assemble-middleware-rss

RSS generator plugin for Assemble.

Quickstart

From the same directory as your project's gruntfile and [package.json][], install this plugin:

npm install assemble-middleware-rss --save-dev

Next add assemble-middleware-rss, the name of this module, to the plugins option in the Assemble task:

options: {
  plugins: ['assemble-middleware-rss'],
  rss: {
    title: 'RSS Feed Title',
    description: 'RSS feed description.'
  }
}

Note: Author is also required, but it is pulled from package.json by default. As long as you have a package.json file in the root directory, you don't need to include author in the options.

See the options for further configuration.

Options

Plugin Options

Option	Type	Description	Default Value
format	boolean	Format output XML file using js-prettify	false
dest	string	Destination and filename of the generated RSS feed	'feed.xml'

RSS Feed Data

Data for the RSS <channel> element.

This data is defined under the plugin configuration.

assemble: {
  options: {
    rss: {
      title: 'foo',
      description: 'bar'
    }
  }
}

Required	Type	Desciption	Default Value
title	string	Defines the title of the channel	pkg.name
description	string	Describes the channel	pkg.description
link	string	Defines the hyperlink to the channel	pkg.homepage

Optional	Type	Description	Default Value
categories	array	Defines one or more categories for the feed
cloud	string	Register processes to be notified immediately of updates of the feed
copyright	string	Notifies about copyrighted material
docs	string	Specifies an URL to the documentation of the format used in the feed
generator	string	Specifies the program used to generate the feed
image	string	Allows an image to be displayed when aggregators present a feed
language	string	Specifies the language the feed is written in	'en'
lastBuildDate	string	Defines the last-modified date of the content of the feed
managingEditor	string	Defines the e-mail address to the editor of the content of the feed
pubDate	string	Defines the last publication date for the content of the feed
rating	string	The PICS rating of the feed
skipDays	string	Specifies the days where aggregators should skip updating the feed
skipHours	string	Specifies the hours where aggregators should skip updating the feed
textInput	string	pecifies a text input field that should be displayed with the feed
ttl	string	Specifies the number of minutes the feed can stay cached	'60'
webmaster	string	Defines the email address to the webmaster of the feed
geoRSS	boolean	Enable or disable GeoRSS	false

RSS Item Data

Data for the RSS <item>element(s).

The data for feed items is generally grabbed from the YAML Front Matter.

title: Foo
desciption: This is foo.

Three values are required for the RSS feed to generate:

Value	Type	Description
title	string	Defines the title of the item
description	string	Describes the item

All other values are optional:

Value	Type	Desciption
author	string	Specifies the e-mail address to the author of the item
date	string	Defines the last-publication date for the item
link	string	Defines the hyperlink to the item
categories	string	Defines one or more categories the item belongs to
comments	string	Allows an item to link to comments about that item
guid	string	Defines a unique identifier for the item
source	string	Specifies a third-party source for the item
lat	number	The latitude coordinate of the item
long	number	The longitude coordinate of the item

Excluding content

Both published: false and rss: false will exclude an item from the feed. However, note that published: false will entirely prevent a page from being assembled.

Usage Examples

Generate feed using only required options.

options: {
  rss: {
    title: 'RSS feed description.',
    description: 'RSS feed description.'
  }
}

RSS Specifications

RSS Feed

The RSS feed is generated using the RSS module, a fast and simple RSS generator/builder for Node projects by Dylan Greene. Some of the options this module has are not fully documented here, but are availabe; the information you might need should be with in Greene's documentation.

The content for the RSS feed is pulled from several sources.

As much of the content for the feed as possible is pulled from package.json, e.g. the author name and email; the site name and url. This functionality can be overidden by specifying the feed data in the plugin configuartion. See the options documentaion.

RSS Feed Items

The data for each item is pulled from YAML Front Matter (YFM).

title: foo
desciption: bar

If you do not want to include a page in the RSS feed, you don't have to.

rss: false

The item data you can define in the YFM is listed under the options

---

Built with care by Patrick Burtchaell in New Orleans.

Copyright (c) 2014 Patrick Burtchaell, Jon Schlinkert, contributors. Released under the MIT license.