CM Curated RSS Aggregator - Use Case - How to Change the Appearance of the List With Aggregated RSS Links

Use Case - How to Change the Appearance of the List With Aggregated RSS Links

Introduction

CM Curated RSS Aggregator displays lists of links gathered from RSS feed/feeds. Feeds are assigned to categories that are organized into lists (each category can have a single feed assigned to it).

Use Case Assumptions

In this example use case guide we will consider how to change the appearance of the list with aggregated RSS links on your site.

It follows:

• Installing the plugin
• Quick recap
• Basic feed
• Individual feed settings
• General plugin settings
  • Plugin options
  • Plugin appearance
• End result

Installing the Plugin

The process is the same for all CM plugins and add-ons.

• Download the plugin from your customer dashboard
• Log in to WordPress and navigate to the WordPress Admin → Plugins settings
• Click on Add New
• Activate it and add the license

Learn more: Getting Started - Plugin Overview

Basic Feed

We have prepared in advance a list with a few aggregated RSS categories. We will apply all appearance settings to the example below.

Individual Feed Settings

First of all, each category has individual appearance settings. So let's start with them.

Navigate to Admin Dashboard → Curated RSS Aggregator Pro → Categories. Hover on the needed category and click Edit. In our case we will edit the feed by "Los Angeles Times".

There's a set of options, and 3 of them are related to the appearance settings. So scroll down and find the following settings:

• Favicons before links - In general plugin settings you can define if to display favicons before links for all curated feeds. And this option allows you to override the general setting. You can choose to follow global settings, show favicons or not show.

• Default image - Some news from the feed have images, and some of them don't have. If you want each item in the feed to have an image, you can define a default image for the category. So, the items that don't have an image in the source, they will be displayed with the default image specified by you. Some of the items in our category "Los Angeles Times" don't have an image, so we can specify a default image in this case.

• Color - You can define the background color for each category to make each news block visually unique.

Don't forget to click the button Update after changing the settings:

Here're our result settings - we specified a default image and a background color:

The same way, we can define a background color for 2 other categories that we have.

In the list of categories, you can see the basic information about each category including its background color.

Now let's check the result on the front-end - each category has its own color, and in the "Los Angeles Times" category the default image is used in some items.

General Plugin Settings

Now let's head to the plugin settings. Navigate to Admin Dashboard → Curated RSS Aggregator Pro → Settings.

There are 2 tabs: Plugin Options and Plugin Appearance.

Plugin Options

This tab has a few sections with settings, but we will consider only those sections and options that affect the visual appearance.

General

First section is General and we marked needed settings on the screenshot. The details are below.

• Number of columns - Define the amount of columns displayed by the plugin in the list view shortcode. Let's keep the 3 columns display for our use case.

• Show favicons - This option to show or hide favicons for all categories. As it's been said previously, this option can be overriden for each specific category. Let's disable this option for our use case.

• Show subtitles - This option allows you to either show or hide descriptions of the news. Let's keep it enabled for our use case.

• Show tooltips - Enabling this option allows to show the news description when hovering on the item. Let's keep this option enabled for our use case.

Next two options allows to control displaying thumbnails:

• Show thumbnails - Define if to show or hide thumbnails. Let's disable this option for our use case, as the thumbnail is a little version of the featured image, which we display in our example.
• Show thumbnails before title - If enabled, the thumbnail will shown before the title, otherwise it will be displayed after the title.

Next two options allow you to control displaying the featured image.

• Show big images - Choose if to display or not display the featured image. Let's keep it enabled for our use case.
• Big image placement - Choose where to show the featured image:
  • After the content - let's choose this option for our use case.
  • Before the content
  • On the left side

• Show sources - Allows to show the source name under the news description.
• Show dates - Allows to show the news publish date under the description.

Let's keep both options enabled for our use case.

Search and filter

Next section is Search and filter. It allows to configure which elements are displayed at the top of the curated list.

• Show search and filter - Choose if to display the search bar and category filters. Let's keep this option enabled for our use case.

• Allow user to hide/show categories filter - Allows users to hide specific categories using filters. Let's keep this option enabled for our use case.

• Search input placeholder - Allows to change the placeholder text in the search bar.

• Show additional information - This option allows to show or hide additional information below the search bar. Let's keep this option enabled for our use case.
• Additional information format - This option allows to edit the template for displaying additional information. Accepts 2 placeholders:
  • {last-update-date}  - to display the list last update date

  • {links-count}  - to display the total number of displayed links.

    You can use HTML entities (for example <br />  or <code> ) to customize information format.

Social Buttons

Next section is Social Buttons. Configuring these options allows users to share the content in the chosen social networks.

• Show/Hide - Allows to show social share buttons. Let's enable it for our use case.
• Social networks - Select the social networks where you want your users to be able to share content.

Like button

And one more section is Like button.

• Show/Hide - Allows to show or hide the button for Likes. Let's enable it for our use case.

Plugin Appearance

Next tab is Plugin Appearance. It also has a few sections with options. Let's consider them one by one.

Categories

The Categories section allows to define the appearance of the category titles.

• Font size - Allows to define the font size of the category title. Let's make it bigger than default and set it to 20px.
• Background color - Allows to set the category title background color. Let's set it to black.
• Text color - Allows to set the category title text color. Let's set it to white.

RSS Links

The section RSS Links allows to define how the news items are formatted.

• Title max words count - Allows to limit the maximum amount of words in the RSS link title. Let's keep the default value "55".

• Description max words count - Allows to limit the maximum amount of words in the RSS link description. Let's keep the default value "55".

• Word-break option - Determine how word wraps will be applied in the link title. Available options are:
  • break-all
  • break-word
  • keep-all
  • normal

Next 4 options allow you to define text size and color for RSS link title and description:

• Title font size
• Title color
• Description font size
• Description color

Let's set the size 15px for descriptions and 20px for titles, and keep the default black color for both.

• Indent description - Allows to add an indent for the RSS link description. Let's keep this option disabled for our use case.

• RSS link opacity - Allows to set the opacity of RSS links. You can set the value from 0 to 1. Let's keep the default value 0.75.

• Hover background color - Allows to define the background color of the RSS link when hovering on it. Let's set the blue color for our use case.

Next 2 options allow you to define the height and width of the thumbnail image:

• Image height
• Image width

As we disabled thumbnails for our use case, we will not change the size.

• Date format - Allows to set the date format of the publish date. Supports PHP date function format. Check This Link for more information. Let's set the more precise date format to show the month, date, year and time of the publish - "M d Y H:i:s".

Tooltips

This section allows to configure the style of the tooltip that appears on the hover.

• Max words count - Allows to limit the maximum amount of words in the description in the tooltip. Let's set this value to "110".
• Text font size - Allows to define the font size for the tooltip description. Let's set it to "16px".
• Text font family - Allows to define a specific font family for the tooltip description. Let's set "Cursive".
• Background color - Allows to set the tooltip background color. Let's set it to red.
• Border color - Allows to set the tooltip border color. Let's set it to black.
• Text color - Allows to set the tooltip text color. Let's set it to white.

Social Network Buttons

This section allows to configure the style of the social sharing buttons.

• Button size - Allows to set the social sharing buttons size. Let's keep the default value "25px".

• Button opacity - Allows to set the opacity for social sharing buttons. You can set the value from 0 to 1. Let's set it to "1".

Don't forget to click the button Save Changes after configuring the settings.

End Result

Following instructions found in the plugin and guides, you should be able to change the appearance of the list with aggregated RSS links on your site.

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