following:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/myfeedname

..depending on the Feedburner name we choose to give it (“myfeedname” in this example). Therefore, in order to link to a feed validation service, we need to write our link as follows:

<a href="http://validator.w3.org/feed/check.cgi?url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2Fmyfeedname">Validate our Feed</a>

Using this link, users will be able to validate (or invalidate, as the case may be) our Feedburner-redirected feed at the click of a button! Oh joy ;)

Update

As Louis points out, it is no longer necessary to link to either validation service using the Feedburner version of your feed URL. However, this was not always the case — roughly several months ago, it was necessary to link to either service using the Feedburner-redirected URL because the original feed URL would return an error. I swear I’m not lying about this! ;)

Apparently, at some point along the way, both validation services mentioned in this article have resolved this issue. So feel free to link to either service using either version of your URL! Great news indeed! — Thanks, Louis, for slapping me down pointing this out! ;)

Footnotes

  • 1 Another free feed validation service is provided by w3.org. To use this service, our link would use the following URL for the href value: http://validator.w3.org/feed/check.cgi?url=
    http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2Fmyfeedname

About the Author
Jeff Starr = Web Developer. Book Author. Secretly Important.
Banhammer: Protect your WordPress site against threats.

3 responses to “Error-Free Feed-Validation Links for Feedburner-Redirected Feeds”

  1. I don’t get the point of this. My feed is redirected with a 301 redirection, from

    http://nophysic.com/rss/

    to

    http://feeds.feedburner.com/nophysic

    When I try to validate using the nice looking redirecting URL, it validates the redirected feed.

  2. Perishable 2008/02/17 3:22 pm

    Hi Louis, thanks for pointing this out. I wrote this article several months ago and posted it for the sake of completeness. I did not realize that the validation services had fixed the issue — I should have checked before posting the article (duh). I have updated the article with an official “disclaimer” informing readers of the misinformation. I apologize for any inconvenience. Thanks for keeping an eye on things! :)

  3. I have redirected my blog feed http://www.sfihomebizz.com/feed/ to feedburner and I get the error below frequently

    PROBLEM: FeedMedic Alert for sfihomebizzcom
    Posted: Mon, 27 Sep 2010 05:57:28 PDT
    FeedBurner had trouble retrieving your Source Feed: http://www.sfihomebizz.com/feed/

    The error message is:

    Error on line 2: The markup in the document following the root element must be well-formed. Actions you can take: Validate your Source Feed with Feed Validator. This service provides additional detail about the problem, and how to repair it.

    My blog feed is validating http://feedvalidator.org/check.cgi?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sfihomebizz.com%2Ffeed%2F

    But my feedburner feed is showing errors on validation

    http://feedvalidator.org/check.cgi?url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2Fsfihomebizzcom

    What is wrong and what should I do. Your site is a complete tutorial Jeff. Thankyou

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