Concrete CMS RSS Feed: Set Up the Page List Block

Short answer: Concrete CMS can publish an RSS feed without custom code. Add a Page List block to a page, filter it to your blog entry page type, sort it by publish date, switch on the option that provides an RSS feed and save the block. The block then offers a feed address that lists your newest pages with titles, descriptions and links. Check that every page has a public date and a short description, test the address on the live site and paste it into an auto-poster, so that each new entry is shared on your social channels automatically.

Concrete CMS, formerly known as concrete5, is an open source system with in-context editing. Editors click on the page and change it where it stands, and blocks such as the Page List show content from other pages. Many people know it as a way to build menus and news lists, but the same block can also produce a feed. This guide walks through the set-up in plain steps, explains which page properties matter for the quality of the feed and shows how to test it. Menu names differ a little between versions, so look for the same words if a label has moved.

Understand what the Page List block produces

The Page List block builds a list of pages that match rules you set: a page type, a position in the sitemap, a topic or an attribute. In the editing dialog you can sort the list, limit the number of results and choose whether to show descriptions, dates or thumbnails. One of its options provides an RSS feed for the same list. When you turn it on, Concrete asks for a title and a description of the feed, and it creates an address from which the list is delivered as XML.

This is different from the RSS Displayer block, which reads an external feed and shows it on your page. The Displayer consumes feeds, and the Page List creates them. If you want your own articles in a feed, you need the Page List.

Prepare the pages first

A feed is only as good as the pages behind it. Before you add the block, check how your blog entries are built:

• Use one page type for all articles, for example Blog Entry, so that the block can filter by it and nothing else appears.
• Give each page a short description in the page properties. The feed uses it as the summary, and an empty description makes weak social posts.
• Set the public date on purpose. It decides the order of the feed and the date shown for each item.
• Add a thumbnail attribute if your theme has one, so that your team has a picture ready for every article.
• Approve the page version. A page with an unapproved version does not show the new text.

The public date deserves attention. Editors sometimes change it to move an article up a list, and a changed date can make an auto-poster think that the page is new. Agree in your team that the date is set once, when the article goes live, and is not changed later. The causes of repeated posts are explained in why a feed auto-posts the same article twice.

Add the block and switch on the feed

1. Open the page where the list should live, such as your news or blog page, and enter edit mode.
2. Add a Page List block to an area of the page.
3. Choose the page type that holds your articles, for example Blog Entry, and leave the other filters empty unless you need them.
4. Sort by publish date, newest first, and set a limit of twenty items.
5. Turn on the option that provides an RSS feed, then enter a clear feed title and a one-sentence description.
6. Save the block and publish the page.

After saving, the block shows the address of the feed. Copy it and open it in a browser. You should see raw XML or a page that offers to subscribe, depending on your browser. If the block does not show an address, check that the option is saved and that the page itself is published, because a draft page cannot serve a public feed.

Where to put the block

Place the block on a page that visitors can also use. A news or blog index with a visible list is a natural choice, because the list and the feed always match. If you prefer a clean page, create a hidden one and remove it from the navigation, but do not block it for search engines or for visitors who follow the feed address. Keep the page published and keep its path stable. If an editor moves it to another place in the sitemap, the feed address may change, and every tool that used the old address stops receiving updates.

Control what appears

Because the feed follows the block, its rules are the block’s rules. A few settings make a big difference:

• Page type. Filter by the page type so that contact pages and landing pages never appear in the feed.
• Topics or categories. If you use topics, you can create one block per topic and offer a separate feed for each audience.
• Exclusions. Concrete has an attribute that hides a page from lists. Use it for pages that must be public but should not be announced.
• Limit. Twenty items are enough for an auto-poster that checks often. A feed of five hundred items is slow and gives no benefit.

Test each rule by publishing a page that should be excluded and confirming that it does not appear. Do this on a real page, because rules that look right in the dialog sometimes behave differently with inherited attributes.

Caching, speed and the live site

Concrete can cache pages, blocks and its own data to run faster, and caching affects feeds as well. If your site uses full-page caching, a new article may take a few minutes to appear in the feed, and a long cache lifetime can make your social posts arrive late. Decide how quickly you want updates. A lifetime of a few minutes is usually a good compromise. After a deployment or a change in the block settings, clear the cache in the dashboard and check the feed again. Background on delays is in why auto-posted content sometimes lags.

Check the response headers as well. The feed should be served with an XML content type, and the status should be 200. A login page or a redirect to a maintenance screen is a common surprise on sites that restrict access during development. See the guide to the content type header un the guide to feed status codes.

Multilingual sites

Concrete supports multilingual sections, where each language has its own branch of the sitemap. Create one Page List block in each branch, filter it to that branch and give each feed a title in its own language. A single feed that mixes languages causes an auto-poster to share the same story in several languages, one after the other, and followers will see it as spam. Keep one feed and one social channel for each language. See the guide to multilingual feeds for more on this.

Images in the feed

Social networks give more attention to posts with pictures, and an auto-poster usually takes the picture from the page itself when the feed has none. Make sure each article has a clear featured image and a good social preview image set in the page properties or your theme. Choose a size that suits the networks, wider than tall, and avoid very large files. If your posts show the wrong picture, the problem is usually in the page markup and not in the feed. See how to control which image gets auto-posted.

Permissions and ownership

Because the feed lives in a block on a page, anyone who can edit that page can also break the feed. Limit editing rights on the page to a few people, and write down in your team notes which page holds the block, what the filter is and who may change it. After an upgrade or a theme change, open the feed again and compare it with the list on the page. A short check once a month is enough to catch a missing block or a changed filter before your social channels fall silent.

Test the feed

Open the address in a browser, then request it from outside your network, because only a public request shows what an auto-poster sees.

curl -i https://example.com/your-feed-address
curl -s https://example.com/your-feed-address | head -n 30

• The first request returns 200 and an XML content type.
• The body begins with an XML declaration and lists your newest pages first.
• Every link is absolute, uses https and opens the right page.
• A draft page does not appear, and a newly published one appears after the cache lifetime.
• The address passes the W3C Feed Validation Service without errors.

A longer routine is in the feed validation guide, and a shorter one in debugging a feed with curl.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Changing the public date. A changed date moves the article to the top and may cause a repeat post.
• Empty descriptions. The summary of every post depends on them.
• Moving the page. A new place in the sitemap can change the feed address.
• No page type filter. Landing pages and legal pages leak into the feed.
• Long cache lifetimes. Posts arrive hours after the article goes live.
• Only a browser test. A logged-in editor sees things that the public cannot see.

How PostRSS works with a Concrete CMS feed

PostRSS has been publishing RSS and Atom feeds to social networks since 2014. Paste the address of your feed, connect your accounts and choose how each post is built from the title, the description or the page title. PostRSS checks the feed as often as every minute and shares each new entry, with its image and link, to the channels you choose among 66 supported networks, messengers, team chats and blogs, including LinkedIn, X, Bluesky, Mastodon and Telegram. Keyword filters, UTM parameters and posting windows let you tune each channel. See the PostRSS features page and the plan limits on the pricing page. More developer guides are under the Technical Guide tag.

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The bottom line

A Concrete CMS feed needs no code. Give every article a page type, a public date and a description, add a Page List block that filters by the type and provides a feed, keep the page and its address stable, mind the cache and test the live address from outside. Once the address works, connect it to an auto-poster, and every article your editors publish is shared on your social channels without extra effort.

FAQ

Does Concrete CMS have a built-in RSS feed?

Yes. The Page List block has an option that provides an RSS feed for the pages it lists, so you can offer a feed without writing code.

How do I find the feed address?

Save the Page List block with the feed option switched on. The block then shows the address, and you can open it in a browser to check the XML.

Which date does the feed use?

The public date of each page. Set it once when the article goes live, because a changed date can make an auto-poster share the article again.

Can I offer a separate feed for each topic?

Yes. Add one Page List block per topic or per language branch, each with its own filter and feed title, and connect each address to the right channel.

Can PostRSS read a feed created by Concrete CMS?

Yes. PostRSS reads any valid RSS or Atom address that is reachable without a login. Paste the address, connect your channels and new articles are shared as soon as they appear.