RSS Retriever Lite

FAQ

Can I customize the layout of imported posts?

Yes. The plugin includes powerful HTML post templates for titles, slugs, content, and excerpts. You can use placeholders such as %post_title%, %post_content%, %post_excerpt%, or %xml_tags[...]% to design your own structure. This gives you full control over how imported articles or products look in WordPress – from simple layouts to complex, SEO-optimized templates that automatically include dynamic data from the feed.

Examples:
– To add a link back to the original source at the end of each post: Source: %link%
– To display the publication date from the feed: Published on %post_date%

These templates make it easy to enrich your posts with useful information, improve SEO, and maintain a consistent style across all imported content.

How to import content into WooCommerce products?

The plugin can import any supported feed (RSS, Google Product Feed, Yandex Product Feed) as WooCommerce products.

To do this, select product in the Post type dropdown. After that, in the Custom taxonomies section you will see additional text fields: Brands, Product categories, Product tags, and Product shipping classes. You can enter values here separated by commas and/or use placeholders. For example, %xml_tags[g:price]% when importing from a Google Product Feed, or %xml_tags[price]% when importing from a Yandex Market (YML) feed.

Optionally, you can enable the Categories to WooCommerce checkbox to automatically convert categories from an RSS feed into WooCommerce product categories.

Can the plugin automatically assign tags to imported posts?

Yes. If you enable the Auto tags option, the plugin will scan the content of each imported post and automatically apply tags that already exist in your WordPress site whenever matching words are found in the text.

Can I import YouTube channel and playlist feeds?

Yes. YouTube video feeds are supported.

For YouTube, you need to use the official feed URLs that Google still provides.

Examples:
– https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UC_x5XG1OV2P6uZZ5FSM9Ttw
– https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?playlist_id=PL41UI99jyjP9eu9M76TIwQ-ihpvr7cs9n

When adding such a feed, go to the feed settings Media handling in the dropdown Post thumbnails, select Create from media attachment. YouTube provides thumbnails via <media:thumbnail> in the feed (as media attachments), so this option ensures that each imported post gets a proper WordPress featured image.

How can I import feeds with multiple language versions (WPML or Polylang)?

If you are using WPML or Polylang and have more than one language on your site, you can create translated versions of each imported post automatically.

For example, if your site has English (EN) as the main language and French (FR) and German (DE) as additional languages, you need to add the same feed three times in the RSS Retriever Syndicator. We recommend adding the language code (EN, FR, DE) to the feed name so it is easier to manage.

In the settings of each feed instance:
1. Select the correct language group (EN, FR, or DE).
2. Enable automatic translation into that language.

This way every imported post will have its own translated version in the correct language group, fully integrated with WPML or Polylang.

How can I automatically remove outdated posts or products?

You can control this using the Post lifetime setting. It defines the period in hours after which an imported post will be automatically deleted. If you do not want to limit the lifetime, set this parameter to 0.

This is especially useful when importing WooCommerce products or any other content where freshness matters, such as product feeds, time-limited offers, or news updates.

Can I control or randomize the publication dates of imported posts?

Yes, the plugin allows you to adjust publication dates using the Post date adjustment range setting. This range defines a random offset (in minutes) that will be applied to each imported post. For example, if you set [0..60], each post date will be shifted forward by a random value between 0 and 60 minutes. Negative values are also supported, so a range like [-60..-10] will backdate posts into the past.

This option works together with the Base date setting, which can be either Get date from post or Use syndication date (the current time). Combined, these settings give you full flexibility: you can backdate imported content, spread posts more evenly in time, or even schedule them into the future.

Can I translate imported content automatically?

Yes, the plugin supports automatic translation via Google, Yandex, and DeepL APIs.

For Yandex Translate, you can use API keys from both versions – v1.5 and v2 are supported.

For DeepL, both free and paid API keys work. If you enter a free API key on the Accounts page, make sure to also enable the Use DeepL API Free option in the translator settings so the plugin knows which API endpoint to use.

When would I need to set a custom User-Agent or HTTP headers?

Some websites restrict access to their feeds or content depending on the client making the request. By setting a custom User-Agent and additional HTTP headers, the plugin can mimic a regular browser or pass required authorization data. This helps when importing from sources that block default WordPress requests, require API keys, or expect specific headers in order to deliver the feed correctly.

How does the plugin handle automatic feed updates?

You can choose between two modes for pulling feeds automatically:

• Auto – uses the built-in WordPress scheduler (WP-Cron). This option works out of the box and does not require any server configuration.
• Cron job or manually – lets you run imports via a real server-side cron job or by triggering the process manually. This mode is recommended if you want more reliable scheduling or full control over when and how often feeds are updated.

With both options available, you can decide whether to rely on WordPress’s internal scheduler or configure a system-level cron job for maximum precision and stability.

How to enrich imported posts with relevant YouTube videos?

You can automatically embed YouTube videos into your imported posts using the %youtube_video[keyword]% placeholder.

Example: %youtube_video[%post_title%]%

The value inside the brackets can be any text string or another supported placeholder such as %post_title%, %xml_tags[name]%, etc.

Why does the featured image appear twice in posts?

This usually happens because the plugin automatically sets a featured image (taken from the RSS enclosure, the first image in the post, or another source), and at the same time your WordPress theme is programmed to display the featured image above the post content. As a result, the same image is shown twice.

How to fix it:
1. Check your theme settings – many themes provide an option to hide the featured image on single post pages.
2. If your theme does not have such an option, you can create a child theme and remove the call to the_post_thumbnail() (or get_the_post_thumbnail()) from the single post template.
3. As an alternative, you can install the free plugin Featured Image from URL (FIFU), which has a “Hide Featured Media” option that prevents featured images from being displayed in single posts while keeping them in archives and listings.