An RSS feed is used by search engines to retrieve the latest news from a website. Google, for example, can read an RSS feed every hour and publish new news items from it on Google News.
RSS feeds can be created in the Mercury template using a list. An existing list can be used for this purpose, or a new list can be created.
In order to achieve the desired search engine optimization, the following must be taken into account when setting up an RSS feed:
- There must be a container page with a list (dynamic list or static list) that corresponds to the RSS feed, i.e., the list on the container page must display exactly the same news items that are contained in the RSS feed.
- The list may only be used on a single container page. Although lists can be reused on multiple container pages in OpenCms, RSS feeds require the list to be assigned to a specific, unique container page so that unique links to detail pages can be generated in the RSS feed.
- The list must be sorted by date, with the most recent message at the
- The list may only contain articles, teasers, or media. Although other Mercury content elements can also be combined in lists, if you want to set up an RSS feed, content elements other than articles, teasers, and media content are not permitted.
- A detail page must be configured for the content elements to which the RSS feed can refer.
An RSS feed is created as follows:
- Navigate to a page that contains a list or create a new page with a list.
- Make sure that only content elements of the type article, teaser, or media are configured in the list.
- It does not matter which lead is selected (detailed, compact, masonry, etc.) for the RSS feed. This is only relevant for the display on the website.
- Sort the articles by date in descending order so that the latest news appears at the top.
- Select either the Dynamic List or Static List formatter.
- Make sure that the list is only used on this container page. If you need to use the same list again elsewhere, create a copy of the list.
- Ensure that a detail page is available for all content elements appearing in the list.
- Drag the list onto the same page a second time and this time, instead of selecting the Dynamic List or Static List formatter, select the RSS Feed formatter.
If the list contains configuration errors, a red box with corresponding notes will appear.
If the list is configured correctly, a yellow box will appear with a link to the RSS feed.
Open the link and register it in the Google Publishing Center. Step-by-step instructions for registering an RSS feed for Google News can be found here:
https://support.google.com/news/publisher-center/answer/9545414
OpenCms automatically generates the metadata title, description, and link for an RSS feed. In exceptional cases, however, it may be necessary to set these three metadata items manually for an RSS feed.
To do this, open the list content used for the RSS feed in the editor. Switch to the second tab, Advanced. Here, you can store various settings for RSS feeds under Parameters:
rss-title: Title of the RSS feed, e.g., “Latest press releases from opencms.org.”
rss-description: Description of the RSS feed, e.g., “RSS feed with the latest press releases from opencms.org.”
rss-link: Link to the RSS feed, e.g., “https://opencms.org/pressemeldungen”