vBulletin Forum Add / Turn on RSS / XML Feed Support

Really Simple Syndication / Rich Site Summary or RDF is a site Summary, several similar forms of web syndication used by news websites and weblogs. It is good idea to provide RSS support for your forum.

Unfortunately it is turned off by default under Vbulletin software. Here is a quick way to turn it on so that your users can get updates via RSS readers for all new forum topics.

Step #1: Login as admin to your forum by visiting admincp (e.g. http://yourdmain.com/forum/admincp/index.php) > Click on vBulletin Options

Step #2: Select External Data Provider > Click on Edit settings button.

Fig.01: Vbulletin options which allow people to receive a feed

Fig.01: Vbulletin options which allow people to receive a feed

Step #3: Turn on "Enable RSS Syndication" and "Enable XML Syndication" (set to Yes)

Fig.02: vBulletin Turn on an RSS feed

Fig.02: vBulletin Turn on an RSS feed

Finally, click on Save button to save the changes.

Step #4: Now your forum is ready with RSS feed. To view RSS feed visit:

http://yourdomain.com/forum/external.php
http://yourdomain.com/forum/external.php?type=RSS2

You can see an example of working RSS feed here.

31 thoughts on “vBulletin Forum Add / Turn on RSS / XML Feed Support”

WebmasterSeptember 3, 2008 at 6:22 pm

Thanks,
I was looking for this..

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NiyazKOctober 7, 2008 at 1:51 pm

Thanks a lot man.. thanks for this was looking all over the net for this.. i got it installed in my site now… thanks again

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Rob JohnsonFebruary 2, 2009 at 9:29 pm

Do you know how to change the source of the feed? Or which forum it grabs content from? If anyone does, just email me at G0tsw4g@aol.com telling me how. Thanks.

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Mohammad BadrahFebruary 5, 2009 at 3:03 pm

@Rob Johnson:
You can specify the forum using the “forumids” parameter, like:
http://yourdomain.com/forum/external.php?type=RSS2&forumids=9

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LeeMarch 5, 2009 at 4:02 pm

Thanks!
Seemed so simple, but I couldn’t figure out how to get the RSS feed on, so this came in handy.

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KipOptighMarch 14, 2009 at 10:18 am

Excellent site theos.in and I am really pleased to see you have what I am actually looking for here and this this post is exactly what I am interested in. It’s taken me literally 3 hours and 50 minutes of searching the web to find you (just kidding!) so I shall be pleased to become a regular visitor :)

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FexVachchoofFMarch 24, 2009 at 8:46 pm

Excellent site theos.in and I am really pleased to see you have what I am actually looking for here and this this post is exactly what I am interested in. It’s taken me literally 3 hours and 38 minutes of searching the web to find you (just kidding!) so I shall be pleased to become a regular visitor :)

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yngmastrMarch 29, 2009 at 9:36 am

tnx.. was great help!

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AdamJune 4, 2009 at 12:42 am

Thanks. This is exactly what I was looking for. Took a while to find though :) RSS works great now in my vbulletin forums

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Indian job siteJune 16, 2009 at 2:05 pm

Thanks. Is there a way I can include only threads in RSS feed?
I am getting posts in my feed, which actually I have blocked in robots.txt
It would be useful if I get threads only.
Munna

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adamAugust 25, 2009 at 12:01 am

Hello,
Does anybody know if you can pull an rss feed from a topic? I tried
/forum/external.php?type=RSS2&topicids=71 But it didn’t work.
any help would be appreciated,
adam

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HydrolyzeOctober 15, 2009 at 7:24 pm

Just wanted to say hello all. This is my first post.
I came to learn some great information here.

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Scrapbooks gone Digital!October 21, 2009 at 12:38 pm

This was awesome!! Just what I needed. Thanks!

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bukinecNovember 24, 2009 at 1:38 pm

Hi.
What should I do to upload avatar in my profile?
Thanks.

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ViciousRoseJanuary 3, 2010 at 10:27 pm

Thank you so much! Didn’t realize how easy it was!! You saved me lots of searching!! Thanks again!

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TanJanuary 10, 2010 at 8:56 pm

We use it on our forum. I wasn’t used to the configurations and this post certainly helped find it faster! Thanks!

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TommyJanuary 20, 2010 at 1:27 am

Thank you very much! This article has been extremely helpful.
Now I am trying to get the rss feed for an external news website to display on the sidebar of my vb4 forum. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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StephenieApril 22, 2010 at 2:36 pm

Thank you ! i have been trying to find out my rss link for two day now and you helped me in less than 2 seconds :)

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Al3liMay 9, 2010 at 1:49 pm

thanks vary much my love ;)
u r really help me !!
/kiss
Al3li

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ali saadMay 30, 2010 at 2:17 pm

Thank you for the wonderful explanation

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klancyJuly 8, 2010 at 11:25 am

Thanks. It’s nice when people blog or post the answers to things. I do that a lot myself with my forums if I find something that I know that others are eventually going to look for as well.

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BouncerJanuary 7, 2011 at 9:13 am

Thankyou. I was hoping that i’ve to install any plugin for this.
Thankyou Bro.

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Jason AldeinJune 18, 2011 at 5:32 am

Awesome thank you.Added it in my forum.Working fine.But can you tell me whats the use of RSS feed manager in admin control panel.

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cathlineJuly 14, 2011 at 7:33 am

That’s great. I did not know VB already have this RSS function. Can you post more about RSS submission to aggregator?

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StephenNovember 2, 2011 at 8:58 pm

Is there a list of available parameters for pulling an RSS feed out of vBB? “type” and “forumids” are mentioned above, what about other options/params?

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LoriJanuary 5, 2012 at 2:19 pm

I have those settings marked the way you say, and have had for a while, but my RSS feed is not working. When I type in the URL, I just get a blank screen. Is there anyone that can help me walk through this to see what I’m doing wrong? I keep getting forum members asking me about it. I want it to work………….

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Ngô Chí TâmFebruary 27, 2012 at 12:47 am

Thank you for the wonderful explanation

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Rehana SulthanMay 3, 2012 at 4:53 pm

Excellent tip to burn vBulletin Feed with Feedburner. Thanks a lot!!!

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Arslan RaxxMay 23, 2012 at 12:25 pm

Thnkas informative

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Tech ForumDecember 14, 2012 at 2:32 am

Yeah Look Like Solution Provide here now solved Thanks Man.
Happy Sharing

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Zbigniew PozycjonowanieDecember 27, 2012 at 12:39 pm

hi. any idea to show only few words from post content in rss?

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