AudioFeeds.org Feed Tutorial
How To Make an RSS/XML Audio Feed
An audiofeed (podcast) is an RSS file that contains a link to downloadable audio files instead of a link to a news story. Creating one is a simple as copying the contents of someone else's file and changing the information. In this tutorial, I'll give an example file that you can copy and edit. I'll also break down each element for those who want to a little more in depth.
How do I make one?
Making a Feed is as simple as making a text file in notepad. The trick is knowing how to format it.
An RSS file is a lot like HTML. There are tags and content. The file can be named just about anything, as long as the tags and content are correct. Here's an example of an RSS/XML file.
<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>My Program</title>
<link>http://www.mywebsite.com</link>
<description>My first podcast</description>
<language>en-us</language>
<copyright>2005</copyright>
<lastBuildDate>Mon, 10 Oct 2005 24:59:59 GMT</lastBuildDate>
<webMaster>youremail@whatever.com</webMaster>
<item> <title>Today’s Radio Show - Monday</title>
<link>http://link.to/this/item/ </link>
<description>Here’s my Monday podcast. Hope you like it.</description>
<pubDate>Mon, 10 Oct 2005 24:59:59 GMT</pubDate>
<enclosure url="http://www.mywebsite.com/monaudio.mp3" length="4834743" type="audio/mpeg" />
</item>
<item> <title>Yesterday's’s Radio Show - Sunday</title>
<link>http://link.to/this/item/ </link>
<description>Here’s my Sunday podcast. Hope you like it.</description>
<pubDate>Mon, 9 Oct 2005 24:59:59 GMT</pubDate>
<enclosure url="http://www.mywebsite.com/sunaudio.mp3" length="4834743" type="audio/mpeg" />
</item>
</channel>
</rss>
Don't get overwhelmed or scared. It's not nearly as complicated as it looks. Copy and paste the code above into your favorite text editor. Windows NotePad will do just fine, though, we prefer Notepad++.
The first three elements, <?xml?> (Note: No closing tag), <rss> - </rss> and <channel> - </channel> are the standard body tags of an RSS file. The first two, <?xml?> and <rss> are the equivelent of the <html> tag in a standard HTML file. These tags identify the version of XML and RSS you're using. The third one, <channel>, the equivelent of an HTML <body> tag, opens our feed's channel, which we close at the end of our file.
All of our feed's information goes within the <channel> tag. Let's look at our feed's info.
- <title> - Your feed's title. - </title>
- <link> - A link to your website. - </link>
- <description> - A short description of your feed. - </description>
- <language> - The language of your feed. - </language> (US English - "en-us")
- <copyright> - Any copyright information. - </copyright> (Such as copyright date.)
- <lastBuildDate> - The date of the last addition. - </lastBuildDate> (Many programs use this tag to identify new content. Make sure it's up-to-date.) The proper format for this date is "DDD, 00 MMM YYYY HH:MM:SS GMT" (example: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 24:59:59 GMT).
- <webMaster> - An email address to contact the feed owner. - </webMaster>
With the exception of the <lastBuildDate> tag, all these are static tags that you won't have to change. Unless you want to. The next group of tags, the <item> tags, identify our individual entries or items. A single RSS file can hold many separate items. I keep most of mine under 15 items, which I've heard is the standards limit.
Now let's look at our content (the individual entries or songs).
Every item starts with an <item> tag and ends with a </item>tag. Each of your entries or songs will go inside these tags and each are identified with five separate tags of their own:
- <title> - The song's name. - </title>
- <link> - An HTML link to the item's website or file used as an alternate to the enclosure element. - </link>
- <description> - A short description about the song. - </description>
- <pubDate> - The individual song's publish date. - </pubDate> The proper format for this date is "DDD, 00 MMM YYYY HH:MM:SS GMT" (example: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 24:59:59 GMT).
- <enclosure /> - The mp3 file/song.
The last tag, <enclosure />, is a little different. Firstly, it does not have a separate closing tag. There is only one tag which holds three required variables:
- url="http://www.mywebsite.com/myaudio.mp3" - The location to the mp3 file.
- length="(file's length)" - the length of your MP3 file in Bytes. (Many FTP programs show file size in bytes. )
- type="audio/mpeg" - The file type of your file. (This will only need to be changed if you are publishing in a format other than MP3.)
Here is an example of a complete <enclosure /> tag.
<enclosure url="http://yoursite.com/music_files/your_song.mp3" length="4468864" type="audio/mpeg" />
Adding another song to your feed is as simple as copying and pasting your first <item> and changing the info. Just be sure to keep your most recent song first and update the <lastBuildDate> tag we mentioned earlier.
Now we've added some songs. Let's close our <rss> tag like this: </rss> and our <channel>likewise: </channel>.
When you're done, save your RSS file as "myfeed.rss" and upload it to your webserver. Type in the URL in your favorite browser. We use and recommend Mozilla Firefox 1.5.
Example: http://www.mywebsite.com/myfeed.rss
You can go one step further and VALIDATE your RSS Feed. Validating your feed ensures it is readable in most aggregators. We recommend using RSS Scripting's Validator or the W3c's Validator.
There are more elements you can add to your RSS file, such as stylesheets for browser appearance and a variety of useful tags. To find out more about these other options, visit the reference links at the beginning of this article.
Here are some complete example Audiofeed (Podcast) files:
So get out there and make some music. Then make a feed and come back here to add it to our database so everyone can stay up-to-date on your music.
How do I submit my feed to AudioFeeds.org?
Head on over to our submit page and fill in the form. Our moderators will listen to a few of your items and if all goes well, they will add your feed to the database.
