is the acronym for Extensible Markup Language. An open standard for exchanging structured documents and data over the Internet that was introduced by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in November 1996.
XML is a popular way for websites to syndicate their content. Lighthouse Christian Church publishes content (such as the Events Calendar) in an XML feed. When you subscribe to an XML feed, you can receive that content as soon as it's published, without the need to visit the Lighthouse Christian Church website. Subscribing to an XML feed is free.
Is it like email?
Yes, XML is similar in many ways to email. Like email, you can subscribe to the content you want and have it sent directly to you. However, XML has several advantages over email. You don't have to provide any personal information (like an email address) when you subscribe to an XML feed, and you don't have to go through a complicated process to unsubscribe from a feed--unsubscribing is just a matter of deleting that feed. In short, XML is safer and easier to manage than email.
How do I read an XML feed?
To read an XML feed such as our Events Calendar feed, you'll need to use a program that can receive and read XML. Some email programs (such as Thunderbird) have the ability to read XML feeds built-in, and there are programs available to add XML-reading capability to other email programs like Outlook. However, many people use programs called XML readers to manage and read their XML subscriptions. There are many XML readers available for all computer platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, etc.), and many of them are free. One of the more popular free XML readers is FeedReader; there are many others available to try out, as a Google search will reveal.
If you don't want to use a separate program to read XML feeds, there are several web-based services that let you read and manage XML feeds online using your normal web browser. Bloglines is one such service.
So how do I subscribe to a Lighthouse Christian Church XML feed?
Subscribing to a Lighthouse Christian Church XML feed is fairly straightforward:
1. Set up a program to read XML feeds (see "How do I read an XML feed?" above for details on doing this).
2. Create a new channel in your XML reader program with the URL of the feed to which you'd like to subscribe. Each XML reader program has its own way of subscribing to a feed, so follow the instructions for whichever program you're using. The URL for the Lighthouse Christian Church Events Calendar feed is www.google.com/calendar/feeds/i761tvcvqe7tb16s05a9t8c7mc@group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.
3. That's it! Once you've created your new channel, you are subscribed to that feed and will receive new content automatically whenever it is posted.
is a format that allows you to view the Lighthouse Christian Church Events Calendar using any product that supports the iCal format (like iCal for Mac.)
