MP3 handling? Opinions, suggestions, etc.

squaredeye · 2006-02-17 15:17:19

Hey there TXP folk,

I have a number of sights that often upload mp3’s and/or have a weekly post of an mp3 for download or immediate listening.

I have been trying to figure out two schemes:

a scheme that is best for the end-user (with ftp) and (without ftp)
and
a scheme that is best or most powerful for the more advanced user (with or without ftp)

Presently I have tried having clients upload their mp3’s to a “mp3” folder on the site and reference that file through a form and some custom fields, so that they can post the new mp3 via the write tab.

I have also had clients upload mp3’s via TXP’s file handler. Then post them using upm_file_packets which allows for some nice handling when you want folks to be able to post files as they would images and have consistency. This also allows mp3’s to be placed anywhere in the site, as opposed to the scheme above which generally requires a specific place like “the mp3 section” because of how if_custom_field works (I don’t want to bloat my pages with tons of them).

Questions:

what if the mp3 files are biggish? (4mb +)
if you upload via the TXP file handler, I doubt there is anyway to add an xml feed (podcast) correct?

Hopefully that makes sense.
Bring all your insights, come one come all.

If you have plugin suggestions or better yet, core TXP ideas, please suggest and detail them! :)

Thanks,

Matthew

variaas · 2006-02-17 19:25:41

ma_smith,

I’ve been “working” on a podcast feature for TXP the past couple months. I’m pretty far along but am hitting lots of issues in features, design, and getting the last couple pieces working. If you, or anyone else, is able to help me out I would love to work with you guys and get this out there.

squaredeye · 2006-02-17 19:46:23

Variaas,
Hey man, send me an email. Let me know what needs doing, lets see how we can help. That’s the community – er barf, that sounded way to trite. Either way, yeah. Give me a shout.

Matthew

alexandra · 2006-02-17 20:53:21

@variaas
maybe Bastian is interested?

Bastian · 2006-02-17 21:09:16

Yes, Bastian is interested!

Since releasing bas_emff i try to make a real audioblog-plugin out of it:

Flash-Player on the site and enclosures in the feed.
I found no no way to incude to enclosures, so i copied the rss-part of txp, modified it and include the my plugin.
@Variaas: If you find a better way, let me know.

Maybe two weeks and i’m done.

But i don’t give a look on the upload issues. If someone has on solution for that…

squaredeye · 2006-02-17 21:47:07

Bastian and others.
I like the idea of using plugins, as I use plenty of them, but I’m also interested in present working scenarios for all kinds of ways of handling this. Bastian, I really appreciate the work you are doing with flash! Well done. The upload issue is a huge one for end users. I’m assuming from peaking at the documentation for “bas emff“http://forum.textpattern.com/viewtopic.php?id=10071 that it requires an external folder for the files. That’s fine and I am always trying to get my clients to get a hold of a webmaster to take good care of their sites, but alas, it doesn’t always come to pass. So, that’s why I posted this piece. To try to find out what others have been doing from plugins to core.

Keep us posted on the progress of your plugin! :)

Matthew

nardo · 2006-02-18 00:37:57

matthew, I’m using bas_emff and I don’t think it requires an external folder – right now, I’m ftp-ing to files folder, then ‘activating’ it via the files tab (u know what I mean)

right now the plugin uses a custom field called mp3 to attach the url of the ‘podcast file’ – I hope bastian can make this configurable within the plugin so you can choose any custom field … but for your purpose, this would allow upm_file_packets to easily attach the right podcast to the article

re: uploading – you’re probably best uploading through the txp files interface like you say; it makes sense to the end user, no ftp logins, etc … and larger files aren’t a big problem (but this is a non-txp issue really) … I’d imagine podcasts to be around 20mb at a max (that’s 90mins at listenable quality)

Bastian · 2006-02-18 01:37:04

I use it like nardo. upload via ftp to /files and then activatibg via files tab.
But i don’t want to give anyone ftp-acess. so for end-user upload must be “insite”.

squaredeye · 2006-02-18 02:21:50

Nardo, Bastian,
Good to know. I’ve used that method before too. It seems to work fairly well. At some point, I’d love to take all the info from a thread like this and add it to the WIKI documentation for others to use too. I’ve been working on end-user documentation also, and uploading mp3’s will likely have to be done via ftp for most of the clients I currently have because of their large file size (45min – 90min speaking).

For podcasting are you all placing a php script inside the file folder to generate the xml? I’ve not tried that, but have heard it works decently in a standalone folder?

(That is until Bastian’s plugin is ready :)

Thanks for your comments guys,

Matthew

nardo · 2006-02-18 04:31:42

our *cast works without php script or anything, but it does goes via feedburner (which does the work if you tell it you want a podcast burnt)

Bastian’s solution will take feedburner out of the loop, but feedburner does good for us right now

NeilA · 2006-02-18 04:38:50

I second Nardo’s comments about Feedburner for podcasts.
I’ve been FTPing 5-12Mb MP3’s, processing them with TXP File, but using Feedburner to, well, burn the feed… ;-)

squaredeye · 2006-02-18 06:29:21

Thanks Nardo and NeilA,
That’s really helpful to know.

How often do you need to update things at feedburner?

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#1 2006-02-17 15:17:19

MP3 handling? Opinions, suggestions, etc.

#2 2006-02-17 19:25:41

Re: MP3 handling? Opinions, suggestions, etc.

#3 2006-02-17 19:46:23

Re: MP3 handling? Opinions, suggestions, etc.

#4 2006-02-17 20:53:21

Re: MP3 handling? Opinions, suggestions, etc.

#5 2006-02-17 21:09:16

Re: MP3 handling? Opinions, suggestions, etc.

#6 2006-02-17 21:47:07

Re: MP3 handling? Opinions, suggestions, etc.

#7 2006-02-18 00:37:57

Re: MP3 handling? Opinions, suggestions, etc.

#8 2006-02-18 01:37:04

Re: MP3 handling? Opinions, suggestions, etc.

#9 2006-02-18 02:21:50

Re: MP3 handling? Opinions, suggestions, etc.

#10 2006-02-18 04:31:42

Re: MP3 handling? Opinions, suggestions, etc.

#11 2006-02-18 04:38:50

Re: MP3 handling? Opinions, suggestions, etc.

#12 2006-02-18 06:29:21

Re: MP3 handling? Opinions, suggestions, etc.

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