Integrating third-party news content providers
While news content can be maintained manually by your team, you can also include content from third parties via RSS feeds.
RSS feeds
If you would like to display the content of a third party's news articles on your website or mobile app, you'll need to request an RSS feed from the supplier and ensure they grant you permission to use their content in this way.
Once you have the feed URL, you can set this up by heading to the Categories page in the News app. It will automatically check the feed's compatibility and warn you of any problems.
Articles from RSS feeds are pulled in on a regular interval - there may be a delay between content appearing in the feed and it appearing on your website or app.
Aiir cannot be held responsible for any issues you may incur as a result of integrating third-party feeds.
Our system expects certain properties of each article to be available in specific tags. Without one, we cannot show the content on your website.
The properties are as follows, with the tags listed in the order they're used if available:
| Property | Example tags | Notes |
| A unique identifier for each article |
|
Without this, we cannot import articles. It must not change if the article is updated. |
| Title | <title> |
|
| Abstract |
|
The first line or description of the article. |
| Publication date and time | <pubDate> |
|
| Body | <content:encoded> |
The article's content. |
| Images |
|
These will be tried in the order shown to the left, and if no matching tag is found, Aiir will use the first <img> element in the article body. |
If you don't have rights to use the full content of an RSS feed on your site, you may be able to embed the RSS and link out to the full stories on the original website through the RSS block within Template Builder or an RSS block in Page Manager.
IRN
Independent Radio News (IRN) provides national and international news content to radio stations in the UK. Online content is available to stations in the form of regularly updated feeds and video streams.
The articles are supplied by Sky News, in the following categories:
- Business
- Headlines
- Showbiz
- Sport
- Strange News
- Technology
- Politics
- UK News
- World News
An additional Videos category is compiled by us, comprising of the most recent stories from all categories with an associated video. IRN's digital content contract requires this to be included by all stations.
To include this news content on your site, you must:
- have the News platform app as part of your website package
- have a digital content contract with IRN, which should be agreed directly with IRN
Ads alongside IRN content
IRN has historically stipulated that the station must carry certain advertising, both on air around news bulletins, and online around the digital content.
Online, stations were required to carry a Leaderboard, Skyscraper, and MPU ad formats across all pages that carry Sky News-generated content, except the site homepage.
Because of these requirements, articles from IRN are not eligible to appear in mobile apps. You should check with IRN if these requirements still apply to you.
IRN-mandated ads must appear on all pages that carry Sky News content, but not on any other page. To achieve this, a Roadblock should be created with the IRN campaign selected and the National News section of the website.
The IRN campaign should be set to be visible only when selected in a Roadblock.
Radio News Hub
If you're a customer of Radio News Hub, they can supply an RSS feed which can be used in the News app to show stories on your website or mobile app.
Once you're given the feed, create a category in News and select "an RSS feed" as the source.
Radio News Hub's feeds don't typically contain the full body of each article, so articles can't be shown on your website or app. Instead, each article will link out to Radio News Hub's website.
You can find further information on our dedicated page for including Radio News Hub stories.