Podcasting

Archive for the 'Podcasting' Tag

Tips for Changing a Podcast Feed’s URL in iTunes

Tuesday, February 28th, 2006

Update: This has been updated for Feeder 3.0 and later.

There may come a time when you want to move your podcast feed to another server, another location on your server or start using a service such as FeedBurner.

In their technical specification, Apple suggests two ways to change your podcast feed’s URL. The preferred method is to set up a redirect to the new URL. This will cause both the iTunes Store and existing subscribers to use the new URL and will work for other applications too, including RSS readers.

Setting up a redirect is not always possible; Apple’s alternative suggestion is to use the <itunes:new-feed-url> tag to inform the iTunes Store that your feed has moved.

For this to work, you need two different versions of your feed: the old version should contain the New Feed URL and the new version must not. First duplicate the feed:

Select your existing feed in Feeder and choose File > Duplicate from the menu.
Choose File > Publish from the menu. Click the Settings button and change the settings as appropriate to publish the feed to the new location. If you are doing this because you wish to start using FeedBurner for an existing feed, you simply need to change the filename.
Click Continue, then click Publish to upload the new feed.

Now test the new feed:

Click the Links button in Feeder’s toolbar.
Select iTunes Podcast and click Subscribe

If everything looks good in iTunes, you can now set the new Feed URL on the original feed:

With the new feed still selected in Feeder, choose File > Copy Feed URL from the menu. You don’t need to do this if you’re moving to FeedBurner.
In all cases, now select your original feed.
Click Feed above the list of items.
Select “iTunes Podcasting”.
Scroll down to the New Feed URL field and paste the URL. If you are using FeedBurner, enter the FeedBurner URL instead.
Publish the original feed.

Testing the New URL

You can test the New Feed URL by updating a subscription to your existing feed in iTunes and clicking the info button next to your podcast’s description. It should show the new feed’s URL.

The iTunes Store will switch to using the new feed URL the next time it checks your feed, and your iTunes-using subscribers will pick up the new URL the next time they update their podcast subscriptions. Apple suggests keeping the old feed around for at least two weeks to give everyone a chance to update.

Tips for Libsyn Users

Thursday, February 23rd, 2006

These instructions are now defunct. See How can I publish my feed to Libsyn? in the Feeder FAQ instead.

~~Here are some Feeder tips for Libsyn users (updated for Feeder 2.0 and later).~~

Where to Host Your Feed

As a relatively small file, there’s typically no need to host your feed on the same server as your media files and you can have more flexibility by hosting the feed on your own web server. However, if you do wish to host your feed on Libsyn, you need to be aware of the Libsyn feature to automatically move files from their high performance servers to slower archive servers after a month, which returns the space taken by the archived files to your allocation.

While this works for media files, this means the media folder is not a good place to host your feed, because the feed will also be moved to Libsyn’s archive servers after a month and uploading new versions will have no effect because Libsyn will redirect to the archive server where the old copy is kept.

Instead you should upload your feed to the _static folder to prevent it from being archived. The URL for your feed will be http://libsyn.com/podcasts/username/_static/feedname.xml

How to Set Up Publishing

Feeder can be set up to publish different kinds of files to different locations, here is how to set Feeder to publish your feed to the _static folder and your podcast’s media files to the media folder.

These instructions can be used to set up any kind of publishing where different kinds of files exist on different servers.

Step 1 – Create the Libsyn Media Server

The first step is to create the Libsyn FTP servers. You need two separate servers because the web URLs for the media and static folders are different.

First, open the Servers window by choosing Window > Servers from the menu.

Click the + button and choose New FTP Server from the menu.

Enter the following details to create the Libsyn Media server for your media files:
Name: Libsyn Media
Website: http://media.libsyn.com/media/yourusername/
FTP Address: ftp.libsyn.com
User Name: your username
Password: your password
Site Folder: leave blank
Protocol: Standard FTP

Step 2 – Create the Libsyn Static Server

Next you can create a duplicate of the Libsyn Media server to use as the static server:

With the Libsyn Media server selected, choose File > Duplicate from the menu.

Change the details as follows:
Name: Libsyn Static
Website: http://libsyn.com/podcasts/yourusername/_static/
Site Folder: _static

You can now close the Servers window.

Step 3 – Set the Feed to Use the Servers

Now all that remains to be done is to set up the feed to use the servers

With the feed selected, choose File > Publish from the menu.

If publishing is already set up for this feed, click the Settings button. If it is not, you won’t see the Settings button and can skip this.

Select the Libsyn Static (FTP) server from the Feed Server pop-up menu.

Expand the Enclosure section and select the Libsyn Media (FTP) server from the Enclosures Server pop-up menu.

Click Continue then click Publish.

~~Thanks to Don McAllister of ScreenCastsOnline for help with these tips.~~

PodcastUser Magazine

Monday, February 6th, 2006

PodcastUser Magazine has published its first issue, which is available as a free PDF download. New issues of the monthly magazine can be delivered automatically via enclosures in the magazine’s RSS feed. The first issue includes news, equipment and podcast reviews and other thoughtful articles.

PodcastUser Magazine is edited by Paul Nicholls (aka Podcast Paul), and features contributions from a number of well known British podcasters, including Mark Hunter of the tartanpodcast.

The magazine looks very well put together and is produced on an iMac with the very cool Writely used for online collaboration.

(Via Podcasting News).

Transistr

Monday, January 30th, 2006

iPodderX Icon Transistr is the new name for iPodderX, which had to be changed following Apple Legal’s intervention.

That’s pretty good, considering Thunderstone Media‘s own requirement not to have “pod” in the name, even if it does remind one of Flickr. They don’t even need to change the Bryan Bell-designed icon.

Maybe I should rename Feeder to Feedr, so I can have Technorati tags that don’t bring me hundreds of posts on bird feeders.

(It’s OK, I’m not going to do that!)

Via TUAW.

PodShow Developer Community

Friday, January 20th, 2006

If you keep an eye on Adam Curry’s Weblog, this won’t be news.

PodShow are launching a number of new web services, and have set up a developer-oriented blog and podcast at developer.podshow.com where developers can find out more about PodShow’s upcoming technology initiatives including developer APIs, a mailing list and more.

In the inaugural podcast, Andrew Grumet and Scott Johnson discuss PodShow’s plans to create podcasting-related software and services and how PodShow will open these up to other developers.

It’s great to see PodShow getting off to a good start in being open about their services and getting developers involved from the beginning.