--- title: "How to Add and Configure the RSS Reader Web Part" description: "Step-by-step guide to adding the Vitextra RSS Reader web part to a SharePoint Online page and configuring it: adding feed sources with display names and order, choosing the Compact, Newsletter or Cards layout, the number of items, images, source tabs, categories and search, sort order and automatic refresh, saving a default configuration for the Microsoft Teams personal app, and fixing the common messages." url: https://vitextra.com/en/support/kb/10367 language: en published: 2026-10-30 modified: 2026-10-30 products: - "RSS Reader" author: "Lidija Reising" tags: ["add RSS Reader web part", "configure RSS feed SharePoint Online", "RSS web part settings", "add RSS source SharePoint", "RSS feed layout cards newsletter", "auto refresh RSS web part", "RSS Reader Microsoft Teams personal app", "Vitextra RSS Reader setup", "show news feed on SharePoint page", "RSS feed not loading SharePoint Subject: RSS Reader"] --- # How to Add and Configure the RSS Reader Web Part Step-by-step guide to adding the Vitextra RSS Reader web part to a SharePoint Online page and configuring it: adding feed sources with display names and order, choosing the Compact, Newsletter or Cards layout, the number of items, images, source tabs, categories and search, sort order and automatic refresh, saving a default configuration for the Microsoft Teams personal app, and fixing the common messages. ## Introduction This article walks through the setup of the [RSS Reader](https://vitextra.com/en/products/rss-news) web part: from adding it to a page to the first published news stream, with every option of the property pane explained. What the web part is and how it loads feeds is described in [KB10366. RSS Reader. Solution Overview](https://vitextra.com/en/support/kb/10366). ## Prerequisites - The RSS Reader package is deployed in the App Catalog of your tenant (see [KB10035. How to Install a Vitextra Product in SharePoint Online](https://vitextra.com/en/support/kb/10035)). The web part requests no API permissions, so nothing has to be approved. - You can edit the page: **Edit** permission on the site or the page. - The addresses of the feeds you want to show. A feed address usually ends with `.xml`, `/rss` or `/feed`; most websites link it with the RSS icon or list it in the page footer. ## Step 1. Add the web part to a page 1. Open the page and click **Edit**. 2. Hover over the place where the web part should go and click the **+** icon. 3. Type *RSS* in the search box and select **RSS Reader** (it is listed in the *Other* group of the toolbox). ![Adding RSS Reader from the toolbox](https://static.vitextra.com/articles/10367/toolbox-en.png) *Adding RSS Reader from the toolbox* The web part appears with a set of sample feeds (technology and science news) so that you can see the layouts immediately. Replace them with your own feeds in the next step. 4. Click the **Web Part Title** placeholder at the top of the web part and type a title, for example *Industry news*. The title is optional. 5. Click the pencil icon (**Edit web part**) to open the property pane. ## Step 2. Add your feeds The **Newsfeed** group holds the list of feeds. 1. Under **Sources**, click **Configure**. The **Sources** panel opens with a table of the current feeds. ![The Sources panel](https://static.vitextra.com/articles/10367/sources-panel-en.png) *The Sources panel* 2. Remove the sample feeds you do not need with the **Delete Row** icon at the end of each row. 3. In the empty row at the bottom, enter the feed address in **URL** and a short name in **Display Name** — this name becomes the tab of the source above the items. Click the **+** (**Add new item**) icon. Both fields are required. 4. Repeat for every feed. Use the **Order** drop-down of a row to change the position of a source in the tab row and in the *By source* sorting. 5. Click **Save**. The panel closes and the web part loads the new feeds. ❗ **Important** Enter the address of the **feed**, not of the website's home page. A website address returns HTML, which the feed service cannot parse, and the source is left out of the web part without an error message. The feed must also be reachable from the internet — a feed that is available only inside your network cannot be shown. 💡 **Tip** Keep display names short — they are shown as tabs in one row. Two or three words such as *Reuters Tech* or *FDA* work better than the full title of the publication. ## Step 3. Choose the layout and the elements The **Appearance** group defines how the items look. | Option | Values | Effect | |---|---|---| | **Layout** | *Compact*, *Newsletter*, *Cards* | *Compact*: titles with a one-line description and the date, for narrow columns. *Newsletter* (default): image on the left, title, description, categories, date and author. *Cards*: tiles with a large image on top. | | **Items Shown** | 1–40 | The maximum number of items displayed after filtering. | | **Image** | *Show* / *Hide* | Shows or hides the images of the items in the Newsletter and Cards layouts. | | **Filters** | *Show* / *Hide* | Shows the row of source tabs (**All** plus one tab per feed) above the items. | | **Category** | *Show* / *Hide* | Shows the category tags of each item in the Newsletter layout; clicking a tag filters the stream. | | **Search box** | *Show* / *Hide* | Shows a search box that filters the loaded items by title, description, author and source. | ![The Appearance group](https://static.vitextra.com/articles/10367/appearance-group-en.png) *The Appearance group* Choose *Compact* for a one-third column and *Cards* for a full-width section; *Newsletter* fits both. ## Step 4. Sorting and automatic refresh The **Behavior** group controls the order of the items and how often they are reloaded. - **Sort order** — *Newest first* (default), *Oldest first* or *By source*. With *By source*, the items are grouped by feed in the order of the sources, newest first within each feed. - **Auto Refresh** — when on, the web part reloads the feeds in the background while the page is open. - **Refresh frequency, minute(s)** — the interval of the automatic refresh, from 1 to 7 minutes. The slider is available only when **Auto Refresh** is on. ![The Behavior group](https://static.vitextra.com/articles/10367/behavior-group-en.png) *The Behavior group* 📝 **Note** The refresh is silent: the items are replaced without the loading placeholders, and if a refresh fails, the web part keeps showing the items it already has. Loaded items are also cached in the browser session for up to 30 minutes, so that the page opens instantly on the next visit. ## Step 5. Publish the page Close the property pane and click **Republish** (or **Publish**). Readers see the title, the source tabs and the items; they can switch sources, click tags, search and open articles in a new tab. Nothing they do changes the configuration of the web part. ![The published web part with a category filter applied](https://static.vitextra.com/articles/10367/published-en.png) *The published web part with a category filter applied* ## Microsoft Teams: tabs and the personal app RSS Reader can be used in Microsoft Teams after the administrator has published it from the App Catalog with **Add to Teams**. - **Channel tab.** Add the *RSS Reader* app as a tab to a channel. The tab has its own configuration, made in the same property pane as on a SharePoint page. - **Personal app.** Employees open RSS Reader from the left rail of Teams. The personal app has no property pane for the user; instead it uses a **default configuration** saved by the administrator: 1. Configure the web part on any SharePoint page as it should appear in Teams (sources, layout, options). 2. In the property pane, expand the **Personal app (Microsoft Teams)** group and click **Save Settings**. The message *Saved successfully.* confirms that the configuration is stored for your tenant. ![Saving the default configuration for the Teams personal app](https://static.vitextra.com/articles/10367/teams-settings-en.png) *Saving the default configuration for the Teams personal app* The saved configuration — the feeds, layout and options, not the web part title — is stored by the Vitextra service for your tenant and is read by the personal app only; channel tabs are not affected. Saving again overwrites the previous configuration. ## Messages and what they mean | Message | Cause | What to do | |---|---|---| | *There are no items to show* | No sources are configured | Add at least one feed in **Sources** | | *No items found.* | The feeds loaded, but the selected source, category or search text matches nothing — or the configured feeds returned no items | Clear the filters; check the feed addresses | | *Sorry, something went wrong. Please refresh the page and try again.* | The feed service could not be reached and nothing is cached — usually `vitextra.com` is blocked on the network | Allow access to `vitextra.com`; reload the page | | A source is missing from the tab row | Its feed could not be downloaded or parsed (wrong address, website instead of feed, feed not reachable from the internet) | Open the feed address in a browser and check that it returns XML; correct the address in **Sources** | | The license message instead of the items | The trial has ended or no license is assigned | See [KB10365. Why Does a Vitextra Web Part Show "We Hope You Enjoyed Your Free Trial"? License Messages and Fixes](https://vitextra.com/en/support/kb/10365) |