somehow, the link to 'podcast' and 'pls' does not play with my itune and wmplayer. do i have to use clean
url on my local machine?

m3u works just fine with realplayer.

here is the detail.

-------------------------------- podcast --------------------------

 http://localhost/d47/?q=node/55/podcast
 
 <item>
 <title>Dancing Queen</title>
 <link>http://localhost/d47/?q=node/18</link>
 <itunes:author>ABBA</itunes:author>
 <itunes:subtitle>Dancing Queen</itunes:subtitle>
 <description/>
 <itunes:summary/>
 <enclosure url="http://localhost/d47/?q=audio/download/18/file.mp3"  length="2786264" type=""/>
 <itunes:keywords>female, foreign  </itunes:keywords>
 <itunes:duration>3:52</itunes:duration>
 <pubDate>Fri, 05 May 2006 13:29:17 -0700</pubDate>
 </item>

----------------------------------end podcast item------------------

[playlist]

File1=http://localhost/d47/?q=audio/download/18/file.mp3
Title1=ABBA - Dancing Queen
Length1=3:52

File2=http://localhost/d47/?q=audio/download/20/file.mp3
Title2=ABBA - SOS
Length2=3:20

File3=http://localhost/d47/?q=audio/download/19/file.mp3
Title3=ABBA - Mamma Mia
Length3=3:33

File4=http://localhost/d47/?q=audio/download/56/file.mp3
Title4=Mussorgsky - Random Mussorgsky clip
Length4=0:13
NumberOfEntries=4
Version=2

------------------------end pls----------------------------------

Comments

zirafa’s picture

zirafa commented

I think it's because I intentionally made the URLs absolute. Can you confirm the audio file plays when you go to:

http://localhost/d47/?q=audio/download/56/file.mp3

for instance?

On a side note I've just made some updates to CVS and 4.7 to make podcast feeds validate. To do this I had to add an extra "explicit" column in the audio_playlist_metadata table. Sorry for the last minute change but I felt it was pretty important to get the podcast feed working properly.

If you install from scratch you don't have to worry about the updates.

Farsheed

zirafa’s picture

zirafa commented

I've updated the .install files to add this new 'explicit' column, so you can run the updates by going to update.php.

redpineseed’s picture

redpineseed commented

the only diff of the podcast feeds between your demo host and my localhost is the following. your demo feed works with my itune while my local feed does not.

I dont see item/content:encoded or item/desciption as valid itune tags in itunes specs. they might be the problem.

<item> 
  <title>SOS</title> 
  <guid>http://localhost/d47/?q=node/20</guid> 
  <link>http://localhost/d47/?q=node/20</link> 
  <itunes:author>ABBA</itunes:author> 
  <itunes:subtitle>SOS</itunes:subtitle> 
  <dc:creator>ABBA</dc:creator>          
  <!-- omitted -->
  <content:encoded>
    <![CDATA[audio node body text]]>
    Where are those happy days, they seem so hard to find
    I tried to reach for you, but you have closed your mind
  </content:encoded> 
  <description>
    <![CDATA[audio node body text]]> 
    Where are those happy days, they seem so hard to find
    I tried to reach for you, but you have closed your mind

  </description> 
  <comments> uploaded by  at http://localhost/d47</comments>  
  <itunes:summary>
    <![CDATA[audio node body text]]>
    Where are those happy days, they seem so hard to find
    I tried to reach for you, but you have closed your mind

  </itunes:summary> 
  <!-- omitted -->
</item>
redpineseed’s picture

redpineseed commented

also empty type attr in the enclosure tag in both your demohost feed and my localhost feed

<enclosure url="http://localhost/d47/?q=audio/download/18/file.mp3"  length="2786264" type=""/>
zirafa’s picture

zirafa commented

The content:encoded and description tags are necessary for Standard RSS validation. Since podcasts are just RSS feeds with iTunes namespace tags included, we have to make sure it still conforms to Standard RSS. The way I understand it is that iTunes just looks for its own namespace tags, i.e. <itunes:summary></itunes:summary> and skips over other RSS tags.

That's actually one complaint about iTunes podcast RSS: it adds a bunch of tags which ruins the idea of "Really Simple Syndication".

Another thing to watch out for: if your audio files metadata isn't filled out (including the description) then those tags will appear empty in the feed and it may not validate properly. Here is a good feedchecker: http://www.nobodylikesonions.com/feedcheck/

I can confirm though that iTunes does not read my podcasts locally, but does work with podcasts on the demo site. My guess is that it is just an issue with iTunes unable to read localhost as a valid domain. I suggest trying to load a single audio file into iTunes using a localhost URL to see if it can even recognize it. I'll test this a bit when I get home too.

If iTunes can't read localhost URLs than there is nothing we can do but add some documentation to make this clear that it will only work on a live site.

Farsheed
p.s. do the PLS files on the demo site work for you?

redpineseed’s picture

redpineseed commented

PLS does not work with Windows Media Player with your demo host, or my local host. It is my mistake I guess, since I have not found any evidence that WMPlayer supports pls.

The default playlist format is wpl for Windows Media Player, which is asx based xml file and can produce dynamic feed/playlist.

I'll look into that and see if i can give some help.

zirafa’s picture

zirafa commented

Sounds good. Supporting more feed formats is always a good thing in my opinion.

-F

zirafa’s picture

zirafa commented

A link with more info for future reference:

http://www.wischik.com/damon/Comp/wplFormat.html

zirafa’s picture

zirafa commented
Status: Active » Closed (works as designed)

The pls file problem was most likely caused by this. The localhost problem is a known issue. I do not think most audio players such as iTunes and Winamp can read localhost referenced audio files because they are expecting more or less http:// formatted links. Marking this by design.