Demos for various…
3rd Party RSS Feed WordPress Plugins
Below are the ways we can “easily” display the RSS feed provided into a WordPress site. There are certainly many plugins for WordPress surrounding RSS display. The ones below are some of the best free options and intended to serve as at least a starting point for our discussion about migrating the events to the new site, and how we can reconcile that with the design documents.
WordPress RSS Block
https://wordpress.com/support/wordpress-editor/blocks/rss-block
- Built into WordPress
- No flexibility or additional options.
WP RSS AGGREGATOR
https://www.wprssaggregator.com
- Uses shortcode to generate list.
- Limited flexibility.
- What you see is basically what it can do.
Example:
- Chair Yoga
- Martin Luther King, Jr. Day – CLOSED
- Story Emporium Used Bookstore
- Toddler Story Time
- Tea & Canvas
- Story Emporium Used Bookstore
- Cooking for One or Two
- Story Emporium Used Bookstore
- Story Emporium Used Bookstore
- Story Emporium Used Bookstore
- Library LEGO
- Preschool Story Time w/Activity Stations
- Kids Yoga
- Traveling the United States
- Preschool Story Time w/Activity Stations
FEEDZY RSS FEEDS
- Uses Block to generate list.
- More flexibility, but mostly locked behind a $100/yr Pro version.
- Similarly, this is about what this can do. At least we get images.
Example:
Warsaw Community Public Library RSS Feed RSS Feed for Calendar
- Cooking for One or Twoon January 14, 2025 at 1:48 pm
01/14/25 @ 3:00pm – 01/14/25 @ 4:00pm Meeting Room A/B Warsaw Community Public Library We often take photos at events. Please tell a staff member if you do not want your photo used in WCPL media. Registration is required. Registration starts: 12/27/2024 @ 10:00am Registration end: 01/10/2025 @ 6:00pm Shannon Shepherd, from Purdue Extension, will be here to explain what nutrients are needed to consume daily, and the quantity needed; how to make economical meals, ways to utilize leftovers, and how to prepare healthier meals. Registration is required but no cost is involved.
- Story Emporium Used Bookstoreon January 14, 2025 at 1:48 pm
01/14/25 @ 4:00pm – 01/14/25 @ 7:00pm Stafford Book Sale Room Warsaw Community Public Library The Friends of the Library operates a bookstore where used books, movies, sound recordings, and video games can be purchased. All proceeds benefit the Warsaw Community Public Library.
- Tea & Canvason January 14, 2025 at 1:48 pm
01/14/25 @ 5:30pm – 01/14/25 @ 7:00pm Meeting Room C Warsaw Community Public Library We often take photos at events. Please tell a staff member if you do not want your photo used in WCPL media. Registration is required. Registration starts: 12/26/2024 @ 10:00am Registration end: 01/10/2025 @ 12:00pm Come and enjoy some guided painting of a winter scene with Lisa Bemish. The cost is $15.00, cash or check, and it is due at the library at the time of registration. Various teas will be provided.
- Chair Yogaon January 14, 2025 at 1:48 pm
01/15/25 @ 11:15am – 01/15/25 @ 12:00pm Meeting Room A/B Warsaw Community Public Library We often take photos at events. Please tell a staff member if you do not want your photo used in WCPL media. Relax with a bend of seated stretching, breathwork and meditation. All levels welcome.
- Kids Yogaon January 14, 2025 at 1:48 pm
01/18/25 @ 10:30am – 01/18/25 @ 11:00am Meeting Room A/B Warsaw Community Public Library We often take photos at events. Please tell a staff member if you do not want your photo used in WCPL media. Come join us for a Yoga Adventure! Maybe we’ll visit the ocean, or climb a high mountain, or explore outer space. As we move and stretch our way through a story together, we will practice yoga poses, breathing techniques, and talk about dealing with big emotions. Kids of all ages and their caregivers are welcome. Bring a yoga mat if you have one, or you can borrow one of ours.
Notes on the RSS Feed Itself
Here is a single “item” in the RSS feed. I have a few notes on this feed, and can’t help but wonder if we can customize the contents of this feed from the LibraryCalendar.com side?
Firstly, the starting and ending dates for these Event “Items” are non-standard XML.
In a “standard” XML document each metric would have its own field. This makes it more difficult (though not impossible) to create custom solutions that would use the start/end date for any kind of sorting / filtering. (This task is compounded by the US date format)
The date info does seem to be output as the first item after the closing CDATA tag. If we could count on it staying there, and its format staying in MM/DD/YY @ HH:MMam, we could parse that into useable dates, but a custom solution based on that would not stand up well to any changes to the feed from the LibraryCalendar.com side.
Indeed, no 3rd party plugin above is capable of parsing these dates since they are “non-standard” XML. Note all the entries in the Feedzy output show January 1, 2000. That’s because they can’t find the start/end date from the RSS feed.
I can only postulate that other solutions that are better using the dates, and have better UI have either:
1. Written their own custom solution using ACF and an ACF block to customize the exact parsing of the feed on the backend, and the exact display of the resulting UI on the front end.
2. Have customized their RSS feed to a more standardized format, which could then be better consumed by some other 3rd party WordPress plugin and/or simple embeddable web content.
<item>
<title>Story Emporium Used Bookstore</title>
<link>https://warsaw.librarycalendar.com/event/story-emporium-used-bookstore- 16</link>
<category>Book Sale</category>
<category>All Ages</category>
<description>
<![CDATA[ <img src="https://warsaw.librarycalendar.com/sites/default/files/2024-06/Apr%20Bookstore%20%28square%29.jpg" /> ]]>
08/03/24 @ 10:30am - 08/03/24 @ 1:00pm Stafford Book Sale Room Warsaw Community Public Library <p>The Friends of the Library operate the Story Emporium Used Bookstore & all profits benefit the Warsaw Community Public Library. The bookstore is located in the library at 310 E. Main Street, Warsaw, IN 46580. </p>
</description>
<guid>https://warsaw.librarycalendar.com/event/story-emporium-used-bookstore-16</guid>
</item>Notes on FeedWind
I don’t think FeedWind offers any plugins for WordPress. Though its output and functionality looks fairly similar to “Feedzy” from above. Basically, attach it to an RSS feed and then output a Widget.