RSS Merge Tags

Pre-formatted Content

With pre-formatted tags, you can quickly pull RSS content into an email. We’ll take care of the formatting for you.

*|RSS:POSTS_HTML|* and *|RSS:POSTS|*

Creates a progressively generated set of summaries for all of your posts in HTML format. Also displays the Title, Date, Author, Comments, Facebook, Google+, and Twitter sharing buttons. If you want to remove any of these options, you can set up RSS items individually.

*|RSS:POSTS_FULL|* and *|RSS:POSTS_HTML_FULL|*

Creates a progressively generated set of your full posts in HTML format. Also displays the Title, Date, Author, Comments, Facebook, Google+, and Twitter sharing buttons. If you want to remove any of these options, you can set up RSS items individually.

*|RSS:POSTS_TEXT|*

Creates a progressively generated set of summaries for all of your posts in text format. Also displays the Title, Date, Author, a URL to your post, and a URL to comments on the post.

*|RSS:POSTS_TEXT_FULL|*

Creates a progressively generated set of your full posts in text format. Also displays the Title, Date, Author, a URL to your post, and a URL to comments on the post.

*|RSS:RECENT|*

Generates links for the 5 posts published previous to those included in your current campaign.

*|RSS:RECENTxxx|*

Generates links for the posts published previous to those included in your current campaign. Replace xxx with the number of posts you’d like to display.

Merge Tags for Feeds

If you want more control over your campaign’s content, use these tags to specify which RSS elements to include.

*|RSSFEED:TITLE|*

Displays the title of the RSS feed.

*|RSSFEED:DATE|*

Displays the publish date of the feed. You can also include optional date formatting. For example, *|RSSFEED:DATE:d/m/y|*where d is replaced by the day, m by the month, and y by the year. View a full reference of date options on the PHP website.

*|RSSFEED:URL|*

Displays the URL for the feed as a whole, if provided.

*|RSSFEED:DESCRIPTION|*

Displays the feed description, if provided.

Merge Tags for RSS Items

If you want to use individual RSS:ITEM merge tags, bookend the items you’d like to include with *|RSSITEMS:|* and *|END:RSSITEMS|*. The stuff in between those tags gets replicated for each post from your feed.

*|RSSITEM:TITLE|*

Displays the title of the RSS item.

*|RSSITEM:URL|*

Displays the URL for the RSS item.

*|RSSITEM:DATE|*

Displays the publish date of the RSS item. You can also include optional date formatting. For example, *|RSSITEM:DATE:d/m/y|* where d is replaced by the day, m by the month, and y by the year. View a full reference of date options on the PHP website.

*|RSSITEM:AUTHOR|*

Displays the name of the author for the RSS item, if provided.

*|RSSITEM:COMMENTS_URL|*

Displays the URL for comments on your post, if provided.

*|RSSITEM:CATEGORIES|*

Displays a comma-separated list of the categories (tags and “posted in”) for the RSS item.

*|RSSITEM:CONTENT|*

Displays a short summary of the RSS item content in HTML format.

*|RSSITEM:CONTENT_FULL|*

Displays the full content for the RSS item in HTML format, if provided.

*|RSSITEM:CONTENT_TEXT|*

Displays a short summary of the RSS item content in plain-text format.

*|RSSITEM:CONTENT_FULL_TEXT|*

Displays the full content for the RSS item in plain-text format, if provided.

*|RSSITEM:IMAGE|*

Pulls in images from the RSS item. Images are pulled in and displayed at their original size. They can’t be formatted or resized within the campaign.

*|RSSITEM:ENCLOSURE|*

Displays a link to a file you’ve attached to your RSS post (like a podcast) with an icon, file name, and file size.

*|RSSITEM:ENCLOSURE_URL|*

Displays the URL for the attached file.

*|RSSITEM:SOURCE|*

Displays a link to the external “source” of this item, if one is provided.

*|RSSITEM:SOURCE_TITLE|*

Displays the title of your source URL.

Specialized RSS Merge Tags

If you need more explicit control over which RSS elements appear in your campaigns, try this:

*|FEEDBLOCK:URL|* and *|END:FEEDBLOCK|*

First, you’ll need to create the beginning and ending flags for each RSS feed. The stuff between gets replicated for each post in the feed. So if you want to use individual |FEED:ITEM| merge tags, use…

*|FEEDBLOCK:URL|*
    *|FEEDITEMS:|*
        $feed_items
    *|END:FEEDITEMS|*
*|END:FEEDBLOCK|*

…as your open and close tags surrounding the following items you want to include.

The text in your campaign will look something like this:

*|FEEDBLOCK:http://blog.mailchimp.com/feed|*
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
    *|FEEDITEMS:[$count=2]|*
    <tr>
        <td>
            <h2>*|FEEDITEM:TITLE|*</h2>
        </td>
        <td>
            <em>*|FEEDITEM:DATE|*</em>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td colspan="2">
            *|FEEDITEM:AUTHOR|*
            <br />
            <br />
            *|FEEDITEM:CONTENT_TEXT|*
    </tr>
    *|END:FEEDITEMS|*
</table>
*|END:FEEDBLOCK|*

In the tag *|FEEDBLOCK:URL|*, replace URL with your RSS feed’s URL. For the items open tag, use *|FEEDITEMS:[$count=X]|* to limit the number of posts that show on your campaign. The default is 5.

Social RSS Merge Tags

Depending on which social networks your subscribers use, you may want to customize their sharing options.

*|RSSITEM:SHARE|*

Adds icons to share the RSS item on popular social networking sites.

*|RSSITEM:SHARE:Facebook,Twitter,Digg|*

Specifies the social networks on which your subscribers can share your campaign.

*|RSSITEM:LIKE|*

Adds a Facebook Like button that allows a subscriber to like a specific RSS item.

*|RSSITEM:LIKE_TEXT|*

Adds a text version of the Facebook Like feature for subscribers to like a specific RSS item from your campaign.

*|RSSITEM:TWITTER|*

Adds a Tweet button that allows a subscriber to share a specific RSS item on Twitter.

*|RSSITEM:TWITTER_TEXT|*

Adds a text version of the Tweet feature for subscribers to tweet a specific RSS item from your campaign.

*|RSSITEM:TUMBLR|*

Adds a Tumblr button that allows a subscriber to share a specific RSS item.

*|RSSITEM:TUMBLR_TEXT|*

Adds a text version of the Tumblr share feature for subscribers to share a particular RSS item on Tumblr.

*|RSSITEM:PLUSONE|*

Adds a Google+ button for the particular RSS item.

*|RSSITEM:PLUSONE_TEXT|*

Adds a text version of the Google+ button to share a particular RSS item.

*|RSSITEM:INSTAPAPER|*

Adds Instapaper’s Read Later button for a given RSS item.

*|RSSITEM:INSTAPAPER_TEXT|*

Adds a text version of Instapaper’s Read More button.