One of the most relied upon features for bloggers using WordPress has to be RSS. This longtime built-in feature offers readers and 3rd party services a way to connect and stay updated with your site’s content.
While Shifter does create a static version of your WordPress site, leveraging the flexibility of the RSS is still an option.
Dynamic RSS on a static WordPress site?
Yes! During the static site creation process the RSS feed is also captured and can still be used in the same way you’ve come to expect.
As an example, we wanted to demo using WordPress RSS on Shifter to create posts to Twitter and Facebook with IFTTT WebHooks.
Building Twitter Post Applet
For this demo we are not going to get too granular with our options. Instead, let’s set this event to trigger for any new content in that feed.
Set the IFTTT Trigger
Login to ifttt.com and create a new applet. For [+This] select RSS.
Choose [New feed item]. Input your feed URL of Shifter site’s to the Feed URL.
Checking your Feed URL
Your feed URL is your domain /feed/. In our case it’s getshifter.io/feed/
Please note: For this service to work you’ll need to keep and use a trailing slash on that Feed URL. e.g. https://www.example.com/feed/
Creating an Event Trigger
Once you’ve entered your Feed URL, confirm by clicking create trigger. Next you’ll get yo select the [+That] action.
Search for Twitter in the list of providers. Choose [Post a Tweet] as the trigger. Make sure of Tweet text includes [EntryTitle] and [EntryUrl] or additional value. Then click [Create action].
That’s it!
Seriously that’s it. You now have a serverless static WordPress site that will Tweet as you create new posts.
Interested in doing this for Facebook? Follow the same steps and reply your Twitter [+That] with Facebook.
These aren’t the only services either. There are plenty of other services, custom WebHook and more you can do with the WordPress Feed function even with static sites!
Getting started with Shifter
If you don’t have a Shifter account yet, sign-up here and give it a try!
This article is also available on our official Shifter Support docs along with other ways you can use Shifter and WordPress.