Forum-wide RSS feed?
Quote from Sara on January 7, 2019, 9:10 pmI have searched this forum for an answer but didn’t see one.
Is there a forum-wide RSS feed? I already have an automated newsletter that goes out monthly with the RSS feed for all posts from the site, but I would love to also include an RSS for any forum posts they may have missed in the last month (great for folks who don’t want to subscribe to notifications for posts as they happen, but still might like to see what has happened in summary form once a month or even weekly).
Thanks in advance!
I have searched this forum for an answer but didn’t see one.
Is there a forum-wide RSS feed? I already have an automated newsletter that goes out monthly with the RSS feed for all posts from the site, but I would love to also include an RSS for any forum posts they may have missed in the last month (great for folks who don’t want to subscribe to notifications for posts as they happen, but still might like to see what has happened in summary form once a month or even weekly).
Thanks in advance!
Quote from Asgaros on January 7, 2019, 11:46 pmHello @sara
Currently RSS-feeds are only available for specific forums and topics.
You wrote that you would love to see RSS-feeds for forum-posts. Do you really mean for all posts of every topic or do you mean topics instead? I think a global feed for all new topics would be possible – it could be available from inside the activity-area. A global feed for all new posts on the other side could be a little bit messy – especially because of a possible huge amount of posts and when there is no kind of sorting and/or grouping as well.
Hello @sara
Currently RSS-feeds are only available for specific forums and topics.
You wrote that you would love to see RSS-feeds for forum-posts. Do you really mean for all posts of every topic or do you mean topics instead? I think a global feed for all new topics would be possible – it could be available from inside the activity-area. A global feed for all new posts on the other side could be a little bit messy – especially because of a possible huge amount of posts and when there is no kind of sorting and/or grouping as well.
Quote from Sara on January 8, 2019, 1:27 amOk, I understand what you’re saying… And I do see the potential of there being way too many posts for well-established forums, but mine is new and I’m trying to get it started and generate more interest for my regular newsletter subscribers and I think the best way to do that would be to let them see titles for all of the topics, at least.
I guess that’s more what I’m asking about is all of the topics rather than individual posts. Thing is, because of the nature of my forum, there may be so many individual forums within it for different research areas that it would be tedious to have an RSS feed for each one.
And let me tell you again: I *love* this forum. You really did a great job on this. Whenever you have any extra options you’d like to add for a price, I’ll be glad to pay for them!
Ok, I understand what you’re saying… And I do see the potential of there being way too many posts for well-established forums, but mine is new and I’m trying to get it started and generate more interest for my regular newsletter subscribers and I think the best way to do that would be to let them see titles for all of the topics, at least.
I guess that’s more what I’m asking about is all of the topics rather than individual posts. Thing is, because of the nature of my forum, there may be so many individual forums within it for different research areas that it would be tedious to have an RSS feed for each one.
And let me tell you again: I *love* this forum. You really did a great job on this. Whenever you have any extra options you’d like to add for a price, I’ll be glad to pay for them!
Quote from Asgaros on January 8, 2019, 11:02 pmHello @sara
Can you tell me a little bit more about how your newsletter-forum-interaction works?
- Do you generate an overview about new posts/topics via an own scripts which reads content from the feed?
- Do you do this via another plugin or do you use an own developed implementation for this?
I am asking because there are different ways on how to “solve this issue”. If you use an own implementation I can provide you an API-function which can return the latest topics to your script.
On the other side if you really need some kind of “view” which users can access via a link some kind of rss-feed or another additional filter for the activity-view will be necessary which shows the latest topics only.
Hello @sara
Can you tell me a little bit more about how your newsletter-forum-interaction works?
- Do you generate an overview about new posts/topics via an own scripts which reads content from the feed?
- Do you do this via another plugin or do you use an own developed implementation for this?
I am asking because there are different ways on how to “solve this issue”. If you use an own implementation I can provide you an API-function which can return the latest topics to your script.
On the other side if you really need some kind of “view” which users can access via a link some kind of rss-feed or another additional filter for the activity-view will be necessary which shows the latest topics only.
Quote from Sara on January 8, 2019, 11:09 pmI just use the MailChimp RSS feed component. To be honest, even if there were just an RSS feed that gave the same information that appears in the recent topics widget, even just topic titles and not author names, that would be sufficient for what I need.
The particular site I’m using this on right now is a regional genealogy site so I am most interested in letting people see the different discussions that are happening in case something is relevant to them.
Thank you!
I just use the MailChimp RSS feed component. To be honest, even if there were just an RSS feed that gave the same information that appears in the recent topics widget, even just topic titles and not author names, that would be sufficient for what I need.
The particular site I’m using this on right now is a regional genealogy site so I am most interested in letting people see the different discussions that are happening in case something is relevant to them.
Thank you!
Quote from Asgaros on January 9, 2019, 7:46 pmHello again @sara
So a rss-feed for this kind of information is required, as far as I understand?
Or would be a specific view which shows all latest topics also fine? For example the activity-view – instead of showing all posts and topics it could show all recent topics only. To this view you could link inside your mail, e.g.: “Click the following link to see the latest topics of the last 14 days.”.
Hello again @sara
So a rss-feed for this kind of information is required, as far as I understand?
Or would be a specific view which shows all latest topics also fine? For example the activity-view – instead of showing all posts and topics it could show all recent topics only. To this view you could link inside your mail, e.g.: “Click the following link to see the latest topics of the last 14 days.”.
Quote from Sara on January 9, 2019, 8:39 pmYes, an RSS feed would be required.
I think it pulls from the XML to put the link and title information in the email template.
Yes, an RSS feed would be required.
I think it pulls from the XML to put the link and title information in the email template.
Quote from Asgaros on January 10, 2019, 4:26 pmHello again, @sara
I see, so you use RSS to generate the newsletter.
Basically I can try to implement a rss-feed for the most recent topics, but as far as I see the entire approach comes with another issue: The problem with those feeds is that they only show the latest X topics. So if one day your site will have more than X new topics in a month, a lot of them will be missing from your newsletter. So in general this will only works as long as your community is relatively small and dont create a lot of topics each month.
Hello again, @sara
I see, so you use RSS to generate the newsletter.
Basically I can try to implement a rss-feed for the most recent topics, but as far as I see the entire approach comes with another issue: The problem with those feeds is that they only show the latest X topics. So if one day your site will have more than X new topics in a month, a lot of them will be missing from your newsletter. So in general this will only works as long as your community is relatively small and dont create a lot of topics each month.
Quote from Sara on January 10, 2019, 10:13 pmCould the RSS feed just have all forum topics? The reason I ask is because the way the RSS feed element works in MailChimp for the blog’s RSS is it just grabs whatever new posts have been published since the last time a newsletter went out, because obviously blog posts have the date and time associated with them.
For instance, if I just include the following feed in my newsletter, MailChimp will automatically pull all articles since the last newsletter:
https://www.eastcarolinaroots.com/feed/
Could the RSS feed just have all forum topics? The reason I ask is because the way the RSS feed element works in MailChimp for the blog’s RSS is it just grabs whatever new posts have been published since the last time a newsletter went out, because obviously blog posts have the date and time associated with them.
For instance, if I just include the following feed in my newsletter, MailChimp will automatically pull all articles since the last newsletter:
https://www.eastcarolinaroots.com/feed/
Quote from Asgaros on January 11, 2019, 12:03 pmHello @sara
No, a rss-feed should only include recent content. Usually – depending on the content-type – there is a defined number between 10 and 50 elements. This ensures that the feed of new feed-subscribers does not get flooded with thousands of elements when they subscribe to it the first time. If a feed would contain all elements, this would also lead to a size-problem at some point when the feed has thousands of elements inside.
As an example here is the rss-feed of a big german newspaper:
https://www.faz.net/rss/aktuell/
As you can see it only contains the latest 16 news. Imagine it would contain all news since they launched their website. In this case the feed would have millions of elements inside and the size of the feed itself could be hundreds of megabyte.
So adding all elements to a feed is definitely not an option – especially not for a community-feed where (depending on its size) hundreds of posts could get generated every hour.
Hello @sara
No, a rss-feed should only include recent content. Usually – depending on the content-type – there is a defined number between 10 and 50 elements. This ensures that the feed of new feed-subscribers does not get flooded with thousands of elements when they subscribe to it the first time. If a feed would contain all elements, this would also lead to a size-problem at some point when the feed has thousands of elements inside.
As an example here is the rss-feed of a big german newspaper:
https://www.faz.net/rss/aktuell/
As you can see it only contains the latest 16 news. Imagine it would contain all news since they launched their website. In this case the feed would have millions of elements inside and the size of the feed itself could be hundreds of megabyte.
So adding all elements to a feed is definitely not an option – especially not for a community-feed where (depending on its size) hundreds of posts could get generated every hour.