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