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The RSS feed importer polls your feeds and imports published articles into BeyondWords, where they’re converted into audio and/or video as per your project settings. Unlike Magic Embed or the WordPress and Ghost plugins, the RSS Feed Importer does not install the player automatically—see How do I embed the player? below.
We recommend mapping Source ID to your CMS article ID wherever possible. This makes it easier to embed the player with sourceId, search for content in the dashboard, and use platform features that key off source_id.

How it works

BeyondWords checks your configured feeds every 10 minutes for new or updated articles. When it finds changes, it imports the content and starts audio/video generation. See the FAQs for how update detection, page extraction, and feed management work.

Feed types

TypeUse for
XMLStandard RSS or Atom feeds
JSONGeneric JSON feeds
JSON (Pugpig)Pugpig Bolt edition feeds—the most common way Pugpig clients provide content to BeyondWords. See the Pugpig integration guide for webhook setup.

Add a new feed

1

Start a new feed

Go to Settings → Integrations → RSS Feed Importer in your project dashboard.Then, click + Feed.
2

Select feed type

Select the type of feed you want to add: XML, JSON, or JSON (Pugpig). See feed types above for guidance.
3

Add feed URL

Enter the URL of your RSS or JSON feed.
4

Set request headers (optional)

For paywalled or protected content, configure authentication headers so BeyondWords can access your feed and article pages.
  1. Add a Header name and Header value
  2. Click + to add additional headers if needed
  3. Click Save changes
Requests will be made with User-Agent: BeyondWords Importer
5

Configure page extraction (optional)

On the Page extraction step, configure how BeyondWords handles article content:
  • Fetch content from article URLs: If your feed only contains article links rather than full text, switch this on so BeyondWords can fetch and extract content from those pages.
  • Restrict to articles marked for audio in Bolt CMS: Only available when feed type is JSON (Pugpig). Switch this on to import only articles explicitly marked for audio in Bolt CMS. When off, all qualifying articles in the feed are converted to audio.
Once complete, click Continue.
6

Map the feed

Map fields from your feed to BeyondWords article properties. The dashboard shows the fields detected in your feed—select the matching one for each property below.For a typical RSS feed, the usual mappings are:
BeyondWords propertyTypical feed field
Titletitle
Bodycontent or content:encoded
Source IDguid
Source URLlink
Summarydescription
Authorauthor or dc:creator
Publish datepubDate
Required: Body, Source IDOptional: Title, Source URL, Summary, Author, Image URL, MetadataMap Publish date to pubDate if you want BeyondWords to detect article updates—we recommend always including it.If Fetch content from article URLs is enabled, leave Body unmapped—BeyondWords will extract content from the page instead. Map Source URL to link so BeyondWords knows which page to fetch.
7

Save and activate

Click Save changes to complete setup. Your feed will be enabled automatically and BeyondWords will begin checking for articles.
If your website requires IP allowlisting, enable static IP in your extraction settings.
You can also manage RSS feed imports via the RSS feed importer API.
  • BeyondWords will automatically check your feed every 10 minutes for new or updated articles
  • You can manually trigger an import by clicking the button next to your feed and selecting Run
  • New articles will be processed and converted to audio automatically
  • Updated articles (detected by changes in the publish date) will be updated automatically

FAQs

Install the player separately using the JavaScript, iOS, or Android SDK. Use the Source ID or Source URL from your feed mapping to load the correct content—for example, sourceId in the player configuration.
BeyondWords uses the mapped Publish date field (typically pubDate) to detect when an article has been updated. Each time the feed is pulled, BeyondWords compares the publish date in the feed against the value stored from the last import. If the new date is later than what was stored before, the article is re-fetched and its audio/video is regenerated.When you revise an article, your feed should return an updated pubDate. If the publish date stays the same, BeyondWords treats the article as unchanged and will not re-import it.Articles must remain in the feed for BeyondWords to see their publish dates on each pull. If an article drops out of the feed, we can no longer check whether it has been updated.
BeyondWords automatically checks your feed every 10 minutes for new or updated articles. You can also manually trigger an import by clicking next to your feed and selecting Run.
When Fetch content from article URLs is enabled, BeyondWords fetches the full article HTML from the URL in your feed and extracts editorial content using your project’s extraction settings.Automatic extraction works well for many sites, but most publishers also set up content filters to exclude recurring page elements (newsletter sign-ups, related-article blocks, etc.) or include specific containers. Configure filters in Settings → Extraction → Filters. You can also use data attributes for precise control over metadata.

Getting help

If you encounter issues or have questions, contact support.