Author Topic: RSS problem  (Read 2400 times)

acummings

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RSS problem
« on: December 23, 2011, 09:49:31 am »
Hi,

I can't figure out what I am doing wrong here. Have been reading and researching, but am clearing missing something.  :-\ ...

Can't get my 2 podcast episodes to show in my feed.

The  supplied podcast only link never validated for me: http://www.alisoncummings.com/feed/podcast/

So I set up a category feed "podcast," with:

Podcast Permalink option set to option "Match feed page to page category": When configured, http://www.alisoncummings.com/podcast/ is matched to page/category named 'podcast'.
Landing page specified as: http://www.alisoncummings.com/category/podcast/

My feed is set up at Feedburner as:
Original feed: http://www.alisoncummings.com/category/podcast/feed
Feed address: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SMIpodcasts

From what I have been reading, I "believe" I cannot use a page for podcast recognition in feeds, but have this page as my site landing page:
http://www.alisoncummings.com/podcasts/


Thanks.
Alison

Todd

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Re: RSS problem
« Reply #1 on: December 27, 2011, 04:06:15 pm »
Looking at your feed you caching software or caching plugin you may be using may be causing issues with your  feed.  As your RSS feed is truncated. Turn off your caching software and see if that clears the feed up.  You should not need a category feed. But it appears W3 total cache is causing the problem.  When you turn it off please reply here so I can have a look at it...

Todd..

acummings

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Re: RSS problem
« Reply #2 on: January 04, 2012, 03:41:05 pm »
Hi Todd,

Sorry - just noticed your reply.  I have deactivated W3 plugin.

Yes, if I do not need a category - great as I would prefer to use the recommended url http://www.alisoncummings.com/feed/podcast/.

Alison

angelo

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Re: RSS problem
« Reply #3 on: January 04, 2012, 05:09:38 pm »
I am looking at your regular feed, it does not have media linked to it. I suspect you are not inserting a URL to a media file in the Podcast Episode Entry box's "Media URL" field for the posts in question. You need to link media to a blog post for that blog post to appear it the podcast feed.

To explain, the feed will be reported as 404 (not found) by WordPress until it has posts in it. The podcast feed will not have posts in it until you create an episode by specifying the episodes Media URL.

I looked around your site and only found 2 pages (not posts) with media associated to them. I think you are referring to these pages as your podcast episodes. Keep in mind that a "page" is not tied to your blog's feeds, therefore not in your main or podcast feed.

So making a logical guess to your problem, try creating a "post" and linking the media URL to that post, and then see if your podcast feed has the episode in it.

acummings

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Re: RSS problem
« Reply #4 on: January 04, 2012, 07:55:34 pm »
Hi Angelo,

Did what you advised, and it worked!

But I had done same with these 2 posts, but they did not show in feed. But then the W3 cache was not deactivated.

The media is indeed listed and validated in the PowerPress area of WordPress post interface:
http://www.alisoncummings.com/remarkablogger-michael-martine-bitchin-branding-inspiration/
http://www.alisoncummings.com/entrepreneurs-kick-fears-ass-chris-garrett-style/

How can I retro get them to show? Do I have to recreate and delete the above?

Also, is it an issue that I could not get the supplied URL to validate: http://www.alisoncummings.com/feed/podcast/

That's why I tried categories ...

As asides:

This page is for listing them in one place, but not for any feed validation (as pages do not work for this):
http://www.alisoncummings.com/podcasts/

My other "regular" feed is not supposed to include the podcast posts ... But it doesn't seem to be updating since July (pinged, etc., maybe also a cache/plugin issue for me to solve):
http://feeds.feedburner.com/alisoncummings

I really appreciate your help sorting this out!

Thanks,
Alison
« Last Edit: January 04, 2012, 08:11:12 pm by acummings »

angelo

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Re: RSS problem
« Reply #5 on: January 05, 2012, 08:45:33 am »
First, I would not use a WP caching plugin until you get the problem solved. Sometimes the WP caching plugins are the problem, other times they cache the last feed, so even if you did fix the problem you wouldn't hav eknown cause it's still feeding the broken feed.

By WordPress default (not PowerPress), your podcast episodes are placed in your main feed ,PowerPress just adds a podcast only feed which is ideal for submitting to iTunes, since iTunes does not display the blog posts that are in the feed, only the podcast episodes.

So if you want a feed that has media, and you want the main feed, category and tag feeds as well not to have the podcasts, then the feature you want to setup in PowerPress is called "Podcast Channels". you can create a podcast channel in PowerPress for this purpose. It's original purpose though is to allow you to tie multiple media formats to one blog post. It will work for your application as well. You would then use the new Podcast Episode Entry box for that channel, rather than the default podcast entry box.

acummings

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Re: RSS problem
« Reply #6 on: January 05, 2012, 09:47:04 am »
Angelo,

I have reverted to the channel set up and the PowerPress supplied default link is now valid: http://www.alisoncummings.com/feed/podcast/

"Old" one used to post "Test" is no longer valid.

And I do see there is a new Podcast Episode Entry box for my SMI podcast channel in new posts *and* in the 2 prior posts.

I used this channel to add the links via this new entry box, but they are not showing in my RSS feed.

So is next step to notify subscribers and update the original feed address on Feedburner to http://www.alisoncummings.com/feed/podcast/ ?

Thanks.
« Last Edit: January 05, 2012, 10:06:13 am by acummings »

angelo

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Re: RSS problem
« Reply #7 on: January 05, 2012, 02:03:28 pm »
The new channel has it's own feed. it's based on the slug name you specified when you created it. If you used SMI for your slug, then your feed would be http://www.alisoncummings.com/feed/smi/ hope this makes sense.

acummings

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Re: RSS problem
« Reply #8 on: January 07, 2012, 04:54:50 pm »
You know, I started completely over because I did the above and still feed was not working.

So I began by using the default URL recommended by Blubrry and it validated based on two existing posts with media files inserted in default box: http://www.alisoncummings.com/feed/podcast/

Name   Podcast (default channel)    Episodes   2   URL alisoncummings.com/feed/podcast/

I then created a new Feedburner RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SMIpodcastseries

My Chris Garrett post showed in my Feedburner RSS feed and also also show in my Google subscription.

Then my second, later Michael Martine post overwrote first one in the Feed even though I had 5 as default number of posts to show in feed vs. most recent...

In the process of deleting and reposting the Michael Martine post, the Blubrry site  feed http://www.alisoncummings.com/feed/podcast/ went from valid to invalid.

All plugins but PowerPress were deactivated during this process.

Now I am not sure what to do, as I also created another channel, went through same steps and while 2 posts showed, the feed never validated.

At least I did get a feed working one step further than before ...

So, I will try again from the beginning, deleting my posts and *everything*  related if I can just get the foolproof steps ... Ack!  Maybe I am still missing something in the settings?

For example, in Podcast Channel settings, is this field supposed to remain blank?
FeedBurner Feed URL    (leave blank to use current feed)
Use this option to redirect this feed to a hosted feed service such as FeedBurner.

Bypass Redirect URL: http://www.alisoncummings.com/feed/podcast/?redirect=no

This is my last shot ...

Thanks.
Alison


« Last Edit: January 07, 2012, 05:17:55 pm by acummings »

angelo

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Re: RSS problem
« Reply #9 on: January 09, 2012, 10:17:24 am »
When you say the feed never validated, what feed validation service are you using?

As I see the feed (and your web site for that matter) there are no podcast episodes posted. So you know an empty feed is reported by WordPress (not something PowerPress controls) as 404 (not found). WordPress default behavior for an empty feed is to report as 404. A 404 is invalid according to FeedValidator. An empty feed cannot be submitted to most podcast directories including iTunes either.

Have you watched a video how to use the plugin?  There are some good videos here: www.powerpresspodcast.com