Auto Feed

Auto Feed is an auto feeder that monitors external sources and automatically posts new items as echomail messages to configured echo areas on a recurring schedule. Supported source types are RSS/Atom feeds and Bluesky accounts.

Each feed source is configured with a target echo area and a "post as" user. When the script runs, it fetches new items from each active source, formats them as FTN echomail messages, and posts them using that user's identity.

Supported Source Types

| Type | Description | |---|---| | RSS / Atom | RSS 2.0, RSS 1.0 (RDF), and Atom feeds. Any standard feed URL works. | | Bluesky | A Bluesky account's public posts via the Bluesky public API. Accepts a profile URL, handle (@user.bsky.social), or DID. Reply posts are excluded. |

Bluesky source URLs are detected automatically in the admin UI ? entering a bsky.app profile URL switches the source type to Bluesky without requiring manual selection.

How It Works

1. `scripts/rss_poster.php` is run periodically via cron.
2. All active feed sources are fetched from the `auto_feed_sources` database table.
3. For each feed, the script fetches recent items from the source URL.
4. Items are deduplicated against the `last_article_guid` stored for that feed.
5. New items (up to `max_articles_per_check`) are posted to the configured echo area.
6. The `last_article_guid`, `last_check`, `articles_posted`, and `last_error` fields are updated for each feed.

To prevent overloading a source, feeds checked within the last 5 minutes are skipped unless --force is passed.

Admin Configuration

Go to Admin ? Auto Feed to manage feed sources.

Feed Fields

| Field | Description | |---|---| | Feed Name | Display label for the feed in the admin list. | | Source URL | The RSS/Atom feed URL or Bluesky profile URL. Must be unique. | | Source Type | RSS or Bluesky. Auto-detected for Bluesky URLs. | | Echo Area | The echo area where new posts will appear. | | Post As | The user whose identity is used when posting the echomail message. | | Max Articles Per Check | Maximum number of new items to post per script run. Default 10, range 1?50. | | Active | Whether this feed is checked during script runs. |

Manual Check

The admin UI includes a Check Now button for each feed that triggers rss_poster.php --feed-id=N --verbose immediately and displays the output. This is useful for testing a newly added feed before the cron job runs.

Statistics

The admin list shows per-feed article counts and last-check timestamps. The statistics sidebar shows totals across all feeds: total sources configured, active count, and total articles posted.

Cron Setup

Run the script on a regular interval. Every 30 minutes is a reasonable default; the per-feed rate limiting inside the script prevents any single feed from being hammered if the cron interval is shorter.

/30  * www-data php /path/to/binkterm-php/scripts/rss_poster.php >> /path/to/binkterm-php/data/logs/auto_feed.log 2>&1

Adjust the path and user (www-data) to match your installation.

Message Format

Each posted item becomes an echomail message addressed to All. The body contains:

1. The item title (word-wrapped to 79 characters).
2. For Bluesky posts: the poster's display name and handle.
3. The item's text or description (HTML stripped).
4. Any attached media URLs (images or video), if present.
5. A link to the original item (`View post` for Bluesky, `Read more` for RSS).
6. The item's published date and time.

The subject line is the item title, truncated to 72 characters to respect the FTN message header limit.

CLI Script

See also Command Line Interface.

# Check all active feeds
php scripts/rss_poster.php

# Check a specific feed by ID
php scripts/rss_poster.php --feed-id=3

# Force a check even if the feed was recently checked
php scripts/rss_poster.php --force

# Show detailed output (item titles, post results, errors)
php scripts/rss_poster.php --verbose

# Combine flags
php scripts/rss_poster.php --feed-id=3 --force --verbose

Options

| Flag | Description | |---|---| | --feed-id=N | Check only the feed with this database ID. Must be active. | | --force | Skip the 5-minute rate-limit check and process the feed regardless of when it was last checked. | | --verbose | Print item titles and post results to stdout. | | --help | Show usage information. |

Database

Feed sources are stored in the auto_feed_sources table.

| Column | Type | Description | |---|---|---| | id | SERIAL | Primary key. | | feed_url | TEXT | Source URL. Unique. | | feed_name | VARCHAR(100) | Display name. | | source_type | VARCHAR(20) | rss or bluesky. | | echoarea_id | INTEGER | FK to echoareas(id). | | post_as_user_id | INTEGER | FK to users(id). | | active | BOOLEAN | Whether the feed is checked on each run. | | max_articles_per_check | INTEGER | Article cap per run. Default 10. | | last_article_guid | TEXT | GUID/URI of the most recently posted item; used for deduplication. | | last_check | TIMESTAMP | When the feed was last successfully checked. | | articles_posted | INTEGER | Running total of articles posted via this feed. | | last_error | TEXT | Most recent error message, if any. | | created_at | TIMESTAMP | Row creation time. | | updated_at | TIMESTAMP | Row last-modified time. |

Added by migrations v1.9.2.2_auto_feed.sql and v20260508180000_add_auto_feed_source_type.sql.

Troubleshooting

Feed shows an error in the admin list The last_error column is displayed in the feed table when non-empty. Common causes: unreachable URL, malformed XML, Bluesky API error, or echo area/user deleted. Fix the underlying issue and use Check Now to confirm.

No new articles appear after a manual check All items may already have been seen. The deduplication is based on last_article_guid ? if that GUID no longer appears in the feed (e.g., the feed was reset), all current items will be treated as new on the next check. Use --force to bypass the rate-limit window and re-run immediately.

Bluesky feed posts nothing Confirm the handle or URL resolves to a public account with recent posts that are not replies. The script fetches posts_no_replies ? accounts whose only recent activity is replies to others will appear empty.

Duplicate messages posted This can happen if last_article_guid was cleared or if the same item appears in the feed with different GUIDs across fetches. Check the feed source for inconsistent GUID generation.