Best way to merge multiple RSS feeds with PHP

There are many ways to create a combined RSS feed. After going through a couple of different options, I figured this one is quite frustrating to google. Most of the ways are outdated or too complicated so decided to share the solution I found.

I needed a quick way to show other blogs I’m writing on, all the latest articles combined. You could use this snippet on your WordPress theme or other website powered by PHP.

<?php
/**
 * Merge multiple RSS feeds to one and display them on a web page
 *
 * @package geekylifestyle
 */

$rss = new DOMDocument();
$feed = array();
$urlarray = array(
  array( 'name' => 'Geeky Lifestyle', 'url' => 'https://geekylifestyle.com/feed' ),
  array( 'name' => 'Dude',            'url' => 'https://www.dude.fi/feed' ),
  array( 'name' => 'Huurteinen',      'url' => 'https://www.huurteinen.fi/feed/' ),
  array( 'name' => 'Leffat',          'url' => 'https://rollemaa.org/leffat-rss.php' ),
);

foreach ( $urlarray as $url ) {
  $rss->load( $url['url'] );

  foreach ( $rss->getElementsByTagName( 'item' ) as $node ) {
  $item = array(
    'site'  => $url['name'],
    'title' => $node->getElementsByTagName( 'title' )->item( 0 )->nodeValue,
    'desc'  => $node->getElementsByTagName( 'description' )->item( 0 )->nodeValue,
    'link'  => $node->getElementsByTagName( 'link' )->item( 0 )->nodeValue,
    'date'  => $node->getElementsByTagName( 'pubDate' )->item( 0 )->nodeValue,
  );

  array_push( $feed, $item );
  }
}

usort( $feed, function( $a, $b ) {
  return strtotime( $b['date'] ) - strtotime( $a['date'] );
});

$limit = 30;
echo '<ul>';
for ( $x = 0; $x < $limit; $x++ ) {
    $site = $feed[ $x ]['site'];
    $title = str_replace( ' & ', ' & ', $feed[ $x ]['title'] );
    $link = $feed[ $x ]['link'];
    $description = $feed[ $x ]['desc'];
    $date = date( 'l F d, Y', strtotime( $feed[ $x ]['date'] ) );

    echo '<li>';
    echo '<strong>'.$site.': <a href="'.$link.'" title="'.$title.'" target="_blank">'.$title.'</a></strong> ('.$date.')';
    echo '</li>';
}
echo '</ul>';

Originally posted on Mikko’s Project Corner.

Feel free to suggest other options in the comments!

Roni Laukkarinen

Editor-in-chief and owner of Geeky Lifestyle blog. Truly a jack of all trades, a Swiss knife; an avid tech and multimedia geek, coder, owner of a digital agency company, sysadmin, music enthusiast, artist and film critic.