Widgets allow you to extract thumbnail images from RSS feeds to display along with articles. First make sure to select a feed that contains images in separate tags (not inside the post <description> element), specifically ones that are sized for the purpose of displaying as thumbnails. You can open a feed's source XML in a browser window and look for these tags somewhere around the other post specific tags, like <link> and <description>.

The image references should be contained within MediaRSS tags, like <media:thumbnail> or <media:content>. Since images are often put into non-standard tags like <image> tags, it should be noted that these images cannot be retrieved for display in the widget. So the feed must correctly utilize some type of <media: > tag in order for the image to display in the widget.

For more information on MediaRSS standards, please visit http://search.yahoo.com/mrss

Log in to Editor's Desk and navigate to the Template HTML pane of the Design tab for a widget. Look for the section that displays a post (something like this):

    <td>
        <a href="${Post.HtmlUrl|html}" onclick="${AttentionClickJS(Post)}" class="ng_postTitle" 
    target="_blank" id="post_title_${Post.PostId}">
            ${Post.Title|default:"(no title)"}
        </a>
        <br />
        <span class="ng_postInfo">
   <!-- COMMON PLACE FOR THUMBNAIL IMAGES -->
            Published ${Post.PubDate|timeSince} 
    ${Post.Author|default:Post.FeedName|prefix:"from "}
        </span>
    </td>

This is the area where you want to place a thumbnail image tag.

The two most common ways of displaying MediaRSS thumbnail images are outlined below. Since a post may not have an image associated with it, it is good practice to perform a check before attempting to display anything.

1. XML - Image declared in feed:
    <media:thumbnail alt="My Image" height="60" url="http://imagehost/myimage.jpg" width="60" />

  Editor's Desk - Check if image is present and if there is, display it:
      {if (Post.MediaRSS && Post.MediaRSS.Thumbnails[0] && Post.MediaRSS.Thumbnails[0].Url )}
        <img src="${Post.MediaRSS.Thumbnails[0].Url|html}">
      {/if}


2. XML - Image declared in feed:
    <media:content url="http://imagehost/myimage.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />

  Editor's Desk - Check if image is present and if there is, display it:
      {if Post.MediaRSS && Post.MediaRSS.Contents[0] && Post.MediaRSS.Contents[0].Url && Post.MediaRSS.Contents[0].Type=="image/jpeg"}
        <img src="${Post.MediaRSS.Contents[0].Url}">
      {/if}

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If you have additional questions, or need personalized help on this topic, please send an email to Syndication Services Support.