How to declare Content-type so that browsers recognize a page is an Atom/RSS feed?

Question

I'm sending the HTTP header "Content-type: application/atom+xml; charset=utf-8" in my Atom 2.0 feed right now (using the header() function in PHP).

Whenever I open the URL in Chrome or Konqueror, it will just show text. If I change that to application/xml, Chrome will display an XML tree and Konqueror will still display that as text.

Since I have an Agregator on my computer, shouldn't that xml be opened with it? And if not, since these standards have more than 10 years, shouldn't these browser at least put a button on top of the page to invite downloading an Agregator?

Because of these 2 reasons I guess I'm not using the proper content-type. What do you think?

Answer 1

That's the correct Content-Type for an Atom feed (application/atom+xml). However, Chromium does not handle it correctly (Issue 104358: RSS feeds are not parsed correctly).

One possible workaround for Chromium's bug is to use a more general type (e.g., application/xml). Alternatively, stick with the correct type and accept that users who have chosen that browser will get a more confusing experience.