Events (occasion) RSS feed for syndication

We're using the Events module more, but one thing we were missing was a way to syndicate the events to other sites in a useful way: chronological by date of upcoming event, including title, desc, feature image...etc.

I created an endpoint component to produce the RSS feed that I think we need for this. I've decided to share it here in case others find it useful. A few values are coded for our community but most are easily replaced for your case. In the comments I included some sample URLs that control which labels are included in the feed, how many items ahead, etc. 

If you'd like to see an example of this output, here's a sample feed from our community.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<#-- sample URLs: 
  Default event board:
    https://communities.sas.com/plugins/custom/sasinstitute/sasinstitute/events-rss 
  Specific event board:
    https://communities.sas.com/plugins/custom/sasinstitute/sasinstitute/events-rss?board=community-events
  Specific event board, no event message body in feed:
    https://communities.sas.com/plugins/custom/sasinstitute/sasinstitute/events-rss?board=community-events&description=false    
  Next 10 events:   
    https://communities.sas.com/plugins/custom/sasinstitute/sasinstitute/events-rss?board=community-events&size=10
  Next 5 events for "Users Groups":  
    https://communities.sas.com/plugins/custom/sasinstitute/sasinstitute/events-rss?board=community-events&label=Users%20Groups
-->
<#--  our community domain, checking for stage vs prod  -->
<#assign root="https://communities.sas.com"/>
 <#if config.getString("phase", "prod") == "stage">
   <#assign root = "https://communities-lithiumstage.sas.com" />
 </#if>
<#assign board = http.request.parameters.name.get("board","events")/>
<#assign label = http.request.parameters.name.get("label", "")/>
<#assign filter = http.request.parameters.name.get("filter","upcoming")/>  
<#assign include_desc = http.request.parameters.name.get("description", "true")/>
<#assign size= http.request.parameters.name.get("size","5")/>
<#assign time_filter = ""/>  
<#if filter != "">
   <#assign time_filter = "AND occasion_data.status = '${filter}'"/>
</#if> 
<#assign label_filter = ""/> 
<#if (label)?has_content>
  <#assign label_filter = "AND labels.text MATCHES('${label}')"/>
</#if>
<#assign board_href = "#"/>
<#assign board_title = "Events"/>
<#assign board_description = ""/>
<#assign boardq = rest("2.0", "/search?q=" + "select title, description, view_href from boards where id='${board}' and conversation_style='occasion'"?url)/>
<#if boardq.data?? && boardq.data.items?? && boardq.data.items?size gt 0>
 <#assign board_href = "${boardq.data.items[0].view_href}"/>
 <#assign board_title = "${boardq.data.items[0].title}"/>
 <#assign board_description = "${boardq.data.items[0].description}"/>
 <#if board_description==""><#assign board_description = "${board_title}"/></#if>
</#if>
<#assign events = rest("2.0", "/search?q=" + 
   "select subject, view_href, body, videos, images, occasion_data.start_time, labels from messages where board.id='${board}' ${time_filter} ${label_filter} AND depth=0 order by occasion_data.start_time ASC LIMIT ${size}"?url 
     )/>
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	>
<channel>
    <title>${board_title}</title>
    <link>${root}${board_href}</link>
    <atom:link href="${http.request.url?replace('&','&amp;')}" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/>
    <description>${board_description}</description>
    <#if  events.data?? &&  events.data.items??>   
        <#list events.data.items as event >  
            <item>
                <title>${event.subject} | ${event.occasion_data.start_time?datetime?string("dd-MMM-yyyy")}</title>
                <link>${root}${event.view_href}</link> 
                <guid>${root}${event.view_href}</guid> 
                <#if include_desc == "true">
                <description>${event.body?html}</description>
                </#if>                
                <#--  add either an image from the message or a video thumb, whichever we have  -->
                <#if event.images?? && event.images.query??>
                    <#assign images = rest("2.0", "/search?q=" + "${event.images.query}"?url )/>
                    <#list images.data.items as image>
                    <#--  need to escape & in the XML, and these URLs can sometimes have them  -->
                    <enclosure url="${root}${image.medium_href?replace('&','&amp;')}" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/>
                    <#break>
                    </#list>
                <#elseif event.videos?? && event.videos.query??>
                    <#assign videos = rest("2.0", "/search?q=" + "${event.videos.query}"?url )/>
                    <#list videos.data.items as video>
                    <enclosure url="${video.thumb_href?replace('&','&amp;')}" length="0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"/>
                    <dc:type>MovingImage</dc:type>
                    <#break>
                    </#list>
                </#if>          
                <#if event.labels?? && event.labels.query??>
                    <#assign labels = rest("2.0", "/search?q=" + "${event.labels.query}"?url )/>
                    <#list labels.data.items as label>
                    <#--  category tag: good enough for WordPress, so good enough for us  -->
                    <category><![CDATA[${label.text?html}]]></category>
                    </#list>
                </#if>           
                <#--  this "pubDate" will always be in the future which may confuse some aggregators  -->
                <#--  but I didn't know how else to encode the event date/time in the feed            -->
                <pubDate>${event.occasion_data.start_time?datetime?string["EEE, dd MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss"]} GMT</pubDate>      
            </item>    
        </#list>
    </#if>    
</channel>    
</rss>

I've tried the feed in some aggregators like Feedly and in Microsoft Outlook -- it seems to pass muster.  Questions and suggestions are welcome!