In summary, the branch preserves ikiwiki's existing podcast behavior,
adds more featureful behavior, and has been tested to work well in
-some common podcatchers. I believe it is ready for review and
-possible integration, and I'd like to get feedback to that effect
-(or to the contrary) before making further enhancements. I know
-[[joey]]'s the final arbiter here, but I'd appreciate any qualified,
-critical eyes ([[smcv]]?) raking over my diffs. --[[schmonz]]
+some common podcatchers. I believe it is ready for integration.
+--[[schmonz]]
## Features
[[!table data="""
Feature |iTunes RSS|iTunes Atom|Downcast RSS|Downcast Atom
-Feed image |{X} |{X} |{X} |{X}
+Feed image | | | |
Feed title |(./) |(./) |(./) |(./)
-Feed publisher |{X} |{X} |{X} |{X}
-Feed "category" |{X} |{X} |{X} |{X}
+Feed publisher | | | |
+Feed "category" | | | |
Feed date |(./) |(./) |(./) |(./)
-Feed description |(./) |(./) |(./) |{X}
-Episode image |{X} |{X} |{X} |{X}
+Feed description |(./) |(./) |(./) |
+Episode image | | | |
Episode title |(./) |(./) |(./) |(./)
Episode date |(./) |(./) |(./) |(./)
-Episode duration |{X} |{X} |{X} |{X}
-Episode author |{X} |{X} |{X} |{X}
-Episode description|(./) |(./) |(./) |{X}
+Episode duration | | | |
+Episode author | | | |
+Episode description|(./) |(./) |(./) |
Episode enclosure |(./) |(./) |(./) |(./)
"""]]
* Verify that the feeds validate.
* Subscribe to a fancy feed in some common podcatchers and verify
display details against a reference podcast.
+* Verify smooth transitions for two common use cases (see testing
+ details below).
+* Code review: don't add enclosure divs unless we have enclosures.
+* Code review: genericize download link for more use cases.
+* Code review: don't confuse old readers with Atom names in RSS.
+* Code review: instead of hacking back to `$link`, just provide it.
+* Code review: show author in addition to feedname, if different.
### Must-have (for [[schmonz]], anyway)
-* Think carefully about...
- * UTF-8.
- * Whether [[tips/howto avoid flooding aggregators]] suffices for...
- * Converting a simple podcast to a fancy one.
- 7. Set up a non-production copy of one of my podcasts.
- * Manually test that feeds match production.
- * Subscribe to the copy in `r2e`, iTunes, Downcast.
- 7. Try migrating the copy from simple to fancy.
- * Document the steps I take.
- * Make the feed readers update.
- * Document what happens for each of them.
- * Migrating a fancy podcast from elsewhere into ikiwiki.
+* Think carefully about UTF-8.
* Verify that _all_ the tests pass (not just my new ones).
+## Migration
+
+### Upgrading within ikiwiki: from simple to fancy
+
+#### My test podcast
+
+For this test, I chose a podcast that tries to work around ikiwiki's
+current limitations by issuing two separate `inline`s:
+
+* One with `feedonly=yes` that includes `.mdwn`, `.pdf`, and `.mp3`
+* One with `feeds=no` that includes only `.mdwn` (and makes a trail)
+
+This has the following effects:
+
+* Browser: sees just the articles (each of which has a manually
+ created link to its corresponding media file)
+* Feedreader: sees all the articles and media in one flat stream
+* Podcatcher: sees just the media (sans articles)
+
+I want instead to write one `inline` with these effects:
+
+* Browser: sees just the articles (each of which automatically links
+ to its enclosure)
+* Feedreader: sees just the articles (each of which specifies its
+ enclosure)
+* Podcatcher: sees just the enclosures (each of which has an enclosing
+ article, rendered as the media's "description")
+
+#### Upgrade steps
+
+7. Set up a non-production copy of the podcast.
+ 7. Visually diff RSS and Atom feeds against production.
+ 7. Subscribe to the copy (both feeds) in `r2e`, iTunes, Downcast.
+7. Apply fancypodcast patch to the installed ikiwiki:
+ 7. `cd ~/Documents/trees/ikiwiki && git checkout fancypodcast`
+ 7. `git diff --no-prefix master > ~/Documents/trees/localpatches/www/ikiwiki/fancypodcast.diff`
+ 7. `cd ~/Documents/trees/pkgsrc-current/www/ikiwiki && make deinstall && make install clean`
+7. Verify that simple podcasts are unaffected:
+ 7. Rerun `ikiwiki --setup`.
+ 7. `diff -uB simple-before.rss simple-after.rss`
+ * A few new elements and attributes, as expected.
+ 7. `diff -uB simple-before.atom simple-after.atom`
+ * No change.
+7. Remove the feed-only `inline` and enable feeds on the remaining one.
+7. Convert articles' manual download links to `\[[!meta enclosure=""]]`.
+7. I want existing and future podcatchers to get my new fancy
+ episodes, and I know my podcast isn't in any planets, so I'm
+ going to skip [[tips/howto avoid flooding aggregators]].
+7. Rerun `ikiwiki --setup`.
+7. Verify browser shows the same stuff.
+7. `diff -uB simple-after.rss fancy-after.rss # and atom`
+ * MP3s and PDFs are no longer naked enclosures, but belong to
+ articles as they should.
+ * Articles have updated modification times, as they should.
+7. `r2e run` (both RSS and Atom)
+ * Nothing new with the default `trust-guid = True` (otherwise
+ would expect updated articles).
+7. iTunes "Update Podcast" (both RSS and Atom)
+ * Added one episode per article, with article text as the episode
+ description.
+ * Kept old naked-enclosure episodes around.
+7. Downcast refresh (RSS):
+ * Added one episode per article, with article text as the episode
+ description.
+ * Kept old naked-enclosure episodes around.
+7. Downcast refresh (Atom):
+ * Added one episode per article, with no episode description
+ (expected, see feature table).
+ * Kept old naked-enclosure episodes around.
+
+Different tradeoffs are possible. These seem okay to me.
+
+### Importing into ikiwiki: fancy (from another CMS)
+
+#### My test podcast
+
+For this test, I chose a podcast currently being published with
+Textpattern and tru_podcast, because I'd strongly prefer to publish
+it with ikiwiki instead.
+
+#### Upgrade steps
+
+7. Set up a non-production copy of the podcast.
+ 7. Visually diff RSS and Atom feeds against production.
+ 7. Subscribe to the copy (both feeds) in `r2e`, iTunes, Downcast.
+7. With a fancypodcast-enabled ikiwiki installed:
+ 7. Copy content from Textpattern to ikiwiki:
+ 7. Match article paths to preserve `/YYYY/MM/DD/post-title` permalinks.
+ 7. Match enclosure paths (or redirect) to preserve Textpattern's URLs.
+ 7. Match titles, post dates, and guids with `\[[!meta]]`.
+ 7. Match feed paths with permanent redirects from `/atom/` to
+ `/index.atom` (and same for RSS).
+ 7. `\[[!inline]]` the articles.
+ 7. Rerun `ikiwiki --setup`.
+7. Stop Textpattern, start ikiwiki.
+7. Verify that podcatchers see the feeds and don't redownload anything.
+7. Naively add two new blog posts, one with an enclosure.
+7. Verify that podcatchers download the new enclosures.
+
-----
## Future improvements
### Other ideas
+* Don't render template text (e.g., "Use this template to insert a
+ note into a page") in feeds.
* Optionally specify the enclosure's:
* MIME type, in case `File::MimeInfo` guesses wrong.
* Duration, in case `ffprobe` guesses wrong.
* Configurably generate additional subscription links (such as
iTunes) alongside the RSS/Atom ones in [[plugins/inline]].
* Support Apple's "enhanced podcasts" (if they're still relevant).
+
+### code review
+
+ + # XXX better way to compute relative to srcdir?
+ + my $file = $absurl;
+ + $file =~ s|^$config{url}/||;
+
+I don't think ikiwiki offers a better way to do that, because there is
+normally no reason to do that. Why does it need an url of this form here?
+--[[Joey]]
+
+> In all the popular, production-quality podcast feeds I've looked
+> at, enclosure URLs are always absolute (even when they could be
+> expressed concisely as relative). [Apple's
+> example](http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/specs.html#example)
+> does too. So I told \[[!meta]] to call `urlto()` with the third
+> parameter true, which means the \[[!inline]] code here gets an
+> absolute URL in `$pagestate{$p}{meta}{enclosure}`. To compute the
+> enclosure's metadata, though, we of course need it as a local path.
+> I didn't see a less
+> [ongepotchket](http://www.jewish-languages.org/jewish-english-lexicon/words/1402)
+> way at the time. If you have a better idea, I'm happy to hear it;
+> if not, I'll add an explanatory comment. --[[schmonz]]
+
+>> I would be more comfortable with this if two two different forms of url
+>> you need were both generated by calling urlto. It'd be fine to call
+>> it more than once. --[[Joey]]
+
+>>> Heh, it was even easier than that! (Hooray for tests.) Done.
+>>> --[[schmonz]]
+
+ +<TMPL_IF HTML5><section id="inlineenclosure"><TMPL_ELSE><div id="inlineenclosure"></TMPL_IF>
+ +<TMPL_IF ENCLOSURE>
+
+Can't we avoid adding this div when there's no enclosure? --[[Joey]]
+
+> Sure, I've moved the `<TMPL_IF ENCLOSURE>` check to outside the
+> section-and-div block for `{,inline}page.tmpl`. --[[schmonz]]
+
+ +<a href="<TMPL_VAR ENCLOSURE>">Download this episode</a>
+
+"Download this episode" is pretty specific to particular use cases.
+Can this be made more generic, perhaps just "Download"? --[[Joey]]
+
+> Yep, I got a little carried away. Done. --[[schmonz]]
+
+ -<TMPL_IF AUTHOR>
+ - <title><TMPL_VAR AUTHOR ESCAPE=HTML>: <TMPL_VAR TITLE></title>
+ - <dcterms:creator><TMPL_VAR AUTHOR ESCAPE=HTML></dcterms:creator>
+
+This change removes the author name from the title of the rss feed, which
+does not seem necessary for fancy podcasts. And it is a change that
+could negatively impact eg, Planet style aggregators using ikiwiki. --[[Joey]]
+
+> While comparing how feeds render in podcatchers, I noticed that
+> RSS and Atom were inconsistent in a couple ways, of which this was
+> one. The way I noticed it: with RSS, valuable title space was being
+> spent to display the author. I figured Atom's display was the one
+> worth matching. You're right, of course, that planets using the
+> default template and somehow relying on the current author-in-the-title
+> rendering for RSS feeds (but not Atom feeds!) would be broken by
+> this change. I'm having trouble imagining exactly what would break,
+> though, since guids and timestamps are unaffected. Would it suffice
+> to provide a note in the changelog warning people to be careful
+> upgrading their planets, and to customize `rssitem.tmpl` if they
+> really prefer the old behavior (or don't want to take any chances)?
+> --[[schmonz]]
+
+>> A specific example I know of is updo.debian.net, when used with
+>> rss2email. Without the author name there, one cannot see who posted
+>> an item. It's worth noting that planet.debian.org does the same thing
+>> with its rss feed. (That's probably what I copied.) Atom feeds may
+>> not have this problem, don't know. --[[Joey]]
+
+>>> Okay, that's easy to reproduce. It looks like this _might_ be
+>>> a simple matter of getting \[[!aggregate]] to populate author in
+>>> `add_page()`. I'll see what I can figure out. --[[schmonz]]
+
+>>>> Yep, that was mostly it. If the feed entry defines an author,
+>>>> and the author is distinct from the feed name, we now show `NAME:
+>>>> AUTHOR`, else just show `NAME` (same as always). In addition,
+>>>> the W3 feed validator says `<dcterms:creator>` is invalid, so
+>>>> I replaced it with `<dc:creator>`, and all of a sudden `r2e`
+>>>> gives me better `From:` headers. With the latest on my branch,
+>>>> when I generate the same planet as updo and run `r2e` over it,
+>>>> the names I get in `From:` look like so:
+
+* `"updo: Junio C Hamano"`
+* `"updo: Greg Kroah-Hartman"`
+* `"updo: Eric Raymond: esr"` (article author != feed name, so we get both)
+* `"updo: Jannis Pohlman: Jannis Pohlmann"` (oops! I tweaked the real updo)
+
+>>>> --[[schmonz]]
+
+ +++ b/templates/rsspage.tmpl
+ + xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
+ +<atom:link href="<TMPL_VAR FEEDURL>" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
+
+Why is it using atom namespace inside an rss feed? What are the chances
+every crummy rss reader on earth is going to understand this? I'd put it at
+about 0%; I doubt ikiwiki's own rss reader understands such a mashup.
+--[[Joey]]
+
+> The validator I used (<http://validator.w3.org/feed/>) told me to.
+> Pretty sure it doesn't make anything work better in the podcatchers
+> I tried. Hadn't considered that it might break some readers.
+> Removed. --[[schmonz]]
+
+ +<generator>ikiwiki</generator>
+
+Does this added tag provide any benefits? --[[Joey]]
+
+> Consistency with the Atom feed, and of course it trumpets ikiwiki
+> to software and/or curious humans who inspect their feeds. The tag
+> arrived only in RSS 2.0, but that's already the version we're
+> claiming to be, and it's over a decade old. Seems much less risky
+> than the atom namespace bits. --[[schmonz]]
+
+>> Sounds ok then. --[[Joey]]