-ikiwiki's simple podcasting, while elegant and minimal, doesn't (as
-mentioned in [[todo/blogging]]) produce full-featured feeds. In
-fancy podcasts, episodes are accompanied by text content. The feeds
-also have lots more metadata.
-
-[[!toc]]
-
## Status
[[!template id=gitbranch branch=schmonz/fancypodcast author="[[schmonz]]"]]
[[!tag patch]]
-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]]
+Nothing new since 2013/07/21 [[merge|done]] to `master`.
## 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 |(./) |(./) |(./) |(./)
"""]]
-## Design
-
-7. For each fancy podcast episode, write a blog post containing
- `\[[!meta enclosure="WikiLink/to/media.mp3"]]`. (Don't specify
- more than one enclosure -- but if you do, last one wins.)
-7. When rendering to HTML (single-page or inlined), append a link
- to the media file.
-7. When rendering to RSS/Atom, the text is the entry's content and
- the media file is its enclosure.
-7. Don't break simple podcasts in pursuit of fancy podcasts.
-
-## Implementation
-
-### Completed
-
-* Cover the existing simple podcast behavior with tests.
-* Add an `enclosure` field to [[plugins/meta]] that expands the
- given [[ikiwiki/WikiLink]] to an absolute URL (feed enclosures
- pretty much need to be, and the reference feeds I've looked at
- all do this).
-* Write failing tests for the desired single-page and inlined
- HTML behavior, then make them pass by adding enclosure stanzas
- to `{,inline}page.tmpl`.
-* Write failing tests for the desired RSS/Atom behavior, then make
- them pass via changes to `{atom,rss}item.tmpl` and [[plugins/inline]].
-* Match feature-for-feature with
- [tru_podcast](http://www.rainskit.com/blog/542/tru_podcast-a-podcasting-plugin-for-textpattern)
- (what [[schmonz]] will be migrating from).
-* Enrich [feed metadata](http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rss/rss.html)
- by catching up `rsspage.tmpl` to `atompage.tmpl`.
-* Verify that [[plugins/more]] plays well with fancy podcasts.
-* 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).
-
-### Must-have (for [[schmonz]], anyway)
-
-* 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
### iTunes fancy podcasting
* [iTunes-specific tags](https://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/specs.html)
appear to be RSS-only
- * If they work in Atom, teach `inline` to optionally iTunesify RSS/Atom.
- * Else, add `itunes` as a third kind of feed (RSS plus more stuff).
+ * Can we always include them in RSS feeds, or would that break
+ some feed readers?
+ * Is it even valid to include them in Atom feeds? If so, do
+ Atom podcasts look any better in podcatchers?
+ * Avoid adding a third kind of feed (`itunesrss`), or options
+ to the existing `rss` and `atom` feeds, unless we have to.
* Notable tags for feeds:
* `itunes:subtitle`
* `itunes:author`
* [ffprobe](http://ffmpeg.org/ffprobe.html) is reasonably fast
* [mediainfo](http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/) is way slower
* Cache computed durations as pagestate
+* [Podcast Feed Best
+ Practice](https://github.com/gpodder/podcast-feed-best-practice/blob/master/podcast-feed-best-practice.md)
+ from the gPodder folks
### Fancy podcast aggregating
### 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.