RSS Feed Widget turns any RSS or Atom feed into a tidy, fast and accessible block of content on your site. Use it as a widget, a Gutenberg block or a shortcode.

Highlights

• Widget, “RSS Feed” block and [rfw-feed-widget] shortcode, all with the same options
• Layouts: list or slider (a small dependency-free script, keyboard accessible, respects “reduce motion”)
• Show or hide titles, images, text, date and feed name; limit the words shown; open links in a new tab
• Smart image detection from enclosures, media thumbnails and the item content
• Sort by feed order, newest, oldest, A-Z, Z-A or random
• Built-in caching with a “last good copy” fallback if a feed goes down
• Mute words and phrases site-wide, or hide words per widget
• Shortcode builder and a feed tester in Settings > RSS Feed Widget
• [rfw-youtube-videos] shortcode for privacy-friendly YouTube embeds (youtube-nocookie.com)
• No jQuery, no Bootstrap, no tracking, nothing loaded on pages that do not show a feed

Shortcode example

[rfw-feed-widget rss_url="https://wordpress.org/news/feed/" number="5" list_type="list" show_feed_title="true" keep_feed_link="true" show_date="true"]

Pro (optional add-on)

Pro is plug and play: copy its pro folder into the plugin folder and the extra features switch on. Remove the folder and the free plugin keeps working.

• Combine up to 10 feeds in one widget, merged by date, duplicates removed
• Include / exclude keyword filters and “only the last N days”
• Grid and news-ticker layouts
• Auto-import feed items as posts on a schedule, with a link to the source
• Custom image tag support for unusual feeds

External services

• The feed URLs you enter are fetched by your server (and cached). Nothing is sent to us.
• The optional YouTube shortcode embeds videos from youtube-nocookie.com (Google LLC, privacy policy). If you add a Google API key and a channel ID, your server calls the YouTube Data API (googleapis.com) to find the latest videos (terms).

1. Upload the plugin folder to /wp-content/plugins/, or install it from the Plugins screen.
2. Activate it.
3. Go to Appearance > Widgets, add “RSS Feed Widget” and paste a feed URL. Or add the “RSS Feed” block in the editor. Or use Settings > RSS Feed Widget > Shortcode builder.

Is it safe to update from 3.x?

Yes. Existing widgets and shortcodes keep working: the widget ID, shortcode names and attributes are unchanged. Feed output now uses the active theme’s widget wrapper, and the cache is rebuilt after the update.

What happened to Facebook Page IDs?

Facebook no longer allows reading page posts without your own app credentials, so Page IDs are not supported. Use a feed URL instead.

A feed does not show. What can I check?

Use Settings > RSS Feed Widget > Tools > Test feed. Feeds that point to private or local addresses are blocked on purpose.

How long are feeds cached?

One hour by default. Change it in Settings > General, or per widget with the “Cache” field. The minimum is 60 seconds.

Can I style it?

Yes. The markup uses simple classes such as .rfw-feed, .rfw-item, .rfw-item-title and .rfw-item-text. The older class names (rfw-class, rfw_dock, feed_img, text_div) are kept, so existing custom CSS keeps working.

How do I get Pro?

Download the Pro package from the product page and copy its pro folder into wp-content/plugins/rss-feed-widget/. WordPress.org updates replace the plugin folder, so re-add the pro folder (or use the Pro package) after an update.

4.0.0

• Rebuilt from the ground up for current WordPress (tested with 7.1) and PHP 7.4 to 8.x.
• Security: removed embedded third-party API tokens; replaced unserialize() of stored data; escaped all output; all feed content is reduced to plain text and cached as plain data; feed fetching uses WordPress’ safe HTTP API and blocks private and reserved addresses; admin actions are capability- and nonce-checked; removed the public debug parameters.
• New: “RSS Feed” Gutenberg block.
• New: lightweight accessible slider replaces bxSlider; jQuery, Bootstrap and jquery.form are no longer loaded.
• New: date and feed-name display, “open in new tab” option, autoplay and timing controls.
• New: shortcode builder, feed tester and cache tools in Settings.
• New: cached feeds fall back to the last good copy when a feed is down.
• New: widget now uses the theme’s widget wrapper and title markup.
• Changed: Facebook Page IDs are no longer supported (they relied on embedded tokens).
• Changed: shortcode default for number of items is 6.
• New (Pro): plug-and-play “pro” folder with multi-feed, filters, grid and ticker layouts, auto-import to posts and custom image tag.

3.0.3

• Maintenance release.

3.0.2

• New: content_display=”linked_title” shortcode option.

3.0.1

• Fix: escape REQUEST_URI to prevent reflected XSS in old browsers.

3.0.0

• Fix: stored XSS in a shortcode.