MRSS (Media RSS)

MRSS (Media RSS) is a standard XML feed format that extends RSS 2.0 with media-specific elements. If your content management system, video platform, or news service publishes an MRSS feed, you can connect it to Videobot to automatically import videos and images.

Adding an MRSS Source

1. Navigate to Account Settings > Media Import.
2. Click Add Source and select MRSS.
3. Fill in the source configuration:

Field	Required	Description
Name	Yes	A display name for this source (e.g., "Company News Feed")
Feed URL	Yes	The full URL of the MRSS feed (must start with http:// or https://)
Authentication	No	Choose None or Basic Auth if the feed requires credentials
Username / Password	If Basic Auth	Credentials for accessing the feed
Polling Interval	Yes	How often Videobot checks for new content (15 min to 24 hours)

Import Options

Option	Default	Description
Import tags	Enabled	Import keywords from <media:keywords> elements as tags
Auto-create categories	Disabled	Automatically create Videobot categories from <media:category> or <category> elements

4. Click Validate to test the connection. Videobot will attempt to fetch and parse the feed.
5. If validation succeeds, click Preview to see a sample of items from the feed.
6. Click Save to create the source and start syncing.

Supported Feed Formats

Videobot supports both RSS 2.0 and Atom feeds with the Media RSS namespace (http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/).

Required Elements

Each feed item must include at least:

• A unique identifier — <guid>, <link>, or <atom:id>
• A media URL — via <media:content>, <media:group>, or <enclosure>

Supported Elements

Element	Maps to
<title>	Media name
<description> or <media:description>	Media description
<media:content url="...">	Media file URL
<media:content medium="image">	Detected as image (otherwise video)
<media:content duration="...">	Duration in seconds
<media:thumbnail url="...">	Thumbnail image
<media:keywords>	Tags (comma-separated)
<media:category> or <category>	Categories
<pubDate> or <dc:date>	Publication date
<enclosure>	Fallback media URL

Example Feed

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/">
  <channel>
    <title>My Video Feed</title>
    <item>
      <guid>video-001</guid>
      <title>Product Demo</title>
      <description>A walkthrough of our latest product.</description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 15 Jan 2024 10:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <media:content url="https://example.com/videos/demo.mp4"
                     medium="video" duration="120" />
      <media:thumbnail url="https://example.com/thumbs/demo.jpg" />
      <media:keywords>product, demo, tutorial</media:keywords>
      <media:category>Tutorials</media:category>
    </item>
  </channel>
</rss>

Category Mapping

By default, external categories are matched to existing Videobot categories by name. You can customize this behavior:

• Auto-create categories — When enabled, Videobot creates new categories for any external category names that don't match existing ones.
• Manual mapping — In the Advanced Field Mapping section, you can map specific external category names to specific Videobot category IDs.

Tag Mapping

Tags imported from <media:keywords> are automatically normalized (lowercased, trimmed). In the Advanced Field Mapping section, you can define tag mapping rules to rename or consolidate tags during import.

Custom Field Mapping

If your feed items include additional properties, you can map them to Videobot custom fields in the Advanced Field Mapping section. Supported field types include text, number, boolean, date, and select.

TIP

Validate and preview your feed before saving to catch any formatting issues early. The preview shows the first items from the feed with their parsed metadata.