Adding dynamic content to image styles via RSS

📰 Adding categories to your styles

To achieve styled images like the one below (with the "music and culture" category tag), you'll need to ensure your RSS feed contains a category tag, and then enable it in settings.

To help organize your content effectively, your RSS feed could include a <category> tag for each article. This allows tagging of articles by topics like Food, Travel, or Lifestyle.

✅ What to Add

Each <item> in your RSS feed should include one or more <category> tags:

<item>

<title>Top 10 Rooftop Bars in Sydney</title>

<guid>https://sitchu.com.au/sydney/bars/rooftop-bars</guid>

</item>

You can include multiple <category> tags with an RSS feed item, but Echobox will only use the first one in a style
This follows theRSS 2.0 spec and is supported by most CMS platforms
Use theW3C Feed Validator to confirm your feed is well-formed.

📝 Using CDATA for HTML

If your <description> or content includes HTML (like <strong> or <a>), wrap it in a CDATA block to avoid XML errors:

<description><![CDATA[Check out our <strong>top picks</strong> for rooftop bars.]]></description>

This prevents special characters from breaking the feed.

✅ Enable in settings

Go to your page's image template (Page settings > [your page] > Templates > Image) and set the Category field to "Show if available".

You can use the image preview with one of your articles to make sure it's working.

🖼️ Adding media credits to your styled images

If you need to attribute your for images in your articles, your RSS feed should include a media credit. This allows us to display the correct photographer, agency, or source when showing your content.

✅ What to Add

Use the <media:credit> tag inside the <media:content> block, based on the Media RSS (MRSS) specification.

Example:

<item>

<title>New Art Exhibition in Berlin</title>

<media:content url="https://www.example.com/images/exhibit.jpg" type="image/jpeg">

<media:credit>Jane Doe / Example Photo Agency</media:credit>

</media:content>

</item>

The value of <media:credit> should be a human-readable attribution (e.g., photographer or agency name).
This tag should be placed directly inside the media:content block that references the image.

✅ Enable in settings

Go to your page's image template (Page settings > [your page] > Templates > Image) and set the Image credit field to "Show if available".

You can use the image preview with one of your articles to make sure it's working.

🧪 Supported Example Feeds

This format is already in use by feeds like:

🖼️ Adding additional text fields to styled images

Echobox can also pass OG_description and author fields, when enabled for a style. These fields aren't editable within Echobox – they pass the content directly from the data source into the image.

This example, from customer Mumsnet, uses an OG_description field to maximise the information on an image share.

At present this is only possible with custom styles. To request a custom style from us, use this form.

❓Need Help?

If you need assistance updating your RSS feed or aren’t sure how to implement these features on your styled images, contact us – we’re happy to help.