Daily podcasts

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Description

The Daily podcasts plugin allows you to add video/audio RSS feeds directly in the UMSP server without the need for a specific plugin. You can add your subscriptions in an XML file and view them in the UMSP GUI


Prerequisites

  • You will need to create an XML file that will list the feeds you want
  • The feeds that you may add must have direct links to content playable by WDTV. For example, such feeds will have a Media File section while viewed in Firefox.


Configuration

  • Enable the plugin in the web interface, under UMSP
  • Create an empty XML file in a path convenient to you (for instance in /conf/daily-podcasts.xml):
touch /conf/daily-podcasts.xml
  • Point the plugin's configuration variable to your file
config_tool -c DAILY_PODCASTS_XML='/conf/daily-podcasts.xml'
  • The plugin creates a temporary file to save converted files. It is created by default as '/tmp/default_temp.xml'. If you want the file somewhere else to conserve /tmp directory space set the DAILY_PODCASTS_TMP variable. The temp file is created every time the plugin starts. It is a formatted version of the main xml file. If you like the 'pretty printed' format you can copy it to the original main xml.
config_tool -c DAILY_PODCASTS_TMP=<name of writable file>
  • Save the configuration 
config_tool -s
  • Add content to the file, by using this format (example for two feeds, the first is just for test, the second is genuine). Add as many item sections as you need:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<list>
   <item>
       <description>Menu Entry 1</description>
       <image>http://link.to/thumbnail.jpg</image>
       <item>
           <description>Menu Entry 1</description>
           <url>http://video.feed/1</url>
           <limit>number of items to display</limit>
       </item>
   </item>
   <item>
       <description>GeekBeat.TV</description>
       <image>http://geekbeat.tv/wp-content/themes/thesis_17/custom/images/cali-app.gif</image>
       <item>
           <description>GeekBeat.TV</description>
           <url>http://feeds.feedburner.com/calismall</url>
           <limit>48</limit>
       </item>
   </item>
</list>
  • You will need to convert & to &amp; in the links and text in order to have valid XML. Always validate your XML (or check for errors similar to this in /var/log/php5/error_log:)
Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'Exception' with message 'String could not be parsed as XML' in /tmp/umsp-plugins/daily-podcasts/DailyPodcastSubMenu.php:8 Stack trace: #0 /tmp/umsp-plugins/daily-podcasts/DailyPodcastSubMenu.php(8): SimpleXMLElement->__construct() #1 /tmp/umsp-plugins/daily-podcasts/DailyPodcastHTML.php(106)
  • If you are copying a file from a different storage (USB/Network), make sure you set the correct permissions (so that it is readable) with this command:
chmod 644 /conf/daily-podcasts.xml
  • If you see your feeds in a reversed order (oldest entry is first/newest entry is last), then you can add a negative value to the limit tag. This feature will reverse the sort order and will get your newest feeds first in the list.
  • If for some reason the feed does not mark the media correctly (for instance, the NASA JPL feed [1] has video content, but it is marked as MP3), you can override the detection mechanism and set (hardcode) a media type for the whole feed. Use the class tag (with one of the values: object.item.videoItem, object.item.audioItem, object.item.imageItem):
<item>
     <description>NASA JPL</description>
     <image>http://probews2.arc.nasa.gov/images/JPL_Logo.gif</image>
     <item>
         <url>http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/rss/podfeed-hd.xml</url>
         <class>object.item.videoItem</class>
         <limit>-48</limit>
      </item>
</item>


Complex example

  • You can nest item tags and create complex navigation menus. You can add images to your menus so that they are pretty when viewed from Thumbnail Mode:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<list>
       <item>
               <description>Leisure</description>
               <image>http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2e/Neelkanth.jpg/120px-Neelkanth.jpg</image>
               <item>
                       <description>Marine podcast</description>
                       <image>http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/75/Muchroom_coral.JPG/220px-Muchroom_coral.JPG</image>
                       <item>
                           <url>http://feeds2.feedburner.com/WeeklyMarinePodcast-hd</url>
                           <limit>-96</limit>
                       </item>
               </item>
               <item>
                       <description>Natural world in HD</description>
                       <image>http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2e/Neelkanth.jpg/120px-Neelkanth.jpg</image>
                       <item>
                           <url>http://www.scenerystation.com/podcasts/ipodiphone/podcast_ipodiphone.xml</url>
                           <limit>-96</limit>
                       </item>
               </item>
       </item>
       <item>
               <description>Educational</description>
               <image>http://neptune.podbean.com/image-logo/0/16971_logo.jpg</image>
               <item>
                   <description>TED Talks</description>
                   <image>http://ted.streamguys.net/TEDTalksvideo_tile_144.jpg</image>
                   <item>
                       <url>http://www.ted.com/talks/rss</url>
                       <limit>-48</limit>
                   </item>
               </item>
               <item>
                   <description>Discovery Science</description>
                   <image>http://neptune.podbean.com/image-logo/0/16971_logo.jpg</image>
                   <item>
                       <url>http://www.discovery.com/radio/xml/sciencevideo.xml</url>
                       <limit>-48</limit>
                   </item>
               </item>
               <item>
                   <description>Discovery News</description>
                   <image>http://corporate.discovery.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/discoverynewslogo.jpg</image>
                   <item>
                       <url>http://www.discovery.com/radio/xml/news_video.xml</url>
                       <limit>-48</limit>
                   </item>
               </item>
               <item>
                       <description>Hidden Universe</description>
                       <image>http://www.hiddenuniverse.org/images/covers_thumb.jpg</image>
                       <item>
                           <url>http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/resource_list/6-Hidden-Universe-NASA-s-Spitzer-Space-Telescope?format=xml</url>
                           <limit>-48</limit>
                       </item>
               </item>
     </item>
</list>

Troubleshooting


Developer/Changelog

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