Add or Edit an RSS Source

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A Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed is a file that includes information about content that a site has published, and will allow a user to keep track of the updates to those sites. An RSS source allows members of the Administrators and Content Managers built-in groups to add the content of an RSS feed to a Coveo organization.

The availability of old and new RSS feed items depends on the RSS feed configuration contained in an XML file.

Notes

  • If the XML feed file contains OpenSearch information, your RSS source uses it to include all available items in the feed as far in the past as possible.

  • If the XML feed file doesn’t contain OpenSearch information, the RSS source doesn’t retrieve old feed items, only new ones that are published.

  • The indexing process of RSS sources keeps items in your source even when they’re filtered out of the RSS feed as new items are published. The filtered-out RSS feed items are however deleted from the source when you perform a source rebuild or rescan.
Example

A technological website RSS feed is configured to provide only the last 100 articles, therefore previous articles aren’t accessible. When you create, rebuild, or rescan your RSS source, you get the last 100 RSS articles available on this site at that time. The next day, five articles are published and your source ends up containing 105 articles.

Six months later, it may contain a thousand articles as long as you don’t rebuild or rescan the source, in which case it will only contain the last 100 articles.

Tip
Leading practice

The number of items that a source processes per hour (crawling speed) depends on various factors, such as network bandwidth and source configuration. See About Crawling Speed for information on what can impact crawling speed, as well as possible solutions.

Source Key Characteristics

Features Supported Additional information

RSS feeds version

RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0, and Atom 1.0

Searchable content types

check

RSS feeds (or channels) and RSS items.

Content update operations

refresh

check

Takes place every hour by default. A rescan or rebuild is required to take account of deleted items.

The last update time of each RSS feed item must be available for indexing. Without it, the source sets the default minimum value, making a rescan or rebuild necessary to retrieve item changes.

Depending on the RSS feed format, the following property must be defined for each item:

  • Atom 1.0: <updated>

  • RSS 2.0: <a10:updated>

rescan

check

rebuild

check

Content security options

Same users and groups as in your content system

x

Specific users and groups

check

Everyone

check

Add or Edit an RSS Source

When adding or editing your RSS source, follow the instructions below.

"Configuration" Tab

On the Add/Edit an RSS Source subpage, the Configuration tab is selected by default. It contains your source’s general and content information, as well as other parameters.

General Information

Source Name

Enter a name for your source.

Tip
Leading practice

A source name can’t be modified once it’s saved, therefore be sure to use a short and descriptive name, using letters, numbers, hyphens (-), and underscores (_). Avoid spaces and other special characters.
Example

Corporate-RSS-Feeds

Feed URL

Enter the web addresses of RSS feeds that you want to index in the file:///, http://, or https:// format.

Note

Ensure that your RSS feed is in one of the following supported formats:

  • RSS 1.0

  • RSS 2.0

  • Atom 1.0
Example

http://rss.cnn.com/rss/cnn_tech.rss

As you start typing the first RSS address, another field appears under the one you’re already typing into. This is to remind you that you can add more than one RSS feed address in your RSS source.

Optical Character Recognition (OCR)

If you want Coveo to extract text from image files or PDF files containing images, check the appropriate box. OCR-extracted text is processed as item data, meaning that it’s fully searchable and will appear in the item Quick View. See Enable Optical Character Recognition for details on this feature.

Note

Contact Coveo Sales to add this feature to your organization license.

"Authentication" Section

Enter the Username and Password of the RSS feed website account that has access to the RSS feed content you want to include. See Source Credentials Leading Practices.

"Content Security" Tab

Select who will be able to access the source items through a Coveo-powered search interface. For details on this parameter, see Content Security.

"Access" Tab

In the Access tab, set whether each group and API key can view or edit the source configuration (see Resource Access):

  1. If available, in the left pane, click Groups or API Keys to select the appropriate list.

  2. In the Access Level column for groups or API keys with access to source content, select View or Edit.

Completion

  1. Finish adding or editing your source:

    • When you want to save your source configuration changes without starting a build/rebuild, such as when you know you want to do other changes soon, click Add Source/Save.

      Note

      On the Sources (platform-ca | platform-eu | platform-au) page, you must click Launch build or Start required rebuild in the source Status column to add the source content or to make your changes effective, respectively.

    • When you’re done editing the source and want to make changes effective, click Add and Build Source/Save and Rebuild Source.

      Back on the Sources (platform-ca | platform-eu | platform-au) page, you can review the progress of your source addition or modification.

      Once the source is built or rebuilt, you can review its content in the Content Browser.

  2. Optionally, consider editing or adding mappings once your source is done building or rebuilding.

What’s Next?

Schedule source updates.