WP RSS Aggregator v5: A Developer’s Look Under the Hood

We recently shipped version 5 of WP RSS Aggregator, and let’s be clear — this wasn’t just a version bump or a shiny new UI. This was a complete teardown and rebuild of the plugin from the ground up.

Why? Because the old architecture — like most legacy WordPress plugins — was never built with scale, performance, or developer experience in mind. It worked, sure, but it wasn’t something we were proud to put in front of enterprise teams or large-scale use cases.

As the lead developer behind v5, I wanted to share some behind-the-scenes insights into what we changed, why we changed it, and what this means if you’re a developer building on, with, or around WP RSS Aggregator.

1. A Developer-Friendly Codebase

Let’s be honest — most plugin codebases are not fun to work with. Either they’re massive monoliths or spaghetti files with zero abstraction.

We approached v5 differently.

What we did:

• Modular architecture — The plugin is cleanly split into modules. You only load what you need.
• Interfaces and contracts — You can inject your own RssReader or extend the Importer without fighting the framework.
• Typed data and services — No mystery arrays. Clear contracts. Predictable behavior.
• Unit tested — We’ve invested heavily in automated tests so we can ship confidently and extend easily.
• Well-documented internals — Every method, interface, and core service is documented. Not just with PHPDoc — with actual context.

If you’re building a feature, a custom add-on, or contributing upstream — this codebase won’t make you hate your life.

WP RSS Aggregator v5 isn’t just a feature-packed plugin — it’s an opinionated architecture built on real software design patterns, the kind you’ll actually recognize if you’ve worked on large PHP systems or frameworks.

We didn’t just slap some interfaces on procedural code — we built the internal structure to be predictable, composable, and testable. Here’s a look at a few key patterns we rely on heavily:

Generator Pattern

In section #2, you’ll see how we use PHP generators for memory efficiency — a pattern that flows throughout the data processing layer — but under the hood, that’s part of a deliberate Generator Pattern that flows throughout the data processing layer.

public function convert(Source $source, iterable $items, ...): iterable {
    foreach ($items as $item) {
        $post = $this->makePost($item);
        if ($post !== null) {
            yield $post;
        }
    }
}

public function convert(Source $source, iterable $items, ...): iterable {
    foreach ($items as $item) {
        $post = $this->makePost($item);
        if ($post !== null) {
            yield $post;
        }
    }
}

This is how we process tens of thousands of feed items without blowing up memory or execution time. It’s lazy-loaded, pipeline-style processing — and it’s everywhere.

Module Manager + Dependency Injection

We don’t use a bloated container like Symfony’s — instead, we wrote our own lightweight module manager via the Plugin class in our SDK.

Each module registers itself with a unique ID and a factory. Dependencies are resolved and injected at runtime — clean constructor injection without the mess.

$plugin->addModule('rss.reader', ['http.client'], function($http) {
    return new RssReader($http);
});

$plugin->addModule('rss.reader', ['http.client'], function($http) {
    return new RssReader($http);
});

It’s a simple pattern, but powerful: we get loose coupling, clear dependency trees, and testable modules — without needing a full-blown framework.

Custom Plugin SDK

Everything above is tied together with our custom plugin SDK, based on rebelcode/wp-plugin-sdk.

This gives us:

• A clean module manager
• A DI container
• Centralized bootstrapping
• Lifecycle hooks
• Shared interfaces and contracts

It’s how we can ship modules and future extensions without coupling them tightly. Developers extending the plugin can just hook into the SDK and build modular add-ons without rewriting internal logic.

I’ve also written a blog post on design patterns that offers valuable insights related to this topic. You can read it here: Unlocking Enterprise-Level WordPress Development: 8 Design Patterns to Know

2. PHP Generators: Why We Ditched Array Hell

Let’s start with the biggest game-changer: PHP generators.

In previous versions (and still in most feed plugins), RSS items were loaded into memory all at once. That’s fine if you’re aggregating from a couple of sources. But start pulling from 50, 100, or a thousand feeds? You’re looking at memory exhaustion, slow imports, and frustrated users.

How we solved it:

We switched to a generator-based pipeline.

This pattern runs deep in our architecture — especially in our Importer::convert() method, which takes an iterable of raw RssItem objects and yields well-formed IrPost objects one at a time, minimizing memory usage even with tens of thousands of items.

Bottom line: This isn’t just cleaner code — it’s what makes v5 stable on large-scale sites, where other plugins fall over.

3. A Real Tech Stack — Not Just PHP and Hope

Too many WordPress plugins are still stuck in 2014: procedural PHP, jQuery spaghetti, and zero build tools. We wanted better — for ourselves and for anyone contributing.

So we modernized the entire stack.

Backend

• PHP 7.4+ — Modern language features, strict types, better performance.
• PSR-standards — We adhere to PSR-3 (psr/log) for logging, among others. This isn’t just nice — it’s what lets us slot cleanly into any serious PHP project.
• Custom Plugin SDK — Built on rebelcode/wp-plugin-sdk, which gives us a DI container, service registration, clean lifecycle hooks, and sane code organization.

Frontend

• React + TypeScript — Our admin UI is a full SPA with strict typing, scoped components, and a responsive UX that doesn’t choke on large datasets.
• Vite — Our build tool of choice. Lightning-fast hot reloads and production builds. No Webpack mess.
• Tailwind CSS — Utility-first styling for rapid iteration and consistency across the UI.
• Storybook — For isolated component development, documentation, and visual testing.

Developer to developer: This stack doesn’t just look good on a slide. It means you can jump into any part of the codebase — backend or frontend — and understand what’s going on, without feeling like you’ve time-traveled back to the WordPress 3.x era.

4. Built for Scale, Not Just Simplicity

A lot of plugins solve a small problem well. That’s fine — unless you’re working on a content-heavy site or need automation and control at scale. Then you need more than checkbox settings and hope.

What v5 brings to the table:

• Custom database tables — We ditched wp_posts for storing imported feed items. This keeps things lean and queryable even at 100k+ items.
• Per-source import limits — Granular control over how many items get imported.
• Age-based expiration — Automatically deletes old content to keep things clean.
• Scheduling & reconciliation — You define how and when sources are checked, and whether content should be updated or left untouched.
• Result-based error handling — We use a Result object pattern across the codebase. This means no more vague error logs or random failures. If something fails, we know exactly what and why.

And yes — everything is WP-CLI-enabled. Import feeds, clean old items, run batch jobs — all from the command line. Perfect for CI/CD or dev-ops workflows.

5. WP VIP & Enterprise-Ready: Why It Matters

We’ve built WP RSS Aggregator to meet the expectations of WordPress VIP customers — think performance audits, security standards, scalability, and long-term maintainability.

Compared to other plugins

Let’s be clear — Other RSS plugins are good for simpler use cases. But when you’re running an editorial workflow, aggregating 500k items, and need clean error reporting, CLI automation, and dev-friendly code… you want something built like WP RSS Aggregator.

Final Thoughts

We didn’t build v5 to be trendy. We built it because the ecosystem desperately needs more serious, scalable, and developer-first plugins.

If you’re a developer working on high-scale WordPress projects, or just someone who wants to peek under the hood of a real-world plugin rewrite — we hope this gives you some inspiration.

Want to contribute? Try building a custom integration? Or just talk dev-architecture over coffee? Hit me up.

More deep dives are coming soon — next up, I’ll break down our generator pipeline, Vite setup, and CLI framework in dedicated posts.