iTunes Validation

Support Area Forums Epic iTunes Validation

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  • #6004
    Rodney Knous
    Participant

    I really like the style and layout of the Podcast feature, only 1 issue: The feed will not validate with iTunes. I thought it was a hosting problem, but then I installed BluBrry’s podcast plugin and it validated with iTunes- I really like your podcast design and functionality though. Have you had others experience this? Can it be fixed?

    #6007
    Bill Robbins
    Moderator

    Rodney,

    Sorry for the trouble you’ve had with validating the feed. Last summer I had a customer who had trouble validating the feed in the Authentic theme (they use the same feed page template) and we traced the source of the problem to a caching plugin. It was altering the page which invalidated the feed. Once we excluded the feed page from being cached it validated.

    If you’ll send the URL to your podcast feed page I’ll be glad to take a look for you so we can get you up and running.

    Thanks,
    Bill

    #6009
    Rodney Knous
    Participant

    Thank you for the quick response!

    http://verdebaptist.com/wp/sermons/sermon-rss-feed/

    #6010
    Bill Robbins
    Moderator

    Rodney,

    I think may have just been a bug. Let’s try this to squash it.

    1. Go to the appearance section of your WordPress control panel and select edit.
    2. \

    3. From the list of files on your right, choose podcast-feed-page.php
    4. Replace all the content on the page with this:

    5. Save your changes.

    See if that doesn’t allow you to add your feed in iTunes. I gave it another attempt with the demo site and it worked there.

    If you run into any trouble, let me know,
    Bill

    #6028
    Rodney Knous
    Participant

    Bill,

    Thanks for working with me on this, now the issue is….

    No items in the feed. I get the description and the title for the feed, but I do not have any podcast entries. I went ahead and added another custom feed page just to make sure it was not a cache problem. Here is that link as well-

    http://verdebaptist.com/wp/sermons/feed-2/

    in fact I get more on the new feed link than on the old one. Shutting down and restarting the computer to make sure it is not a computer issue.

    Thanks!

    Rodney

    #6029
    Rodney Knous
    Participant

    OK,

    The feeds validate in iTunes! The RSS feed just seems to be blank until you look at the page source, then you see the iTunes items. If a person were to subscribe to the feed, they do see the items in their RSS reader, but they do not show on the page itself. Any ideas? This can be OK, but I would prefer to see the items listed as well.

    Thanks!

    Rodney

    #6033
    Bill Robbins
    Moderator

    Rodney,

    Good question. This page really only exists to supply iTunes and RSS readers with the data they need. It’s not a page that you’ll actually want visitors to pull up directly since it’s just the raw feed.

    If you have any trouble, let me know,
    Bill

    #6037
    Rodney Knous
    Participant

    Uh-Oh…

    “Dear Podcast Owner

    The podcast located at the URL shown below has been blocked or removed from the iTunes directory as a result of technical problems with the feed.

    Name: Verde Baptist Church
    Feed URL: http://verdebaptist.com/wp/sermons/sermon-rss-feed/

    If you wish to reactivate your podcast in the iTunes directory, please troubleshoot your feed and check the functionality of each episode. To test your podcast, start iTunes, select Subscribe to Podcast from the Advanced menu, and enter your feed URL in the dialog box. If you can successfully subscribe to your podcast and listen to each of the episodes, you can reactivate your podcast by resubmitting the feed using the Submit a Podcast page,https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/publishPodcast.

    For more information on troubleshooting feed problems and controlling the appearance of your podcast on iTunes, please see the podcast FAQ at http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/faq.html and technical specification at http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/techspecs.html.

    Sincerely,

    The iTunes Store Team”

    Did as they recommended, no episodes show in iTunes after subscribing to the feed.

    Thanks,

    Rodney

    #6057
    Bill Robbins
    Moderator

    I did an experiment last night that seemed to work for me. I added a feed page to the demo and then submitted it to iTunes. They email me back today to say all was well and it should appear in the iTunes store soon. I made one more change to the theme before I did that. Let’s see if that helps you too.

    1. Go to the appearance section and select edit to open up the theme editor.
    2. From the list of files on your right, choose functions.php and scroll down to the very bottom until you see this:


      // Add Read More link to excerpt
      function organizedthemes_excerpt($more) {
      global $post;
      return '<a class="more" href="'. get_permalink($post->ID) . '">...Read More</a>';
      }
      add_filter('excerpt_more', 'organizedthemes_excerpt');

    3. Replace that with this:

    If you still have trouble let me know,
    Bill

    #6058
    Rodney Knous
    Participant

    Bill,

    From messing with feedvalidator.org, I found some things that are causing issues.

    1. The & in “Religion & Spirituality” is not transferring to the rss feed as &

    2. The subtitle field is using the same information as the summary, there is a limit of 255 characters for a subtitle. Could we instead use the series name as the sub-title?

    3. The duration field comes back as null…. is there a way to insert the data from the mp3 file?

    When I edited out the sub-title and made it null, the feed showed the episodes in the feed.

    #6059
    Bill Robbins
    Moderator

    The theme options page will convert HTML characters over time. I wish for the life of me that iTunes just used the word “and” instead of the ampersand character. When you’re working in your theme options page, make sure the Religion & Spirituality is set to use this for the ampersand:

    You can add in the duration, the only catch is the file you need to edit can’t be reached with the built in theme editor. The built in theme editor can only go one folder level deep and this particular file is two folders deep. You’ll want to install a plugin called WP Editor. Once you have it installed, go to appearance and choose “Theme Editor” to open up the improved editor.

    On the right you’ll see folders at the top. Choose the one labeled “includes” and open it. Then open up “custom-meta-boxes” and select “epic-meta-boxes.php.” Look for this spot:

    
    array(
    	'name' => __( 'Message Notes', 'organizedthemes' ),
    	'desc' => __( 'Upload a file or enter an URL.', 'organizedthemes' ),
    	'id' => 'message_notes',
    	'type' => 'file'
    ),
    

    and add this directly above it:

    
    array(
    	'name' => __( 'Duration (hours:minutes:seconds)', 'organizedthemes' ),
    	'desc' => '',
    	'id'   => 'duration',
    	'type' => 'text',
    ),
    

    and save your changes. That will add in a field for the duration hours:minutes:seconds alongside the file upload box.

    If you’d like to take out the sub-title, you can do that as well. Edit the podcast-feed-page.php file and look down to line 58. You can delete this:

    
    <?php the_excerpt_rss(); ?>
    

    and see if that helps. I do have the duration in my feed that was approved, but the sub-title is still the excerpt even though it can be too long.

    Let me know if you need help,
    Bill

    #6255
    Chris Langille
    Participant

    Bill,

    I recently moved from Authentic to Epic, and noticed in the Podcast tab in Theme Options/iTunes configuration menu, there isn’t an area for the iTunes subscription URL anymore

    I filled out everything else like I did in Authentic, but when you go to our iTunes page http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/senior-care-ministries/id475487867

    there are no episodes when there are supposed to be 3. I still have the Custom Feed page active. Not sure why it won’t work

    What am I doing wrong?

    seniorcareministries.org

Viewing 12 posts - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)
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