Setting Up RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is an XML-based data format that is used to distribute information online. Your customers can subscribe to your RSS feeds and be notified of new products and promotions. RSS Feeds can also be used to publish your product information to shopping aggregation sites, and can also be included in newsletters.

When RSS feeds are enabled, any additions to products, specials, categories, and coupons in your store are automatically sent to the subscribers of each feed. A link to all the RSS feeds that you publish is in the footer of your store.

The software that is used to read an RSS feed is called a feed readerSoftware that is used to read syndicated content from RSS feeds., and allows people to subscribe to headlines, blogs, podcasts, and much more. Google Reader is one of the many feed readers which are available online for free.

To set up RSS feeds for your store:

1.

From the Admin menu, select System > Configuration.

2.

In the upper-right corner, set Current Configuration Scope to the store view where you want the feeds to be available.

3.

In the panel on the left, under Catalog, select RSS Feeds.

4.

In the Rss Config section, set Enable RSS to “Enable.” Then, in each section below, set the feeds that you want to activate to “Enable.”

a.

In the Wishlist section, set Enable RSS to “Enable.”

b.

In the Catalog section, set any, or all, of the following feeds to “Enable.”

• New Products
• Special Products
• Coupons/Discounts
• Tags Products
• Top Level Category
• Top Level Category

c.

In the Order section, set Customer Order Status Notification to “Enable.”

5.

When complete, click the Save Config button.

• Types of RSS Feeds

  RSS Feed	Description
  Wishlist	When enabled, an RSS feed link will be available on top of customer wishlist pages. Additionally, the wishlist sharing page will also include a checkbox that lets you add a link to wishlist RSS feeds on shared wishlists.
  New Products	The new products RSS feed tracks new products added to the store catalog and will syndicate them.
  Special Products	The special products RSS feed will syndicate products with special pricing.
  Coupons / Discounts	Any special coupons or discounts generated in your store will be added to this RSS feed.
  Tags Products	The tags products RSS feed manages and syndicates newly added product tags.
  Top Level Category	This RSS feed tracks new top level categories, or root level categories, in your catalog.
  Customer Order Status	Allows customers to track their order status with an RSS feed. When enabled, an RSS feed link will appear on the order.