I’m setting up a blog using Poster 2. I have Freestyle Templates for the List and the Detail.
The page itself is absolutely fine, and the blog posts are displaying correctly online.
However, the RSS feed is showing in News Explorer with the post summary OK, but the article content is wrong, all identical, and seems to be being pulled from the content of an F6 Lightbox! (It’s the About Us Lightbox, which is in the page footer)
Is it possible to have a properly formed RSS feed using Freestyle Templates?
If so, any idea what I might have missed - I’ve been through the documentation?
If not, is it possible to disable the RSS feed generation completely?
Yes, it is, because the way the blog is displayed is independent of the data (which comes from the items).
Could you check following XML? For me, it looks ok (on my mobile phone right now).
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd">
<channel>
<title>Our Food Photography Blog: Focus on Beautiful</title>
<link>https://jaxmore.com/blog</link>
<atom:link href="https://jaxmore.com/blog/?feed=rss" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/>
<description>Hints, Tips and Musings from the team at JaxMore Creative Photography. Our food photography makes people hungry!</description>
<language>en-gb</language>
<copyright>Copyright © JaxMore Creative Photography</copyright>
<lastBuildDate>Sun, 29 Jun 2025 16:15:33 +0000</lastBuildDate>
<pubDate>Sun, 29 Jun 2025 16:15:33 +0000</pubDate>
<image>
<url>https://jaxmore.com/resources/JaxMoreLogoFinalforWhite_300x121.jpg</url>
<title>Our Food Photography Blog: Focus on Beautiful</title>
<link>https://jaxmore.com/blog</link>
</image>
<item>
<title>We turned retro fruit cocktail into theatre — with smoke and a slow pour</title>
<link>https://jaxmore.com/blog/retro-fruit-cocktail</link>
<description><![CDATA[How we shot this fruit cocktail - Retro, but beautifully photographed.]]></description>
<pubDate>Fri, 27 Jun 2025 08:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://jaxmore.com/blog/retro-fruit-cocktail</guid>
<dc:creator>Julia</dc:creator>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src="https://jaxmore.com/blog_images/Fruit-Cocktail-400x400.webp"/></p><p>How we shot this fruit cocktail - Retro, but beautifully photographed.</p>]]></content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title>Yes, the nails match the set - and the pour is real!</title>
<link>https://jaxmore.com/blog/blood-orange-lemonade</link>
<description><![CDATA[How we shot this Sicilian Blood Orange Lemonade, by Belvoir Farm]]></description>
<pubDate>Fri, 13 Jun 2025 08:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://jaxmore.com/blog/blood-orange-lemonade</guid>
<dc:creator>Julia</dc:creator>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src="https://jaxmore.com/blog_images/Orange-Lemonade-Pour-400x400.webp"/></p><p>How we shot this Sicilian Blood Orange Lemonade, by Belvoir Farm</p>]]></content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title>One strawberry. One fork. Two lights. All drama.</title>
<link>https://jaxmore.com/blog/chocolate-strawberry</link>
<description><![CDATA[One strawberry. One fork. Two lights. All drama.]]></description>
<pubDate>Fri, 06 Jun 2025 08:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://jaxmore.com/blog/chocolate-strawberry</guid>
<dc:creator>Julia</dc:creator>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src="https://jaxmore.com/blog_images/Strawberry-Chocolate-Drip-400x400.webp"/></p><p>One strawberry. One fork. Two lights. All drama.</p>]]></content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title>Making brunch look bold: how we styled these waffles to pop</title>
<link>https://jaxmore.com/blog/breakfast-waffles</link>
<description><![CDATA[Making brunch look bold: how we styled these waffles to pop]]></description>
<pubDate>Fri, 09 May 2025 08:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://jaxmore.com/blog/breakfast-waffles</guid>
<dc:creator>Julia</dc:creator>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src="https://jaxmore.com/blog_images/Eating-Breakfast-Waffles-400x400.webp"/></p><p>Making brunch look bold: how we styled these waffles to pop</p>]]></content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title>Making this burger look freshly built - not factory made</title>
<link>https://jaxmore.com/blog/burger-and-chips</link>
<description><![CDATA[Making this burger look freshly built - not factory made]]></description>
<pubDate>Fri, 11 Apr 2025 08:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://jaxmore.com/blog/burger-and-chips</guid>
<dc:creator>Julia</dc:creator>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src="https://jaxmore.com/blog_images/Burger-and-Chips-400x400.webp"/></p><p>Making this burger look freshly built - not factory made</p>]]></content:encoded>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>
The XML looks well-formed, except the <content-encoded> part:
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src="https://jaxmore.com/blog_images/Strawberry-Chocolate-Drip-400x400.webp"/></p><p>One strawberry. One fork. Two lights. All drama.</p>]]></content:encoded>
Which seems to only be pointing to the Image and Title…
Is there a way to get the article content into the <content-encoded> section?
I’m also scratching my head, because I don’t understand where the contents of the F6 About Us Lightbox is coming from - but maybe that’s just News Explorer trying to help!
I have to admit, that currently only the preview image, and the description is included in the <content-encoded> part. Either because I was too lazy, or I hit some issues generating the whole content into this field. Actually I’m pretty open what to include there (maybe with an optional flag trying to include the whole content of the post).
I guess News Explorer grabs the provided link and loads the whole content by itself. Maybe there is an option to disable this in News Explorer. I have seen that every RSS news reader displays the content a bit differently.
The Poster 2 docs also contain only the (1 sentence) description inside this content block of the RSS feed. So if it’s looking good, News Explorer just loads the data by itself.
Yes, I can add an option to include everything what’s in the main part. This would be all HTML markup, without CSS or JavaScript.
But I don’t know if it’s bringing more benefits or issues. Take a modal window or a (image gallery) lightbox for example. The content would not look correct, ass CSS and JavaScript is missing.
I’m more than happy to take my chances with no CSS/JavaScript, if that’s not too much hassle for you. I just have a F6 Text stack with Markdown and a teeny bit of HTML embedding an image.
I also think a switch to disable generating the RSS feed completely would be beneficial (just in case) - if I can generate the RSS feed cleanly with all the post content, then great - it’s a “nice to have” - I’d prefer not to have it at all if it’s going to have issues.
NB. I’m not signposting anyone to the RSS feed - it just appears in many browsers if it exists.
