Good program for generating iTunes podcast feed?
by Tim Ward
on
Nov 2, 2007 at 9:11:55 pm
I'm new to this podcasting thing!
What program (free or $$$) is good for generating good iTunes video podcast feeds, but isn't a "Plain Jane" program. I want customizability, baby! I haven't been able to find one that encompasses user-friendliness, multiple options, and is efficient with iTunes tags. I don't need to have publishing features (since our site security protocols won't allow for that), just as long as I can save to file. I definitely don't want to wade through lines of XML manually coding all day -- my time is better spent producing videos. What do you guys use?
Re: Good program for generating iTunes podcast feed? by Jonathan Miller on Nov 2, 2007 at 9:25:12 pm
Well, personally I write the xml for my feeds by hand. I know it seems like a log of garbage, but in reality it's very simple once you've got a feed up and running. Posting a new episode just involves copying the code for the previous episode and pasting it back into the xml document...then just changing the name of the episode, the description, the media file address, the size of the file, the publishing date and summary info (and a few other things).
Once I have a new episode uploaded to my media server I can edit the xml document for the RSS feed to add the new episode in less than a minute or two. Really, it's that easy once you do it a couple of times.
I actually edit the xml right on my server using my favorite little FTP program called Transmit (for the Mac) and once I save the changes I just go to feedvalidator.org and make sure everything validates.
The other benefit to doing it all manually is that you can get a good understanding of the xml so if you run into any errors you can see them right away and eliminate the problems that can occur when iTunes doesn't want ot update your show due to an RSS feed not validating.
If you're interested, I'd be happy to walk you through editing your feed by hand.
Jon
TreeLine Productions
Fort Collins, CO USA
Currently producing these popular podcasts:
"The Rest of Everest" Video Podcast *Voted as one of iTunes' "Best of 2006" podcasts
*Nominated for "Best Video Podcast" in the 2007 People's Choice Podcast Awards
www.therestofeverest.com
Re: Good program for generating iTunes podcast feed? by Tim Ward on Nov 2, 2007 at 10:20:24 pm
Yeah, never having done anything in XML, I started out trying to code the feed in Text Edit like HTML. It didn't go well. I actually prefer the "dirty-hands" approach a lot of times, I just needed to get the initial feed coded, then copy/paste away. I would still like to have a "front-end" interface sometime, just to simplify things for someone other than myself who needs to publish.
As far as FTP goes, it doesn't go on our site. The IT guys say it's a security risk. It's like we're the NSA or something. Right now, I have to edit the feed, save it as .rss (they don't want .xml on the site, dunno why), send it to the website back-end guy, then he transfers it to the site. I might can get them to build an applet on the site where I can manage and edit the feed lickity split, but that's down the road. If only I didn't work in government!
How could I do it manually without being able to touch the server?
Re: Good program for generating iTunes podcast feed? by Jonathan Miller on Nov 2, 2007 at 10:23:57 pm
Just edit it locally in Text Edit. That's what I'm doing. I've got you validating 100% now but I'm just cleaning things up a bit to make it easier for you if you do go the manual route.
Jon
TreeLine Productions
Fort Collins, CO USA
Currently producing these popular podcasts:
"The Rest of Everest" Video Podcast *Voted as one of iTunes' "Best of 2006" podcasts
*Nominated for "Best Video Podcast" in the 2007 People's Choice Podcast Awards
www.therestofeverest.com
Re: Good program for generating iTunes podcast feed? by Jonathan Miller on Nov 2, 2007 at 11:06:29 pm
OK, Tim I've sent you an email with the location for downloading my version of your feed.
Basically the original program you were using was inserting a lot of extra text that just fouled things up. I've removed all of that. Also, it had items like your image and author info in there multiple times which must have been confusing to iTunes and the others.
So, I cleaned that up as well. Next, you were simply missing some info to help keep the feed within spec. Lines such as http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss are needed to keep things runnning smoothly. So, it was added.
You also had infor in both episodes that should only really be needed in your channel info at the top of the xml. Once it's there, you don't need it included in the episode info. So, I removed the superfluous stuff...
Finally, your feed was missing a guid (I think it stands for "Globally Unique ID") which is basically just the address of an episode's media file in the form of a URL. You'll want to add a guid for every posted episode.
One more thing, I've edited some of your text to make sure everything shows up properly. As far as iTunes cares, an episodes "description" and "subtitle" info are identical. So, if you edit by hand, then enter the "description" text and then copy and paste it into the "subtitle" area. In both of these fields you'll be limited to 256 characters (including spaces) so it's meant to be a brief summary of what the episode is about.
In the "summary" field, that's where you want the detailed description of what the episode is about. I think you're limited to over 4000 characters for that. It's pretty generous. So, put the full episode info in there.
Lastly (I think) you needed explicit tags for every episode. I don't think there were any. So, I added the "Not Explicit" tag in both episode posts. iTunes is VERY strict about needing these.
In a nutshell, I think that's it. If anyone else is having problems and has stumbled across this post from a "search" and needs more info, just post a question!
Oh, before I forget--you have a great logo for the show. Just really like that old wood texture. It should show up in itunes soon. within the next 24-48 hours. Unless you ping iTunes manually which is easy to do. It will force iTunes to update from your feed within minutes to a few hours. You can find info on how to ping here (look under the section on "Adding Episodes"):
Re: Good program for generating iTunes podcast feed? by Tim Ward on Nov 2, 2007 at 11:30:30 pm
Thanks a lot for your help, Jon. I also appreciate the comment on the logo. Which email address did you send it too, dcnr.alabama.gov or hotmail.com? I thought I my personal email address in here. I can't check the other until Monday at work, so if it's there, thanks.
Re: Good program for generating iTunes podcast feed? by Tim Ward on Nov 6, 2007 at 8:18:18 pm
I appreciate your suggestions, Richard.
I previously tried RSS Buddy, and while it seems to work fine, I didn't like it personally. I also have tried RSS Feed Creator, and while I like it better than RSS Buddy, still wasn't satisfied.
