RSS Feeds

An RSS feed is a list of items corresponding to pages, often used for news, events, blog posts, or other types of periodic publication. In Modern Campus CMS, feeds are assigned to pages or folders, and updated every time a new page is published. Then the feed can be displayed in places such as a news listing page or on a home page.

RSS feeds are set up under Content > RSS, available to level 10 users only.

Creating a New RSS FeedLink to this section

To create a new RSS feed:

1. Navigate to Content > RSS.
2. Click +New.
3. Enter a root relative file path for the new RSS feed location. This creates the web page URL of the feed. It must start with a slash and end with .xml, for example /rss/news.xml. The path can't be modified after you create the feed.
4. Choose a template for the feed, either /generic-2_0.xml or /generic-mrss-2_0.xml. Using /generic-mrss-2_0.xml lets you add media content (like images or videos) to the feed items.
5. Set a title and description for the feed (required).
6. Set a link for your feed. This should be the domain of your website. It should follow the format of https://yourschool.edu/.
7. If you want, set a publish date and time for the feed items. This only affects the displayed publish date and time of the feed, not the actual publish of any items. If you leave these blank, the displayed date and time are auto populated with the real-time publish date and time of the feed.
8. Define the number of items displayed by the feed, between one and 9,999. Once the feed reaches its limit, older items are automatically removed (though the associated articles remain published).
9. Click Create.

It's recommended to publish the RSS feed after you make it. To publish the feed, go to Content > RSS, click the More Actions menu , click Publish. In the "Publish Feed" box, choose the target server. Publishing an RSS feed updates it to the live website; this also happens automatically when a new item is created and published.

To delete the RSS feed, go to Content > RSS, click the More Actions menu , click Delete. Deleting a feed does not delete any items in it, but they now have nowhere to be listed.

Applying an RSS Feed to a Page or FolderLink to this section

Once an RSS feed is created, it needs to be associated with a page or folder for items to be added to the feed. An RSS feed is assigned to a page or folder in the access settings. Note: When assigned an RSS feed to a folder, this setting must be applied recursively (for example, to all existing files in the folder) for existing pages to be eligible to create feed items.

After a page is assigned an RSS feed, every item created from that page is entered into the feed. Similarly, if a folder is assigned an RSS feed, every RSS item created from pages within that folder is entered into the feed.

If you are creating a new section using a template designated for RSS (for example a "News Section" template), you must go into its access settings after the section is created to assign the RSS feed.

RSS Feed GroupsLink to this section

RSS feeds can be aggregated into a group, creating a single feed that combines the input from one or more individual feeds. To create an RSS group:

1. Navigate to Content > RSS.
2. Click Groups.
3. Click +New.
4. Enter a file path for the new group feed location. This creates the web page URL of the feed. It must start with a slash and end with .xml, for example /rss/news-group.xml. The path can't be modified after you create the feed.
5. Choose a template for the feed, either /generic-2_0.xml or /generic-mrss-2_0.xml. Using /generic-mrss-2_0.xml lets you add media content (like images or videos) to the feed items.
6. Set a title and description for the feed (required).
7. Set a link for your feed. This should be the domain of your website. Each feed item has its own full URL.
8. If you want, set a publish date and time for the feed items. This only affects the displayed publish date and time of the feed, not the actual publish of any items. If you leave these blank, the displayed date and time are auto populated with the real-time publish date and time of the feed.
9. Define the number of items displayed by the feed, between one and 9,999. Once the feed reaches its limit, older items are automatically removed.
10. In "Feed Group Members," select the feeds that you want to include in this group.
11. Click Create.

It's recommended to publish the RSS feed after you make it. After an RSS group has been created, additional feeds can be added to it at any time.

Publish the RSS group to rebuild the aggregate feed, such as after you have added new feeds to the group. Rebuilding a group feed adds in any previously published items, up to the item count set in the feed settings.

Deleting an RSS group only deletes the aggregate feed, not any of the original feeds or items.

Displaying RSS on PagesLink to this section

News or events feed are commonly displayed on listing or home pages by using a source code asset or a snippet.

Alternatively, some pages have the RSS feed for the listing already built into the code. It can be modified via the source code, or there may be page parameters you can use instead. You may even have a separate configuration file for your news listing with many different display options. These page parameters and config files are unique to your implementation and site design; if you have questions about them, reference the development notes given to you by your implementation team, or contact our helpdesk.

Because these news listings use server-side code, you won't see a list of your RSS items on the page in Modern Campus CMS. View the page on the live website to see the items.