🔬 Monitor RSS feeds with Apify and store new items in data tables
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Description
Quick overview
This workflow runs hourly to execute an Apify RSS monitoring Task, retrieves the run’s dataset items, normalizes them into a stable delivery key, and upserts new or updated feed entries into an n8n Data Table for idempotent storage and run status reporting.
How it works
- Runs every hour on a schedule.
- Starts an Apify Actor Task for RSS monitoring and waits for the run to finish.
- Checks whether the finished Apify run provides a default dataset ID and, if present, fetches up to 200 dataset items from Apify.
- Normalizes each dataset item into a consistent schema, generating a URL-encoded delivery key from feedUrl and itemKey and creating diagnostic records for malformed rows.
- Upserts each normalized record into the n8n Data Table (monitor-deliveries) using deliveryKey as the unique match to avoid duplicates across runs.
- Outputs a run summary including counts of persisted items and throws an error if the Apify run did not finish with SUCCEEDED.
Setup
- Install the community node @apify/n8n-nodes-apify (0.6.10 or later) and add an Apify API credential in n8n.
- Create and configure an Apify RSS monitoring Task, set it to onlyNew: true, and keep maxItemsPerRun at 200 or less, then paste the Task ID into the workflow.
- Create an n8n Data Table named monitor-deliveries with columns matching the upsert mapping (including deliveryKey as the matching/unique field).
Requirements
- Self-hosted n8n with @apify/n8n-nodes-apify 0.6.10 or later, an Apify account with a saved RSS monitoring Task, and an n8n Data Table named monitor-deliveries.
Customization
- Adjust the hourly schedule; change feed sources, keyword or regex filters, exclusions, and maxItemsPerRun in the saved Apify Task; or map additional dataset fields into the Data Table.
Additional info
The export is credential-free and uses PASTEYOURTASKID as its only Task placeholder. The supporting public package is available at https://github.com/Telemark-Digital/apify-monitoring-workflows/tree/main/rss-keyword-monitor.
🔗 Nodes Used
Schedule Trigger, Data table
📥 Import
Download workflow.json and import into n8n:
Workflow menu → Import from File