While the term source can have a variety of bespoke meanings depending on its application, a Vable Source is any individual web page or RSS feed tracked within the platform, as well as Curated Feeds, which host a collection of articles handpicked by Administrators. This article outlines what types of Sources can be added to the platform and best practice advice when adding new content to Vable.
What is a Source?
At a Glance:
A Vable Source is a URL — either an RSS feed or a web page — that contains a stream of updates, such as articles or content items, each with its own unique URL.
In practice, this means:
A Source is not a single article or an entire website.
A website may have multiple Sources (for example, separate pages for “News” and “Events”).
Each Source brings in new content items (articles) that can then be searched against and used in Topics and Newsletters.
In addition to RSS feeds and web pages, Vable also supports Curated Feeds — bespoke collections of articles that Administrators can add to from existing items in Vable or upload directly.
Uploaded items can include:
Files imported from your computer such as PDFs, Word, or Excel documents
Article URLs from external websites
Before You Add a New Source
Vable already contains thousands of Sources. Before submitting a new URL, search All Sources to check whether it already exists — if it does, you can simply add it to your Account Library.
When searching, look out for Sources that cover the same content even if the URL is slightly different — for example, an RSS feed for a page you were planning to add as a web page.
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What Makes a Good Source?
Before submitting a URL, it helps to understand how Vable identifies new content:
Vable detects new content by URL, not by text changes. Each time a Source is crawled, Vable checks for links it hasn't seen before and creates a new content item for each one. If the text on a page changes but no new links are added, no new items will appear. Vable is not designed to track text edits or page changes the way some monitoring tools do.
Dates are not required. If a content item has no publication date, Vable will use the date it was added to the database instead.
Each crawl scans up to 200 links. On pages with a large number of items, only the first 200 links will be checked on each crawl. If a page lists items with the newest ones last — for example, in alphabetical or oldest-first order — new content may fall outside that range and be missed.
A valid Source must meet three requirements:
1. A consistent, structured layout
Vable needs to reliably identify what each piece of content is — which part is the title, the link, the summary, and the date (where available). Pages with a repeating, predictable layout make this possible: for example, a news index where every item is presented in the same way. Pages where content appears differently across items, or where information is embedded in unstructured prose rather than clearly separated fields, are often difficult or impossible to set up reliably.
2. New items will be added over time
The page should be one that grows — new, individually linked items will be published to it over time. There is no minimum frequency required; an annual report archive, a quarterly legislation index, and a daily news feed can all be valid Sources. What matters is that the page is designed to accumulate new items, not how often it updates.
3. Publicly accessible
Vable can only crawl feeds and pages where the content is accessible without a login.
Choosing the Right URL
RSS feeds — always the first choice
Before evaluating a web page, check whether the publisher offers an RSS feed. RSS feeds are purpose-built for content monitoring — they can be activated immediately without any configuration from the Vable team, they're structured by design, and they're less likely to break when a publisher redesigns their site.
To check whether a publisher has an RSS feed:
Look on the page itself. Publishers often include a feed icon (the small broadcast symbol) or a "Subscribe" or "RSS" link in the page header, footer, or sidebar.
Check your browser's address bar. Some browsers display the RSS icon automatically when a feed is detected on the current page.
Use a browser extension. Search your browser's extension store for "RSS feed finder" or "RSS detector" — these tools automatically highlight available feeds on any page you visit.
Try common feed URL patterns. Many publishers follow standard conventions: appending /feed, /rss, or /atom.xml to the base URL (e.g. publisher.com/feed) will often return a feed directly.
Once you've found a feed, check that it's current before submitting — compare the most recent items in the feed against the live web page. Some publishers maintain an RSS feed that is no longer being updated, in which case a web page may be a better option.
Section and listing pages
If no RSS feed is available, the URL you submit should be a listing page — a page where multiple content items are collected and new ones are added over time. A URL that leads directly to a single article, report, decree, document, or download is not a valid Source; there is nothing for Vable to return to for new content.
Good examples: a news archive, a press release index, a publications listing, a legislation register.
Homepages
Where a dedicated section page or RSS feed exists, use that in preference to the homepage. However, if a publisher posts content directly on their homepage and no separate listing page or feed is available, the homepage can work as a Source — provided it meets the layout and structure requirements above.
Search results pages
If a publisher's site allows you to filter or search content — for example, filtering legislation by keyword or topic — the resulting URL can work as a Source, under two conditions:
The URL must be persistent: when you revisit or share the link, it should display the same filtered view, not a generic or blank results page.
The results must not be filtered by a fixed date range — a date-based filter will cause the page to stop returning new content once that window has passed.
Direct links to PDF files
A PDF URL cannot be used as a Source — a PDF is a static file and will never update with new content. This is different from a listing page that links to PDFs: if a page links to PDF documents, Vable will create a content item for each one as normal. The restriction applies only to submitting a PDF file URL itself as the Source.
If a publisher releases content exclusively as standalone PDF downloads with no listing page available, consider using a Curated Feed to upload those documents directly..
Quick Reference
URL type | Works as a Source? | Notes |
RSS feed | ✅ Yes — start here | Always the preferred option; check before evaluating any web page |
Section / listing page | ✅ Yes | Must have a consistent layout; must add new items over time |
Homepage | ⚠️ Sometimes | Acceptable when no dedicated section page or RSS feed exists, and other criteria are met |
Search results page | ⚠️ Sometimes | URL must be persistent; must not be filtered by a fixed date range |
Single article, document, or download | ❌ No | One item only — nothing for Vable to return to for new content |
Direct PDF URL | ❌ No | Static file — submit a listing page instead, or use a Curated Feed |
Login-required page | ❌ No | For subscription content, see Source Visibility below |
Adding Multiple Sources
If you want to track multiple sections of a site — for example, "News" and "Publications" — add each URL as its own Source rather than attempting to capture everything from a single top-level page. This gives you more control over what appears in your feed and makes it easier to apply the right taxonomy to each content type.
Similarly, if a site lists multiple RSS feeds on one page, add each feed URL individually rather than the list page itself.
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