How to create the xml file for podcasting?

Question

I'm interested in podcasting. My only worry is how to create an xml file to give all the information about the audio file.

Answer 1

If you're trying to make one compatible with iTunes's format, what you need is a species of RSS XML. Apple's website gives as good a description of it as you probably need: Look here.

Here, I'll give you a template. The XML file begins with something like this:

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
 <rss xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0">
 <channel>
 <atom:link href="http://PATH-TO-RSS/XML/FILE" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
     <title>PODCAST TITLE</title>
     <link>http://PATH-TO-WEBPAGE</link>
     <description>DESCRIPTION OF PODCAST (SHORT)</description>
     <lastBuildDate>Mon, 27 Dec 2010 17:16:55 GMT</lastBuildDate>
     <language>en-us</language>
     <copyright>Copyright 2010 © WHOEVER</copyright>
     <itunes:subtitle>PODCAST SUBTITLE</itunes:subtitle>
     <itunes:author>PODCAST AUTHOR</itunes:author>
     <itunes:summary>PODCAST SUMMARY (LONGER)</itunes:summary>
     <itunes:owner>
         <itunes:name>PODCAST MAINTAINER</itunes:name>
         <itunes:email>maintainer@email.address</itunes:email>
     </itunes:owner>
     <itunes:image href="http://PODCAST-IMAGE-URL/something.jpg" />
     <itunes:category text="Category1" />
     <itunes:category text="Category2">
            <itunes:category text="Subcategory" />
     </itunes:category>

There follows any number of items, which look like this:

<item>
    <title>ITEM TITLE</title>
    <link>http://link.for.this.item</link>
    <itunes:author>Item Author</itunes:author>
    <description>Item description</description>
    <itunes:summary>Item summary</itunes:summary>
    <enclosure url="http://link-to.media.file.mp3" length="filesize-in-bites" type="audio/mpeg"/>
    <guid>http://link-to-media/file.mp3</guid>
    <pubDate>Current Date (same format as above)</pubDate>
    <itunes:duration>4:21</itunes:duration>
    <itunes:keywords>Keywords</itunes:keywords>
    <category>Podcasts</category>
    <itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit>
</item>

And the file ends after all the items like this:

     <itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit>
 </channel>
 </rss>

Perhaps you're wondering how to extract the information you need from the file itself. Assuming its id3v2 metadata tag is in good shape you can use id3v2 commandline too for some of it, e.g., I use:

songtitle="$(id3v2 --list "$file" | grep "TIT2" | sed 's%TIT2.*:\s*%%')"

to get the title of the track. (where $file is set to the filename).

To get the filesize, I use:

filesize=$(stat -c %s "$file")

To get the duration, I use:

fileduration=$(exiftool -S -Duration "$file" | sed 's/Duration: //' | sed 's/ (approx)//')

To get the current date in a suitable format for the date fields:

currdate=$(date -u -R | sed 's/\+0000/GMT/')

Answer 2

xml files: Can I use openoffice to create such a file? If yes, which one? As I can save in two different xml formats.

Answer 3

If all you want to do is put up a podcast and not write your own podcast hosting software, you might want to consider either a hosting service like libsyn or setting up your own WordPress installation with the PodPress or PowerPress plug-in.