Getting started

Requirements

Every claim on this page was checked against the files in this package (version 4.9.6.2) rather than copied from the marketing text. Where the shipped code and the shipped readme.txt disagree, both numbers are given.

Minimum requirements

Item	Required	Enforced where
PHP	5.6 minimum; 7.2+ in practice	Activation aborts and self-deactivates below 5.6
WordPress	2.7 enforced by code; `readme.txt` advertises 4.0	Activation gate
Tested up to	WordPress 7.1	`readme.txt`
Database	Whatever WordPress core requires	The plugin adds no tables — only the options and posts APIs
Capability	`manage_options` for every plugin screen; `activate_plugins` to activate	Menu registration and the activation hook
Multisite	Supported	The menu registers on both `admin_menu` and `network_admin_menu`

About the PHP floor

The activation gate rejects PHP below 5.6, but that number understates the real requirement:

res/simplepie/composer.json declares "php": ">=7.2.0".
res/simplepie/src/ uses constant visibility modifiers (public const), which is a parse error before PHP 7.1.

That bundled copy is loaded whenever Use Custom SimplePie Instead of the Built-In One is enabled in Main Settings, or when an individual rule opts into it. With that option off, the plugin falls back to the SimplePie shipped inside WordPress and the 5.6 floor is closer to accurate.

Practical guidance

Run PHP 7.2 or newer. PHP 8.0–8.2 is fine — every .php file in this package passes php -l on PHP 8.2.

PHP extensions

Extension	Needed for	Required?
`dom` / `libxml`	Parsing feed items and source pages	Yes
`xml`, `xmlreader`	SimplePie feed parsing	Yes
`pcre`	Content filters, regex strip/replace rules	Yes
`mbstring`	Encoding detection and conversion	Yes in practice — non-UTF-8 feeds will mangle without it
`json`	Settings serialisation, API integrations	Yes
`curl`	Remote fetching for full-content crawling	Optional. Activation succeeds without it; a warning appears on the plugin's own screens
`gd`	Image resizing	Optional — only if you resize images
`iconv`	Fallback encoding conversion	Optional
`openssl`	Fetching `https://` feeds through PHP streams when cURL is unavailable	Optional but recommended

Check what your server has under Echo RSS Feed Post Generator → Activity & Logging → System Info, which prints PHP version, memory limit, upload/POST limits, DateTime availability and cURL status.

Server configuration

Setting	Recommendation	Why
`memory_limit`	256M or more	Full-content extraction parses whole source pages. The plugin raises it to `-1` at run time, but hosts often block that.
`max_execution_time`	300s or more	A rule sets its own limit from Rule Timeout (default 3600s), which many hosts also ignore.
`max_input_vars`	3000+	Rule forms are large. The plugin works around low values by packing extra fields into one POST value, so a low value is survivable but not comfortable.
WP-Cron	Must be able to fire	Imports run on the `echoaction` hook. If `DISABLE_WP_CRON` is set, use the secret-word URL from First import.
`allow_url_fopen`	On, or cURL installed	One of the two is needed to fetch feeds.

Known documentation discrepancies

These are inaccuracies in the shipped readme.txt, not in the code. They are listed here so the code stays the source of truth.

WordPress minimum. readme.txt says Requires at least: 4.0; the activation gate only enforces 2.7. 4.0 is the safer public number, but nothing enforces it.
PHP minimum. The plugin header block declares no Requires PHP. The enforced value is 5.6, and the bundled SimplePie needs 7.2.
Automatic updates. The update-checker/ library is bundled but is not instantiated anywhere in this package — no file outside that folder references it. There is no update endpoint configured, so this build will not self-update. See Updating this plugin.
Header metadata. The plugin header declares no Requires at least, Requires PHP, or Tested up to, so WordPress cannot warn users on incompatible sites before activation.

What is not required

No purchase code, licence key, or activation step. No purchase-code handling remains anywhere in the package.
No outbound call on activation or normal use. The upgrade links are ordinary <a href> elements; nothing is contacted until an administrator clicks one.
No forced attribution is added to generated posts.
PhantomJS and Puppeteer are optional. They are only used if you point a rule at a local binary. See Free vs Paid for the hosted alternative.