This article goes into more detail of items you can add to your content RSS feeds to have full control over the timeline layout.

Defining the timeline layouts for cards

In the app each article is represented by a card on the timeline, with a few different layouts for these supported out of the box. If the layouts of the timeline are not known in advance, but are specified in your editorial system, you can specify a layout in the timeline using a <layout> entry in the feed. For example:

<layout>image-large</layout>

The full list of out-of-the-box layouts for article cards is: 

'image-small'
'image-small-left'
'image-none'
'image-large'
'image-large-bottom'

Note: These layouts are independent of the position an article appears in the feed. So, for example, if you specified an image-large layout, the article would have this layout in any position in the feed.

In some cases, you may even wish to specify a different article layout depending on the timeline. In this case, you could specify something like this:

<media:category>Home:image-large</media:category>

<media:category>News:image-small</media:category>

<media:category>Sport:image-none</media:category>

Half-width cards:

We support displaying articles in half-width cards (i.e. they display side-by-side in the timeline), however it is especially important that the feed dictates two half-width cards in sequential order so that they can display correctly on the timeline. For example, these two articles would display side-by-side on the Home timeline:

Article 1

<media:category>Home:widget-half</media:category>

Article 2

<media:category>Home:widget-half</media:category>

There is also a variant layout for half-width widgets where the image is presented below the text: `widget-half-bottom`

Adding carousel cards

We’re able to support displaying a series of sequential articles in a ‘carousel’. You can flag this the feed like this:

Article 1:

<media:category>Home:carousel</media:category>

Article 2:

<media:category>Home:carousel</media:category>

Article 3:

<media:category>Home:carousel</media:category>

Basing card layouts on position in the feed

If the layout of a timeline is known in advance (e.g. always have a hero card at the top, followed by smaller ones), then it is better if the layout is not sent in the feed. In this case, talk to our professional services team to agree on the layouts of the timelines as part of the project. This has the advantage that you can just send us the content, and we do the rest. 

Adding flags to cards

A “flag” is a label shown on a card. More than one can be displayed. Examples could be: LATEST, LIVE, TRENDING or anything else. Each flag should be specified as its own item in the feed, with a value or true or false. Not specifying anything implies false. For example:

<flag_latest>true</flag_latest>

<flag_live>true</flag_live>

Audio and Video Feeds

Audio and video feeds can be treated in a very similar manner to article RSS feeds, with the addition of the audio or video URLs. However, we can also directly ingest RSS feeds from third party providers. For example, some common ones could be iTunes or ACast for audio feeds.