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RSS feeds 2.0

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Moodle 2.0

RSS (really simple syndication) feeds in Moodle 2.0 onwards enable people to stay up to date with forum posts, glossary entries and other events within Moodle. RSS is a data format for delivering frequently changing content. More information about RSS

Moodle can both produce and consume RSS feeds.

Producing RSS feeds

Typically the RSS feeds produced by Moodle are accessed by saving the address of a RSS feed to an application called an RSS feed reader which periodically requests the feed to see if there have been any new items added. The feed reader then alerts you of the new items within your Moodle.

Activities that produce RSS feeds

  • Blog
  • Database
  • Forum
  • Glossary

Enabling RSS Feeds

  1. Enable RSS feeds for the site at Site administration -> Advanced features.
  2. Enable RSS feeds for the relevant activity module at, for example, Site administration -> Plugins -> Activity modules -> Database.
  3. In the settings for the individual activity select the number of entries you would like included in the RSS feed.

Restricting access to RSS feeds

To ensure security and privacy RSS feed URLs contain a special token that identifies the user they are for. This prevents users from accessing areas of Moodle they shouldn't have access to via RSS feeds.

Users have this token automatically created for them the first time they access an area of Moodle that produces an RSS feed. If a user feels that their RSS feed token has been compromised in some way they can request a new one by going to My profile settings -> Security keys and clicking the Reset link next to the RSS key.

Subscribing to RSS feeds

To subscribe to an RSS feed produced outside of Moodle:

  1. Add the feed to Moodle by going to Site administration -> Plugins -> Blocks -> RSS client and click on "Add/Edit Feeds".
  2. Click "Add a new feed".
  3. Enter the RSS feed address. If "Enable auto-discovery of feeds?" is checked you should be able to simply enter the URL of a web page. For example if you enter http://english.aljazeera.net Moodle will access that web page and will find the address of their RSS feed.
  4. Once you've saved the RSS feed you can add the Remote RSS Feeds block to a page and select the feed you added.

More information about settings up RSS feed blocks

See also