RSS feeds and CSV import

Turn new blog articles into posts automatically with RSS feeds, and bring in many posts at once from a CSV spreadsheet.

Two features create posts in bulk. Feeds follow a blog or news site and turn each new article into a post. Import reads a CSV spreadsheet and creates one post per row. Both need a plan feature when billing is turned on for the site: RSS feeds and Bulk CSV import. See Billing and subscription.

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RSS feeds

Open Publishing → Feeds in the sidebar. The page reads Follow a blog or news site, and each new article becomes a post: a draft to look over, or straight into the queue.

When your plan does not include RSS feeds, the sidebar item shows a lock and leads to the upgrade page. Feeds you already have are kept and can be deleted, but none is checked until your plan includes the feature again.

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Add a feed

1. Start a feed

   Select Add a feed. The page shows the number of feeds you have, for example 3 of 20 feeds. You can follow up to 20.

2. Enter the address

   Under Address, paste the address of a blog, a newsletter archive or a news site, then select Find the feed. A site’s address is enough. MagicPost looks for the feed the page advertises. It reads RSS 2.0, RSS 1.0 and Atom. If nothing is found you see a hint to try the blog’s address or the feed link itself, which often ends in /feed or /rss.

3. Check the sample

   MagicPost shows the feed’s title and its latest articles. Change the Name if you like. It is used as the {site} placeholder in the post text.

4. Choose channels

   Under Post to, tick the channels. Only channels that are ready to publish are listed. If you have none, you see Connect a channel first.

5. Choose what happens to each article

   Under Each new article, choose one of two options:

   • Becomes a draft: each article is saved as a draft for you to look over.
   • Goes into the queue: each article takes the next free posting slot of the chosen channels. When no slot is free, the article waits as a draft.
6. Write the post text

   Post text is a template. Select a placeholder under Insert to add it, or type it. A preview under With the latest article shows the result.

   Placeholder	Replaced with
   {title}	The article title.
   {link}	The article link.
   {summary}	The article summary.
   {site}	The feed’s Name.

   The default text is the title, a blank line, then the link.

7. Choose the image

   Keep Attach the article’s image when it has one ticked to download the article’s picture into your media library, in a folder called Feeds, and attach it to the post. Only JPEG, PNG and GIF pictures are used.

8. Save

   Select Add feed.

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How a feed works

• The first look only takes notes. Articles already in the feed when you add it are listed but not posted, so a new feed never floods your channels with its back catalogue. Only what is published from now on becomes a post on its own. Use Make a post next to an older article to post it by hand.
• MagicPost checks each feed every half hour. Up to five new articles become posts per check. If more arrived at once, the rest are listed so you can make posts from them by hand.
• Each article is turned into a post once, no matter how often it appears.
• If a feed cannot be read, MagicPost tries again later with growing gaps, up to once a day. The feed shows Could not be read until a check succeeds.
• Posts go through the composer’s normal checks. A post that fails one, for example a caption that is too long for a network or a plan limit, is skipped and the reason is shown on the article, with a Try again button.
• If your team requires sign-off, posts made from a feed are sent for approval like any other. See Approval workflow.

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The feed list

Each feed shows a tag: Following, On hold (paused) or Could not be read. A second tag shows Drafts to review or Into the queue, and the time of the last check. Its five latest articles show what happened:

Button	Meaning
Make a post	The article was listed but not posted.
Open the draft or View the post	A post was made.
Post removed	The post was made, then removed.
Try again	The article was skipped. The reason shows beside it.

The feed menu (Feed actions) has:

• Check now reads the feed immediately and reports N new articles became posts, or Nothing new since the last check.
• Edit changes the name, channels, mode, text and image option. Changes apply to the next articles. Posts already made stay as they are.
• Pause and Resume stop and restart checks. A paused feed posts nothing until you resume it.
• Delete stops the feed. Posts it already made stay as they are.

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CSV import

Open Publishing → Posts and select Import. The page is titled Import posts: bring in a spreadsheet of posts at once, with every row checked the way the composer checks a post before anything is saved.

When your plan does not include Bulk CSV import, the page shows a lock instead of the file chooser. Exporting your posts still works.

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Prepare the file

Select Download the template to get posts-template.csv. The columns are:

Column	What it holds
content	The post text. This is the only required column.
scheduled_at	When to publish, as YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM in your time zone. Leave blank for the queue or a draft.
channels	Channels to post to, separated by semicolons, commas or bars. Leave blank to use the channels you pick on the page.
link	A link for the post.
first_comment	A first comment.
labels	Labels, separated by semicolons, commas or bars.
image_url	The web address of a picture to attach.

Column headings are not case sensitive, and many common names work. For example text, caption, message or body can stand in for content, and publish_at, datetime or when for scheduled_at. A date and a time can also sit in separate date and time columns. Comma, semicolon and tab separated files all work, and a byte order mark is fine.

In channels, name a channel by its name, its handle (with or without @), its id, or its network, such as linkedin or LinkedIn. A network name picks every channel you have on that network. A name that matches nothing is reported on its row.

Rows can be picture-only. Leave content blank and fill image_url. The row is labelled Image only.

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Import the file

1. Choose the file

   Select Choose a CSV file. The file can be up to 2 MB and must end in .csv or .txt. MagicPost reads up to 200 rows. If the file has more, the rest are not read and the page tells you so.

2. Set the defaults

   Under Rows that name no channel go to, tick the channels for rows whose channels cell is empty. Under Rows without a time, choose Queue or Drafts. Queue hands out the channels’ posting times in row order. When no slot is free, a row becomes a draft.

3. Review the rows

   The table lists every row with its Post, When, Channels and Check. The header reads, for example, 18 ready · 2 need a look. Rows show Ready, Draft or next queue slot, or the problems found, such as an unknown channel, a time that has already passed, an invalid link, a caption over a network’s limit, or missing text.

4. Import

   Select Import N posts, where N is the number of ready rows. The button is disabled when no row is ready. Rows with problems are skipped. Each ready row is saved on its own, so one that fails at the last moment does not stop the others.

5. Read the result

   The result says N posts imported and Every ready row went in. If some could not be saved, it says N rows could not be saved. and lists each one as Row and its line number, with the reason. Choose See the posts or Import another file.

The line number shown for a row counts the heading line, so the first data row is line 2.

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What to know

• Every row goes through the composer’s rules, including the plan limits for posts per month and posts scheduled ahead, and the character limits of each network.
• A picture is downloaded when you import. Only JPEG, PNG and GIF pictures are fetched. It is stored in your media library in a folder called Imported, and counts against your media storage. If the picture cannot be fetched, the row fails with The image could not be fetched. Rows with a picture are not content-checked in the preview, but are checked when saved.
• If your team requires sign-off, imported posts are sent for approval.
• A leading apostrophe in front of =, +, - or @ in a cell is removed, so text written by a spreadsheet export reads as you typed it.

Your posts can be exported as a CSV file at any time. See Posts and statuses.