Like many others, I'm on the quest to get a Drupal 6, non-audio.module solution to podcasting. The goal is to move in the direction of Drupal's future, which is CCK-type solutions (not proprietary modules which create their own content types). I'm well on my way and am developing some functionality to take it further. What I'm looking for here is confirmation that I'm going in the right direction as well as some clarification on how some filefield related functionality should work. Anyone's input is appreciated.

The Plan

The plan is as follows:

  • Create a total CCK solution/workflow to podcast/vodcast in Drupal 6
  • Use the following modules:
    • Filefield (to upload/manage the audio files)
    • getID3 to pull in ID3 data
    • Jquery Media to display the player on the site
    • Views to build the podcast feed
    • Some custom solution to build a PODCAST feed including enclosure, meta info, etc

The Status

Thanks to filefield and jquery media modules, I'm about half way there. I can now easily build my audio pages. I upload my file into filefield, jquery media does it's thing, and I have an audio site. But alas, a podcast is much more than online audio...here comes the hard part. I have to figure out a way to recognize the id3 data in the file and output a feed with that data as well as making the filefield file an enclosure...doing this all in Views.

My Questions

So, here's my questions.

  1. How does getID3 module work with Filefield-Meta module? I have them both installed but have no idea what to do next. I'm not sure what they're SUPPOSED to do, or what steps I need to take to get them to do that. My hope is that getID3 module will recognize all the ID3 data in the file and easily allow me to spit that data out into a Views feed somehow. But, as of now, I don't know what should happen.
  2. Does any module exist to create a podcast feed (ie. enclosure) from a filefield file? How about anything that can include the id3 data into that field as well? I've noticed that filefield views exists and that could be a good starting point. But I need a D6 solution and it needs to also include ID3 data. I've also seen views podcast but while it does everything, it's VERY klunky and wouldn't work for my end users.
  3. In the end, I'm about to have my own solution developed which will do all of this using Views 2. I just want to make sure it's not going to be a waste if something already exists.

So, what do you think? Does this path forward seem to make sense? Any suggestions on how to take the next steps? I look forward to any responses.

Comments

drewish’s picture

well my goal for audio module is to eventually get it storing data in filefields but before that can happen filefield needs to finished up.

filefield_meta just does some super basic reading of the file but doesn't present it. the problem you'll run into using that data with views is that it'd be best if it was stored in a table. so you'll probably need to either extend the filefield_meta to use some tables or write a module to do so. and then you'll need to figure out a way to present it to CCK and views.

Rob_Feature’s picture

Hey Drewish....
Thanks for the comment, it's awesome to hear from the audio.module developer on this. And it's REALLY great to hear that you're moving towards filefield as part of the audio.module solution. Is the goal to move away from a propriately content type and then somehow make all the rest of the stuff in audio module (ie. the feed functionality, etc) available to any content type with a file field? That's basically what I'm trying to accomplish here.

Development on a module will begin tomorrow which will:

  • Use Views 2 to grab the filefield file and put it within an enclosure...outputting a feed which then includes the file
  • Somehow uses getID3 to get the data and spit that into the feed as well
  • generally allows Views to spit out a podcast feed from this data

Does this sound like it could be helpful to the future of audio.module? To me, it seems like a really clean way to go about things. Any input you have would be great! I'm not the actual developer of the module, so I have the luxory of sitting back and just saying "make it so"...but the guy working on it is an excellent developer, so I'm confident it will happen, it will work, and it'll be a really clean solution.

Any other follow up thoughts are appreciated!

Draggan@drupal.org’s picture

it would be cool to have a solution where you could attach a file *or* link to a file for podcasting.
for a local radiostation we would like to provide torrent files which can be consumed via miro as we don't have that big pipes.

Rob_Feature’s picture

Hey Draggan....
I think what you're looking for to do that is: Remote Upload Enclosure module. That will link to an external file and create an enclosure. Unfortunately, this won't work for my on-site solutions. Hope it works for you, though!

Draggan@drupal.org’s picture

@bobchristenson
thank you! exactly what i'm looking for.

dopry’s picture

Status: Active » Postponed (maintainer needs more info)

You really need to explore the interfaces to views and how views generates RSS feeds to figure out how to implement filefields as an enclosure for RSS feeds via views... This should probably be a part of the views integration for filefield. I haven't had time to work on this particular itch yet, if you make headway, please document your findings or post patches for filefield here.

Rob_Feature’s picture

dopry,
As of tomorrow, I should have a module that will generate enclosure-enabled feeds from Views using a filefield as the enclosure. It should also use getID3 to include ID3 info in the feed as well.

It will be called "views enclosure" module and should be available for use/testing very soon. Stay tuned...

strellman’s picture

Bob, I'm watching this with interest. We are also trying to do a D6 podcast. Please give us a link when you have a dev version so we know how to proceed. I am hoping it allows for a CCK text field link to the file as well as filefield. We want this since we have an existing library of mp3s and since FTP is more reliable to upload large files. Maybe filefield itself will allow for file links. hope hope

dp (for short)
htp://2tell.org/doubt

Rob_Feature’s picture

Just an update....This module is still in development. It's taking a tad longer than anticipated. However, we've got a placeholder for it which can be found here. Watch that for updates. Hopefully it will be there soon!

@dps: This module will only deal with filefield uploads. There are other modules (one mentioned ealier in this thread) which will allow linking to files uploaded by FTP. The goal of views_enclosure will be to allow audio.module like functionality but without the proprietary content type and based solely on a CCK type.

When all is said and done, I'll be writing an extensive "Podcasting With Filefield" recipe which will show how I put the pieces together. I'll link that here when it's done as well.

acochran’s picture

I am about to give up on Drupal. I have been a drupal user for about three years (I think). The whole reason I went with Drupal was because it had so much hope for podcasting.

Way back in version 4.x there was a very healthy modcast module development community as well as what later became the audio module that worked pretty well, but did not support enclosures.

Now that we are at version 6, Drupal seems to be going backwards. With each new update and release we are losing flexibility. I have now spent about eight hours reading every forum thread and every module thread that is related to podcasting. No one has a solution for how to link to an mp3 and have it attach to an RSS feed. Like everyone else, I am limited in my podcast size by the php stuff.

All I want to do is FTP up an mp3 file to my files/audio (or slimilar location) and then have it broadcast with my post as a podcast. I don't even care if the fancy little player is included.

I will save my rant because

I already wrote it all here: http://talkingdigital.org/main/content/podcasting-weaknesses-may-kill-dr...

Rob_Feature’s picture

I can't possibly tell you how excited I am. The module I commissioned is now ready for testing/use. It's name has changed from Views Enclosure to FileField Podcaster. You can download and test it here.

I'd really like to see this be used as part of an approach to the future of podcasting in Drupal. Hopefully everyone else will see the sense it makes to go this way as well. I'll be doing a video podcast on how to build a full podcasting solution (including this module) in next week's Mustardseed Video Podcast so you can see the whole solution in action.

Download the module, break it, post issues, etc.....thanks! And big thanks to Suydam for knocking this one out of the park!

Rob_Feature’s picture

I have posted a video tutorial for, start to finish, podcasting with filefield module. Watch it online here.

Rob_Feature’s picture

Status: Postponed (maintainer needs more info) » Fixed

Marking this 'fixed' since i've developed my own solution.

Anonymous’s picture

Status: Fixed » Closed (fixed)

Automatically closed -- issue fixed for two weeks with no activity.