How to Set Up the RSS Feed Importer

This tutorial explains how to import news from RSS sources straight into Drigg.

• Go to Admin>Build>Modules
  • Enable the Drupal module News Aggregator.
  • Enable the Drigg RSS Feed Importer.
• Go to Administer>By Module>Drigg RSS Feeder>Drigg RSS Module General Settings.
• Set the time in seconds which will be used to randomly place scoops into your content.

• Add any keywords which will be used to match to imported RSS feed stories, comma seperated, with NO SPACES.

• Go to Administer>By Module>Aggregator>News Aggregator. You will see List, Add Category, Add Feed, Settings tabs.

NOTE: The Settings tab is for the actual News Aggregator menu item, and has little to do with Drigg-only sites, UNLESS you wish to have a page with aggregated feeds (which will show up as pages rather than scoops) when users click on the News Aggregator menu link, which you will see has been added to your Navigation Menu. If you DO NOT wish for your users to be able to acces this page through the menu (in other words, hide it from your users) then you will need to Administer Menus and disable News Aggregator in Menus.

NOTE: The Category Tab is for setting up various categories that will be listed under the News Aggregator menu link (if you leave that link enabled). In other words, you DO NOT have to set up any categories, as this is not necessary for using the Drigg RSS Feed module.

• Add Feed tab: This is the heart and soul of the setup. Clicking on the tab will open a form with the following fields

  • Drigg RSS feeder drop down menu - Ignore for now, as clicking it will inform you to test your feed first.

  • Title Field - this information will not show up anywhere in your autofed Drigg scoops, so basically this can be used for referencing your various Drigg feeds.

  • URL Field - You will need to paste the actual RSS Feed link from the site you are pulling from, and can usually be found on any website that uses them. An example would be http://arstechnica.com/gaming.rssx, although different sites use different feeds, so the url ending may have something like .feed# or .rss, etc.

  • Update Interval - This drop down menu allows you to set how often you wish to recheck the site you are pulling a feed from. Popular sites with frequent updates will require a lower time. Blogs that are updated every so often… you’ll want a higher time.

• Once you’ve filled in these fields, click SUBMIT.

• The feed will now show up in your Aggregator list. Here’s an example:

Ars Technica Gaming 20 items 1 hour 32 min ago 22 hours 27 min left edit remove items update items

• Click on the “update items” link in your newly created field, and your items count should be added to (as the example shows above, I now have 20 items (potential auto-scoops) pulled from that feed. This shows that you set up the feed correctly.

• Now click on the “edit” link, and you will now notice that the Drigg RSS feeder drop down menu is functional. Click it and you’ll get a whole new form. This form contains:

Checkbox - Enable this feed in Drigg

• Submit as UIDs - you will input the user ID numbers, and not usernames in this field, comma separated. You may wish to set up several “fake” accounts, making note of thier User ID Numbers, and then enter those into this field.

• Category - Drop down menu of all the categories you set up when you first installed and configured your drigg site. Choose the category you wish to have scoops fed into from this feed.

• Automatic Tags - Field where you can place tags that will automatically be added to EVERY SCOOP generated from this feed.

• Once you have set up these fields, click SUBMIT again.

• Now, excitedly click on your home page and click on upcoming to see…

• No new scoops? Run cron.php on your server!

• Now check your upcoming, and see how very, very cool this addition is!