rss feed generation from mongojs result using node, express and node-rss

README.md

Situation

For my tiny blog (engine) based on node, express/connect and mongojs I needed a simple rss feed solution. I discovered and decided to go with the nice working npm module node-rss instead of writing xml myself.

What this code example does

Basically I create an get event on route /feed/rss, generate a node-rss object initialized with base values and add item elements to it while looping over a mongojs collection result array (holding my post items to be reflected). Finally I send a response with an appropriate content type header. My example is directly bound to an express get event callback for a simple static request path, but you may of course move it to route exports or whatever.

Notes

No big deal, but you might find this portion of code useful as a starting point when seeking for rss solutions.

node-rss-mongodb-example.js

    ...
    // Require nm module "rss" (node-rss)
    var rss = require('rss');
    ...

    // My mongojs connect() object is assigned to app.db
    app.db = mongojs.connect('myblog');
    ...

    // Express get listener event for url to RSS feed
    app.get('/feed/rss', function(req, res) {
  
      // Create rss prototype object and set some base values
      var feed = new rss({
          title: 'John Does Blog',
          description: 'about me and my foo and my bar',
          feed_url: 'http://' + req.headers.host + req.url,
          site_url: 'http://' + req.headers.host,
          image_url: 'http://' + req.headers.host + '/images/icon.png',
          author: 'John Doe'
      });
  
      // Fetch 10 published posts from data store (mongodb in my case) 
      // sorted by creation date.
      app.db.collection('post').find({
        state: 'published'
      }).limit(10).sort({ 
        created: -1 
      }, function(err, posts) {

        if (! err && posts) {
      
          posts.forEach(function(item,post) {
        
            // Fields are stored straight forward within my mongodb
            // collection. Just as a note: The blog style permalink 
            // is created with "urlifying" the subject on creation time
            // and adding date fragments with momentjs
            feed.item({
                title: post.subject,
                description: post.summary,
                url: 'http://' + req.headers.host + post.permalink_path,
                author: post.author.username,
                date: post.created
            });      
          });
      
          // Set content type header and send xml response. 
          // Note: res.type() uses mimetype definition as a base. 
          // As an alternative you may explicitly use res.set(): 
          // res.set('Content-Type', 'application/rss+xml');
          res.type('rss');
          res.send(feed.xml());
        }
      });
    });

    ...