The Easiest Way to Create RSS Feeds From Your Models in Laravel

Let me guide you through the process of adding an RSS feed to an existing Laravel application, where each item is represented by a model record.

Install laravel-feed¶

The spatie/laravel-feed package is easily the best way to set up an RSS feed.

Start by installing it.

composer require spatie/laravel-feed

Next, publish the config file. This is really important, and you won't be able to configure your feed properly without it.

php artisan feed:install

Once that's done, register the feeds routes that handle all of your feeds. Just add to routes/web.php.

Route::feeds();

Configuring feed items¶

Imagine you have a Campaign model (representing email campaigns) and wanted these to be listed in a feed.

Head to that model and:

• Implement the Feedable interface on the model class.
• Implement the toFeedItem method.

use Spatie\Feed\Feedable;
use Spatie\Feed\FeedItem;

class Campaign extends Model implements Feedable
{
    //...
    public function toFeedItem(): FeedItem
    {
        return FeedItem::create()
            ->id($this->id)
            ->title($this->title)
            ->summary($this->teaser)
            ->updated($this->created_at)
            ->link(route('campaign.webview', $this->mailcoach_uuid))
            ->authorName('New in Laravel')
            ->authorEmail('alex@newinlaravel.com');
    }
}

The toFeedItem method configures (in a standardized way) all of the properties of each feed item. If you're unsure of a particular property, fill it with anything for now and return back once your feed is working to tweak it.

Fetch and scope your feed items¶

Within the same model, add a getFeedItems method. This is responsible for fetching all the items you'd like to display in your feed.

Now's a great time to scope/order your query.

use Spatie\Feed\Feedable;
use Spatie\Feed\FeedItem;

class Campaign extends Model implements Feedable
{
    public static function getFeedItems()
    {
        return Campaign::query()
            ->whereNotNull('sent_at')
            ->latest('sent_at')
            ->get();
    }

    public function toFeedItem(): FeedItem
    {
        return FeedItem::create()
            ->id($this->id)
            ->title($this->title)
            ->summary($this->teaser)
            ->updated($this->created_at)
            ->link(route('campaign.webview', $this->mailcoach_uuid))
            ->authorName('New in Laravel')
            ->authorEmail('alex@newinlaravel.com');
    }
}

Configure the feed¶

All that's left to do is choose where this feed will be available, and adjust some other properties.

Head to config/feed.php. Here's the config file without any modifications:

return [
    'feeds' => [
        'main' => [
            /*
             * Here you can specify which class and method will return
             * the items that should appear in the feed. For example:
             * [App\Model::class, 'getAllFeedItems']
             *
             * You can also pass an argument to that method. Note that their key must be the name of the parameter:
             * [App\Model::class, 'getAllFeedItems', 'parameterName' => 'argument']
             */
            'items' => '',

            /*
             * The feed will be available on this url.
             */
            'url' => '',

            'title' => 'My feed',
            'description' => 'The description of the feed.',
            'language' => 'en-US',

            /*
             * The image to display for the feed. For Atom feeds, this is displayed as
             * a banner/logo; for RSS and JSON feeds, it's displayed as an icon.
             * An empty value omits the image attribute from the feed.
             */
            'image' => '',

            /*
             * The format of the feed. Acceptable values are 'rss', 'atom', or 'json'.
             */
            'format' => 'atom',

            /*
             * The view that will render the feed.
             */
            'view' => 'feed::atom',

            /*
             * The mime type to be used in the <link> tag. Set to an empty string to automatically
             * determine the correct value.
             */
            'type' => '',

            /*
             * The content type for the feed response. Set to an empty string to automatically
             * determine the correct value.
             */
            'contentType' => '',
        ],
    ],
];

Each item under the feeds array are each of your feeds (yes, you can have multiple!). For now, we'll just stick with the main feed and adjust some details:

return [
    'feeds' => [
        'main' => [
            /*
             * Here you can specify which class and method will return
             * the items that should appear in the feed. For example:
             * [App\Model::class, 'getAllFeedItems']
             *
             * You can also pass an argument to that method. Note that their key must be the name of the parameter:
             * [App\Model::class, 'getAllFeedItems', 'parameterName' => 'argument']
             */
            'items' => 'App\Models\Campaign@getFeedItems',

            /*
             * The feed will be available on this url.
             */
            'url' => '/feed',

            'title' => 'New in Laravel RSS Feed',
            'description' => null,
            'language' => 'en-US',

            /*
             * The image to display for the feed. For Atom feeds, this is displayed as
             * a banner/logo; for RSS and JSON feeds, it's displayed as an icon.
             * An empty value omits the image attribute from the feed.
             */
            'image' => '/favicon-96x96.png',

            /*
             * The format of the feed. Acceptable values are 'rss', 'atom', or 'json'.
             */
            'format' => 'atom',

            /*
             * The view that will render the feed.
             */
            'view' => 'feed::atom',

            /*
             * The mime type to be used in the <link> tag. Set to an empty string to automatically
             * determine the correct value.
             */
            'type' => '',

            /*
             * The content type for the feed response. Set to an empty string to automatically
             * determine the correct value.
             */
            'contentType' => '',
        ],
    ],
];

Lastly, head to yourapp.test/feed (or whatever URL you chose) and your should see your feed!

And that's how easy it is to add an RSS feed to your Laravel applications. If you need more information on the spatie/laravel-feed package, there's more over on the GitHub repository.