Custom hugo RSS template

Custom hugo RSS content. Add lastBuildDate to show the page last modification time. Make a custom description like adding image, use description field instead of summary or content.

Last Update: September 19, 2023

Hugo ships with its own RSS 2.0 template, it generated the RSS feed file as index.xml and embedded into index.html header. e.g.

{{ range .AlternativeOutputFormats -}}
{{ printf `<link rel="%s" type="%s" href="%s" >` .Rel .MediaType.Type .Permalink | safeHTML }}
{{ end -}}

Generated html:

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" href="https://djangocas.dev/blog/index.xml">

Default RSS template: https://github.com/gohugoio/hugo/blob/master/tpl/tplimpl/embedded/templates/_default/rss.xml

Add `<lastBuildDate>` to `<item>` show the page last modification time

By default, the individual <item> only have <pubDate>. I want to add <lastBuildDate> as page’s last git commit. To do this. Change the RSS template file and use $.Page.Lastmod as <lastBuildDate>. e.g.

<lastBuildDate>{{ $.Page.Lastmod.Format "Mon, 02 Jan 2006 15:04:05 -0700" | safeHTML }}</lastBuildDate>

Change `<description>`

By default, <description> is very simple, just use .Summary:

      <description>{{ .Summary | html }}</description>

To make more attractive, e.g. adding image in page, change .Summary to use .Description. Here is an example:

<description>
  {{ $img := (.Resources.ByType "image").GetMatch "*featured*" }}
  {{ with $img }}
  {{ $img := .Resize "640x" }}
  {{ printf "<![CDATA[<img src=\"%s\" width=\"%d\" height=\"%d\"/>]]>" $img.Permalink $img.Width $img.Height | safeHTML }}
  {{ end }}
  {{ .Description | html }}
</description>

The full <item> for a reference:

<item>
  <title>{{ .Section | title }}: {{ .Title }}</title>
  <link>{{ .Permalink }}</link>
  <lastBuildDate>{{ $.Page.Lastmod.Format "Mon, 02 Jan 2006 15:04:05 -0700" | safeHTML }}</lastBuildDate>
  <pubDate>{{ .Date.Format "Mon, 02 Jan 2006 15:04:05 -0700" | safeHTML }}</pubDate>
  {{ with .Site.Author.email }}<author>{{.}}{{ with $.Site.Author.name }} ({{.}}){{end}}</author>{{end}}
  <guid>{{ .Permalink }}</guid>
  <description>
    {{ $img := (.Resources.ByType "image").GetMatch "*featured*" }}
    {{ with $img }}
    {{ $img := .Resize "640x" }}
    {{ printf "<![CDATA[<img src=\"%s\" width=\"%d\" height=\"%d\"/>]]>" $img.Permalink $img.Width $img.Height | safeHTML }}
    {{ end }}
    {{ .Description | html }}
  </description>
</item>