Hamo
Level 1 (4 points)
Mac OS X

Q: Failure to Read

I have been able to validate my XML file at http://www.nudge.online/Protest/Podcasts/hungerstriker.xml, but am able to process it for several reasons:

 

Can’t download episodes from your feed.

Can’t submit your feed. There is no category tag in your feed, or the category tag is empty.

Can’t submit your feed. There is no explicit tag in your feed, or the explicit tag is empty.

 

Although I am probably able to fix problems two and three, I do not understand the failure of problem one.

 

A little search brought to the following website: https://blog.idrsolutions.com/2014/08/create-rss-feed So, I created a new XML file, gave it a different name and followed the instructions precisely.

http://www.nudge.online/Protest/Podcasts/hungerstriker_itunes.xml. 

Unfortunately, this latter fails to read at all.

 

Any ideas?

Time Capsule

Posted on Aug 27, 2016 1:10 AM

by Roger Wilmut1,Solvedanswer
Roger Wilmut1 Roger Wilmut1
Level 9 (77,712 points)
iTunes
A:

The information you have been given about categories is incorrect. Firstly you must choose your category and sub-category from Apple's list:

 

https://help.apple.com/itc/podcasts_connect/#/itc9267a2f12

 

Education is one of the categories but you must choose one of the sub-categories in the list. There is no Politics, only News and Politics which has no sub-category. There is no category or sub-category Charity. You can have more than one category with its sub-category, but only the first one will show in the Store so there is little point in having any more (searching on categories does not work usefully).

 

Apple's Help page on tags explains how Category tags must be structured - go to this address and scroll down the list until you get to <itunes:category>:

 

https://help.apple.com/itc/podcasts_connect/#/itcb54353390

 

Your tag might read:

 

<itunes:category text="Education">

<itunes:category text="Training" />

</itunes:category>

 

Or whichever sub-category you prefer. Note that if a category has sub-categories you must choose one or the Store will show the first in the list by default.

Posted on Aug 27, 2016 11:13 AM

Close
Hamo

Q: Failure to Read

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by Roger Wilmut1,

    Roger Wilmut1 Roger Wilmut1 Aug 27, 2016 2:12 AM in response to Hamo
    Level 9 (77,712 points)
    iTunes
    Aug 27, 2016 2:12 AM in response to Hamo

    Failed at the first hurdle:

     

    'The requested URL /Protest/Podcasts/hungerstriker_.xml was not found on this server.'

     

    'The requested URL /Protest/Podcasts/hungerstriker_itunes.xml was not found on this server.'

     

    I can't help you on this; your website offers no obvious clues. Evidently you've either failed to create the feed at either URL or you've got the URLs wrong. If you can sort this out and get a feed up online please post back and I'll be happy to check it.

  • by Roger Wilmut1,

    Roger Wilmut1 Roger Wilmut1 Aug 27, 2016 2:25 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1
    Level 9 (77,712 points)
    iTunes
    Aug 27, 2016 2:25 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1

    Now: further detective work shows that the first URL you gave has an underscore in the URL in the link though not in the text. By entering the text we get an existing feed:

     

    http://www.nudge.online/Protest/Podcasts/hungerstriker.xml

     

    The URL in your top episode's 'enclosure' tag is

     

    http://www.nudge.online/Protest/Podcasts/militiaman.png

     

    This is not playable media, and so iTunes does not recognize the episode. Your media file must be .mp3, .m4a, .m4v, .mov or .mp4. You have two m4a files in the same directory as the feed and it is these you should evidently be referencing. You have in fact put these files' URLs in the 'guid' tags (which iTunes uses to check whether there is a new episode since the last update but does not display).

     

    There is no file at the second URL.

  • by Hamo,

    Hamo Hamo Aug 27, 2016 8:50 AM in response to Hamo
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 27, 2016 8:50 AM in response to Hamo

    OK.  My error.  For some reason I forgot to upload the file.
    Please look at this now.  According to Podcasts Connect, Apple is unable to parse the file.http://www.nudge.online/Protest/Podcasts/hungerstriker_itunes.xml

     

    Making changes to the other file http://www.nudge.online/Protest/Podcasts/hungerstriker_.xml

    has caused me to lose my images in my widget display, and I cannot get them back.  Woe is me.

  • by Roger Wilmut1,

    Roger Wilmut1 Roger Wilmut1 Aug 27, 2016 8:59 AM in response to Hamo
    Level 9 (77,712 points)
    iTunes
    Aug 27, 2016 8:59 AM in response to Hamo

    Your second line reads

    <rss xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd"version="2.0"xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">


    You've left two spaces out, it should read


    <rss xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd" version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">


    This error renders the feed unreadable.

  • by Hamo,

    Hamo Hamo Aug 27, 2016 9:51 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 27, 2016 9:51 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1

    I am new to XML and am still getting use to the language.  The file is now readable, but Podcasts Connect insists that the file cannot be properly parsed.  Any other ideas?  Once again, thank you for your patience and effort.

  • by Roger Wilmut1,

    Roger Wilmut1 Roger Wilmut1 Aug 27, 2016 9:52 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1
    Level 9 (77,712 points)
    iTunes
    Aug 27, 2016 9:52 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1

    I see you've corrected that. Now there's something else: line 9 - <atom:linkhref... should read <atom:link href... (or you can delete the entire line, there's little point in having it as it's not relevant to iTunes).

     

    Your two 'enclosure' tags are missing a space before 'length'.

     

    Your are missing a space in all three instances of 'itunes:image href' (you have 'itunes:imagehref').

  • by Hamo,

    Hamo Hamo Aug 27, 2016 10:30 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 27, 2016 10:30 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1

    OK.  I am getting the hang of it.  There appears to be only one remaining problem.  One that has appeared ever since the beginning in both my hungerstriker.xml and hunger striker_itunes.xml files:  the <category> tag.

     

    According to the Harvard file that Podcasts Connect recommends, a proper looking category tag should read as follows:  <category>education/politics/charity</category>.

     

    According to the advisory that I obtained somewhat arbitrarily on the internet and is currently in place in my file the category tag should appear as <category text="education/politics/charity"></category>

     

    Podcasts Connect appears to reject both.  It claims "Can’t submit your feed. There is no category tag in your feed, or the category tag is empty."

     

    What's up?

  • by Roger Wilmut1,Solvedanswer

    Roger Wilmut1 Roger Wilmut1 Aug 27, 2016 11:13 AM in response to Hamo
    Level 9 (77,712 points)
    iTunes
    Aug 27, 2016 11:13 AM in response to Hamo

    The information you have been given about categories is incorrect. Firstly you must choose your category and sub-category from Apple's list:

     

    https://help.apple.com/itc/podcasts_connect/#/itc9267a2f12

     

    Education is one of the categories but you must choose one of the sub-categories in the list. There is no Politics, only News and Politics which has no sub-category. There is no category or sub-category Charity. You can have more than one category with its sub-category, but only the first one will show in the Store so there is little point in having any more (searching on categories does not work usefully).

     

    Apple's Help page on tags explains how Category tags must be structured - go to this address and scroll down the list until you get to <itunes:category>:

     

    https://help.apple.com/itc/podcasts_connect/#/itcb54353390

     

    Your tag might read:

     

    <itunes:category text="Education">

    <itunes:category text="Training" />

    </itunes:category>

     

    Or whichever sub-category you prefer. Note that if a category has sub-categories you must choose one or the Store will show the first in the list by default.

  • by Hamo,

    Hamo Hamo Aug 27, 2016 11:54 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 27, 2016 11:54 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1

    Both of the recommended pages and your comments were extremely helpful.  I have been able to submit my RSS feed for review.  Now, I am trying to figure out why Apple does not provide those links in its entry guide to creating a proper RSS feed.

     

    Thank you very much!

     

    The Hunger Striker
    Roddy A. Stegemann