RSS Plugin

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a lightweight XML format designed for sharing headlines and other Web content. It is an easy way to distribute your articles. We've made it easy to create your own RSS channel with PHPCow, completely Web-based.

If you have not installed the RSS plug-in yet, open the General Settings tab and click Plugin management.

Check the RSS Feeds checkbox and click Install.

The RSS plug-in is installed automatically, and you can see it at the end of the left navigation menu.

Once you've created your RSS channel, any site can grab and display your feed regularly, driving traffic your way. Update your RSS channel, and all the external sites will be automatically updated.

Creating RSS Feeds

STEP1 of 2

Each RSS channel can contain as many articles as you like from a given category. To create the RSS Channel, click Create new RSS feed.

Turn the service status ON, select PHPCow Category, Article Types, and Number of articles to build, and set the Channel Title and Description.

Other optional parameters include: Language, Copyright, Emails of Managing Editor and Webmaster, Publication Date and TTL.

Once all required channel parameters are entered, click SAVE to create the channel.

STEP2 of 2 Click Manage RSS feeds to see your active channels.

Now you can insert the XML icon anywhere in your template the same way you insert other elements and functions. Open the template, select where you want an XML icon to appear and click F. In the popup menu, find the RSS section, select the channel name you just created in previous steps and click Get Function.

Now your visitors will find the XML icon on the website and retrieve your articles using RSS parsing tools or scripts.

Importing External XML Sources

Look for this

pictograms in news pages of websites, for example Yahoo! news or BBC news. Place the mouse arrow on one of the above pictograms (in the website you found) and click the right mouse button, then choose "Copy Shortcut".

Open RSS feeds management tab and click RSS block.

Paste the RSS link in RSS source. Customize the block settings the same as you do in the Block Management Section.

Block settings let you also customize Article Title Settings, Article Description Settings, Full Article Link Settings, and Article Title Prefix Settings. Once you make all necessary changes to the block, click Preview and the save the block.

RSS block is loaded the same way you load other blocks in the PHPCow template. Just open the template, select where you want the block to appear, and click F to open the functions popup window. Find the RSS block section, select block 141 and click Get Function to insert it. See the Block Management Section for more information on working with blocks.