Posted 1 year ago #
There's not much about this, but I implemented Podpress recently, my podcasts are publishing fine, but I'm not seeing anything show up in the Widget when I add it to the sidebar.
Is there anything else I need to be doing? I thought that the widget would just .... work.
Danie
Danie,
the widget works usually. The only thing you should configure are the width and height values. At least the player should be visible - even if you have mp3 podcast files. (The player is only capable of playing mp3 files.)
Is there really nothing showing up? What is with the header of the widget? Which is your current podPress version?
Or is the player visible but does not show any episodes?
What is in the playlist? You can control this by downloading the playlist manually and looking into the file with a text editor.
Open the URL of the playlist.xspf feed in your browser.
The URL of that feed looks like "www.example.com/?feed=playlist.xspf" or "www.example.com/feed/playlist.xspf".
Does it contain tracks like in this example? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML_Shareable_Playlist_Format#Example_of_an_XSPF_1.0_Playlist
Regards,
Tim
Posted 1 year ago #
Here's the link to my site. You can see the Widget has nothing in it. The width should not be a big deal.
I burned my podcast feed using Feedburner, so my feed gets routed to feedburner.
See?
http://edreach.us/?feed=playlist.xspf
I don't know if there is a way to make an xspf out of a feedburner feed.
Daniel
Daniel,
You can see the Widget
No, I can't see the Widget (at least the Widget title should be visible). Where is it?
I burned my podcast feed using Feedburner, so my feed gets routed to feedburner.
That is okay for the usual Podcast Feed ("www.example.com/?feed=podcast"). But if you want to use the XSPF player widget it is essential that the XSPF Feed URL is not redirect to the standard Podcast Feed. Because the XSPF Feed has a special XML format and is not a RSS Feed.
Don't redirect http://edreach.us/?feed=playlist.xspf to Feedbruner.
Regards,
Tim
Posted 1 year ago #
Thanks-
I suspected that feedburner was the case, if that is in fact true.
I can't however undo that, as Feedburner is awesome and far outweighs the benefit of having a player on my site.
Can you think of any other ideas that might make this work?
daniel
Daniel,
do I understand it right that the XSPF player appears in the sidebar if you add the XSPF widget? And is it true that the player does not contain episodes?
It is fine that you route the /?feed=podcast Feed and the other Feeds through Feedburner. But the Feedburner plugin or whatever you are using should not reroute the XSPF Feed.
Do you use a plugin to reroute all Feed request or do you use some hand-crafted rewrite rules in the .htaccess file?
Maybe the plugin has got a possibility to make an exception for the
XSPF Feed. Or maybe use different plugin which has such a possibility.
Or if you use hand-crafted rewrite rules then you should change the rules and make an exception for this special Feed. I'm sure that this is possible. But I'm no .htaccess expert and I can't give you specific ideas for such rules.
BTW: The podPress Feed Buttons widget offers the possibility to enter alternative Feed URLs. That is exactly for such a use-case. You can enter the Feedburner URL there and these Feed buttons will be linked to the right Feed URLs.
Regards,
Tim
Posted 1 year ago #
The Widget appears, but nothing appears in the Widget. I added it back. I've never even seen what this mysterious player looks like.
All I did was re-route my podcast feed through feedburner.
http://edreach.us/?feed=podcast is now
feeds.feedburner.com/edreachnetwork
I even tried to enter the original podcast feed as a Custom URL, but that didn't work either. It just shows up blank.
Just seems broke.
DR
Daniel,
I see. There are two problems.
The first that http://edreach.us/?feed=playlist.xspf leads to the http://feeds.feedburner.com/edreach Feed which is a usual RSS Feed and not a XSPF playlist. If URL does not lead to such a special XSPF playlist then the player does not work.
The second problem is that the player seems to be invisible. I would like to take a further look at it later this day. Please, leave the player widget as it is for the next 10 hours.
But as I have written above, if the playlist URL does not lead to a proper playlist then the player will not work. So, please find out why the playlist URL leads to the normal RSS Podcast Feed.
Regards,
Tim
Daniel,
I believe that I have found the source of the problem of the invisible player. I have made some changes and the current Development Version contains now a bug fix for this problem.
Please, try this version and look whether the Player appears or not.
Thanks and regards,
Tim
Posted 1 year ago #
How do I upgrade to the Dev version without having to re-do my settings?
Daniel
Make a backup of your db. That is always a good idea.
Afterwards download the .zip file of the Development Version, unpack it, delete the old files and folder of podPress (for instance via FTP) and upload the new, unpacked files and folders.
The settings should stay as they are - even the widget settings.
Regards,
Tim
Posted 1 year ago #
I just noticed that Podpress was updated! Does this mean I don't have to upload the Dev version?
Well, it appears the Widget is STILL not working.
*sigh*
Daniel
Daniel,
in general the occurrence of some error messages or problems is connected to the configuration of a web server. Messages which occur on some servers and don't occur on other servers. In case like this where I can not reproduce the problem on one of my test blogs, it is sometimes necessary that the user who discovered the problem tests the Development Version before a new version can be released. Because it is very hard to rebuild the exact server configuration and it is of course no good idea to mark a not tested version as stable and let everyone be a beta tester.
Sometimes more than one test and modification is required to solve a problem.
The modification I mentioned above was uncritical and good for everyone. It was okay to put it into 8.8.9.2. But it obviously was not the only problem.
I have made further changes and put them into the current Development Version.
It is a new option at the Player Settings page of podPress to use an alternative method to load the default skin file of the XSPF player.
Please, try this Development Version and activate this new option and tell me whether the player elements like a play and stop button appear.
Regards,
Tim
BTW: The URL http://edreach.us/feed/playlist.xspf leads still to the Feedburner version of a default RSS Feed of your blog and not to a proper XSPF playlist. That is a problem which is not caused by podPress or its components. You need to change that in order to get the XSPF player play your podcast episodes.
Posted 1 year ago #
BTW: The URL http://edreach.us/feed/playlist.xspf leads still to the Feedburner version of a default RSS Feed of your blog and not to a proper XSPF playlist. That is a problem which is not caused by podPress or its components. You need to change that in order to get the XSPF player play your podcast episodes.
So - I mentioned earlier - I'm not going to unroute my feed from Feedburner, because the benefits far outweigh having a Player Widget. There's a lot of data that comes from there, that is beneficial to this site that I wouldn't have otherwise.
If there is another way to make the XSPF player work without undoing feedburner, then let me know.
Daniel
Daniel,
you should not unroute all of your Feeds from Feedburner. Just unroute http://edreach.us/feed/playlist.xspf (or http://edreach.us/?feed=playlist.xspf which is the same) which is no RSS or ATOM Feed.
If you tell me how you route your Feeds to Feedburner then I might be able to help you unroute http://edreach.us/feed/playlist.xspf .
Which plugin do you use to route your Feeds to Feedburner?
Regards,
Tim
Posted 1 year ago #
Thanks for sticking with me on this one. You may in fact be helping me sort out a grander issue.
you should not unroute all of your Feeds from Feedburner. Just unroute http://edreach.us/feed/playlist.xspf (or http://edreach.us/?feed=playlist.xspf which is the same) which is no RSS or ATOM Feed.
When I add a podcast to my post, am I NOT supposed to be checking off RSS or ATOM?
I don't use a plugin for Feedburner. I simply went to Feedburner and burned my podcast feed separately from my blog feed.
http://edreach.us/?feed=podcast
to
http://feeds.feedburner.com/EdReachNetwork
My blog feed is http://edreach.us/feed/
which I burned to Feedburner as http://feeds.feedburner.com/edreach
Podpress gives you your own podcast feed, I'm pretty sure.
Where can we go next?
DR
Posted 1 year ago #
How do I unroute my xspf playlist? Did I do something wrong in setting up my feed?
DR
The Feed http://edreach.us/?feed=podcast is made by podPress and you can configure it at the podPress Feeds section on the Feed/iTunes Settings page of podPress. It is also possible to add (and configure) further Feeds to your blog in this podPress Feeds section.
When I add a podcast to my post, am I NOT supposed to be checking off RSS or ATOM?
Yes, check off the RSS or ATOM checkboxes when you add a an episode to a post.
But these settings have nothing to do with the http://edreach.us/?feed=playlist.xspf . This special playlist contains all episodes which are .mp3 files and added with podPresss regardless of these settings.
How do I unroute my xspf playlist?
It is already done. If you click on this link http://edreach.us/?feed=playlist.xspf then the download of the playlist starts. That is as it should be. In the last days a different thing happened. When I tried open this playlist URL I always ended up with one of the Feedburner Feeds.
I have also noticed that the http://edreach.us/?feed=podcast URL does no longer lead to the Feedburner version of this Feed.
But now that one of the problems is resolved, you should upload the Development Version of podPress and try to resolve the problem with the invisible player. Use the new option at the Player Settings page of podPress to use an alternative method to load the default skin file of the XSPF player. That will most likely make the player visible.
Furthermore I have discovered that you have placed the RSS image and the iTunes:image files in a sub folder of the podPress plugin. That is/was not a good idea. Because if you upgrade the plugin with the automatic upgrade function of WordPress, WP will remove all files and folder which are in the folder of the plugin and unpack the files and sub folders of the new plugin version afterwards. That is probably why these images are currently not available with the URLs you have used in the Feed settings.
It is a better idea to place such custom files in the wp-content/uploads/ folder.
Tim
Posted 1 year ago #
Ah-
There is a feedburner plugin that I de-activated, but I this actually didn't need anyway.
Also- in feedburner there's a tool that allows you to convert your feed to RSS , and I deactivated that. Again, I think it was doubling the effort, and not really doing much for me anyway.
What tool would you suggest that I use to backup my WP db ? If I do that, I can get started on trying the dev version.
Thanks.
DR
The WP DB Backup plugin makes copies of all of your db tables.
Tim
Daniel,
I have asked the author of the XSPF player Lacy Morrow for help and he made some changes to the player. The new version of the player is also in the Development Version and it will probably make it superfluous to use the new option I have mentioned earlier.
Please, try the Development Version. Make one or two tests without using the new option on the player settings page. Clear the browser cache memory between your tests.
If nothing is changing you might try the new option. But I'm confident it will work without it.
Regards,
Tim
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