ColdBox CBFeeds Skill
When to Use This Skill
Load this skill when:
- Parsing/consuming RSS or Atom feeds from external sources
- Generating RSS 2.0 or Atom feeds for your ColdBox application
- Caching parsed feed results to avoid repeated remote calls
- Exposing content as a syndication feed for readers or aggregators
Installation
box install cbfeeds
Reading Feeds
Injection
property name="feedReader" inject="FeedReader@cbfeeds";
Parse an External Feed
// Returns a struct with channel and items
var feed = feedReader.readFeed( "https://feeds.example.com/rss.xml" )
// Channel metadata
feed.channel.title
feed.channel.description
feed.channel.link
feed.channel.pubDate
// Items array
for ( var item in feed.items ) {
item.title
item.link
item.description
item.pubDate
item.author
item.enclosure // podcast/media attachment
}
Cache Parsed Feeds
var cacheKey = "feed_" & hash( feedUrl )
var feed = cache.getOrSet( cacheKey, function() {
return feedReader.readFeed( feedUrl )
}, 30 ) // cache for 30 minutes
Generating Feeds
Injection
property name="feedGenerator" inject="FeedGenerator@cbfeeds";
Build an RSS 2.0 Feed
var feed = feedGenerator.newFeed()
.setTitle( "My Blog" )
.setDescription( "Latest posts from My Blog" )
.setLink( "https://www.example.com" )
.setPubDate( now() )
.setLanguage( "en-us" )
var posts = postService.getLatest( 20 )
for ( var post in posts ) {
feed.addItem(
title = post.getTitle(),
link = "https://www.example.com/posts/" & post.getSlug(),
description = post.getExcerpt(),
pubDate = post.getPublishedAt(),
author = post.getAuthor().getName(),
guid = "https://www.example.com/posts/" & post.getSlug()
)
}
Render Feed from a Handler
// handlers/Feed.bx
@unsecured
class {
property name="feedGenerator" inject="FeedGenerator@cbfeeds";
function rss( event, rc, prc ) {
var feed = feedGenerator.newFeed()
.setTitle( "My Blog RSS" )
.setDescription( "RSS feed for My Blog" )
.setLink( "https://www.example.com" )
.setPubDate( now() )
var posts = postService.getPublished( 20 )
for ( var post in posts ) {
feed.addItem(
title = post.getTitle(),
link = "https://www.example.com/posts/" & post.getSlug(),
description = post.getExcerpt(),
pubDate = post.getPublishedAt(),
guid = "https://www.example.com/posts/#post.getSlug()#"
)
}
event.renderData(
type = "xml",
data = feed.render( "rss2" ),
contentType = "application/rss+xml"
)
}
function atom( event, rc, prc ) {
// Same as above but render( "atom" )
event.renderData(
type = "xml",
data = feed.render( "atom" ),
contentType = "application/atom+xml"
)
}
}
Register the Route
// config/Router.bx
route( "/feed.rss" ).to( "Feed.rss" )
route( "/feed.atom" ).to( "Feed.atom" )
Best Practices
- Cache consumed feeds — external feeds are slow and rate-limited; cache for at least 15-30 minutes
- Handle HTTP errors from
readFeed()with try/catch — remote feeds are unreliable - Validate feed content before exposing in your UI — externally sourced text should be encoded
- Set a
<link rel="alternate">tag in your HTML<head>to advertise the feed URL to readers - Keep feed items to ≤50 entries — larger feeds waste bandwidth for consumers
- Use
guidin each item — ensures RSS readers correctly identify new vs. existing items - Set
Content-Type: application/rss+xmlfor RSS andapplication/atom+xmlfor Atom