Podcasting -- making your Textpattern site Apple iTunes friendly -

colin99 · 2025-11-05 22:38:10

Stef Dawson (Bloke) and I are poking away at some simple approaches at building some pages and sections that allow for smooth and easy content creation for podcasting (Extended CSS) – with the stress on iTunes (Apple) compatibility. While Apple has some pretty stringent standards and syntax for listing on their library, it is not particularly onerous.

The reason I poke my head in now is: I wonder who is interested in using TXP to podcast? Who is currently podcasting via the native RSS functionality present with TXP, etc?

Any feedback or encouragement would be appreciated.

Last edited by colin99 (2025-11-05 22:38:38)

Bloke · 2025-11-05 22:59:47

The approach taken here is a bit DIY. Basically a /podcast section that houses the articles holding the details of upcoming shows or shows already broadcast. By adding a URL var ?feed=1 it spits out the Apple-defined XML file instead, so the link can be added to iTunes as an upcoming show URL to allow people to subscribe and listen in.

Txp does have built in RSS capability but I’m not sure a) how far the Atom/RSS spec differs from the one Apple require, and b) if instead of rolling our own, it might be possible (or better) for a little plugin to intercept the feed callback and inject the additional stuff the feed requires. Then we get podcast support with near-native functionality.

Any tips or guidance welcome.

etc · 2025-11-06 12:15:02

I had a plugin for altering rss feed markup, but can not find it any more. Anyway, to use native feeds, you’d need to

set feed_namespaces pref (ini-string) like

itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd"
content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"

use rss_head and rss_entry callbacks to append something to the header and each entry, respectively.

Not sure this would suffice, but the only other way seems to be DIY, like you do or via a custom type form.

mistersugar · 2025-11-06 13:28:10

Long ago, I used a separate but now-defunct program called Loudblog (2006 snapshot from WayBackMachine) to host my own audio files. I always hoped I could use Textpattern for something like that, so count me interested.

FWIW, Manton Reece has podcasting built into the Micro.blog service. It’s an elegant solution. Not sure if that might inform Txp development but it is a nice example.

gaekwad · 2025-11-06 15:24:54

colin99 wrote #341101:

I wonder who is interested in using TXP to podcast? Who is currently podcasting via the native RSS functionality present with TXP, etc?

Former podcaster here, and I’ll be starting a new project in 2026 with Textpattern for backend stuff. For past projects I built my own syndication pages rather than use the inbuilt RSS/Atom, mostly down to media enclosures.

The most notable changes I’ve seen over the past 5-10 years is the increasing reliance on Spotify for podcast consumption, and far fewer people downloading before they listen…they just find it in a their podcast directory and stream it rather than downloading first then listening.

Last edited by gaekwad (2025-11-06 15:25:27)

colin99 · 2025-11-06 20:40:48

gaekwad wrote #341110:

Former podcaster here, and I’ll be starting a new project in 2026 with Textpattern for backend stuff. For past projects I built my own syndication pages rather than use the inbuilt RSS/Atom, mostly down to media enclosures.

Currently working with Stef to build something that Apple iTunes will swallow without gagging — I’m running tests and will know within 24 hours (or more) as to whether or not the formatting of my RSS XML works w/o choking Apple Podcasts…

colin99 · 2025-11-10 23:50:21

I have been doing a bit of digging and experimentation — and I made my way back to a tutorial posted in 2007 — and it still works the charm with some minor updates.

Have a look over here
For the main part of the build —

I will move it over here in bits and pieces with some tweaks.

Bloke · Yesterday 07:27:33

That’s a neat tutorial. As I think I mentioned to you, the only major bit that’s changed is that we no longer need the plugin mg_setheader, since Txp now has the native <txp:header> tag.

<txp:header name="Content-Type" value="application/rss+xml" />

should do the trick.

etc · Yesterday 11:46:54

It is easy to alter core rss to mimic this format. All you need is a tiny plugin:

# Name: etc_rss v0.1
# Type: Public site only plugin
# No description
# Author: 
# URL: https://plugins.textpattern.com
# Recommended load order: 5

# .....................................................................
# This is a plugin for Textpattern CMS - https://textpattern.com/
# To install: textpattern > admin > plugins
# Paste the following text into the 'Install plugin' box:
# .....................................................................
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=

A misc type rss_head form:

<language>en-us</language>
<copyright>&#x2117; &amp; &#xA9; 2007 onwards by The Author</copyright>
<itunes:subtitle>A Podcast About Everything and Nothing</itunes:subtitle>
<itunes:author>Fictitious Author</itunes:author>
<itunes:summary>A good description of your podcast should go here.  This is what iTunes will use to search for your podcast.  Make it good and short.</itunes:summary>
<itunes:keywords>example, example, example, example</itunes:keywords>
<itunes:owner>
	<itunes:name>Fictitious Author</itunes:name>
	<itunes:email>you@example.com</itunes:email>
</itunes:owner>
<itunes:explicit>No</itunes:explicit>
<itunes:image href="http://www.example.com/images/podcast-image.jpg" />
<itunes:category text="Main Category">
	<itunes:category text="Sub Category" />
</itunes:category>

An article type rss_entry form:

<itunes:author><txp:author /></itunes:author>
<itunes:subtitle><txp:body escape="tags" /></itunes:subtitle>
<itunes:summary><txp:body escape="tags" /></itunes:summary>
<enclosure url="<txp:custom_field name="podcast-audio-url" />" length="<txp:custom_field name="audio-file-bytes" />" type="audio/mpeg" />
<itunes:duration><txp:custom_field name="podcast-duration" /></itunes:duration>
<itunes:explicit>Yes</itunes:explicit>

Tweak them at your liking, using conditionals inside forms if necessary.

colin99 · Yesterday 18:34:43

We have gone from fuzzy ideas on this subject to clarity and implementation — and a variety of choices…

I am going to boil down the 2007 tutorial to something slightly more modern and post here.

Well done team!

planeth · Yesterday 20:00:41

Not a podcast per se but we do publish a RSS with audio :
https://soshift.theshifters.org/ (in french)

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#1 2025-11-05 22:38:10