Configuring RSS Feed in 1C-Bitrix
RSS remains a relevant format for news aggregators, monitoring services, and content syndication. Bitrix generates RSS through the bitrix:rss.out component, but by default the feed has several problems: incorrect encodings, missing CDATA wrappers for HTML content, incorrect dates, no Atom support.
Built-in RSS Component
Component bitrix:rss.out is available in "Content" → "RSS Feed" in the visual page editor. The RSS page is usually located at /rss.php or /news/rss/.
Minimal RSS page code:
<?php
require($_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"] . "/bitrix/header.php");
$APPLICATION->SetPageProperty("robots", "noindex");
$APPLICATION->IncludeComponent(
"bitrix:rss.out",
"",
[
"IBLOCK_TYPE" => "news",
"IBLOCK_ID" => "3",
"SECTION_ID" => "",
"SECTION_CODE" => "",
"FIELD_IMAGE" => "Y",
"ELEMENT_COUNT" => "20",
"SORT_FIELD" => "ACTIVE_FROM",
"SORT_ORDER" => "DESC",
"CACHE_TYPE" => "A",
"CACHE_TIME" => "360",
"SET_TITLE" => "N",
"CHARSET" => "utf-8"
]
);
require($_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"] . "/bitrix/footer.php");
MIME Type and Headers Issue
By default the RSS page is served with Content-Type: text/html. RSS aggregators expect application/rss+xml. Solution — set the header at the beginning of the page, BEFORE calling header.php:
<?php
define("NO_KEEP_STATISTIC", true);
define("NO_AGENT_CHECK", true);
header("Content-Type: application/rss+xml; charset=utf-8");
header("X-Robots-Tag: noindex");
require($_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"] . "/bitrix/modules/main/include/prolog_before.php");
// Component without header.php and footer.php
$APPLICATION->IncludeComponent("bitrix:rss.out", "", [...]);
Configuring RSS Template for HTML Content
The standard component template doesn't wrap DETAIL_TEXT in CDATA. Aggregators can't parse HTML inside XML. Copy the template for customization:
cp -r /var/www/bitrix/bitrix/components/bitrix/rss.out/templates/.default/ \
/var/www/bitrix/local/components/bitrix/rss.out/templates/.default/
In the template's template.php file, find description output and wrap it in CDATA:
// Was:
<?= $arItem["DETAIL_TEXT"] ?>
// Now:
<![CDATA[<?= strip_tags($arItem["DETAIL_TEXT"]) ?>]]>
// Or with HTML preserved (for aggregators supporting content:encoded):
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<?= $arItem["DETAIL_TEXT"] ?>]]></content:encoded>
Add namespace for content to <channel> element:
<rss version="2.0"
xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
Correct Date Format
RSS requires date in RFC 2822 format: Mon, 15 Mar 2024 12:00:00 +0300. Bitrix returns date in d.m.Y H:i:s format. In the component template:
// Convert Bitrix date to RFC 2822
$bitrixDate = $arItem["ACTIVE_FROM"]; // "15.03.2024 12:00:00"
$timestamp = MakeTimeStamp($bitrixDate, "DD.MM.YYYY HH:MI:SS");
$rfc2822Date = date(DATE_RSS, $timestamp);
RSS with Images (media:content)
For aggregators showing image previews — add media:content:
<!-- namespace in <rss>: xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" -->
<?php if ($arItem["PREVIEW_PICTURE"]): ?>
<?php $pic = CFile::GetFileArray($arItem["PREVIEW_PICTURE"]); ?>
<media:content url="<?= SITE_SERVER_NAME . $pic["SRC"] ?>"
medium="image"
type="<?= $pic["CONTENT_TYPE"] ?>" />
<?php endif; ?>
RSS Caching
Each RSS request without cache runs GetList on the infoblock. Cache component through managed cache:
"CACHE_TYPE" => "A", // automatic cache
"CACHE_TIME" => "3600", // 1 hour
Additionally in Nginx — proxy-level caching:
location ~* /rss(\.php)?$ {
proxy_cache_valid 200 15m;
add_header X-Cache-Status $upstream_cache_status;
}
Feed Validation
Validate RSS for correctness:
# Via curl + xmllint
curl -s https://example.ru/rss/ | xmllint --noout -
# Or online: https://validator.w3.org/feed/
Common errors: unclosed tags in DETAIL_TEXT, forbidden characters (control ASCII 0x00–0x1F, except tab/LF/CR), missing <lastBuildDate> in channel header.