How to use Feed to Post feature in Feedzy

📝Note: The Feed to Post feature is available in the free version of Feedzy RSS Feeds, but you can enhance its functionalities with the Pro version, which you can get from here. For more details about the plugin, please check the main documentation first.

What can you do with the Feed to Post feature?  You can easily import items from a feed (or more) as posts (or pages) on your websites .

The  imported posts will be listed on the blog page alongside other posts. The styling of the posts is controlled by the WordPress theme you are using. Below is an example of our latest theme, Neve.

🧰 Managing import jobs

Import tasks can be created in Dashboard > Feedzy > Import Posts.

After clicking on New Import, many options will be available:

For each import job, after running, you can see the status of the import job in the following format:

Then, you can click on any element to check the data contained.

• Found (an example here) - list of items found, available for import.

• Duplicates - the number of duplicated items found.
• Imported - the total number of items imported last time.
• Cumulative - the total number of items imported by this job since it's active.
• Status (example here) - working | error.

When a new import job is created and run, the items are imported and cached in the database so the  same items cannot be imported again to prevent duplicates. Running the job again will not work the second time. For this case, you can use the Purge & Reset button, which, as its name suggests, will clear the cached data of the import job so items can be imported again using the same import job without creating a new one.

Other available options:

• enable/disable each task
• manually run it before the 60 minutes routine passed 
• check how many posts were imported since the process was created

📝 Note: It is not recommended to run an import task before configuring the desired post structure in the third step of the wizard.

📥 Create and edit import jobs

To create a new import job, navigate to Dashboard > Feedzy > Import Posts and click on Add New. Each step of the wizard can be gradually opened by clicking on the 🔽 icon.

Sources configuration

Sources

Here you should paste the URL(s) of the feed you want to use as a source, then click on the ➕ button to add it to the list. You can also test if the source is valid and create/use a Feed Category.

Filters

Filters

Posts can be filtered by keywords and date. All the fields in the above image are explained below:

• Filter by Keyword(s) - import the posts only if the defined keywords are available in Title, Description, Author, and Full Content.
• Exclude Items - do not import the posts if the defined keywords are available in Title, Description, Author, and Full Content.
• Filter by Time Range - this can be done by importing only the posts published in a certain interval, after a specific date, or before a specific date.

📝 Note: Including or excluding posts based on the keywords, logical operators are also permitted; examples below. Use comma (,) for OR and plus (+) for AND.

• importing only the posts that contain the following keywords: Dark Knight

Dark+Knight

• importing only the posts that contain the following keywords: Dark Knight OR Dragonball

Dragonball, Dark+Knight

Map content

This wizard step is divided into two panels, General and Advanced options. It is very useful for the magic tags-based customization of the imported posts.

General

Map Content

• Post Type - the feed items that you import can be imported as posts, pages, etc. However, you can only choose one type. If you need more, create another import task with the same settings except for this one. Depending on the post type that you choose, the imported items will be found in their dedicated panels (e.g., imported posts can be found in Dashboard > Posts, not in Dashboard > Feedzy > Import Posts).

• Post Taxonomy - like any post in WordPress, the imported posts can be assigned to a certain category (or categories). Of course, you can manually change that after the import. This field is for automatically assigning a certain category to the posts that will be imported, but you can also retrieve the original source's categories and import them as WordPress categories. Read more about the dynamic post categories here.

• Post Status - the new posts can be automatically published, or you can set them to draft so you can check and manually publish them.
• Post Title - choose magic tags to be assigned as the post title. You can add one or more than one using the Insert Tag button, such as [#item_title],  [#item_author],  [#item_date],  [#item_date_local], [#item_date_feed], [#item_source], [#title_feedzy_rewrite], [#title_spinnerchief], [#title_wordai], [#translated_title].
• Post Date - [#post_date ] is the date when the post was imported to your site, whereas [#item_date] is when the source article was published on the remote website.
• Content - this is the structure of the post content. You can add one or more than one tag using the Insert Tag button: [#item_content], [#item_description], [#item_image], [#item_url], [#item_categories], [#item_source], [#item_full_content]. You can also use the Spintax service here. Read more about the available tag actions in this chapter.
• Featured image - if you want the featured image to be imported, use the magic tag to fill in this field; otherwise, leave it empty. You can also assign the same image for all of them by adding a URL in this field (In this case, we recommend using the URL of an external image or image URL from your website's Media Library ).

📝 Note: There are cases when the feed items don't have a featured image. For such cases, you can use the fallback featured image.

Advanced Options

• External image - by using the external image that the post has on the remote website, the featured image of the imported article won't be saved to the Media Library on your website anymore. A default fallback featured image can be used for the feeds that don't have one. Once you finish configuring the import job, you can set the fallback featured image in Dashboard > Feedzy > Settings - click for image.

• Post Author - inherit the source author to the imported posts in the front-end (Archive Pages) and in the back-end (in the Dashboard).
• Post Excerpt - extract certain elements of the content to be displayed on the Archive Page using the available magic tags. Here you can insert the following tags: [#item_title], [#item_content], [#item_description], [#translated_title], [#translated_content], [#translated description]. If you opt for the translated elements, check this doc to learn how to use them.
• Custom Fields - populating custom fields created with the ACF plugin is possible by using the Custom Fields option available in the import setup of Feedzy. Once the plugin is installed, create new fields, as in the following example. After that, the fields created can be used in the import setup. 

📝 Note: The Custom Fields can be used to extract values from custom tags. Check this doc to learn more about this.

Watch a video on how to use Custom Fields with ACF.

🔎 General feed settings

• Auto-Delete - imported posts can also be deleted after a period of time, for example, 3 days. You can set the desired number of days. The plugin also has a global option in this regard, which can be used to specify after how many days all the posts imported by Feedzy will be deleted for all import jobs (Feedzy Settings General). If you don't want them to be removed, set the global option to 0 so the value within the import job will take higher priority, then set that one to 0 as well.
• Remove Duplicates - the option to Remove Duplicates is helpful when multiple sources are added in the same import job and a particular post is available in two different sources. During the import, Feedzy checks such duplicates; with this option enabled, only one post of that kind will be imported.
• Items Count - choose how many posts you want to be imported each time. Feedzy automatically checks the feed and imports only new posts every 60 minutes. So, by choosing 20 posts, you will get a maximum of 20 posts imported every 60 minutes. 
• Fallback Image - this feature enables you to assign unique fallback images for individual imports. These images are displayed when specific posts lack their own featured image. If left empty, the global fallback image, if configured, will be used instead. If the global fallback image is not set, the post will not have a featured image. This feature is very helpful when you want to use different fallback images according to the import niche.
• Enable automatic translation - is an integrated Feedzy service that allows you to translate titles, content, and excerpts with no external APIs needed. Read more about it here.

📌 Custom Scenarios

Giving credit to the original author

When importing posts on your site, one option is to give credit to the original author. That would be  on the single post page on your site by using the [#item_url] tag in the Map content section while editing the import job - result.

Adding a link when listing posts on the Blog Page

• Link imported posts title to the source post - result. Download the zip file on this page and install it as a new plugin. Check out this video that explains how to link the feed title to the original article.

• Link the read more button to the source post - result. Download the zip file on this page and install it as a new plugin. This code will not display the button if the theme hides it. It just changes the Read More link.

• Change the author of the imported posts - by default, the author of the imported posts is the WordPress user configuring the import wizard. The post's original author with a link to the source website can be listed using the following option available in the Map content > Advanced Options section while editing the import job - result

🧩 Built-in Services

• Deeper Amazon integration - allows you to display Amazon products as feed (post or products) using the ASIN numbers or products' URLs - doc.
• Spintax support - helps create randomized content that displays different information every time someone opens an article - doc.

🚀 Tag Actions

Feedzy RSS Feeds brings in important tag actions that can enhance the content of your posts:

These actions are available for the following tags, and they can differ based on the contained values (e.g., categories will not contain the paraphrase action): 

• [#item_content]
• [#item_full_content]
• [#item_description]
• [#item_categories]

In this way, when you add one of the above tags, the actions modal will appear. If you want to continue with the  original tag and skip any action, leave the modal empty and click on Save Actions.

Available tag actions:

• Trim Content - doc
• Translate with Feedzy - doc
• Search/Replace - doc
• Paraphrasing with Feedzy - doc
• Spin using SpinnerChief - doc
• Spin using WordAI - doc
• Paraphrase with ChatGPT - doc
• Summarize with ChatGPT - doc

One thing that you will note is that in front of each action name, there is a number that represents the order in which the actions will be added to the queue. Using drag and drop, you can easily change their order. In this way, one tag can contain multiple actions, as you can see in the example below:

💡Result

If you want to edit the actions, click on the icon:

🏷 Dynamic Post Taxonomy

📝 Note: Please note that this feature is part of Feedzy RSS Feeds Pro.

Post categories of the imported posts can be configured during the import in the Map Content area. Apart from selecting one or multiple existing categories from the dropdown list, Feedzy PRO allows you to retrieve the original categories from the XML file and convert them into WordPress categories/taxonomies.

To do this, while configuring an import into the Post Taxonomy field, insert one of the following tags:

• [#item_categories] - automatically detects even multiple categories that belong to an item and creates them as taxonomies in your WordPress + assigns imported item to those categories.
• [#item_custom_fieldname] - useful when the feed has multiple categories and you want to use only a particular one (first, second, etc.) or the user wants to use a different element (not <category)) and convert it into a WordPress category during the import. Read More about custom tag parsing.

Original Feed Categories

Retrieved categories in WordPress Posts

🔍 Use Cases

Import item content - Personal license

The content can be fetched by using the  [#item_content] magic tag in the Item Content field of the import wizard.

Import item full-content - Developer/Agency license

The full content can be fetched by using the   [#item_full_content] magic tag in the Item Content field of the import wizard.

📝 Note: If you want to understand more about the difference between the [#item_content] and [#item_full_content] tags, check this doc.

Fallback Image for Feeds

In some cases, items from the same feed might or might not have featured images. To avoid having an inconsistent appearance of the feeds, you can use a fallback image that will be used for feed items that don't have by default.

📝Note: Read more about the Fallback Image for feeds here.

Import an embedded audio player to your posts

Importing embedded audio players to the feeds using Feedzy RSS Feeds is possible. The user will be able to play it directly from your website.

📝Note: Read more about the Fallback Image for feeds here.

🗂 Useful Resources

Allow specific HTML tags unstripped

Some feeds might have HTML tags in their content, and Feedzy doesn't import them by default. Below is a list of tags that are stripped by the plugin.

'base', 'blink', 'body', 'doctype', 'embed', 'font', 'form', 'frame', 'frameset', 'html', 'iframe', 'input', 'marquee', 'meta', 'noscript', 'object', 'param', 'script', 'style'

It is possible to allow HTML tags to be unstripped by adding the following line to the wp-config.php file of your WordPress instance.

define( 'FEEDZY_ALLOW_UNSAFE_HTML', true );

🎥 Video - Getting Started with Feedzy

Troubleshooting

If something doesn't work as expected, it might be worth checking the Feedzy Troubleshooting guide. It covers the first checks that we perform in such cases.