Missing Images in your RSS feed?

missing image

For the images I use in my posts, I have generally used relative urls, like “/images/imagename.jpg”. For the site itself this works just fine. But, yesterday I learned that this doesn’t work for some RSS readers. Some work fine because they are smart enough to detect the relative url and add the appropriate domain to the beginning. However, some aren’t so smart… when they see “/images/…”, they look for a local folder called images. The result is those subscribers don’t see the images in your RSS feed.

If your site has an rss feed you’ll probably want to always use absolute paths for your images. An absolute path contains the entire url for the image… (http://www.yourdomain.com/your-images-folder/image-name.jpg)

As long as I’m on the subject of images in RSS feeds, I should probably mention another experience I’ve had recently. I use hotlink protection to prevent others from putting my images (images hosted by me) on their sites. Some people use online RSS readers like Bloglines, NewsGator, etc… My hotlink protection was preventing those subscribers from seeing the images in my feed. Obviously, that isn’t what I wanted. So I needed to add various online RSS readers to my list of allowed domains.

on a side note, if you subscribe to my RSS feed, and you can’t see the images in my posts, let me know. I may need to add your service to my list of allowed domains.

Sunday, March 12th, 2006 Tips & Tricks

1 Comment to Missing Images in your RSS feed?

  1. I use Bloglines alot as it’s my feed aggregator. And your images are always shown properly.

    2. Kareem on March 12th, 2006

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The Author

Paul Burd is a multimedia designer, and amateur photographer, living in San Francisco. More...

My Other Sites: My Portfolio | My Photoblog

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