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

Features

  • Pluggable import configurations consisting of fetchers (get data) parsers
    (read and transform data) and processors (create content on Backdrop).
    • HTTP upload (with optional PubSubHubbub support).
    • File upload.
    • CSV, RSS, Atom parsing.
    • Creates nodes or terms.
    • Creates lightweight database records if Data
      module is installed (not ported yet).
    • Additional fetchers/parsers or processors can be added by an object-oriented
      plugin system.
    • Granular mapping of parsed data to content elements.
  • Import configurations can be piggybacked on nodes (thus using nodes to track
    subscriptions to feeds) or they can be used on a standalone form.
  • Unlimited number of import configurations.
  • Export feeds importer configurations.
  • Optional libraries module support.
  • Previewing source content before importing.

Requirements

  • Job Scheduler
  • PHP safe mode is not supported, depending on your Feeds Importer configuration
    safe mode may cause no problems though.

Installation

  • Install Feeds, Feeds Admin UI.
  • To get started quick, install one or all of the following Feature modules:
    Feeds News, Feeds Import, Feeds Fast News (more info below).
  • Make sure (cron)[https://backdropcms.org/user-guide/setting-cron] is correctly configured.
  • Go to import/ to import data.

SimplePie Installation

To install the SimplePie parser plugin, complete the following steps:

  1. Download (SimplePie)[http://simplepie.org/downloads]. The recommended
    version is: 1.5.6.
  2. Decompress the downloaded zip file.
  3. Rename the uncompressed folder to simplepie. For example rename
    simplepie-1.5 to simplepie.
  4. Move the folder to /libraries. If the folder does not exist, created it.
    The final directory structure should be /libraries/simplepie.
  5. In order for your site to recognize this library, you have two options.
    Either install the Libraries
    module, or,
    put this line in your settings.php file:
    $config['feeds.settings']['feeds_library_dir'] = 'libraries';
  6. Flush the Backdrop cache.
  7. The SimplePie parser should be available now in the list of parsers.

PubSubHubbub support

Feeds supports the (PubSubHubbub publish/subscribe protocol)[http://code.google.com/p/pubsubhubbub/].
Follow these steps to set it up for your site.

  • Go to admin/structure/feeds and edit (override) the importer configuration you
    would like to use for PubSubHubbub.
  • Choose the HTTP Fetcher if it is not already selected.
  • On the HTTP Fetcher, click on 'settings' and check "Use PubSubHubbub".
  • Optionally you can use a designated hub such as http://superfeedr.com/ or
    your own. If a designated hub is specified, every feed on this importer
    configuration will be subscribed to this hub, no matter what the feed itself
    specifies.

Libraries support

If you are using the Libraries module, you can place external libraries in the
Libraries module's search path (for instance /libraries). The only external
library used at the moment is SimplePie.

Libraries found in the libraries search path are preferred over libraries in
feeds/libraries/.

API Overview

See "The developer's guide to Feeds": http://drupal.org/node/622700

Testing

See "The developer's guide to Feeds": http://drupal.org/node/622700

Debugging

Set the Backdrop config variable feeds_debug to TRUE. This will create a file
/tmp/feeds_[my_site_location].log. Use tail -f on the command line to get a
live view of debug output. You can either set it in feeds.settings.json in
your active configuration folder or by putting
$config['feeds.settings']['feeds_debug'] = TRUE; into the settings.php file.

Note: at the moment, only PubSubHubbub related actions are logged.

Performance

See "The site builder's guide to Feeds": http://drupal.org/node/622698

Hidden settings

Hidden settings are variables that you can define by either updating them in
feeds.settings.json in your active configuration folder or overriding them in
settings.php file like this example: $config['feeds.settings']['NAME'] = VALUE;.

Name: feeds_debug
Default: FALSE
Description: Set to TRUE for enabling debug output to
/BACKDROPTMPDIR/feeds_[sitename].log

Name: feeds_importer_class
Default: 'FeedsImporter'
Description: The class to use for importing feeds.

Name: feeds_source_class
Default: 'FeedsSource'
Description: The class to use for handling feed sources.

Name: feeds_data_$importer_id
Default: feeds_data_$importer_id
Description: The table used by FeedsDataProcessor to store feed items. Usually a
FeedsDataProcessor builds a table name from a prefix (feeds_data_) and the
importer's id ($importer_id). This default table name can be overridden by
defining a variable with the same name.

Name: feeds_process_limit
Default: 50
Description: The number of nodes feed node processor creates or deletes in one
page load.

Name: http_request_timeout
Default: 15
Description: Timeout in seconds to wait for an HTTP get request to finish.
Note: This setting could be overridden per importer in admin UI:
admin/structure/feeds/<your_importer>/settings/<your_fetcher> page.

Name: feeds_never_use_curl
Default: FALSE
Description: Flag to stop feeds from using its cURL for http requests. See
http_request_use_curl().

Name: feeds_use_mbstring
Default: TRUE
Description: The extension mbstring is used to convert encodings during parsing.
The reason that this can be turned off is to be able to test Feeds behavior when
the extension is not available.

Import Preview

Ever get frustated by debugging your Feeds importers, because you could not get
a hang of what's actually in the source? Are you trying to get your config for
XPath Parser right? Or do you wonder if your configured Feeds Tampers leads to
the desired result? You can preview the results before importing. As a bonus, it
scans your source also for unmapped elements. This is especially handy in case
of importing CSV files, where you can quickly see which columns of your CSV file
are not mapped yet.

How the preview works

The importer configuration page has a section called "Preview". In there,
there is a form that looks almost exactly like the standalone import form
provided by Feeds. Put in your source like you would normally do during a real
import.

Import Preview will then fetch and parse your source and then show you
the parsed result in a series of tables for the first 50 records. Note that the
process step is completely skipped during the preview.

Finally, when you're good with the preview, you can continue to the import form
and re-input your source to trigger the real import.

Note:

  • You will only get a preview of the parsed result, not the end result. The
    content to import may still be modified during processing.
  • Sources provided at the preview form will not overwrite the sources provided
    at the import form, and vice versa. This means that if you want to import a
    source that you just previewed, you need to put it in again at the import
    form.
  • Previewing a source will not trigger an import.
  • Only the first 50 records of the source will be shown. This limit may be
    configurable in the future. Right now, it depends on the feeds_process_limit
    setting.
  • You can navigate through the results using the left and right arrow keys on
    your keyboard (given that your browser supports this).

Glossary

See "Feeds glossary": http://drupal.org/node/622710

License

This project is GPL v2 software. See the LICENSE.txt file in this directory for complete text.

Maintainers

Credits

Drupal version maintained by: