Thread

Can anyone please explain how to set up podcasting in EE?
Ive trawled the forums, wiki, and userguide, but it doesnt seem that anyone has bothered to write a decent, clearly written guide on how to do this. If anyone can run me through it, it would be great!
The actual files have been uploaded by someone else onto a different server, so this needs to be considered..

vinci, do you need instructions in general of what needs to be done? I would be glad to help.

First it is worth mentioning the tech spec from apple… found here..

http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/podcaststechspecs.html

The main thing is the xml document which is really easy once you set one up properly.. for instance go here…

http://www.blufishdesignstudio.com/clients/podcasting/pod.xml

You have to submit your xml sheet to Apple via iTunes. I would create a folder on a webserver entitled podcasting or some other nifty little name. i would upload all of the MP3s and the xml document to that folder and submit the link to the xml document to apple. Make sure the xml validates and you should be good to go.

If that aint what you meant then let me know and I will try and answer your questions…

Thanks MarcusNeto. I guess I should explain properly. Im a total podcasting / RSS newbie. So have no Idea what Im doing.

I have inspected the itunes podcast template but Im not asure what to do with it. The instructions commented inside the file arent exactly easy to follow. But the main question is, where do I put this file? Do I have to change the file type to RSS or XML, or keep it as a web page? Can I embedd it into another template?
What are the specific steps in setting up the xml file - what goes where? How do I combine it with a weblog dedicated to podcasts?

Basically what I want to achieve is a list of recent podcasts that have links to listen in itunes and other media players. Ive managed to get a list going using the magpie plugin - the person who set up the mp3 file has also set up an rss feed and an itunes feed. (and i dont know the difference, except that the itunes feed begins with itpc:// and the rss feed begins with http://. But I would rather allow my client to set up a weblog so that all the information of the rss and itnues feeds can be displayed along with links to both.

OK so here is the skinny on podcasting… and yes I do have it on my things to do list to modify a document that I currently have for Joomla!Church on how to do podcasting. i will try and break it down here though…

OK first you make a recording. There is a lot of information on this online. It can be a line out from a mixing board or a simple mic plugged into a computer. Either way it has to be formatted into MP3 format.

Make sure that the MP3 is resampled down to 80kbps for speech. This makes for a smaller file without too much degradation. If it is music you can try 80 as well. But you may have to stick with 128kbps. I use Magix Audio Studio for all this type of stuff as it is easy to use and my demands are small. It is available at any Best Buy for about 75$USD.

Use your favorite FTP program (mine is filezilla) to ftp to your webserver. navigate to the folder where your index.htm file resides (web root 😉 Make a folder titled MP3 or mp3. Upload your MP3 file to that directoy.

Next open the xml doc I put at the following address… Don’t worry. I give you permission…

http://www.blufishdesignstudio.com/clients/podcasting/pod.xml

Once you have opened that file make the changes to it in your favorite web authoring tool (dreamweaver rulz!). This should be pretty apparent. Where there is a name of a person change it to match your person. Where there is a name of a Message change that name to match what you want. And most importantly where there is a path to a file change that name to be http://www.yourdomain.com/mp3/yourfile.mp3. Make those changes and save the file. Make sure to delete any of the file entries that you dont use as the file I provided is a production file with a client’s information in it and you dont want their mp3s to appear in your podcast. And make sure that the email in the xml file is yours for now. You can change this in the future but you will want it to be yours to begin with (I will explain in a bit)....

Next upload the xml file you have modified to the MP3 directory on your webserver.

Now open up iTunes. Click on the podcasting link. In the middle of the page there is an ad for Submit a Podcast. Click on that link. Enter the complete URL to the xml file on your webserver. http://www.yourdomain.com/mp3/pod.xml and submit the request.

Now that you have submitted the file you should receive several emails (remember that I had you put your email address in the xml file to begin with? this is why). The first is just a notification that your request was received. The next (and it can take as long as 2 weeks to get it) will be the link to your page in iTunes.

Take that link and make it available on your site. I know it is a Joomla! Site but if you go…

http://www.jubileeshores.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=71&Itemid=53

you will see that I have a link for someone to listen to the mp3 (sometimes people don’t want to use itunes) or a link to go to the podcasting page in itunes.

This should be it. If you have any more questions bring em on…

M.

Thats a very good guide right there… thankyou very much for taking the time to write that out. FYI - the site this is for is a church-sponsored student radio station 😊
BTW - you missed the ‘e’ in ” http://www.blufishdesignstudio.com/clients/podcasting/pod.xml” :p

But I would like to know how to combine this with Expression Engine - Now (thanks to you) I have a good grounding on how to create and submit a Itunes feed, but what I would like to do is combine it with (taking a guess) the exp:rss and exp:weblog modules, where to put the tags etc. From what I understand I can create this xml file dynamically and reference it to a weblog by using cutom fields and loading them into the template xml file. Cool - but in the template preferences, should I set the template type to rss? webpage? or xml type?

Also, your xml file is for itunes… How would I also do one for a standard rss feed for those who do not have (or want to use) itunes?

Not sure about how to set up using the natural capabilities of EE as i have yet to install a copy. I gotta finish up a 500 piece direct mail, 4 or 5 websites for local businesses and a could of other things too before i can head down this road. i plan on using EE for my new site for Blue Fish Design Studio and moving forward with other sites as the need arises.

For those that do not have itunes or do not want to use it then you might just set up a weblog entry with a name description and link to the file. Or maybe that is oversimplifying it?

M.

You need to install the Feed Enclosures plug-in first:
http://expressionengine.com/wiki/Feed_Enclosures_Plugin/

I have created a custom audio field where I put the name of each audio file.

You will need to create the feed as an Expression Engine template. Create a new RSS feed. If you’re already created a valid RSS file, copy/paste into the template. (I always save at this point, being sure to tick “Save Template as File” then open up the template in a text editor. Editing in the browser is a real drag.) You will then plug the EE tags into the template.

Here is what the code looks like. This is a sample with just one category. You can see how it all works here.

I don’t know if this code is “right” but I do know it works a charm, it works in iTunes, and it’s a breeze.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd" version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>Quest</title>
<link>http://blogs.oc.edu/ee/?/quest/recordings2</link>
<language>en-us</language>
<copyright>℗ & © 2007 Oklahoma Christian University & Individual Presenters</copyright>
<itunes:subtitle>Audio from Quest: Oklahoma Christian University's interactive summit on ministry effectiveness and leadership in local churches.</itunes:subtitle>
<itunes:author>Dan Lovejoy</itunes:author>
<itunes:summary>Audio from Quest, May 31 - June 2, 2007: Oklahoma Christian University's interactive summit on ministry effectiveness and leadership in local churches.</itunes:summary>
<description>Topics include Effective Ministry (keynote addresses), Leadership, Local Evangelism, Biblical Studies, the Missional Church, Marriage & Family, and many others.</description>
<itunes:owner>
<itunes:name>Oklahoma Christian University</itunes:name>
<itunes:email>[email protected]</itunes:email>
</itunes:owner>
<itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit>
<itunes:image href="http://www.oc.edu/marketing/documents/logo/quest.jpg" >
<itunes:category text="Religion & Spirituality">
    <itunes:category text="Christianity" >
    </itunes:category>


{exp:weblog:entries weblog="quest" category="599" rdf="off" orderby="title" sort="asc"}
<item>
<title>{exp:xml_encode}{title}{/exp:xml_encode}</title>
<itunes:author>{exp:xml_encode}{quest_presenter}{/exp:xml_encode}</itunes:author>
{exp:feed_enclosures}<a href="http://media.oc.edu/web/podcasts/quest/{quest_audio}.mp3" rel="enclosure">{title}</a>{/exp:feed_enclosures}
<guid>http://media.oc.edu/web/podcasts/quest/{quest_audio}.mp3</guid>
{gmt_entry_date format="%r"}</pubDate>
<itunes:duration>{quest_length}</itunes:duration>
<itunes:keywords>{quest_keywords}</itunes:keywords>
</item>
{/exp:weblog:entries}

</channel>
</rss>