Direct answer: Build a news aggregator by registering RSS 2.0 and Atom 1.0 feed URLs, fetching them on a controlled schedule, parsing entries into one data model, deduplicating by publisher ID and URL, and serving a reading view with source links, filters, search, and read state. Keep feed identity, article identity, dates, and supplied summaries as separate fields. Use conditional HTTP requests so unchanged feeds return 304 Not Modified instead of downloading the same XML repeatedly.
What a news aggregator actually collects
RSS and Atom are XML syndication formats, not article-search services. RSS describes a channel and its items; Atom describes feeds and entries with attached metadata. The RSS 2.0 specification calls RSS a web-content syndication format, while RFC 4287 defines Atom’s feed and entry model.
Your application should normally store a headline, publisher link, publisher-provided identifier, publication information, and summary or content supplied by the feed. It then links readers to the publisher rather than pretending that a feed is a license to republish an entire article.
Choose the product boundary first
- Personal reader: subscriptions, refresh status, unread/read state, saved items, search, and source or category filters.
- Public discovery site: stable pages, visible source attribution, outbound links, and an explicit decision about whether cards contain only headlines, short supplied excerpts, or licensed article text.
These are different rights and operating problems. Start with headline-and-link cards unless you have permission for more.
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A practical architecture
A first version can be a scheduled worker, a relational database, and a web application. Keep fetching separate from rendering so a slow or malformed source cannot block readers.
Feeds table
id, feed URL, publisher label, category, enabled flag, and fetch interval.- Last checked time, last HTTP status, parse error,
ETag, andLast-Modified. - User or operator settings such as paused, hidden, or preferred display order.
Entries table
- Feed ID and publisher item ID (RSS
guidor Atom entry ID). - Original URL and a normalized URL used for matching.
- Title, author, supplied description or content, and the received date value.
- Normalized publication time, first-seen time, last-seen time, and read/saved state.
Enforce uniqueness on (feed_id, publisher_item_id) when an ID exists. For entries without a stable ID, use (feed_id, normalized_url) as a fallback and retain the original values for debugging. Feed identifiers are not guaranteed to be globally unique across publishers.
Fetch feeds without wasting requests
Use an HTTP client with a finite connect and read timeout, bounded retries with exponential backoff, and a per-host concurrency limit. Persist the response validators for every feed. On the next request, send:
If-None-Match: <stored ETag>
If-Modified-Since: <stored Last-Modified>If the publisher has not changed the feed, it can answer with HTTP 304 and no XML body. The feedparser documentation describes validator handling and 304 responses; its documentation currently identifies version 6.0.14, so check the current release and security notices before deployment.
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There is no evidence-based universal polling interval. Faster polling reduces visible delay but increases requests; slower polling reduces load but delays updates. Respect cache guidance when available, avoid synchronized bursts (add jitter), and let operators pause a failing source.
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Minimal Python fetcher with validators
import requests
def fetch_feed(feed):
headers = {"User-Agent": "ExampleAggregator/1.0"}
if feed.etag:
headers["If-None-Match"] = feed.etag
if feed.last_modified:
headers["If-Modified-Since"] = feed.last_modified
response = requests.get(feed.url, headers=headers, timeout=(10, 30))
if response.status_code == 304:
return {"changed": False, "status": 304}
response.raise_for_status()
return {
"changed": True,
"status": response.status_code,
"body": response.content,
"etag": response.headers.get("ETag"),
"last_modified": response.headers.get("Last-Modified"),
}Store the new validators only after a successful response. A retry should not overwrite a known-good validator with an empty value.
Parse RSS and Atom into one model
Use a mature parser rather than hand-written XML rules. It should detect RSS and Atom, handle namespaces and character encodings, parse common date formats, resolve relative links, and expose content variants. Treat every feed field as untrusted input.
Normalize the important fields
- Record the feed and publisher identity.
- Choose the publisher’s item ID or GUID as the primary identity; keep its exact original text.
- Resolve and store the outbound link, preserving the original URL alongside a normalized form.
- Store title, author, and supplied summary/content separately.
- Store the received date and a normalized timestamp only when parsing is reliable.
- Set first-seen and last-fetch timestamps independently of publication time.
Do not silently turn a missing or malformed date into a precise publication date. Mark it as missing or inferred and explain the ordering rule in the interface.
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Sanitize before rendering
Descriptions can contain HTML, images, tracking pixels, unsafe URLs, or scripts. Sanitize with an allowlist, remove executable content and dangerous schemes, and apply output encoding. Never execute JavaScript found in a feed. If you display images, consider proxying or blocking remote resources according to your privacy policy.
Deduplicate and order stories
Deduplicate repeated fetches from one feed by its stable item ID. Across feeds, normalized article URLs are a useful second signal, but syndication can produce different URLs for the same story and unrelated pages can share a URL pattern.
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A safe matching order
- Match the same feed and publisher item ID.
- Within a controlled source set, match normalized canonical URLs.
- Optionally create a separate similarity-grouping layer using title, publisher, and time; never delete source records because of a probabilistic match.
Keep every source link in a group so readers can inspect attribution. Sort by normalized publication time. Entries with invalid or missing dates should use an explicit fallback such as first-seen time and be labeled as inferred ordering.
Build the reading interface
The first release needs source enable/disable, category filters, text search, newest/oldest ordering, read/unread state, saved items, and a clear link back to the publisher. Show the publisher name and publication-date status on every card. Add notifications only after refresh reliability and user preferences are understood.
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- Use a queue so one slow host does not delay all feeds.
- Cache parsed entries and paginate the reading view.
- Track consecutive failures, parse errors, response sizes, and last successful fetch.
- Provide a remove or pause control for feeds that change format or disappear.
A small synchronous worker is easier to operate. A queue-backed design adds deployment and monitoring overhead but isolates failures and scales fetching independently from web traffic.
Rights, robots.txt, and public discovery
RFC 9309 says robots.txt rules are requested crawler behavior and “are not a form of access authorization.” That does not grant permission to republish articles, photographs, or full feed content. Review publisher terms and applicable law for your jurisdiction, obtain licenses where needed, and keep attribution and outbound links visible.
Google’s publisher guidance discusses stable section pages and crawlable HTML article links. Its sitemap guidance says RSS or Atom feeds can describe recent URLs, but submitting a sitemap does not guarantee crawling. Those recommendations concern a publisher’s own site; they do not mean a third-party aggregator will be included in Google News. If you publish syndicated copies, follow the source publisher’s and platform’s current duplicate-content guidance; a canonical link alone is not a universal fix.
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Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Troubleshooting common failures
The feed returns 304 but stories look stale
304 means the server considers the representation unchanged. Check that you saved validators per feed, not globally, and that your cache invalidation and parsing transaction completed after the previous 200 response.
Every item appears again on each poll
You are probably generating a new local ID each time or ignoring the publisher ID. Persist the feed’s GUID or Atom entry ID and enforce the feed-scoped uniqueness constraint.
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Inspect the raw date, timezone offset, and parser result. Keep the received value, reject impossible dates, and use first-seen ordering only when publication time is absent or invalid.
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One broken source blocks refreshes
Apply per-request timeouts, bounded backoff, host concurrency limits, and queue isolation. Record the error and continue processing other feeds.
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Sanitize summaries and content before storage or rendering, remove scripts and unsafe URL schemes, and apply a strict content-security policy.
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How often should a news aggregator check feeds?
There is no universal interval. Balance freshness against publisher load, honor cache guidance, add jitter, and make the interval configurable per source.
Can RSS or Atom access authorize full-article republication?
No. Feed availability is not a blanket copyright or licensing grant. Display only what your terms and licenses allow.
Should I merge identical headlines from different publishers?
Not automatically. Keep source records and links; if you add similarity grouping, make it explainable and reversible.
Is a sitemap enough to get an aggregator into Google News?
No. Sitemap submission is only a hint. Google’s guidance also concerns stable pages and crawlable HTML links, and it does not guarantee inclusion for a third-party aggregator.
Quick Recap
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