Quick Tip: Page (1) of 1 - 07/03/06

email article

print page

Podcast Quick Tip: PDF in iTunes Add PDF downloads to your RSS feed By Stephen Schleicher

I?ve previously walked you through the creation of a Real Simple Syndication (RSS) feed for your podcast.  But did you know beyond an audio or video file, you can also embed an Adobe PDF file in your feed as well?

Why would you want to place a PDF file in a RSS feed?  If you are creating a foreign language podcast, you might want to include a vocabulary or other worksheet for listeners to follow along.  Someone who is doing a cooking podcast can post the recipe for download.  Even the myriad of How-to podcasts can benefit from including a step by step instruction sheet users can download and print out.  The possibilities are endless but probably not for every podcast out there.

With this fantastic feature available, how do you do it?
It begins with an item tag that is placed in your RSS feed.  In fact, most of the item section of your feed will remain the same except for the enclosure tag.  You can see a sample below.

<item>
<title>Coolness Roundup Tutorials</title>
<itunes:author>Charlie White and Stephen Schleicher</itunes:author>
<link> http://www.coolnessroundup.com/pdf/instructions.pdf
</link>
<description> Coolness Roundup PDF in a RSS Feed Instructions </description>
<itunes:subtitle>PDF instructions for creating a RSS feed that includes a PDF file</itunes:subtitle>
<itunes:summary> PDF instructions for creating a RSS feed that includes a PDF</itunes:summary>
<enclosure url="http://www.coolnessroundup.com/pdf/instructions.pdf" length="54264" type="application/pdf"/>

As you can see here the type is changed from the regular ?application/audio? to ?application/pdf?.

<link>http://www.coolnessroundup.com</link>
<guid> http://www.coolnessroundup.com/pdf/instructions.pdf</guid>>
<pubDate>Mon, 03 Jul 2006 19:47:24 -0500</pubDate>
<category>Technology</category>
<itunes:explicit>No</itunes:explicit>
<itunes:keywords>news, consumer technology, technology roundup, gadgets, gizmos, fun tech
</itunes:keywords>
</item>

Obviously you need to make sure your PDF file is located on your server, but once that is accomplished and the item group is placed in your RSS feed, post the XML file to your site, and iTunes (and any other aggregator for that matter) will be able to download the file for the end user.

Page: 1

Related Sites: Creative Mac ,   Digital Producer ,   Digital Webcast ,   IBC News ,   Audio Video Producer ,   BN - Broadcast Newsroom ,   Digital Post Production ,   Presentation Master ,   Oceania ,   MacDesignPro ,   CEN - iPod ,   BN - Webcast ,   BN - Software
Related Newsletter: DMN Newsletter ,   Waveform Newsletter ,   Mac Alert Newsletter ,   Streamline Newsletter ,   KNews Newsletter ,   Digital Media Net ,   DMNForums ,   Tutorial Finder

---