In this user guide, we’ll show you how to create a custom RSS feed by aggregating content from multiple sources, generating an XML file, and saving it on your desktop. This is a great way to keep track of your favorite websites and stay up-to-date with the latest news and articles.

Please note that due to the limitations of the free WordPress plan, we won’t cover how to automatically update the RSS feed on your website. However, you can still follow this guide to create an RSS feed for personal use or manually upload it to your website.

Step 1: Install Required Libraries

To create a custom RSS feed, you’ll need Python and two libraries: feedparser and feedgen. You can install them using the following command:

pip install feedparser feedgen

Step 2: Set Up RSS Sources

Create a new Python file and list the RSS feed sources you want to aggregate. In this example, we’ll use popular tech news websites:

rss_sources = [
    'https://techcrunch.com/feed/',
    'https://www.theverge.com/rss/index.xml',
    'https://www.wired.com/feed/rss',
    'https://arstechnica.com/feed/',
    'https://www.cnet.com/rss/news/',
]

Step 3: Fetch and Process Feed Entries

Next, we’ll define a function to fetch entries from a single feed and use it to fetch entries from all sources. After that, we’ll sort the entries by publication date, with the newest entries appearing first:

def fetch_entries(url):
    feed = feedparser.parse(url)
    return feed.entries

all_entries = []
for url in rss_sources:
    all_entries.extend(fetch_entries(url))

all_entries.sort(key=lambda x: x.published_parsed, reverse=True)

Step 4: Create the Output Feed

Now, we’ll create a new FeedGenerator object and set its title, link, and description. Then, we’ll iterate through the sorted entries and add them to the output feed:

fg = FeedGenerator()
fg.title('My Custom Tech News RSS Feed')
fg.link(href='https://www.yourwebsite.com/feed', rel='self')
fg.description('A custom tech news RSS feed compiled from multiple sources')

for entry in all_entries:
    fe = fg.add_entry()
    fe.title(entry.title)
    fe.link(href=entry.link)
    fe.description(entry.description)
    fe.pubDate(entry.published)
    fe.source(entry.title, entry.link)

Step 5: Save the XML File to Your Desktop

Finally, we’ll specify the output file path for the generated XML file and save it to your desktop:

desktop = os.path.expanduser("~/Desktop")
output_file_path = os.path.join(desktop, 'my_custom_tech_news_feed.xml')

with open(output_file_path, 'wb') as f:
    f.write(fg.rss_str(pretty=True))

print("Feed generated successfully!")

Step 6: Run the Script

Save the Python file and run the script. You should see the “Feed generated successfully!” message, and the XML file should appear on your desktop.

You’ve now created a custom RSS feed by aggregating content from multiple sources and saved the XML file on your desktop. Unfortunately, we’re unable to provide a solution for automatically updating the RSS feed on your website, as it requires a higher-tier WordPress plan. However, you can still use this guide to create an RSS feed for personal use or manually upload the XML file to your website whenever you want to update the feed.