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Free Plugin by Travis v1.6.10

RSS Feed Retriever

The fastest RSS feeds plugin for WordPress. Includes excerpt & thumbnail image. Use as a news aggregator, autoblog, or RSS parsing.

RSS Feed Retriever

The facts

Rating
4.7★ from 38
Active installs
7k+
Price
Free
Last updated
6 Jan 2023
Added
Jan 2014
Requires WP
2.8
Tested up to
WP 6.1.12
Downloads
196,715

Our analysis

AI-assisted

RSS Feed Retriever is a WordPress plugin that allows you to fetch and display one or multiple RSS feeds in an unordered list using a shortcode. You can customize various aspects of the displayed feeds, such as the number of items, excerpts, and whether to include thumbnails or links that open in a new window.

This plugin is suitable for users who want to aggregate content from different RSS feeds on their WordPress site. It is designed to be simple to set up and lightweight, making it a potential choice for blogs or news sites that rely on external content.

Best for: This plugin suits bloggers and website owners looking to aggregate RSS feeds easily.

What it does well

  • Fetches multiple RSS feeds
  • Customizable display options using shortcode
  • Supports thumbnail images
  • Lightweight and fast
  • Easy to set up

Where it falls short

  • Limited feature set in the free version
  • Using thumbnails may increase load times
  • No information on support or updates beyond January 2023

Verdict

RSS Feed Retriever provides a straightforward way to display RSS feeds on your site, though it may lack advanced features without a pro version.

From the developer

Travis's own description of RSS Feed Retriever, lightly tidied.

This plugin fetches an RSS feed, or multiple feeds, and displays them in an unordered list using shortcode.

Demo | Video Tutorial | PRO Version

How to use:

Simply copy and paste the example code below to wherever you would like to display your RSS feed. Replace the url and other properties as needed. (See FAQ section below to use in Gutenberg blocks, widgets, and PHP)

Example:

[wp_rss_retriever url="http://feeds.feedburner.com/TechCrunch/" items="10" excerpt="50" read_more="true" credits="true" new_window="true" thumbnail="200" cache="12 hours"]

Live Demo:

http://demo.thememason.com/rss/

Features:

  • Fetch as many RSS feeds as you want
  • Display the RSS feed wherever you want using shortcode, including text widgets
  • Control whether to display the entire RSS feeds content or just an excerpt
  • Control how many words display in the excerpt
  • Control whether it has a Read more link or not
  • Control whether links open in a new window or not
  • Simple, lightweight, and fast
  • Easy to setup
  • Fetch thumbnail or first image
  • Control size of thumbnail (width and height)
  • Set cache time (in seconds)
  • Control order of items
  • Aggregate multiple feeds into one list
  • Dofollow or nofollow options

Properties:

  • url – The url of the rss feed you wish to aggregate from. For multiple urls simply use a comma between them.
  • items – Number of items from the rss feed you wish to fetch (Default is 10)
  • orderby – Order the items by date, reverse date, or random (default, date, date_reverse, random)
  • title – Whether to display the title or not (true or false, defaults to true)
  • excerpt – How many words you want to display for each item (Default is 20, use 0 for full text, use ‘none’ to remove the excerpt)
  • read_more – Whether to display a read more link or not (true or false, defaults to true)
  • new_window – Whether to open the title link and read more link in a new window (true or false, defaults to true)
  • thumbnail** – Whether or not you want to display a thumbnail, and if so, what size you want it to be(true or false, defaults to true. Inserting a number will change the size, default is 150, use 150×200 format to set both width and height, use percents to fill the width, example: 100%x250 or 50%x250)
  • source – Whether to display the source or not (true or false, defaults to true)
  • date – Whether to display the publish date or not (true or false, defaults to true)
  • cache – How long you want the feed to cache the results (Default is 12 hours, you can use days, hours, seconds etc.)
  • dofollow – Whether or not to make links dofollow (true or false, defaults to false)
  • ajax – Whether to load the feed via JavaScript or PHP (true or false, defaults to true)
  • credits – Whether to give credit to the plugin author (true or false, defaults to false)
  • columns – Set layout to columns/grid layout with number of columns. (defaults to 0, use 2, 3, 4 etc.) **PRO version only**
  • icons – Replace source & date labels with icons (true or false, defaults to true) **PRO version only**
  • layout – Set layout to masonry grid layout. (default or masonry) **PRO version only**

**PLEASE NOTE: Using thumbnails can cause longer load times depending on the feed you are fetching from, use with caution.

Please post any issues under the support tab. If you use and like this plugin, please don’t forget to rate it! Additionally, if you would like to see more features for the plugin, please let me know.

Shortcode can be used anywhere including in posts, pages, text widgets, and in PHP files by using the do_shortcode function. This RSS import plugin is very lightweight with a minimal amount of code as to insure it will not slow down your website. Build a custom news aggregator or use this plugin as a simple feed to post plugin by displaying the RSS parsing feed within the pages of your choice. This RSS aggregator is built on the SimplePie API.

Read the full description on the official page →

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