How Do I Use the RSS Widget in SoCast?
How Do I Use the RSS Widget in SoCast?
Warning:
This widget is being deprecated in February 2020.
This Article Is For:
- All users who have access to one or more of the following: pages, blogs, contests, and sidebars.
- This applies to all themes.
Features:
- SoCast's RSS Widget displays posts from any RSS feed, including password-protected feeds (as long as you have the password).
- RSS feeds are a great tool for displaying the latest posts and news stories from your favorite websites.
Tips:
- To find RSS feeds on a website, look for words like “subscribe” or “feed”, or look for the standard RSS feed icon.
- To copy the feed URL, right-click and select “copy link” or “copy link location”.
- Check the feed with a validation tool. If there is an error, contact the feed provider.
- When creating an RSS feed, publishers (e.g., NBC) may allow you to show either a preview or the entire article.
- Many websites limit their RSS feeds to only show excerpts of the full posts.
- Feeds often provide only a truncated (shortened) version of an article, usually a short excerpt and perhaps a featured image.
- Examples of RSS feed URLs:
Step-by-Step Guide
- Widget Name: This is the name of the widget shown in the Drag-and-Drop Editor. It will not be displayed on the website.
- Display Title: Choose whether you’d like the title displayed by selecting “Yes” or “No” from the drop-down menu.
- Feed URL: Enter the RSS feed URL you have copied from a website.
- Feed Username: (Optional) Provide a username to access a secured feed, if required.
- Feed Password: Enter the password for a protected feed, if necessary.
- Format: Choose the type of format for your feed:
- RSS: Usually displays a short paragraph with a “read more” link to the full article.
- NewsML: Usually displays the full article on the page.
- Target: Choose whether you want articles in the feed to open in the current window or a new window.
- Items to Display: Set the number of articles you want displayed. We recommend multiples of 5.
- Allow Multiple Pages: Select “Yes” if you want to display a paginator when there are more items than the set display limit; otherwise, select “No.”
- Click the Save button.
Example
