Distill
Feed Monitor Guide
What is a feed monitor?
The Distill Feed Monitor tracks web feeds such as RSS and Atom and automatically monitors updates from different online sources.
Supported HTTP Methods for Feed Monitoring
-
GET: Retrieves data from a specified resource and is the most common method for feed monitoring. Distill uses GET requests to fetch the latest content from the feed URL, and the server hosting the RSS feed returns the requested data.
-
POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE: These methods create, update, partially modify, or delete feeds, but they are not required for monitoring.
How to add a Feed monitor using Distill?
-
Open the Watchlist in the web app at https://monitor.distill.io or in your browser extension.
-
Click
Add Monitor->Feed.
-
Enter the URL of the web service you want to monitor in the URL field. Configure any required HTTP request parameters, headers, or body content if the service needs them for access.
-
Click “GO” to send an HTTP GET request to the feed URL.
- Once the feed loads, click on “Select”.
-
The Options page opens for configuration.
-
Set the desired check interval, alert actions, and conditions.
-
Click “Save” to add the feed monitor to your watchlist.
Watch this video to learn how to set up a feed monitor.
How to find the link for a feed on a page?
Many websites that offer RSS feeds display an orange RSS icon with white radio waves. Clicking this icon usually takes you to the feed URL or provides a link.
Some websites use standard patterns for feed URLs. Try adding /feed, /rss, or /atom to the end of the website’s main URL.
Another method is to view the page’s source code. Right-click and choose “View Page Source” to open the HTML view, then search for keywords like “feed”, “RSS” or “Atom”.
Find the feed link, copy the URL in the href attribute, and use it to set up your monitor.
- If you want to monitor a JSON feed, then you can use JSON monitoring.
- To monitor XML files other than RSS and Atom feeds, consider using XML monitoring.
If you need help with a feed monitor or have a feed URL that is not handled, feel free to contact us using our Distill forum. You can explore existing discussions or post to get help on any topic.