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django-podcast

django-podcast is a Django application that allows you to easily publish podcasts that conform to the RSS 2.0 and iTunes RSS podcast specifications.

Django and Python version

django-podcast is in the middle of a refactor. Previously it worked with Django 1.0 but I'd recommend Django 1.1 since that's what we'll be developing against.

Installation

Add podcast as a tuple item to your INSTALLED_APPS in settings.py:

INSTALLED_APPS = (
  ...
  'podcast',
)

Add these lines to your URL configuration, urls.py:

urlpatterns += patterns('',
    (r'^podcasts/', include('podcast.urls')),
)

Run the Django's syncdb command.

Dependencies

None. However, consider a thumbnail creation utility, such as [http://code.google.com/p/sorl-thumbnail/ sorl-thumbnail], if you are not in control of creating your podcast show artwork. iTunes suggests show artwork should be a width and height of 600 pixels, but you might want to reduce the size of artwork on your website.

Web site URLs

The default, out-of-the-box Web site URLs should look something like:

http://www.example.com/podcasts/
http://www.example.com/podcasts/title-of-show/
http://www.example.com/podcasts/title-of-show/title-of-episode/

The /podcasts/ portion of the URL is hard coded into the URL configuration. Beautifully designed default templates are included, so feel free to show off your URLs after saving a show and an episode! Note that the templates were not stress tested in Internet Explorer 6 or 7, but work on Web standards browsers.

FeedBurner and iTunes URLs

After saving at least one show and one episode, consider submitting your feed URL to [http://www.feedburner.com FeedBurner] for keeping track of podcast subscriber statistics. Your feed URL should be something like, where title-of-show is the slug of your show:

http://www.example.com/podcasts/title-of-show/feed/

Remember to check the checkbox for "I'm a podcaster!" Your new FeedBurner URL should be something like:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/TitleOfShow

You can now return to your website's admin and paste this URL into your Show's FeedBurner textbox. For bonus points, [https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/publishPodcast submit your FeedBurner URL to the iTunes Store]. Your iTunes podcast URL should then be something like:

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=000000000

The advantage of submitting your FeedBurner URL to the iTunes Store allows you to track show statistics while also giving users the advantage of using the friendly iTunes interface. Return to the admin again and paste the iTunes show URL into the Show's iTunes URL textbox. Promote either the FeedBurner URL or the iTunes URL using each respective template tag on your website (in the simplest example):

{{ show.feedburner }}

{{ show.itunes }}

Ping iTunes for new content

The iTunes Store checks new content daily but you might want to make a new episode available immediately in the iTunes Store. Visit your show's ping URL to make that episode available, which would be something like:

https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/pingPodcast?id=000000000

Alternatively, if you're a savvy developer, you could set up a cron job to handle this, but note that pinging too often could result in a removal from the iTunes Store.

Yahoo! Media RSS feed submission

Likewise, considering [http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/submit submitting your podcast to Yahoo! Search], which specifically accepts any kind of regularly published media-based (audio, video, image, document, etc.) RSS 2.0 feed or Media RSS feed.

Your Media RSS feed should be something like:

http://www.example.com/podcasts/title-of-show/media/

Google video sitemaps

If you're creating a video podcast, you can [http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=34575 submit a video sitemap] to [http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/ Google Webmaster Tools]. The video sitemap will help Google index videos in [http://video.google.com Google Video].

After a successful installation, the video sitemap URL should be something like:

http://www.example.com/podcasts/title-of-show/sitemap.xml

Additionally, you can [http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=64748 add the video sitemap URL] to your robots.txt file.:

Sitemap: http://www.example.com/podcasts/title-of-show/sitemap.xml

Google allows the submission of a media RSS feed instead of the sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools if you prefer.

Relevant links

Some URLs that helped me and could help you:

Specifications

Tutorials, Validators, Software

For the curious, django-podcast is compatible with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_podcast enhanced podcasts] and HD podcasts; both depend on the respective file's preparation and not on the feeds.

Licensing

This software is licensed under the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSD_license new BSD license].

Support

Please [http://code.google.com/p/django-podcast/issues/list file a ticket if you find a problem with this application], and if you're feeling generous a patch to go with it. Help me help you!

If you used this Django application, I'd love to see it in action, and if you have suggestions or feature requests, drop me a line at rich (at) richardcornish (dot) com and let me know.