Using File Field Podcaster

This chapter will tell you how to use use File Field podcaster to create a podcast with enclosures from files uploaded to CCK with the File Field module. 

The scenario we are working with is this. You have set up a custom content type where you upload video files with the File Field module (see File Field chapter), these videos are not showing up in your podcast as file enclosures. As you need file enclosures in your feed for them to work in Miro, iTunes and for other uses this is something that you need to address. We are going to do this using the File Field Podcaster module. 

The module also relies on Views 2 to make the RSS feed. 

Installing the right modules 

The module File Field Podcaster which can be downloaded from here. http://drupal.org/project/ffpc

There are some dependancies for the module, so you will need to install these other dependancies before the module will work properly. 

You may need to enable FileField Meta and the getID3() module - which needs a php library as well. This is a bit tricky but there are help files for how to install it at the home page of each module.

 

Setting up your Podcast View 

Once File Field Podcast is installed, point your browser to /admin/build/views and create a new view by clicking on the Add tab.

 

Then fill out the details of the new name of your view. In this case we are calling the view name videorss and a human readable name of Video RSS feed

Fill out the form with these details and then click Next .

When you have filled out the overview information you'll see the starting screen for creating a View. This is relatively complicated. You may want to read the general chapter on working with Views. 

For our purposes we are going to only need a Feed view. So let's create a Feed display on the left and get straight to it. To do this select Feed from the drop down menu on the left of the interface.

Then click on Add Display.

Some of the settings are self-explanitory some you'll need to have a look at the chapter on working with Views. However now that we have File Field module installed we have a new option under Style. We should change the Style. Click on the word style setting to Podcast feed at the  bottom of the page.

Select Podcast feed and click on Update

Then underneath this setting you need to change the settings for Row style. To do this click on the text next to it on the right, in this default case on Missing style plugin.

 

When the options appear at the bottom of the screen you should then select Podcast Episode.

Then you need to select the Fields that will be included as podcast enclosures in our Video feed. 

 

Adding a Node Type Filter

Don't for get to add a node type filter so that we only get certain types of nodes. In this case we will set it to Video with Subtitles which are published. Click on the + sign next to Filters.

 

Then select  'Node : Published or admin' This filters out unpublished nodes if the user cannot view them.

Then click on 'Add'.

We are going to add another filter to select the type. So repeat the above process make sure the 'Is one of' button is ticked and select the Video with Subtitles content type.

Then click on 'Update default display'.

The last thing we need to do is to set a path for the feed as there is not one defined by default. To do this click on the text next to the 'Path:' option.

Then enter a suitable name for the path of the video feed.

Click on 'Update'.

Then your view is ready to save. Click on 'Save' at the bottom of the page. 

You can now point your browser to the path where you have set your RSS feed - in this case http://potatopark.clearerchannel.org/videorss

You should be able to see if the process of adding file attachments to the feed has worked. If it has the details of the file should show up as in the screenshot below.