mini-Tutorial for LeBlanc's Podcast Suite v1.1

[webman911]

hey, all -

which version of joomla are you using? the original tutorial was written for the joomla 1.0.x version of the component. i haven't switched any of my sites over to joomla 1.5 and the new version of the component that leblanc has been working on, so i won't be of much use to you in that case.

briefly, though, the podrss20.xml file is actually generated by the component. that contains the information about the available podcasts that the podcatchers and itunes use to see what's "available" in your cast (chapters, descriptions, etc.).

you have to make sure that the cache directory that the file is in is in mode 777, and if the file has already been created, i'd go ahead and make it 777, as well.

sharlo -

i checked your site (very nice!) and was able to load up the feed in safari (i'm on a mac) and see all the chapters/casts. so the feed seems to be fine. what may be the problem is that IE, by itself, doesn't "understand" how to read RSS. you need a helper app, ideally a podcatcher like "juice" to download (or just test) podcasts (link to juice: http://juicereceiver.sourceforge.net/).

buddhaji -

the same on your site: i was able to load/view a list of podcasts (there were three). i'm not sure what the deal is with your podrss20.xml file, though - no good answer for you there! but, like for sharlo, i'd suggest grabbing a copy of juice and then pointing at the feed for your podcast and see if it pulls down the podcast chapters. if it does, and when you add a new chapter it updates, then you're set (even with a mystery podrss20.xml file!).

driftme -

again, ditto: i could see your podcasts (four of 'em). so check it out in juice, and load a new one and have juice update and see if it appears. if so, you're up and running!

stumpydan -

same boat, brother! but in your case things are a little tougher, as i believe juice only does audio files (but maybe not - it's been a while since i've used it). the hacked bot that i included with the tutorial only does MP3 and i believe MOV files (heavens, i can't even remember now, it's been so long!), and so may not work properly with other formats.

okay, everybody, hopefully that helps at least a little bit! sorry i've been out of action for so long - just too many irons in the fire! d'oh!

cheers,
mike

[dustyken]

I seem to be having a problem with this suite on my site.

1) I can't access the feed in IE. When I click on the Podcast icon in the module, it does noting. It shows the correct link in the status bar, but it doesn't navigate away from the home page. Works fine in Firefox.

2) For some reason, the podrss20.xml file is not being created. I've checked to make sure that libxml is installed and enabled and it is. I've checked to make sure that my cache directory is 777 in the root and it is. For some reason, it's coming up short.

3) Also, and I don't know if this is a symptom of another problem, but when I click on Manage Clips, the text at the top of the page looks incomplete. Here's a shot of the page. (I edited out the directory up to /components ...I don't know why...I just did.) The part I'm concerned with is what comes after, "You can use another"?

Site is http://sandbox.fellowshipsearcy.org

Any suggestions on any of these errors?

[webman911]

dustyken -

i'd love to be help you, but it looks like you're using joomla 1.5, and i have no experience with that version of the component. hopefully leblanc will be able to pop in and give you a hand!

cheers,
mike

[dustyken]

No prob. Thanks for taking the time.

[ftapon]

I've read all the posts here and I'm still confused on how to use a flash player via HTML code.

Can someone please explain, in simple terms, how to do that? Some have implied that it's not reliable.

This is what I've done so far:

1. I downloaded dewplayer.swf into my /public_html/components/com_podcast directory.
2. Went into Parameters.
3. Selected the HTML Code radio button.

Now what?

I'm running Joomla 1.5.8.

Also, I'm not able to listen to the podcast in IE8. It works in Firefox 3.

My testing site is http://wanderlearn.com/Podcasts/Podcast ... -Lithuania

Thank you for the tutorial and all the support!

[es5812]

Hey everyone this thread has been very informative so far.

I was wondering if there is a way to use two different flash players one for mp3 and one for .mov in the custom html field.

I have been successful in using one player for both but playing an mp3 with a black box is just ugly. Thanks

[webman911]

Hey everyone this thread has been very informative so far.

I was wondering if there is a way to use two different flash players one for mp3 and one for .mov in the custom html field.

I have been successful in using one player for both but playing an mp3 with a black box is just ugly. Thanks

If you're using the version for Joomla 1.0.X (which is what I covered in the tutorial), the hacked mambot/plugin uses the Dewplayer for MP3 files and Qucktime for .mov files. It's hard-coded, so you don't need to worry about which mode is selected in the component preferences.

That way, if your episode has an MP3 file, it will show up on your web page as the Dewplayer; if it's an MOV file, it will show up in QT.

Hope that helps!

Cheers,
Mike

[es5812]

Sorry guess I should have specified I am using Joomla 1.5 or yeah I would have used the hacked mambot/plugin. I might just try hacking this version up and see if I can get it to work.

[webman911]

Yeah, sorry 'bout that - I haven't updated any of my sites to 1.5 yet, as not all the features I want are available, so I haven't had opportunity to mess around with the new version of the component...

[BlueSquares]

My Podcast feed was working perfectly for months. About 2 weeks ago, iTunes removed us saying the feed was not working properly. So I tested it according to their instructions and the test WORKED!

"To test your podcast, start iTunes, select Subscribe to Podcast from the Advanced menu, and enter your feed URL in the dialog box. If you can successfully subscribe to your podcast and listen to each of the episodes, you can reactivate your podcast by resubmitting the feed using the Submit a Podcast page, https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZF ... ishPodcast. "

But when I try to actually Submit the feed for approval, it FAILS and iTunes says:

"We had difficulty reading this feed. Bad HTTP result code: 403"

I'm running this on a LiquidWeb VPS so I know it's not the host's availability. I'm still using Joomla 1.0. Is there a fix for this? Is anyone else experiencing this problem?

[BlueSquares]

I found the problem. I had BadBehavior v2.0.15 mambot installed and I guess it thought iTunes was some sort of spammer so it was giving a 403 error.

[harmony]

Bonjour, Hello

Un tutorial en français démontrant une solution complète de streaming audio, téléchargement et podcast avec Podcast Suite est disponible à http://didacticiel-podcast-joomla.page.tl/Home.htm.

A french tutorial exposing a full audio streaming + download + podcasting with Podcast Suite solution is available at http://didacticiel-podcast-joomla.page.tl/Home.htm.

Jean-Pierre

[johnkjennings]

I love the podcast suite and have been using it for a while on our church's website. We have two categories of podcasts on the website and are looking to add a third. Recently I set up one of the podcasts in itunes. Once working through the little idiosyncrasies of that process, I now have it working.

Now, my question is this. We want to set up a second itunes podcast. This would be a separate and unique feed from the first (different title, different author, different logo, etc.). But the podcasts parameters can only be set up once per site. Is there a way to create a second itunes feed? I'm not afraid to crack open the code, but I don't know how to tackle it (if it's even possible).

Note, I'm still on Joomla 1.0.13. Podcast version 1.1.

[zza1pqx]

Hello.
I am using Joomla v1.5.10 with Podcast Suite v1.5.

I have installed the module, component and plugin.
I understand the purpose of the plugin is to change the code {enclose file.mp3) into a useable method of accessing the files. By default the flash player in the published article and a link in your RSS feed that can be downloaded using a podcatcher such as iTunes or Juice.

I have no trouble with my published articles as this element of Podcast Suite seems to be working perfectly.

However I am finding that within my RSS feed the {enclose file.mp3} code is rendered as the simple text {enclose file.mp3} and is not converted into a useable link for Juice, iTunes etc.

Now I would have slapped my wrist for not installing the plugin except the published articles work perfectly regardless of if I am using the flash player or links options that are changed in the parameters option in Pocast Files Manager.

I am wondering therefore if there is something else I can do, is this a known bug etc.

I'll publish the link to my feed below so that techies can have a look but I would warn people that this particular podcast is of adult content and not intended for the easily offended or minors so best not be listening, just be helping.

Cheers in advance.

RSS Feed link:
http://www.rayandleonard.com/index.php? ... d&type=rss

(working) Published article
http://www.rayandleonard.com/index.php? ... &Itemid=64

[fpccsvb]

How does one give customers the ability to download the mp3's with this utility? I have some people who don't use ITunes, but they want to download the mp3's. How do you do that?

[johnkjennings]

I use a combination of the flash player for people who play it over the web, and itunes, for those who want podcasts. I believe there is also a setting for displaying "links" instead of a flash player. I believe this just provides links to the mp3s themselves, instead of using a player.

Now, anyone have any ideas on my "multiple podcast" question?

[fpccsvb]

I'm pretty sure that I read that multiple podcasts weren't supported. Don't ask me when/where I read that...

What flash player do you use?

[railer]

Thanks for your work in creating this tutorial!

NO CONTROLS IN VISTA/IE8

I received the following complaint from a visitor to my client's site regarding an issue with the 1.1 version of the Podcast mambot in Vista running IE8, and also in Firefox. I have the component setup to use "Links" in content items. Clicking them opens a blank window containing the player bar and it works normally on Macs and PCs with XP and IE6/IE7. Has anybody else had similar problems with the player in Vista/IE8? Is there an updated version of the mambot or suite for J! 1.0.15 that addresses this issue?

Thanks for any help offered,
Railer

"When I click on the link to listen to a podcast, my browser window goes to a blank page with a black bar in the middle and the podcast starts playing. I don't see any controls (pause/stop/ff/rewind/volume) which is annoying since I rarely get to listen to a long 'cast uninterrupted. My environment: Vista + IE8 (I also tried with Vista + Firefox.latest)."

[andrey_kewl]

thank you this tutorial is perfectly

[Drat]

I use a combination of the flash player for people who play it over the web, and itunes, for those who want podcasts. I believe there is also a setting for displaying "links" instead of a flash player. I believe this just provides links to the mp3s themselves, instead of using a player.

I think this is a good advice! try with that!
Thanks a lot!

[kbsinc]

I'm sure this is a quick fix for one of you experts out there! We have installed the module and had no problems adding files or getting them to show up in iTunes. However, the title of our RSS page and therefore our iTunes account is just the link text: http://journeytowellness.com/test/compo ... ast/format,
raw/lang,en/view,feed/

The strangest thing about is that even though the links show up as this /component/option,com_podcast/format,
raw/lang,en/view,feed/, it links to each individual file. So it is unique in some kind of way.

This shows up as the RSS feed title and the titles of the songs and albums. I completed the metadata and we have installed/reinstalled and changed permissions to no avail.

We are obviously very new to Joomla and podcast suite and look forward to your suggestions. If anyone has a quick fix (or heck - even a not so quick one), we would greatly appreciate it. I hope someone visits this board again soon!

Thanks,
KBS

[andyabel]

Thanks for the Tutorial. I have everything working, with all my MP3 files in the podcast, except that for some reason all my header information is empty in the RRS feed file:-

<language>en-GB</language>
<copyright></copyright>
<itunes:subtitle></itunes:subtitle>
<itunes:author></itunes:author>
<itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit>
<itunes:keywords></itunes:keywords>
<itunes:summary></itunes:summary>
<description></description>
<itunes:owner>
<itunes:name></itunes:name>
<itunes:email></itunes:email>
</itunes:owner>

This might be because early on I deleted the Index article by mistake. What am I missing and how do I fix it? Thanks.

[ddhoray]

HI, I am trying to figure out how to customize the title of my podcast feed.
I still get

My Podcast
My regular podcast

showing at the top.

The feed is located here
http://www2.sta.uwi.edu/podcasts/index. ... &Itemid=55

any assistance is appreciated.

[terryscott]

hi there all.
Where do I upload the files for the Dewplayer?
I have found where to put the .swf file, but there are a few of the podcast.php files and I don't want to get the wrong one.
I also can't find where I put the podcast.xml file at all,
Thanks!