Description showing code characters

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Description showing code characters

I've finally got my podcast working through the free wordpress.com blog, feedburner and archive.org, but when I do the itunes test, the description shows code characters and I can't seem to get rid of it no matter what I try. It looks like this...<img alt="" border="0" src="https://pixel.wp.com/b.gif?host=dnsshow.wordpress.com&blog=86051393&post=70&subd =dnsshow&ref=&feed=1.

I have combed the internet and feel like I've tried everything. From what I gather, it's a wordpress thing, but no one has an answer on how to get rid of it on the wordpress forums. Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I don't want to submit this to iTunes looking like it is. Thanks in advance!

Posted on Mar 3, 2015 8:42 AM

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Answer 1

Mar 3, 2015 9:11 AM in response to Katzsteel

The 'itunes:subtitle' and 'itunes:summary' tags contain the descriptions seen in iTunes, unless they are not present (quite likely with Wordpress which seems not to be able to produce a proper podcast feed) in which case iTunes reads the Description tag.

iTunes does not render HTML coding in displaying these tags; they must be plain text only and as you have seen any coding is displayed as such.

I can't comment further as you haven't posted the URL of your feed - you should always do this when you have a question.

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Answer 2

Katzsteel Author

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Mar 3, 2015 9:22 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1

Sorry, first time podcaster and it's been quite a learning experience just to get this far. Here's my feed for the wordpress (http://feeds.feedburner.com/DadAndSonShow). Let me know what you think. I also have created a secondary feed using blogspot (http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/UUgur) and that doesn't put the text in the description. I would much prefer using Wordpress if I can, but I need to get rid of the code showing up in the description as shown in the previous post. Thanks in advance for any help.

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Answer 3

Mar 3, 2015 10:14 AM in response to Katzsteel

I'm not familiar with Wordpress, but various previous complaints lead to the conclusion that it is not capable of creating a proper podcast feed, with the 'itunes:/

...' tags as I mentioned above. Your 'Description' tag, which will be what iTunes is reading, contains coding which iTunes will display, not render.

There are two things you can do. Blubrry PowerPress is a plugin for Wordpress designed to produce a podcast feed. Alternatively you can use Feedburner's 'Smartcast' facility to add the requisite tags. There are rumblings that Feedburner may be discontinued at some point in the future (though I've seen no hard evidence about this) so it would probably be better to use PowerPress and submit the feed it produces to iTunes, avoiding Feedburner altogether.

In the meantime you could look at wherever in Wordpress the text in the Description tag has been added and revise it to make it plain text without any coding, but you are still missing other itunes tags such as itunes:duration. In particular you have no 'itunes:image' tag containing a 1400 x 1400npx image which is JPG or PNG and less than 500kB - without which your feed will not be accepted.

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Answer 4

Katzsteel Author

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Mar 3, 2015 11:44 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1

First of all thanks for the quick answers! I have read some of your other posts and are very knowledgeable about iTunes podcasts.

In any case, I decided to just use blotspot and forget the Wordpress. It looks right now in the (http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/UUgur) when doing a test in iTunes. You're right that the image for the podcast is not showing up as it was on the archive.org server and now has disappeared which lead me to my question.

Do you suggest bringing the newly created mp3 file into iTunes and attaching art to the mp3 file or just using a link in feedburner for the podcast like I had done but archive.org apparently deleted my file? If I'm not making myself clear, what is the proper way to get art on one's podcast for iTunes? Again, thx for the help.

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Answer 5

Mar 3, 2015 12:29 PM in response to Katzsteel

The URL in your 'itunes:image' tag is

https://archive.org/download/DandSArt_201503/DandS%20Art.jpg

This brings up an error page saying 'The item is not available due to issues with the item's content.' You need to provide a direct URL to the image file and it shouldn't be https (encrypted connection).

As to the images you are confusing two separate issues. You must have a working 'itunes:image' tag in the top section of the feed; this is the image which appears in the iTunes Store page.

When you subscribe in iTunes this image appears only in the 'My Podcasts' view; you can embed an image in the MP3 files to appear when an episode is downloaded and played - see http://wilmut.uk/coverart

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