Module 2: RSS Syndication
Once the podcast file is created, the next step is to add it to an RSS feed. This is an XML file which resides on your server. Every time a podcast is created and is ready to be shared on the web, RSS feed should be updated. Once the feed is updated, visitors who have subscribed to your feed using RSS readers will get an instant notification that a new podcast is ready for download.
More information about RSS readers
The RSS feed file has two major sections, header portion that contains information about the creator of the RSS feed and the body section that holds information about each individual podcast. A sample XML file can be downloaded here.
RSS Header Section
RSS Header section contains information on the creator of the RSS feed. The orange text marks the sections of the RSS file that need to be updated for each individual RSS feed. All RSS feeds should have unique header information. This information is displayed in the title, description and link tags. The feeds can be hand code or can be created by RSS syndication software like FeedForAll program.
<rss xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>Podcasting RSS</title>
<link>http://mset.rst2.edu/portfolios/j/josic%5Fr/advdesign/module1/index.html</link>
<description>This is an example of a podcasting file.</description>
<language>en-us</language>
<pubDate>Tue, 25 Feb 2008 04:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<lastBuildDate>Tue, 25 Feb 2008 04:00:00 GMT</lastBuildDate>
<docs>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss</docs>
<generator>Weblog Editor 2.0</generator>
<managingEditor>rjosic@ramapo.edu</managingEditor>
<webMaster>rjosic@ramapo.edu</webMaster>
<ttl>1</ttl>
RSS Body Section
Body section contains information about podcasts. Each podcast should have all lines shown below, from the opening item tag (<item>) to the closing item tag (</item>). The new additions to the list should come first right below the header information. If the list is hand coded, the easiest way to do this is to duplicate (copy/paste) last addition to the list and then updating the text.
<title>My First Podcast</title>
<category>Podcast</category>
<link>http://mset.rst2.edu/portfolios/j/josic%5Fr/advdesign/module1/index.html</link>
<description>This is an example of my first podcast.</description>
<enclosure url="http://mset.rst2.edu/portfolios/j/josic%5Fr/advdesign/module1/mp3/podcast.mp3"
length="26109542" type="audio/mpeg" />
<pubDate>Tue, 25 Feb 2008 04:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<guid>http://mset.rst2.edu/portfolios/j/josic%5Fr/advdesign/module1/mp3/podcast.mp3</guid>
<dc:creator>Robert Josic</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2008-02-25T00:00:00Z</dc:date>
<itunes:duration>00:4:20</itunes:duration>
<itunes:author>Robert Josic</itunes:author>
<itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit>
<itunes:keywords>some key words</itunes:keywords>
<itunes:subtitle>My First Podcast</itunes:subtitle>
<itunes:summary>This is an example of my first podcast.</itunes:summary>
<media:content url="http://mset.rst2.edu/portfolios/j/josic%5Fr/advdesign/module1/mp3/podcast.mp3"
fileSize="26109542" type="audio/mpeg" />
</item>
For more information about the individual tags in the XML file please refer to iTunes Online Reference Guide.
Once the feed is created and linked on the page, it can be submitted to online services which keep track of various categories of RSS feeds. One such service is iTunes Store, where you can browse podcast feed from numerous categories.