Guidance on Recreating and Understanding the RSS Feature Add-On for Plone 6

Hello Plone Community,

I am currently working on understanding Plone and Volto by recreating the RSS feature add-on, which was developed during GSoC 2024. My goal is to gain a deeper understanding of how Plone backend and Volto frontend work together by practicing with this project.

I understand that the RSS feature add-on is not part of the Plone core but is available in the collective repositories. My setup includes the core Plone 6 installation, organized into backend (Python/Plone), frontend (Volto/React), and devops folders. However, I don’t have the collective repository setup locally.

To practice, I plan to structure the RSS feature as a separate module (e.g., features/rss-feature) containing:
1.Backend functionality for generating and consuming RSS feeds.
2.Volto components for displaying and embedding RSS feeds.

My questions are:
•How can I connect this modular feature to the main backend and frontend folders in my Plone 6 setup?
•Are there any specific configurations or best practices for registering and integrating such features with the Plone backend and Volto?
•Is there a preferred way to structure these types of add-ons for easier testing and deployment in a local environment?

I appreciate your guidance and suggestions to ensure I follow the best practices while practicing and understanding Plone and Volto through this project.

Hi @kartikaydev1

Do you mean you want to install the RSS add-on by including it in requirements.txt?

That is documented here Install Plone add-ons — Plone Documentation v6

Please state which steps you followed, in detail, or if you followed specific instructions for any of what you are having trouble with.

It's not clear to me what you're trying to do. I thought this is what Ziming already did.

The Mastering Plone training is the best way for a developer to get started. There is a section that explains how to build add-ons: 8. Extending Plone with add-on packages – Mastering Plone 6 development — Plone Training 2025 documentation

I fully acknowledge and respect the contributions Ziming made to the project. My current work is not an attempt to replicate or replace his efforts but is rather a personal initiative to deepen my understanding of the Plone ecosystem.

As someone new to exploring Plone and Volto, I find that the best way to learn and appreciate an organization’s codebase is by actively recreating a well-implemented project. Ziming’s project stood out to me as both interesting and challenging, making it a perfect candidate for hands-on learning.

By working through this project locally, I aim to:
• Grasp how Plone operates as a backend.
• Understand how Volto functions as a frontend.
• Familiarize myself with Plone’s architecture, best practices, and its integration with Volto.
• Solve potential errors and challenges independently to solidify my learning.

This process is a personal approach to learning, not a contribution claim or an attempt to overwrite existing work. My intent is purely educational, with no plans to publish or deploy this code unless it’s with the explicit permission and guidance of the community.

After further research and exploration, I’ve resolved the issue. I understand now that I need to create a features folder within my Plone 6 project directory (which already contains backend and frontend). Inside features, I’ll create an rss folder and use the cookiecutter-plone-starter template to scaffold the code. Within the rss folder, I’ll set up separate plone and volto folders to handle the backend and frontend aspects of the RSS feature.