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• Introduction
  • Sample Image of SmartView Format
• Syntax
  • Format
  • Character Code
  • Namespaces
  • Elements (RSS 2.0)
  • Elements (Atom)
  • Allowed HTML elements
  • Sample (RSS 2.0)
  • Sample (Atom)
• Allowing Access from SmartNews Server
  • Data Fetch
  • When the Fetch Starts
  • Access Restriction
  • Validation Tool
• Important Notes
  • Disallowed Characters
  • Date Format of <pubDate>
• FAQ
  • About the Specification
  • About the Connection
• Contact Us
• Version History

Introduction

SmartFormat gives publishers more control over their content in SmartView. Beginning with version 2.0, SmartFormat supports SmartView First, a native app-viewing experience that provides better publisher branding and links to your sponsored content or a subscription landing page. In version 2.1, a new field for the publisher logo specifically for Dark Mode was added.

Sample Image of SmartView Format

Syntax

Format

SmartFormat is an extension of RSS 2.0 (http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rss/rss.html) or Atom (http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4287).

Character Code

SmartFormat only supports UTF-8.

Namespaces

SmartFormat supports the following namespaces.

[1] Specifies related links and advertising placed in SmartView.

Elements (RSS 2.0)

<xml>

Specifies XML document version and character code.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

<rss>

Specifies RSS version and namespaces.

<rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" xmlns:snf="http://www.smartnews.be/snf">
...
</rss>

<channel>

A description of your website.

<snf:logo>

Specifies the logo image shown in the header, on top of the article.

• 700 x 100 px PNG file with alpha channel recommended.
• Please see the examples below for more detailed design recommendations.

• Please make sure the logo looks clear on various backgrounds with bright or dark colors.

<snf:darkModeLogo>

Since iOS app release 6.5.0, we support Dark Mode. If you provide a header logo image specifically for SmartView First, you can use <snf:darkModeLogo> to display a compatible logo for iOS Dark Mode.

<item>

Describes each article.

• For best results, specify a thumbnail image larger than recommended size.
• Be careful with double-escaping when the title or body is marked up with CDATA.
• Please remove any UTM tracking parameters from the end of URLs in the feed (more details here).
• If an article is redirected, use the redirected, canonical URL.
• Please put the full text of the article into the <content:encoded> element - no partial text or paginations. Placement of images and any embedded media in SmartView are determined by their placement within the <content:encoded> element.
• You may delete the article from SmartNews by adding “deleted” in the <media:status> element.
• Do not include sponsored content (including house ads), adult content, or re-distributed content without permission in <link> element.

<snf:advertisement>

Specifies container for <snf:sponsoredLink> which is displayed in the SmartView of an article.

• One <snf:advertisement> can be specified per <item>.

<snf:sponsoredLink>

Specifies sponsored content which is displayed under this article as an element under <snf:advertisement> (house ads allowed).

• The name of the advertiser is required in the <advertiser> element.
  • Specifies the name of the entity underwriting the sponsored content.
  • In the case of a house ad, specify your company name.
• Up to two <snf:sponsoredLink> items can be specified per <snf:advertisement>.
• URL of an article in <link> is limited to one under your domain.

<snf:advertisement>
  <snf:sponsoredLink link="https://example.com/sponsor" thumbnail="https://example.com/sponsor.jpg" title="What we love about our sponsor" advertiser="SmartNews sponsor"/>
  <snf:sponsoredLink link="https://example.com/newsletter" thumbnail="https://example.com/newsletter.jpg" title="Sign up for our newsletter" advertiser="SmartNews"/>
</snf:advertisement>

<snf:analytics>

Specifies a third-party analytics script to track SmartView pageviews.

• SmartFormat 2.0 and above support Google Analytics as well as other analytics tools.
• Additional details can be found here.

<snf:video>

Used to upload in-article video files to SmartNews. Please use the format below to specify the raw video file to be used. SmartNews will download and transcode the file to be served by the SmartNews app.

<snf:video url="https://example.com/video.mp4" caption="Example video" />

Movie file requirements are as follows:

• File size: 600 MB
• Length: Up to 5 minutes (90 seconds recommended)
• Video and audio must be aligned in duration.
• Video codec: h.264
• Audio codec: aac
• Bit rate: 1 Mbps
• File format: mp4
• Video file should not auto-play nor default to sound on.

Elements (Atom)

xml

Specifies XML document version and character code.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

feed

Specifies version and namespace.

<feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xml:lang="en" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" xmlns:snf="http://www.smartnews.be/snf">
...
</feed>

Describes the website.

entry

Describes each article.

Allowed HTML elements

Inside <content:encoded>

a, abbr, acronym, address, article, aside, b, base, basefont, bdi, bdo, bgsound, big, blink, blockquote, body, br, caption, center, cite, code, col, colgroup, command, data, datalist, dd, del, details, dfn, dir, div, dl, dt, em, fieldset, figcaption, figure, font, footer, form, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, header, hgroup, hr, html, i, img, ins, kbd, label, legend, li, listing, main, mark, marquee, menu, meter, nav, nobr, ol, p, plaintext, pre, q, rb, rp, rt, ruby, s, samp, section, small, spacer, span, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, time, tr, tt, u, ul, var, wbr, xmp

Sample (RSS 2.0)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" xmlns:snf="http://www.smartnews.be/snf">
  <channel>
    <title>The Smart Times</title>
    <link>https://example.com/</link>
    <description>News for all</description>
    <pubDate>Sun, 01 Mar 2026 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
    <language>en</language>
    <copyright>SmartNews, Inc.</copyright>
    <ttl>1</ttl>
    <snf:logo><url>https://example.com/logo.png</url></snf:logo>    
    <item>
        <title>SmartNews Launches</title>
        <link>https://example.com/smartnews-launches</link>
        <guid>https://example.com/smartnews-launches</guid>
        <description><![CDATA[
        SmartNews makes it fast and easy to discover interesting stories by ranking and displaying news in colorful, easy-to-use topic channels.
        ]]></description>
        <pubDate>Wed, 01 Oct 2014 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
        <content:encoded><![CDATA[
        <img src="https://example.com/lead-image.png"><br>
            <p>SmartNews, the free, award-winning news-discovery app, today announced the release of its long-anticipated U.S. edition for Apple and Android mobile devices. SmartNews is building on its success in Japan, where it is helping users discover interesting, important, and popular stories. Much like the Japanese edition, the app promises to bring speed, utility and serendipity to finding news for users in the United States.</p>

            <p>SmartNews makes it fast and easy to discover interesting stories by ranking and displaying news in colorful, easy-to-use topic channels. The Japanese edition of SmartNews has earned rave reviews from users, as well as industry-wide recognition, including a “Google Play App of the Year” award and an Apple “App Store Best of” in news in 2013.</p>
        ]]></content:encoded>
        <category>mobile,news,app</category>
        <dc:creator>Rich Jaroslovsky</dc:creator>
        <dc:language>en</dc:language>
        <media:thumbnail url="https://example.com/thumbnail-image.png" />
        <snf:advertisement>
        <snf:sponsoredLink link="https://example.com/sponsored/article1.html" thumbnail="https://example.com/sponsored/image1.jpg" title="Sponsored link" advertiser="Example Company"/>
        <snf:sponsoredLink link="https://example.com/sponsored/article2.html" thumbnail="https://example.com/sponsored/image2.jpg" title="Sponsored link 2" advertiser="Example Company 2"/>        
        </snf:advertisement>
    <snf:analytics><![CDATA[
    <!-- OPTIONAL THIRD-PARTY ANALYTICS SCRIPT GOES HERE -->
    ]]>
  </snf:analytics> 
    </item>
    <item>
        ...
    </item>
    <item>
        ...
    </item>
</channel>
</rss>

Sample (Atom)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xml:lang="en" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" xmlns:snf="http://www.smartnews.be/snf">
  <title>The Smart Times</title>
  <link type="text/html" href="https://example.com/" rel="alternate"/>
  <subtitle>News for all</subtitle>
  <updated>2026-03-01T06:00:00+0000</updated>
  <rights>(c) SmartNews, Inc.</rights>
  <logo>https://example.com/logo.png</logo>
  <snf:logo><url>https://example.com/snlogo.png</url></snf:logo>
  <entry>
    <title>SmartNews Launches</title>
    <link type="text/html" href="https://example.com/smartnews-launches" rel="alternate"/>
    <id>https://example.com/smartnews-launches</id>
    <updated>2014-05-16T06:00:00+0000</updated>
    <content><![CDATA[
    <img src="https://example.com/lead-image.png"><br>
       <p>SmartNews, the free, award-winning news-discovery app, today announced the release of its long-anticipated U.S. edition for Apple and Android mobile devices. SmartNews is building on its success in Japan, where it is helping users discover interesting, important, and popular stories. Much like the Japanese edition, the app promises to bring speed, utility and serendipity to finding news for users in the United States.</p>

            <p>SmartNews makes it fast and easy to discover interesting stories by ranking and displaying news in colorful, easy-to-use topic channels. The Japanese edition of SmartNews has earned rave reviews from users, as well as industry-wide recognition, including a “Google Play App of the Year” award and an Apple “App Store Best of” in news in 2013.</p>
        ]]></content>
    <summary><![CDATA[ SmartNews makes it fast and easy to discover interesting stories by ranking and displaying news in colorful, easy-to-use topic channels. ]]></summary>
    <category>mobile,news,app</category>
    <author>Rich Jaroslovsky</author>
    <dc:language>en</dc:language>
    <media:thumbnail url="https://example.com/thumbnail-img.png" />
    <snf:advertisement>
        <snf:sponsoredLink link="https://example.com/sponsored/article1.html" thumbnail="https://example.com/sponsored/image1.jpg" title="Sponsored link" advertiser="Example Company"/>
        <snf:sponsoredLink link="https://example.com/sponsored/article2.html" thumbnail="https://example.com/sponsored/image2.jpg" title="Sponsored link 2" advertiser="Example Company 2"/>        
    </snf:advertisement>
    <snf:analytics><![CDATA[
    <!-- OPTIONAL THIRD-PARTY ANALYTICS SCRIPT GOES HERE -->
    ]]>
  </snf:analytics> 
  </entry>
  <entry>
    ...
  </entry>
</feed>

Allowing Access from SmartNews Server

Data Fetch

Interval

The articles are repeatedly fetched at a specified interval (minutes) in <ttl> element. The minimum interval is 1 minute.

For publishers handling competitive breaking news, we suggest setting <ttl> at 1, although please note this will increase the frequency of calls made by the SmartNews crawler.

<ttl>1</ttl> <!-- minutes -->

Note: The interval can not be specified when using ATOM.

Protocol

A connection is made via HTTP GET method.

GET /smartformat.xml HTTP/1.1

User Agent

The User-Agent request header starts with “Crowsnest”.

User-Agent: Crowsnest

When the Fetch Starts

Access to SmartFormat URL starts after you grant permission to it. Please contact us when it’s ready.

Access Restriction

If you don’t want to make your SmartFormat URL publicly accessible, you can restrict the access to it using the following methods.

• Access restriction by IP address
• Access restriction by basic authentication

Please contact us for details.

Validation Tool

We provide a SmartFormat validation tool online. You can specify a public feed url or use the Upload tab to upload an XML file. Please review your feed in the Preview tab to ensure qualitative needs are met in addition to technical requirements.

https://sf-validator.smartnews.com/

Important Notes

Disallowed Characters

SmartFormat is an XML format. If characters which are not allowed by XML specification are included in a document, we cannot parse the XML file correctly. For more information about the XML specification, please visit http://www.w3.org/XML/Core/#Publications.

Below are some things to watch.

Characters are not escaped appropriately

If you are not using CDATA inside an element, please do not forget to convert "<", ">" to "&lt;", "&gt;" respectively. Similarly, please convert "&", " " ", " ‘ " to "&amp;", "&quot;", "&apos;" respectively.

Date Format of <pubDate>

The value of <pubDate> must be specified in accordance with RFC822 ( https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc0822.txt ).

Time Zones

Please specify a time zone using one of the following notations.

• Greenwich Mean Time (GMT or +0000)
• Time zone to which the website belongs (if you are in New York, your time zone is PST or -0800)

For example, the following are correct notation to express “May 16, 2014 15:00:00 (PST)“.

• Fri, 16 May 2014 23:00:00 GMT
• Fri, 16 May 2014 15:00:00 -0800

FAQ

In addition to the FAQs below, please be sure to visit our Publisher FAQ site.

About the Specification

My website already has an RSS feed. Do I have to create a new one for SmartFormat?

SmartFormat follows RSS 2.0 or Atom specifications. It is possible that your existing RSS 2.0 or Atom feed can be used as a SmartFormat feed without any modification. However, there are some differences between them and SmartFormat. Please check them carefully in the validator preview.

What if I am running WordPress as my CMS?

We have published a WordPress plugin that can help get you started on creating a SmartFormat-compliant feed. You can download the plugin on wordpress.org.

Does SmartFormat support RSS 1.0?

Currently, we have no plans to support RSS 1.0.

Where should I place a SmartFormat document?

You can place it anywhere on your website.

Do I have to provide all the elements defined above?

Elements marked as required must be provided. Other elements are optional.

How many items should I prepare in one document?

There is no particular restriction, but too many items may cause a slowdown on our servers. The recommended maximum number of items in one document is approximately 100. The entire feed file size should be smaller than 1MB.

We use different URLs for PC and mobile. Which do I have to specify in SmartFormat?

Please specify the "canonical" URL of the article, which might be specified with the element <link rel="canonical" href="xxx" /> or <meta property="og:url" content="xxx" />.

What type of categories should I specify in <category> element?

Categories should be representative of the article. They could help SmartNews’s algorithms better understand the article.

What happens if an article contains HTML tags which are not allowed?

In such cases, the disallowed HTML will be ignored.

Can I use JavaScript as content?

JavaScript is not allowed except for supported embedded media.

How do I embed Twitter or Instagram in an article?

SmartView supports standard Twitter and Instagram embeds. Please use the full embed codes and not any CMS-specific shortcodes. For more information about embeds, please see this FAQ.

Is it possible to embed videos in an article?

Currently several embeds are supported.

To use a supported player, please insert the <iframe> embed code inside the <content:encoded> element. In all cases, please use the standard embed code offered by the vendor. We do not support custom embed scripts.

Please note that when using the JW Player embed code, you must specify the full path (not relative). Make sure you match the following path https://content.jwplatform.com/players/... as in the example below.

<iframe src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/KkPy9n1m.html"
 width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto"></iframe>

To use Brightcove, you must insert both the embed code and also reference the Brightcove JS inside the <content:encoded> element.

For example:

<script  language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript" 
src="http://admin.brightcove.co.jp/js/BrightcoveExperiences.js"></script>
<object id="myPlayer"  class="BrightcoveExperience">
<param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" />
<param name="width" value="790" />
<param name="height" value="529" />
<param name="playerID" value="1234567890" />
<param name="playerKey" value="AQ~~,AAAAstMe5SE~,5vOZeV6rFDb4JUBomUtNzVLbOfHyhc1i" />
<param name="isVid" value="true" />
<param name="isUI" value="true" />
<param name="@playlistTabs"  value="ref:myPlaylist6789" />
</object>

Currently, the following Brightcove scripts are supported.

http://admin.brightcove.co.jp/js/BrightcoveExperiences.js
http://admin.brightcove.co.jp/js/BrightcoveExperiences_all.js
http://admin.brightcove.com/js/BrightcoveExperiences.js
http://admin.brightcove.com/js/BrightcoveExperiences_all.js

What happens if my SmartFormat feed fails to comply with the specification?

In such cases, the feed is ignored.

If I prepare a SmartFormat feed, will all the included articles will be delivered on SmartNews?

No. The purpose of SmartFormat is to control the display of an article on SmartView when it’s delivered. The SmartFormat feed has nothing to do with the algorithmic selection of articles.

If I use a SmartFormat feed, will it restrict which articles are available in SmartNews?

We use a combination of SmartFormat and a general web crawling to ingest articles. That means the articles which are not present in the SmartFormat feed could be delivered via general crawling. If you do want that please contact us.

How do I add a thumbnail image to the article?

Please use the <media:thumbnail> element.

Will the images embedded in SmartFormat be delivered directly or cached?

Images specified with <media:thumbnail> will be delivered through our cache server. Other images will be delivered directly.

About the Connection

I don’t want to make our SmartFormat feed public.

We support access restriction either by authentication or IP address. For more information, see “Access Restriction”.

Can you access to our SmartFormat feed via other methods than HTTP, such as FTP?

Currently, we have no plans to support any methods other than HTTP.

Contact Us

If you have any questions or feedback, please contact us at partner-support@smartnews.com.

Specification Version History

• Version 2.2 - this document
• Version 2.1 - earlier version with legacy SmartFormat elements
• Version 2.0 - earlier version for SmartView First
• Version 1.1.4 - earlier version for non-SmartView First publishers

What's New in Version 2.2

• <snf:adcontent> removed from <snf:advertisement> sub-element

Version 2.1

• <snf:darkModeLogo> added to <channel> element

Version 2.0

• <snf:logo> added to <channel> element
• <snf:analytics> added to <item> or entry element
• <snf:video> added to <item> element
• <snf:sponsoredLink> added to the <snf:advertisement> sub-element within <item> or entry element