Home Advanced functionality Publish a Filter as an External Feed

Publish a Filter as an External Feed

Last updated on Mar 07, 2026

Publish a Filter as an External Feed

You can publish a module filter as an external feed, allowing the filtered data to be accessed through a URL and used by external systems such as webforms, integrations, or other applications.

This feature extends the normal filter functionality. If you are unfamiliar with filters, see:
https://help.simply-crm.com/hc/simply-crm-support/articles/how_to_create_a_custom_filter

What an External Feed Does

An external feed makes a saved CRM filter accessible through a URL.

The filter remains the single source of truth, meaning the feed always uses:

  • The filter’s module

  • The filter’s conditions

  • The filter’s sort order

Additional URL parameters can be used to further narrow the results, but never expand them.

Common use cases include:

  • Providing product lists to webforms or websites

  • Sharing customer phone numbers with a phone system

  • Making filtered CRM data available to external tools

How to Create an External Feed

  1. Go to the module where the data is stored.

  2. Create or open a Custom Filter.

  3. Open the Edit Filter screen.

  4. Enable Create external feed.

  5. Save the filter.

When enabled:

  • A feed key is automatically generated.

  • The feed URL becomes available and can be copied.

Feed Access and Keys

All feeds require a key to be accessed.

  • The key is automatically generated when the feed is enabled.

  • The key must be included in the feed URL.

  • If the key is removed or revoked, the feed becomes inaccessible.

This ensures that only systems with the correct URL and key can access the data.

Example Feed URLs

An external feed URL may look like this:

https://yourcompany.simply-crm.com/feed.php?filterid=1234&key=abcd1234example

This URL returns the results of the saved filter.

You can also add additional parameters to further narrow the results using fields that are already shown in the filter.

Example:

https://yourcompany.simply-crm.com/feed.php?filterid=1234&key=abcd1234example&name=lego

In this example, the feed will only return records where the Name field matches lego, in addition to the conditions already defined in the filter.

Another example:

https://yourcompany.simply-crm.com/feed.php?filterid=1234&key=abcd1234example&cf_row=1

Here, the results are further filtered to only include records where cf_row matches 1.

How Feed Filtering Works

When a feed is accessed:

  1. The saved filter runs first

  2. Any additional URL parameters are applied as extra AND conditions

  3. The result set can only be narrowed, never expanded

This means you can use parameters such as &name=lego or &cf_row=1 to limit the results further, but never to show records outside the original filter.

Limits

To keep the feature safe and efficient:

  • Feeds return a limited number of rows per request

  • Basic rate limiting and caching may apply

If you want, I can also tighten the wording a bit more so it feels even more like a finished Simply-chat HC article.