ROFX - Public Press Releases Open Format XML

This files format was developed by TM Servises developers team to unify the press releases and news (let's name press release and news as PRL later in this text) posting to corresponding web sites.

ROFX abbreviation is simple to pronounce as "rofix". This has an "rfx" extension but internally these files are simply XML-formed with specific tags set - therefore rofix files format is a regular XML acronym.

The main goal of this innovation is:

- simplifying of PRLs composing and posting for publishers using our appropriate software (desktop and server side distributed as free of charge);

- help to spread the authors PRLs to more news web sites.

Rofix is very simple to understand and use. Especially we've developed appropriate software to make the work with this format more convenient.

Let's observe all tags with comments.

This is an empty rofix file without any useful content:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<XML_INFO>
   <ROFX_INFO>
      <ROFX_VERSION>1.00</ROFX_VERSION>
      <ROFX_EDITOR></ROFX_EDITOR>
      <ROFX_DESCR>Public Press Releases Open Format XML (short as ROFX), is a data set that is used by press releases authors to share an information for corresponding web sites. To find out more go to http://www.rofx.org/</ROFX_DESCR>
      <ROFX_ID></ROFX_ID>
      <ROFX_TYPE></ROFX_TYPE>
   </ROFX_INFO>
   <Publisher_Info>
      <First_Name></First_Name>
      <Last_Name></Last_Name>
      <Contact_Info>
         <Company_Name></Company_Name>
         <Street_Address1></Street_Address1>
         <Street_Address2></Street_Address2>
         <City></City>
         <State></State>
         <Postal_Code></Postal_Code>
         <Country></Country>
         <Email></Email>
         <Website_URL></Website_URL>
         <Phone></Phone>
         <Fax></Fax>
      </Contact_Info>
   </Publisher_Info>
   <Info>
      <Creation>
         <Month></Month>
         <Day></Day>
         <Year></Year>
      </Creation>
      <Primary_Category></Primary_Category>
      <Alternative_Categories></Alternative_Categories>
      <Distribution_Permissions></Distribution_Permissions>
      <Content>
         <Languages>English,German,Norwegian</Languages>
         <English>
            <Title></Title>
            <Keywords></Keywords>
            <Summary></Summary>
            <Body></Body>
         </English>
         <German>
            <Title></Title>
            <Keywords></Keywords>
            <Summary></Summary>
            <Body></Body>
         </German>
         <Norwegian>
            <Title></Title>
            <Keywords></Keywords>
            <Summary></Summary>
            <Body></Body>
         </Norwegian>
         <Icon_URL></Icon_URL>
         <Picture_URL1></Picture_URL1>
         <Picture_URL2></Picture_URL2>
         <Picture_URL3></Picture_URL3>
      </Content>
      <URL></URL>
      <IsLocal></IsLocal>
      <Location>
         <Country></Country>
         <State></State>
         <City></City>
      </Location>
   </Info>
   <Event_Info>
      <Event_Start>
         <Month></Month>
         <Day></Day>
         <Year></Year>
      </Event_Start>
      <Event_Close>
         <Month></Month>
         <Day></Day>
         <Year></Year>
      </Event_Close>
      <Event_Location>
         <Event_Country></Event_Country>
         <Event_Place></Event_Place>
      </Event_Location>
   </Event_Info>
   <Multimedia>
      <Audio_File_Url></Audio_File_Url>
      <Video_File_Url></Video_File_Url>
   </Multimedia>
</XML_INFO>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> - information about XML version used in rofix. Encoding attribute is used to make multilingual documents.

The main section-container is <XML_INFO>. This doesn't do anything and only appears as main container.

<ROFX_Info> - common information about rofix. Most of them are filled automatically by ROFX files creation software.

<ROFX_VERSION> - current ROFX version

<ROFX_EDITOR> - software used to create ROFX file

<ROFX_DESCR> - short ROFX description

<ROFX_ID> - unique ID for ROFX file; generated automatically by ROFX editor you prefer

<ROFX_TYPE> - if the ROFX file contains a press release or a news release information.

<Publisher_Info> (to provide press release author's information):

<Publisher_WebSite_URL> - web site URL of PRL author

<Contact_Info> - Author's contact information:

<Publisher_First_Name>,

<Publisher_Last_Name> - name of PRL author

<Company_Name>,

<Street_Address1>,

<Street_Address2>,

<City>,

<State>,

<Postal_Code>,

<Country>,

<Email>,

<Website_URL>,

<Phone>,

<Fax> - comments needless tags.

The next big section is <Info>. This tag contains the main subsections and tags describing the main PRL content.

<Creation> - the date of PRL creation

<Primary_Category> - corresponding category where PRL should be placed (categories are listed in cats file).

<Alternative_Categories> - Many of PRLs could be placed as in one as in few categories. In this tag possibly to describe additional categories (by comma) where concrete release should be placed additionally.

<Distribution_Permissions> - Very important tag describing copyright and policy information.

<Languages> - description of languages used for concrete PRL. Possible to use any of the languages listed in the file "langs". All languages should be enumerated by only comma without spaces!

<Content> - main PRL content section.

<English> - PRL language. Could be any language from file "langs". So if you'd like to post PRL in more than one language just copy this container and change <English> to another.

<Title> - PRL title

<Keywords> - PRL keywords; a set of main keywords which could pe posted with PRL together.

<Summary> - small PRL portion which will be shown with a PRL title in PRLs listing.

<Body> - full PRL content.

<Icon_URL> - URL of icon file (favorite icon of the web site for example) if this exists.

<Picture_URL1> - If PRL contains some pictures there is possible to post URLs pointing to this pictures. <Picture_URL2>, <Picture_URL3> - URLs to another pictures.

<URL> - URL of PRL on the original web site (for example, author's web site) if exists.

<IsLocal> - Yes or No. Intended to specify if PRL is related to some local event. For example, a concert in Norway King Opera is local because it happens at the local place - Oslo, Norway; virus attack spread via Internet is not local because attacks computers through the whole world Internet users.

<Location> - If <IsLocal> has value "yes" the section <Location> describes location detailes. Section's tags are obviously.

<Event_Info> - This is a large section. It could be used if a PRL is event related. What this means? If PRL describes some event having some time limiting it is possible to describe such details, and event place as well.

<Multimedia> - If PRL has some multimedia part like podcast or something like that, it is possible to point an URL to such media files separated by format (audio or video).

You can discuss all ROFX related topics on the forum QArchive.org forum