WordPress Plugin for Category Specific RSS feed subscription menu

Categories: Wordpress Plugin

The ‘Category Specific RSS feed subscription’ WordPress Plugin allows you to add a menu with multiple RSS feed subscription option to your site in addition to the normal RSS subscription option. The category specific RSS feed menu can be added to a post, page or sidebar. Through this menu your visitors will be able to subscribe to the RSS feed of a specific topic/category of your blog/site that particularly interest them.

Why use category specific RSS subscription?

The reason is very simple… you don’t want to be served with Meat when you are a Vegetarian! If your site covers multiple topics then your subscribed readers may get annoyed when you update your site with content that they are not interested in and they get a notification in their RSS reader. With category specific RSS subscription option, your readers can choose which topic they want to subscribe to and will only get notified when you update/add content to your site with that specific topic. Apart from the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) advantage, this is a much more neat and clean RSS subscription option. Most of the time, your visitors will not subscribe to your RSS feed if they can not choose a topic/category specific subscription, specially when your site covers multiple topics which are not related.

Installation

Unzip and Upload the folder ‘Category-specific-rss-wp’ to the ‘/wp-content/plugins/’ directory.
Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.
Go to Settings and configure the options eg. your category names and RSS link of the specific topic.
Go to the Widgets menu and add the ‘Category Specific RSS’ widget to the sidebar or add the trigger text <!– category_specific_rss_menu –> to a post or page where u want it to appear.

Usage

There are three ways you can use this plugin:

Add the Category Specific RSS Widget to your sidebar from the Widget menu.
Add the trigger text <!– category_specific_rss_menu –> to your posts or pages.
Call the function from template files: <?php echo show_cat_specific_rss_menu(); ?>

Screenshot

Plugin Screenshot

This Plugin in Action

See this plugin in action below or on the sidebar of this site.

Download Latest Version (v1.3)

Download the Category Specific RSS plugin.

Additional Documentation

Display category specific RSS for all categories

To show a list of all categories and a RSS feed for each of them simply check the ‘Show Category RSS for All Categories’ option from the settings menu.

cat_rss_new_tick_box

Changing the default RSS image

To change the default RSS image simply overwrite the ‘rss_small_icon.png’ image in the plugin directory with the image that you want to use

Why doesn’t the Plugin Give an RSS feed?

One thing to keep in mind is that the ‘Category Specific RSS’ plugin won’t be able to give you an RSS feed if you are using the default dynamic URL structure (eg. ?cat=7 or ?p=127 etc.)

Change your permalink structure to fancy permalink (eg. www.yourdomain.com/title-of-your-post instead of www.yourdomain.com/?p=12)

You should be using fancy permalink for Search Engine Optimization too (read the following post when you get some time )

Search engine optimization tips for WordPress blog

Change your Permalink structure from the Settings->Permalinks menu (choose anything but the default one and then the feed will work fine)

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Tags: Web development, web masters, Wordpress, Wordpress Plugin

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#1 by Rob on March 3, 2009 - 4:22 am

I was looking for a RSS-Wordpress plugin that gave me the ability to publish Category Feeds. My site features news, product offers and editorial specials. With this plugin I’m able to show my readers exactly what they want in my feeds.

I’m going to download it!!!

Thanks alot!

#2 by Vend on April 10, 2009 - 9:34 pm

Is there anyway to show more than eight categories?

#3 by admin on April 12, 2009 - 12:45 am

Yes, you can show more than 8 categories Vend but it will require some code changes. Let me know if you are okay with doing the changes yourself then I will tell you what to do. How many categories are you after?

#4 by Vend on April 15, 2009 - 12:09 pm

Thanks for the reply, it’s around 20 actually, hope that’s ok

#5 by admin on April 17, 2009 - 10:16 pm

You can add as many as you want really. I will email you and tell you what to do.

#6 by Nimit kashyap on April 25, 2009 - 2:30 pm

Nice post ,i was also looking for this kind of plugin.

#7 by Vend on May 2, 2009 - 8:50 pm

I didn’t receive that email you mentioned, have you sent it yet?

#8 by nick on May 11, 2009 - 5:39 am

Hi,

Is this plug in compatible with WP 2.7.1? All installed ok, but doesn’t seem to work.

Many Thanks
Nick

#9 by admin on May 12, 2009 - 9:17 pm

Yes this plugin is compatible with WordPress 2.7.1

#10 by Mike on June 2, 2009 - 3:27 am

This looks like a great plugin. I require a category subscription function for approx. 70 categories, ideally allowing user to select multiple selections before subscribing. Is this something that I can achieve with this plugin?

Many thanks,
Mike.

#11 by Bas on June 4, 2009 - 9:07 am

Looks cool. But like Nick, I run 2.7.1 and it doesn’t appear. I can add the widget, but nothing gets added to the actual html….

Thanks,

Bas

#12 by Spark on June 6, 2009 - 8:32 am

Hi Admin,

Would like to know whether can you send me the code to edit the number of feeds to include? As i intend to add more than 8 Feeds.

Appreciate your help on this. Thanks!

Regards,
Spark

#13 by Alessandro on June 9, 2009 - 5:08 am

Is it possible to insert a point in the file sidebar.php?

In my theme I do not use the widget ready!

Thank you

#14 by admin on June 9, 2009 - 12:46 pm

Just use the following line in your sidebar.php where you want the RSS subscription menu to appear:

< ?php echo show_cat_specific_rss_menu(); ?>

#15 by Michael Miller on June 17, 2009 - 6:06 pm

Can you send me instructions on how to add more categories. I’d like to have 9-12. Thanks

#16 by admin on June 18, 2009 - 6:48 am

Hi Guys, Looks like a few people want to use more than 8 categories and the truth is that it’s a little cumbersome to add more categories without having good PHP knowledge so I have decided to release a new version which automatically figures out all the categories you have and gives an RSS feed option for each one. I am currently overseas on work I will get back home on Saturday.. so expect something on sunday.

#17 by PC on July 1, 2009 - 2:24 pm

Have you released a version that supports more than 8 categories? If not, can you send me instructions on how to add them myself?

#18 by admin on July 2, 2009 - 6:11 am

@PC, Just released a new version. This version gives you an option to show category specific RSS for all categories. Let me know if this helps

#19 by Larry on July 4, 2009 - 9:53 pm

Where is the new release? I have 1.9 and would like the new features.
Thanks.

#20 by admin on July 5, 2009 - 3:43 am

@Larry, Please download the new version by clicking the ‘Download’ button near the top of this page.

#21 by Megan on July 9, 2009 - 12:25 am

This is a great feature, thank you so much! I have added it to my site. Is there anyway to not have the Tips and Tricks link on the bottom?

#22 by Slav on July 25, 2009 - 2:56 pm

Hi. I tried to install the plug in and somehow I managed – I choose the tick for all categories and the RSS links are in a sidebar. However, only the picture is a link to RSS, the name of the category is link to the category archive – i haven’t changed anything..the user shoud be very precize to click only the small icon which doesn’t sound good to me.

#23 by cactuscarl on July 30, 2009 - 6:35 pm

Does this plugin work with WP 2.8+ ?

#24 by admin on July 30, 2009 - 9:15 pm

@cactuscarl, Yep.. I am using it myself.

#25 by Anthony Navarro on August 5, 2009 - 8:44 pm

Great Plugin! You need to resubmit this plugin to WordPress.org – They have an outdated version that does not have the “Show all categories”

On a different note, how can I have the RSS Icon show up BEFORE the category name… I’d like the RSS icon line up all nice and neat-like.

Thanks!

-Anthony
TWG
Anthony Navarro´s last blog ..Tutorial: Installing and Using NextGen Gallery

#26 by Lifeischoice on August 5, 2009 - 10:23 pm

can the affiliate plugin use existing site theme?
Lifeischoice´s last blog ..Getting Things Done in the Now!

#27 by admin on August 6, 2009 - 10:29 pm

Hi Anthony, I updated the plugin version on WordPress.org. I am sure you can put the RSS icon before the category name with a little bit of tweaking but I can’t say what without having a look at the plugin… I will have a look later.

#28 by Carmen on August 16, 2009 - 2:58 am

Awesome plugin.

One complaint, the part where it says “by tipsandtricks.com” just under the rss list. Tacky. I’m trying to figure out how to remove it now. I felt inclined to donate when I started using this plugin, but the aggravation reduces the donation amount significantly. Please consider removing it.

#29 by admin on August 16, 2009 - 11:28 pm

@Carmen, sure thing.

#30 by Tom Bennett on August 17, 2009 - 4:02 am

how do I make the widget look like the rest of my theme??

have a look at http://www.escamoteur.de I included your widget at the very bottom.

Also how do place the icon in front of the category?

Best
Tom

#31 by admin on August 17, 2009 - 5:33 am

Hi Tom, Please download v1.3 of the Category specific RSS plugin that should fix that issue.

#32 by scott marino on August 17, 2009 - 10:18 am

Just wanted to say thanks. I’m using your plug in and it works great. Thank you

#33 by Tom Bennett on August 19, 2009 - 6:02 am

Looks much better now. Can I get the RSS Icon in front of the Categorie??
Best
Tom
Tom Bennett´s last blog ..Pack big, Play bigger!

#34 by Glen Woodfin on August 29, 2009 - 4:30 am

Great plugin!

Will this plugin work with the custom permalink structure like this:

/%category%/%postname%/

Thanks
Glen Woodfin´s last blog ..Heartwarming Mini Film that Will Make You Smile, Laugh & Cry

#35 by admin on August 29, 2009 - 5:06 am

@Glen, Yeah it should.

#36 by Mai Scheck on September 19, 2009 - 1:28 pm

amazing stuff thanx:)

#37 by Ben on October 12, 2009 - 12:39 pm

Hey,

This is exactly the plugin I was looking for, both for it’s intended purpose, and also an rss-fed webcomic experiment, pending an interesting workaround to which this plugin of yours is instrumental. So thanks.

Great work, squire.

Ben

#38 by James on October 17, 2009 - 12:34 pm

Hello,

Your plugin looks like exactly what I’m looking for, but I’m having a bit of trouble installing it.

I’ve uploaded it to my plugins folder, but I can’t get it to show up in my Plugins admin screen.

I’m using 2.8.4 – is that where I’m going wrong?

Thanks

James

#39 by James on October 18, 2009 - 3:56 am

Ha ha! Made it work. Excellent. One last question – my feed icons appear on the right of the links, rather than on the left, which makes it look a tiny bit scruffy – it looks as though another poster had this problem, and the solution was to upgrade to 1.3 – but I am using 1.3. Any advice?

Lots of thanks again,

#40 by Lucy Felthouse on October 20, 2009 - 2:41 pm

Hi. I’ve got the plugin installed with no problem, but it’s centred the text, which looks different to the rest of my theme. How do I make it align to the left, and also drop it down a line as it’s too close to the widget title?

Thanks in advance.
Lucy Felthouse´s last blog ..A Fresh Start

#41 by admin on October 20, 2009 - 11:34 pm

Hi Lucy, It doesn’t specify any alignment so it should take the alignment of the container that you are putting it in. You can always manually force the alignment though. Putting a line break around line 70 of the plugin file should help you add some space.

#42 by Jos Velasco on October 24, 2009 - 3:54 pm

I would like to make a suggestion. The ability to show a random link per category nexto the RSS.

Cheers.
Jos Velasco´s last blog ..Insertar encuestas en tu página web

#43 by Lucy Felthouse on October 26, 2009 - 3:48 pm

I managed the line break no problem, but how exactly can I add in the alignment? Every time I add it, it breaks the code completely… I’m a bit of a novice I’m afraid!
Lucy Felthouse´s last blog ..Latest New Moon Trailer… I’m VERY Excited!