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Prelinker5 min read

Dating Profile Feed in JSON and XML: How to Integrate Profiles

The profile feed is for publishers who want to control the display. Instead of a ready-made widget, you receive the data and present it your own way. Here is what the feed contains, how to filter it and how to integrate it without spoiling the reading experience.

A man at his computer, a swarm of small profile cards flying toward him

Widgets are convenient, but they impose their own presentation. If you want to keep control of your layout, your colors and your templates, the Prelinker profile feed is the right tool. It supplies the data, and you decide how to display it.

What a profile feed is

A feed is a data file, updated by the network and readable by your site. Prelinker offers it in JSON or XML format, two common formats that almost every programming language can read. The feed is available in 9 languages, which lets you address visitors from different countries without translating the elements yourself.

For a webmaster, it is the equivalent of a shop window whose arrangement you choose. For someone less technical, the widget or the smartlink will remain simpler.

The available filters

The feed can be filtered by several criteria:

  • The site or brand, to show only the profiles of a specific offer;
  • The theme, such as seniors, local or general, to stay consistent with your topic;
  • The location, to display profiles close to your reader or to a given city.

These filters are the key to a good integration. A blog about outings in Lyon has no reason to show profiles from another region; a site for singles over 50 will simply use a suitable theme. To pick the right one, read about dating site niches.

How to integrate the feed into your pages

The general logic is the same whatever your tool:

  1. Retrieve the feed from your publisher area, with your filtering parameters.
  2. Read it on the server side or in the browser, depending on your technology. On WordPress, a custom plugin or a bit of code in the child theme does the job. On a static site, a script can generate the page at regular intervals.
  3. Format the profiles with your own stylesheet: cards, list, grid.
  4. Keep the tracking link on each profile, with your publisher ID and a SubID. Without it, no signup will be credited to you.

In every case, test first on a draft page, with real data, before publishing.

Technical precautions

A few points need attention.

  • Caching. Do not call the feed on every page view: store it for a few hours or longer, following the network's guidelines, to preserve speed.
  • Error handling. If the feed is unavailable, the page must remain readable. Plan a fallback version, for example a simple link.
  • Image weight. Profile photos can slow down display: lazy-load them and size them correctly.
  • Search ranking. Content generated entirely by a feed adds little value on its own. Surround it with real text written by you.

Respecting profiles and the audience

Profiles belong to real people. Present them with restraint, without inappropriate comments and without diverting the photos from their intended use. State that the offer is for adults and that the page may contain sponsored links. Also think about your privacy policy if you use measurement tools, in line with GDPR.

Assign a different SubID to each feed placement, for example one for the home page and another for the local page. After a month, you will know which one actually produces signups.

When to choose the feed over another tool

The feed is worth the detour if you are comfortable with the technical side, if you want a very consistent visual identity or if you are building a niche site with your own templates. To go even further, white label offers a complete site in your name, backed by a member base. If your project is first and foremost a content site, a single well-placed smartlink may be enough.

An example of a local page powered by the feed

Imagine a page devoted to outings in Lyon for singles. The text, written by you, presents real places, neighborhoods and ideas for meeting people around shared activities. At the bottom of the page, a section titled "Meet people near you" displays a few profiles from the feed, filtered by location. Each card keeps your tracking link and a SubID dedicated to this page.

The reader gets useful content and a logical next step, and you get a well-targeted placement. This pattern can be adapted to other cities, other themes and other languages, as long as the text stays high quality and the balance between advice and profiles stays reasonable.

Finally, think about maintenance. A feed evolves: fields may be added, filters changed. Plan to check your integration once a quarter, and read the announcements in your publisher area. A small regular check avoids discovering, weeks later, that a section of your page has stayed empty.

If you work with a developer, give them this list: expected formats, desired filters, caching duration, error handling, and markup of the tracking link and SubID. The brief fits in ten lines and saves you a lot of back and forth.

To track the results of each placement, see the article on SubID and postback, and for building a site to host your integrations, our section on building your website. The complete Prelinker guide brings together all the other pages.

Frequently asked questions

What formats does the profile feed offer?

The feed is available in JSON and XML, two formats that most languages and CMS platforms can read.

In which languages is it offered?

The feed exists in 9 languages, which lets you address audiences from different countries without translating yourself.

Do you need to know how to code to use it?

Basic skills are needed to read and display the data. If that is not you, the smartlink and the widgets are simpler alternatives.

Can you filter profiles by city?

Yes, the feed can be filtered by location, by theme and by site, which keeps it consistent with the topic of the page.

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