What is a recurring content feed?
A recurring content feed automatically pulls and displays content from an external source, such as an RSS feed, social media stream, or third-party content aggregator, and embeds it directly into a webpage. Common examples include syndicating blog posts, news articles, or event listings from another site or service.
Why are recurring content feeds not supported in the new WordPress platform?
- Accessibility and Brand Compliance: Content pulled from an external feed is difficult to control. Feed content often arrives with its own formatting, markup, and media that may not meet ADA accessibility standards or align with university brand guidelines. Because this content is generated automatically, there is no reliable opportunity to review or correct it before it appears on the page, creating compliance risk for both accessibility and brand consistency.
- Performance: External feeds introduce page load dependencies that are outside our control. If a feed source is slow to respond or becomes unavailable, it can negatively affect the user experience or cause portions of a page to fail. Keeping content within the platform ensures more reliable page performance without reliance on third-party up time.
- Security: Third-party feed integrations can expose a site to injected or malicious content, particularly if the feed source is compromised. Automatically pulling in external content without a manual review step introduces security risk that is difficult to manage at scale across the platform.
- The Platform is Component-Based: The new WordPress platform is built around a component-based content model, in which content is intentionally structured and placed using purpose-built components. This approach results in pages that are more accessible, more consistent, and better performing. Content that is manually built within components gives site managers greater editorial control and produces a higher-quality result than imported feed content.
What should I do instead of using a content feed?
We recommend manually curating and building content using the available components in the platform. This ensures full editorial control, compliance with accessibility and brand standards, and a better experience for your site's audience.
For frequently updated content, we recommend maintaining it directly within the platform or linking out to the source (ensuring the destination meets accessibility requirements) rather than relying on external automated feeds.
Who can I contact with questions?
You can email webservices-group@charlotte.edu or submit a help desk ticket.