I have read all the documentation for this module and still have some questions.

Here is an example of one of the many things I assume this module would be for, perhaps I am wrong.

Content type = Breaking News
CCK text fields = Breaking News, News Agency
Importer 1 = CNN (Attach to content type: Feed Item & Content Type: Breaking News)
Importer 2 = MSNBC (Attach to content type: Feed Item & Content Type: Breaking News)
Importer 3 = Fox News (Attach to content type: Feed Item & Content Type: Breaking News)

I must admit I do not understand the whole "Attach to content type" under Basic Settings and "Content Type" under Node Processor and the more I read on this the less I understood it. The above setting where the only combination though that seemed to work as far as getting content into the Breaking News content type.

Now lets assume that each feed has different fields and we want these different fields matched to the same CCK fields.

CNN
RSS:Body -> CCK:Breaking News
RSS:Content -> CCK News Agency

MSNBC
RSS:Content -> CCK:Breaking News
RSS:Author -> CCK:News Agency

Fox News
RSS:Main -> CCK:Breaking News
RSS:Author -> CCK:News Agency

In addition to this I want to be able to publish my own hand entered content under the content type Breaking News.

Is this something feeds is able to do and if so what am I doing wrong.
How does feeds know what importer to apply to what feed and can someone please explain "Attach to content type" & "Content Type" and how they do or do not work together?
In addition, no matter what feed I am using the mapping options are always the same, they never change to accommodate the actual information in the feed.
Lastly, like a few others I need to be able to fill the Author of the node from the feed (all the authors are user names), I am pretty sure I saw a patch for this, is there any plan to have that in an upcoming release?
I am used to using node import and believe that some of my problem may be I am looking at this from the wrong perspective.

Thank you,

Comments

hampshire’s picture

hampshire commented

Can anybody help me out on this please.

alex_b’s picture

alex_b commented
Title: Clarification Needed » Clarification Needed: "Attach to importer"
Status: Active » Fixed

You can use one importer to aggregate many feeds by attaching it to a content type. Once attached to a content type (Basic settings) you can create as many feed subscription as you want using this importer.

Does this answer your question?

Status: Fixed » Closed (fixed)

Automatically closed -- issue fixed for 2 weeks with no activity.

johnv’s picture

johnv
Primary language Dutch
commented
Version: 6.x-1.0-alpha14 » 7.x-2.x-dev
Status: Closed (fixed) » Active

Alan, I am working with feeds for a while now, but I still don't understand this feature?
How does "Attach to content type" differ from the field Content type on the Node processor Settings form?

Can you explain via a practical a use case?
I want to create nodes, but i don't want the importer to be on the node page, so I haven't attached it.

dooug’s picture

dooug commented
Status: Active » Postponed (maintainer needs more info)

Checkout the documentation on Created & Editing Importers:

The Attach to content type setting determines where the feed importer can me accessed.

The importer will be either a stand-alone form:
example.org/import/my_importer
or attached to a node :
example.org/node/34

The Node Processor has a content type setting for selecting the content type for the nodes to be created. This determines the nodes you are creating.

I hope that clears this up.

twistor’s picture

twistor commented
Status: Postponed (maintainer needs more info) » Closed (fixed)

Hasn't been updated in a while, cleaning up issues. Feel free to re-open if the documentation is not clear enough.