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Herb edited this page Nov 4, 2024 · 9 revisions

Feeds is an import and aggregation framework for Backdrop. Import or aggregate data as nodes, users, taxonomy terms or simple database records.

It provides a UI for creating and managing multiple configurations for importing and aggregating simultaneously.

A single configuration for importing is called an Importer. As many importers as desired can be created. Each importer contains a Fetcher for downloading a feed, a Parser for parsing and a Processor for "doing stuff" with it - usually storing the feed.

Default configurations

Don't forget to enable the "Feeds Admin UI" module!

When you install Feeds and also its submodules and go to Administration > Structure > Feed importers (admin/structure/feeds), you will find 2 default importer configurations:

Creating an importer configuration

Of course if the default importers don't fit your use case, you can modify them (click "override"), copy them (click "clone") or you can start from scratch (click "New importer").

Here is a short run down on how to create your own importer. Copying or modifying an existing one is very similar.

Go1. to admin/structure/feeds, click "New importer".

  1. Add a name and a description.
  2. Click "create", now you will be kicked over to the importer's configuration page. From here on out, modifying/copying an existing importer or configuring your new importer works essentially the same way.
  3. Go to "Basic settings". Decide whether the importer should be used on a standalone form or by creating a node ("Attached to content type"); decide whether the importer should periodically refresh the feed and in what time interval it should do that ("Periodic import").
  4. Click "Change" next to "Fetcher" and pick a suitable fetcher for your job. Do the same for "Parser" and "Processor".
  5. Review the settings of each fetcher, parser and processor and adjust them to your job's requirements.
  6. On "Processor" click on "Mapping": define which elements of the feed ("Sources", for example the published date of a feed item) should be mapped to which elements of the Drupal entities ("Targets" - for example a node type's fields). There is a Legend on the bottom of the mapping page, it explains the available mapping sources and targets. This step is mandatory and if omitted, will result in empty entities.

Using your importer

If you have set the importer to be run periodically under Basic Settings then cron and the fetcher will take care of running the importer.

If you are doing one off imports you need to run the importer by going to https://example.com/import.

External Resources.

Start with the modules README File.

Feeds tutorials/examples:

The Feeds module for Backdrop CMS is almost exactly the same as the Feeds module for Drupal 7. Most Drupal 7 documentation will also apply to the Backdrop CMS version of the module: