AD-DA.ca, RSS Feed Reader

Description

The RSS Feed Reader plugin brings syndicated web content into a Q-SYS design: news, weather and traffic alerts, campus or corporate notices, blog posts. It downloads a feed from the web, reads its title and description, and shows its latest items — title, link, date, description and picture — on controls that can be wired, scripted or placed on a UCI.

The plugin reads RSS 2.0, RSS 1.0 (RDF), Atom and JSON Feed. It checks the feed again at a set interval, and on demand with Refresh.

The Q-SYS Core needs access to the web: a gateway and DNS servers set on its network interface, and outbound HTTP and HTTPS (ports 80 and 443) allowed by the firewall.

Key Features

Four feed formats — RSS 2.0, RSS 1.0 (RDF), Atom and JSON Feed, recognised automatically.
One to eight items — the number of items shown is set by a property; unused slots are left empty.
Pictures — the picture of each item is downloaded and shown on its own control, from JSON Feed image, RSS and Atom image enclosures, media:content, media:thumbnail or an image in the item's content.
Clean text — HTML tags are removed and common HTML entities decoded, so titles and descriptions read as plain text.
Automatic refresh — the feed is checked every 1 to 60 minutes, and right away when its address changes or Refresh is pressed.
Status reporting — Status tells why a feed cannot be shown: wrong address, server error, unknown format.

Properties

License

Type: string
Default Value: (empty)
Description: License key of the primary Core. A license is tied to one Q-SYS Core. Without a valid license the plugin does not read any feed and reports Fault - Invalid or missing license; in emulation it works without a license, so a design can be prepared without a Core. To purchase a license, go to https://ad-da.ca.

License Backup

Type: string
Default Value: (empty)
Description: License key of the backup Core, used when the primary key is not valid on the Core running the design.

Item Count

Type: integer
Range: 1 to 8
Default Value: 2
Description: Number of feed items shown, from the newest. Each item adds its own set of controls and pins: Item Title, Item Link, Item PubDate, Item Description and Item Image. When the feed has fewer items, the remaining slots are left empty.

Controls

Status

Controls name: Status
Type: Indicator-Status
Pin Style: Output
Pin Name: Status
Description: Operational status of the plugin. OK once the feed is read; Fault with the reason when it cannot be, in which case the feed information and every item are cleared.

Fault - URL is not a valid RSS URL (HTTP 404)

Fault - Please enter a valid RSS feed URL

Fault - Invalid or missing license

Fault messages

Message	Meaning
`Please enter a valid RSS feed URL`	`RSS Feed URL` is empty when the plugin starts.
`No RSS URL specified`	`RSS Feed URL` was cleared, or `Refresh` was pressed without an address.
`Cannot reach the feed server (…)`	No answer from the server: no network access, DNS failure or wrong host name. The reason follows in brackets.
`URL is not a valid RSS URL (HTTP …)`	The web server answered with an error, such as `404` (no page at that address) or `403` (access refused).
`URL is not a valid RSS Feed`	The page is XML, but not an RSS feed.
`URL is not a valid RSS Feed (no items found)`	The feed has no item.
`URL is not a valid Atom Feed`	The page looks like an Atom feed but cannot be read.
`URL is not a valid RSS, Atom, or JSON Feed`	The page is not in one of the four supported formats.
`Error while decoding XML`	The page is not valid XML.
`Error while decoding JSON Feed`	The page starts like JSON but is not valid JSON.
`URL is not a valid JSON Feed format`	The JSON has no `version` or no `items`: it is not a JSON Feed.
`Invalid or missing license`	No valid license for this Core (see `License`).

RSS Feed Reader Page

RSS Feed Control

RSS Feed URL

Controls name: RSS Feed URL
Type: Text
Pin Style: Input / Output
Pin Name: Controls~Feed URL
Description: Full address of the feed, starting with http:// or https://. Entering an address reads the feed right away and starts the automatic refresh; clearing it stops the refresh and empties every field. The address is kept with the design, so the feed is read again when the Core starts.

To check an address, open it in a web browser: an RSS or Atom feed shows XML starting with <rss, <rdf:RDF or <feed, a JSON Feed shows JSON with a version and items. A website's own page is not a feed; look for an RSS, Atom or feed link on it.

Poll Interval

Controls name: Poll Interval
Type: Knob-Integer
Pin Style: Input / Output
Pin Name: Controls~Poll Interval
Description: Time between two automatic reads of the feed, in minutes, from 1 to 60. Default 5. A new interval applies at once: the next automatic read happens one full interval after the change. Most feeds change every few minutes at most; a short interval only adds traffic to the feed's server.

Refresh

Controls name: Refresh
Type: Button-Trigger
Pin Style: Input
Pin Name: Controls~Refresh
Description: Reads the feed now, without waiting for the next automatic refresh.

Last Updated

Controls name: Last Updated
Type: Indicator-Text
Pin Style: Output
Pin Name: Controls~Last Updated
Description: Date and time of the Core when the feed was last downloaded, as YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS.

Feed Information

Feed Title

Controls name: Feed Title
Type: Indicator-Text
Pin Style: Output
Pin Name: Feed~Title
Description: Title of the feed, as published by its source.

Feed Description

Controls name: Feed Description
Type: Indicator-Text
Pin Style: Output
Pin Name: Feed~Description
Description: Description of the feed (the subtitle of an Atom feed), as plain text. Empty when the feed has none.

Item

One block per item, numbered from 1 to Item Count. Item 1 is the first item of the feed, usually the newest.

Item Title

Controls name: Item Title 1 … Item Title 8
Type: Indicator-Text
Pin Style: Output
Pin Name: Item~1~Title … Item~8~Title
Description: Title of the item, as plain text. No title when the item has none.

Item Link

Controls name: Item Link 1 … Item Link 8
Type: Indicator-Text
Pin Style: Output
Pin Name: Item~1~Link … Item~8~Link
Description: Web address of the full article.

Item PubDate

Controls name: Item PubDate 1 … Item PubDate 8
Type: Indicator-Text
Pin Style: Output
Pin Name: Item~1~Date … Item~8~Date
Description: Publication date of the item, exactly as the feed writes it: Tue, 14 Oct 2026 07:45:00 -0400 in RSS 2.0, 2026-10-14T07:45:00-04:00 in Atom and JSON Feed. In an Atom feed, the date the entry was last updated, or else its publication date.

Item Description

Controls name: Item Description 1 … Item Description 8
Type: Indicator-Text
Pin Style: Output
Pin Name: Item~1~Description … Item~8~Description
Description: Summary or content of the item, as plain text: the description of RSS (or content:encoded), the content or summary of Atom, the content_text, content_html or summary of JSON Feed. Long texts may be shortened to 500 characters, ending with ....

Item Image

Controls name: Item Image 1 … Item Image 8
Type: Button-Trigger
Pin Style: Output
Pin Name: Item~1~Image … Item~8~Image
Description: Picture of the item, shown on the button. The plugin takes the first picture it finds in the item — JSON Feed image, an enclosure of type image/…, media:content, media:thumbnail, image, or a picture in the content — and downloads it. Empty when the item has no picture or the download fails. To show the picture on a UCI, copy this control onto the UCI; the button does nothing when pressed.