# Setting up a Custom XML feed

What do I use a custom feed for? If you want to create custom output of a feed in the format of a XML feed, you can set up a custom XML feed in Channable with the following steps.

{% stepper %}
{% step %}

### Create a custom XML feed

* Go to **\[Your project] > Channels.**
* Click **+Create channel**.
* Select "Custom XML". The name of your feed will automatically be set to "Custom XML", but you can change it to another name in the **Feed name** field.
* Click **Continue**.

![](/files/c341800d7993fee3d1dd7e449e16db35931a8b12)

The default tags of your feed are set to “item” and “items”. If you want to use these tags, click the “Continue” button.

If you want to use custom tags in your feed, select the “Custom tags” option and fill in your own tags. The item tag is created for every item within your feed, and the items tag is created at the beginning of the feed. After setting up your custom tags, click the “Continue” button.

![](/files/b256f44284b1cfd9b21857e481117563f54ee4b0)
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

### Categories

For custom feeds, it is not mandatory to set up the categories. However, if you do wish to set up categories you can do that in this step and the resulting categories will be Google product categories. You can set up categories using [the generate categories function](/manage-improve-product-data/categorize-products/create-product-categories/use-the-generate-categories-function.md) or by [manually adding categories](/manage-improve-product-data/categorize-products/create-product-categories/add-categories-manually.md).
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

### Rules

After categorizing your products, you can create [different rules](/manage-improve-product-data/rules-bulk-edit-and-enrich/rules-in-channable.md) to optimize your product data.
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

### Mapping

In the Mapping step of the feed, choose which fields you want to add to your feed. You can click **"+Auto-add all fields"** to automatically add all your project fields to your feed, or click **"+Add new field"** to add internal fields one by one.

After adding the fields, provide them with a channel field name. The channel field name is the tag that will be used for the field in the XML feed.

![](/files/c8d80a065889b5021ff5fae5d5163116aba4d3b6)
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

### Activate your feed and get the feed URL

In order to activate the custom XML feed, the project has to be activated:

* Go to **Settings** and click **Activate project**.
* Go to **Feeds > Your custom XML feed > Preview** and click **Activate feed**.
* Once you activate your project and feed, the feed URL will show.

![](/files/bf366f06715fa6b9f31d42cf96e6ae7dc1d0da5e)
{% endstep %}
{% endstepper %}


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