Title: RSS Feed Checker
Author: Workshopshed
Published: <strong>May 13, 2012</strong>
Last modified: February 1, 2026

---

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# RSS Feed Checker

 By [Workshopshed](https://profiles.wordpress.org/workshopshed/)

[Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/rssfeedchecker.2.0.zip)

 * [Details](https://lin.wordpress.org/plugins/rssfeedchecker/#description)
 * [Reviews](https://lin.wordpress.org/plugins/rssfeedchecker/#reviews)
 *  [Installation](https://lin.wordpress.org/plugins/rssfeedchecker/#installation)
 * [Development](https://lin.wordpress.org/plugins/rssfeedchecker/#developers)

 [Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/rssfeedchecker/)

## Description

The RSS Feed checker looks through your blogroll for links with rss feeds and then
stores the name and url of the latest article.
 The Links RSS Enhanced widget then
displays the latest links in descending order. The idea for the widget comes from
the blogroll widget on blogger.

Version 2.0 for PHP 8 and above only. Only tested on 6.9.
 For earlier versions 
of PHP use Version 1.1

### Technical section

The plugin will create an extra table in your wordpress database to store the latest
feed updates,
 this will be called links_rss with the prefix for your database e.
g. wp_links_rss

A Cron (schedule) is created to run every 30 minutes and process links. Note that
Cron in WordPress
 depends on hits, your WordPress website receives. So playing 
with this plugin within an offline environment (MAMP, XAMPP, WAMP etc.) without 
anyone or anything triggering the scheduling by sending requests to the WordPress
page won’t produce any results if you do not trigger it by yourself.

### References

A selection of places I’ve found help for this plugin.

Thanks also to Ozh, Roland Rust and for their explainations and examples

#### Admin UI

 * https://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/add_meta_box
 * https://codex.wordpress.org/Administration_Menus#Page_Hook_Suffix
 * http://wpengineer.com/1295/meta-links-for-wordpress-plugins/
 * http://www.code-styling.de/english/how-to-use-wordpress-metaboxes-at-own-plugins
 * http://planetozh.com/blog/2008/02/wordpress-snippet-add_meta_box/
 * http://wptheming.com/2011/08/admin-notices-in-wordpress/
 * http://www.prelovac.com/vladimir/improving-security-in-wordpress-plugins-using-
   nonces

#### Ajax

 * http://return-true.com/2010/01/using-ajax-in-your-wordpress-theme-admin/
 * http://amiworks.co.in/talk/simplified-ajax-for-wordpress-plugin-developers-using-
   jquery/
 * http://xplus3.net/2008/10/16/jquery-and-ajax-in-wordpress-plugins-administration-
   pages/
 * http://www.garyc40.com/2010/03/5-tips-for-using-ajax-in-wordpress/

#### Database

 * http://createmy.com.au/connecting-your-plugin-to-the-wordpress-database/
 * http://webjawns.com/2009/08/the-wordpress-wpdb-class-explained/

#### Scheduling

 * http://wpseek.com/source/wp/latest/nav.html?wp-includes/cron.php.html
 * Ideas on background processing from the broken link checker

#### Settings

 * https://codex.wordpress.org/Settings_API – new way to handle options/settings
 * http://ottopress.com/2009/wordpress-settings-api-tutorial/
 * http://planetozh.com/blog/2009/05/handling-plugins-options-in-wordpress-28-with-
   register_setting/
 * http://wpengineer.com/2139/adding-settings-to-an-existing-page-using-the-settings-
   api/
 * http://blog.gneu.org/2010/09/intro-to-the-wordpress-settings-api/
 * http://alisothegeek.com/2011/01/wordpress-settings-api-tutorial-1/

#### RSS Feeds

 * http://jaewon.mine.nu/jaewon/2010/10/30/how-to-make-your-wordpress-a-rss-reader/
 * https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Filter_Reference/wp_feed_cache_transient_lifetime
 * http://simplepie.org/

## Screenshots

 * [[
 * Extra meta box on each of the links
 * [[
 * Links Menu
 * [[
 * Blogroll sorted by date
 * [[
 * Widget UI
 * [[
 * Link screen options
 * [[
 * Settings

## Installation

#### Installation

 1. Upload all the files to a new directory in the `/wp-content/plugins/` directory
 2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
 3. Visit the RSS Feed Checker Settings to initialise Cron Job and Create Database 
    tables.
 4. From Appearance section of the dashboard select widgets
 5. Drag the “Links RSS Enhanced” widget into your selected sidebar
 6. Enter caption and number of links to show

#### Removal

Because the plugin adds in a database table, options and a cron job (schedule) you
need to remove the plugin via WordPress rather than just deleting it in FTP

 1. Deactivate the plugin
 2. Delete the plugin

If you only deactivate plugin the setting and table will be kept, only the cron 
job will be disabled.

## FAQ

### Where are the settings?

The settings are in the links admin panel under RSS Feed Checker

### Where do I enter the RSS feed details?

The location of the feed can be added into the “advanced” box of the add/edit link
screen. To assist with this, an additional metabox has been added that you can turn
on with the screen options at the top of the screen.

### I have a lot of links will this overload my website?

Firstly, only the links with feeds are processed. The plugin runs every 30 minutes
and you can control how long it will run for and how long it will wait for feeds
to respond. The server load limit can be configured to stop the checker running 
if your server is busy.

### How can I display the feed using a shortcode rather than the widget?

Use the following shortcode syntax.

[LinksRSSEnhanced count=”number”]

### How can I open the links in another tab?

The widget and shortcode will add the target attribute to the link based on the 
target assigned to the link e.g. _blank, _top, _none

## Reviews

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/108c860f305264bead1bc5f318e573d014da5b780e5daec2dcac864a45593c03?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[Just what I wanted](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/just-what-i-wanted-110/)󠁿

 [pipandmick](https://profiles.wordpress.org/pipandmick/) May 16, 2021

I’ve been looking for ages for a plugin that would replicate Blogger’s Blog Roll.
And here it is, does just what I want it to.

 [ Read all 1 review ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/rssfeedchecker/reviews/)

## Contributors & Developers

“RSS Feed Checker” is open source software. The following people have contributed
to this plugin.

Contributors

 *   [ Workshopshed ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/workshopshed/)

[Translate “RSS Feed Checker” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/rssfeedchecker)

### Interested in development?

[Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/rssfeedchecker/), check
out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/rssfeedchecker/), or 
subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/rssfeedchecker/)
by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/rssfeedchecker/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss).

## Changelog

#### 2.0

 * Updates for PHP 8.
 * SQL Injection issues resolved.
 * Swapped to using UTC dates internally and server dates for display.
 * Simplified some of the functions that only existed for backwards compatibility.
 * Swapped microtime_float() with microtime(true)

#### 1.1

 * Added the correct details to allow the internationalisation to work automatically.
 * Changed textdomain from RSS to rssfeedchecker

#### 1.0

 * The link for show all links now only shows if you’ve got a page called “Blog-
   Roll” otherwise is supressed.

#### 0.9

 * Small change to ensure that the Link Manager appears in 3.5

#### 0.8

 * Fix for missing function microtime_float (which was defined in a different plugin)
   thanks to rotwp for spotting the issue.

#### 0.7

 * Initial release

## Meta

 *  Version **2.0**
 *  Last updated **3 months ago**
 *  Active installations **20+**
 *  WordPress version ** 6.9 or higher **
 *  Tested up to **6.9.4**
 *  Language
 * [English (US)](https://wordpress.org/plugins/rssfeedchecker/)
 * Tags
 * [blogroll](https://lin.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/blogroll/)[rss](https://lin.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/rss/)
 *  [Advanced View](https://lin.wordpress.org/plugins/rssfeedchecker/advanced/)

## Ratings

 5 out of 5 stars.

 *  [  1 5-star review     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/rssfeedchecker/reviews/?filter=5)
 *  [  0 4-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/rssfeedchecker/reviews/?filter=4)
 *  [  0 3-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/rssfeedchecker/reviews/?filter=3)
 *  [  0 2-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/rssfeedchecker/reviews/?filter=2)
 *  [  0 1-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/rssfeedchecker/reviews/?filter=1)

[Your review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/rssfeedchecker/reviews/#new-post)

[See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/rssfeedchecker/reviews/)

## Contributors

 *   [ Workshopshed ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/workshopshed/)

## Support

Got something to say? Need help?

 [View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/rssfeedchecker/)

## Donate

Would you like to support the advancement of this plugin?

 [ Donate to this plugin ](http://www.workshopshed.com/)