BlakePlugin.RSS 1.0.0

Blake RSS Feed Plugin (MVP Spec)

This plugin generates an RSS feed for your Blake site with zero configuration.

How it works

• You add a template file: wwwroot/feed.template.xml
• The plugin reads this template, duplicates the <item> seed inside <Items>…</Items> for each post in your content index, replaces placeholders, and writes the output to wwwroot/feed.xml.

Setup

1. Add a template:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/">
  <channel>
    <title>{{Title}}</title>
    <link>{{Link}}</link>
    <description>{{Description}}</description>
    <lastBuildDate>{{LastBuildDate}}</lastBuildDate>

    <Items>
      <item>
        <title>{{Item.Title}}</title>
        <link>{{Item.Link}}</link>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">{{Item.Guid}}</guid>
        <pubDate>{{Item.PubDate}}</pubDate>
        <description><![CDATA[{{Item.Description}}]]></description>
        {{Item.CategoriesXml}}
        {{Item.ContentEncoded}}
      </item>
    </Items>
  </channel>
</rss>

2. Update your csproj so the template isn’t served directly:

<ItemGroup>
  <None Include="wwwroot\feed.template.xml" />
  <Content Remove="wwwroot\feed.template.xml" />
</ItemGroup>

3. Install the NuGet package for the plugin.

That’s it - call blake bake and the plugin generates wwwroot/feed.xml.

Placeholders

Channel level

• {{Title}} → Site title
• {{Link}} → Base URL (must be provided with CLI arg if not in template)
• {{Description}} → Site description
• {{LastBuildDate}} → Current bake time (RFC 1123)

Item level

• {{Item.Title}}
• {{Item.Link}} (absolute URL)
• {{Item.Guid}} (permalink or stable hash)
• {{Item.PubDate}} (RFC 1123 UTC)
• {{Item.Description}}
• {{Item.CategoriesXml}} → <category>…</category> tags from metadata
• {{Item.ContentEncoded}} → full HTML (if present in template)

CLI arguments

You can replace or inject any token via CLI:

blake bake --rss:BaseUrl=https://example.com --rss:Title="My Blog"

Even custom tokens work:

--rss:cabbageId=x45Rg2   → replaces {{cabbageId}} anywhere in the template

Arguments are passed to all plugins via BlakeContext so this plugin can just look for anything matching this pattern.

Behavior

• If a required placeholder has no value, the bake fails with a helpful error.
• Posts are ordered newest → oldest (default 20 items).
• All links are absolute.
• Valid RFC 1123 dates.

Placeholder resolution order

When the plugin encounters a {{Token}}, it looks for a value in this order:

1. CLI argument If you pass --rss:BaseUrl=https://example.com, it replaces {{BaseUrl}} or {{Link}} directly.

CLI always wins at the channel level, since it’s the most explicit.

2. PageModel properties For item-level placeholders ({{Item.Title}}, {{Item.Description}}, etc.), the plugin first looks at strongly typed properties on the page/post model (Title, Description, PublishedUtc, Slug, Tags, Html).

3. PageModel.Metadata dictionary If not found as a property, the plugin checks metadata (e.g. author, summary, audioUrl). This allows arbitrary keys to be surfaced without config.

4. Default/derived values For some fields the plugin derives sensible defaults:

• Item.Guid → defaults to the permalink (BaseUrl + slug)
• Item.Link → always BaseUrl + slug
• Item.PubDate → defaults to Date (from the PageModel) in RFC 1123 UTC

5. Fail fast If the token is still unresolved and appears in the template, the bake fails with a clear message:

RSS plugin error: Missing value for {{BaseUrl}}.
Checked CLI (--rss:BaseUrl), then PageModel.Metadata["BaseUrl"].
Provide a CLI argument or add a value to the template.