Finally, you can extend the Zend_Feed classes if you'd like to provide your own format or niceties like automatic handling of elements that should go into a custom namespace. Here is an example of a custom Atom entry class that handles its own myns: namespace entries. Note that it also makes the registerNamespace() call for you, so the end user doesn't need to worry about namespaces at all. Then to use this class, you'd just instantiate it directly and set the myUpdated property: myUpdated = '2005-04-19T15:30'; // method-style call is handled by __call function $entry->myUpdated(); // property-style call is handled by __get function $entry->myUpdated; ]]>