Validating RSS Feeds in Rails

FeedValidator is a gem which validates the RSS feeds through SOAP protocol of the W3C Feed

Validation service. It helps to find out errors in RSS or ATOM feeds. In Rails app we can do the

feed validation by installing the gem.

Step#1

Install the FeedValidator as a gem:

gem feedvalidator

Run the bundler to install the gem

Step#2

Include the require 'feed_validator' into your controller

Step#3

Generate a migration file and edit the file to add the following fields

class CreateFeeds < ActiveRecord::Migration

def self.up

create_table :feeds do |t|

t.string :title

t.timestamps

end

end

def self.down

drop_table :feeds

end

end

Step#4

Validate your feed URL in your controller

def create

site_url = params[:feed][:title].sub(/(\/)+$/,'')

begin

v = W3C::FeedValidator.new

if v.validate_url(site_url) && v.valid?

@feed = Feed.new(:title => site_url)

@feed.save

end

rescue

# Do nothing

end

redirect_to request.referrer

end