RSS Feeds

Owned by Carrie Warner (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Apr 04, 2022 by Jonathan Schmale
3 min read

Many websites publish their content as a standardized data format called RSS that allows reuse. These RSS feeds contain content such as headlines, breaking news, traffic details, or community events. You can subscribe to feeds and as new story content is made available, an agent called the RSS Reader brings those stories into Chameleon as stories for you to manage and broadcast.

Chameleon Overview

To subscribe to RSS feeds as new story content:

  1. Create story topics.

  2. Map an RSS Feed to a story topic. 

    1. see below for details

  3. Manage story content.
    See the topic Stories for details.

Important: The RSS Reader agent must be running in order to receive new RSS feed content. If you are troubleshooting a lack of new content, ensure that the RSS Reader agent is running and functional using the Agent Status.

Manage RSS Feeds

You can map RSS feeds to story topics in Chameleon. From the Home page, under Content Control, select Stories > RSS Feeds.  

Map an RSS Feed to a Story Topic

  1. Click Add New RSS Map.

  2. Configure RSS Map details as described in the following table and click Add Now. 

Form item details

RSS Map Option

Details

RSS Map Option

Details

RSS Feed URL

Enter the URL of the RSS feed found complete with the http or https beginning.

Mapped Topic

Select the story topic you want to use to put the stories into.

Exclusive Sync

Story will be both added and removed as they come and go from the feed.

Auto Expiry Time

Specify when the stories automatically expire.

Configure a time, and then set whether stories expire specifically at that time (Absolute) or 24 hours from what is set (relative).

NOTE: Specify the time using a 24 hour clock format.

NOTE: Disabled when Exclusive Sync option is enabled.

Max Stories Per Read

Specify the maximum number of stories you want added to the story topic from the RSS feed each time the RSS Reader agent looks for updated content.

Auto Approve To Air

Specify whether stories are automatically approved or not.

  • When enabled, stories come into Chameleon set to show on air automatically; use this option only if you trust the RSS source.

  • When disabled, you must go to the Stories module and enable each story to show on air manually.

Save Images

Allows you to control whether images from feeds are saved for each mapping. Defaults to No.

Added in version 9.1.1.5

Enabled

Configure whether or not the RSS Reader should use this feed.

Update Existing Stories

When enabled stories and headlines that have changed in the feed will be updated. Defaults to No.

Added in version 14.4.1.4

Manage RSS Mappings to Story Topics

You can manage existing RSS mappings at any time as follows:

Modify Mapping

  1. Click Edit to modify an RSS feed mapping to a story topic.

     

  2. Modify map details as needed.

  3. Click Save Now to save your changes.

Remove Mapping

Removing a mapping does not remove the story topic or the stories in it from Chameleon. However, no new stories are added to the story topic from the RSS feed. Removing a mapping is a permanent action that can only be undone by manually adding a new mapping with the feed settings.

  1. Click Remove to remove the mapping.

  2. Click OK to confirm.