Good day,
So I waited, and waited, and waited… Every now and then the feed would update, but it’s not showing hardly ANY of the latest headlines. I’m not getting an error about the updating of input helpers anymore (which I use in the UI), but those helpers are not being correctly populated all the time.
For example, here is the automation…
alias: RSS Update (Breitbart News)
description: ""
triggers:
- event_type: feedreader
event_data:
feed_url: https://feeds.feedburner.com/breitbart
alias: RSS Feed Updated (Breitbart News)
trigger: event
conditions: []
actions:
- alias: Update Helper (Breitbart News Date)
action: input_datetime.set_datetime
metadata: {}
data:
timestamp: >-
{{ strptime(trigger.event.data.published, '%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S
%z').timestamp() | int }}
target:
entity_id: input_datetime.rss_breitbart_date
enabled: true
- action: input_text.set_value
metadata: {}
data:
value: "{{ trigger.event.data.title }}"
target:
entity_id: input_text.rss_breitbart_title
alias: Update Helper (Breitbart News Title)
- action: input_text.set_value
metadata: {}
data:
value: "{{ trigger.event.data.summary | striptags }}"
target:
entity_id: input_text.rss_breitbart_description
alias: Update Helper (Breitbart News Description)
- action: input_text.set_value
metadata: {}
data:
value: "{{ trigger.event.data.link }}"
target:
entity_id: input_text.rss_breitbart_link
alias: Update Helper (Breitbart News Link)
mode: single
This seems to run about once an hour. The ABSOLUTE LACK of documentation leads to some claims here and there that the Feedreader event triggers once an hour, some claim when Feedreader detects an update to the feed. Who knows? In my case it’s updating without error about once an hour.
For example, the result in the automation trace says this for updating the description helper…
Executed: April 10, 2025 at 11:00:12 AM
Result:
params:
domain: input_text
service: set_value
service_data:
value: >-
Union suspends tariffs against the U.S. in favour of a deal, saying it has
"taken note" of Trump's pause on every country except China. The post
European Union Continues to Move Towards Trump Trade Deal with Pause on
Metals Tariffs appeared first on Breitbart.
entity_id:
- input_text.rss_breitbart_description
target:
entity_id:
- input_text.rss_breitbart_description
running_script: false
But there are issues. First, this feed entry might not change for many hours, even though the feed has updated numerous times. My markdown card…
type: markdown
content: >
**{{ states('input_text.rss_breitbart_title') }}**
{{ states('input_text.rss_breitbart_description') }}
_{{ as_timestamp(states('input_datetime.rss_breitbart_date')) |
timestamp_custom('%-m/%-d/%y @ %-I:%M %p') }}_ • [View Article]({{
states('input_text.rss_breitbart_link') }})
This entry will get stuck. The markdown card will show this entry, and even though a half dozen updates will occur, the entry in the markdown card will continue to show this one. Refresh does nothing. Then magically, it might update. There’s nothing consistent about it.
Second, I’ve tried both “description” and “summary”, but neither will show the article returned above. The description section of this markdown card just says “unknown”. The helper is not being updated by the automation no matter which I use.
I’ve tried changing the maximum number of feeds, no difference. Sometimes changing the number causes the update of the helpers to finally occur, sometimes not. Sometimes, restarting the integration causes the update, sometimes not.
And of course, I’ve waited… And waited, and waited. Sometimes it updates, sometimes not. The Feedreader will say it detected an update, but the helpers don’t update. It’s like the automation doesn’t detect the event and trigger. I can verify that because the integration will show several “detected an update” messages, but the automation hasn’t run for hours to process them.
So my UI feed card just sits there, showing an entry from six hours ago, and ignoring the 10 new articles which occurred since then… And what’s more frustrating, is the only “documentation” is a video from a guy that doesn’t tell you how to do it, but rather is just a link for us to purchase his blueprint.
Any help would be great.
