Editing XML / Tags

Question

I have read many posts, and read the Tech Specs about iTunes several times. Yes, it is a great resource as far as giving you combinations of tags and code to fix problems.
My question remains. Specifically, how do I edit tags or XML to make changes and implement those fixes to my podcast? I understand that I can use the text editor, but then what do I do with that file? Where do I put it? Upload it?
I guess another way to put it is by saying I am grasping the idea of how to fix the engine, so how do I pop the hood? Where are the tools?
I have my video(s) posted on Blip.tv and have used Feed Burner to create the feed. I have gotten far enough to actually post something on iTunes, but changes need to be made.
Thanks so much for your help!!

Answer 1

Is there anyway to know that what I changed is correct quicker than waiting for iTunes?
You can see changes immediately by putting the URL of your feed into a browser like Safari or Firefox (2.0 or up) - they will display the newest info they are getting from your feed. iTunes works, too, though, it just takes longer.
Is this where Feed Validater comes into play?
Feed Validator is used to see whether your feed is readable by aggregators (e.g. iTunes, Juice, MyYahoo, etc.) or not (broken code that cannot be read). It will either show you where you need to fix your code, or give you a "Congrats!" message. If it displays your code, then you can see if your changes have made it online, but it also means that there is something wrong with your feed, so this is not the best method to check if you feed has been updated.
So to make sure I understand, I may want to copy my raw feed from feedburner into a text edit document and make the changes there. . . I looked all over the place and couldn't find where to upload or overwrite an existing feed.
No, not exactly. FeedBurner is a blog-to-feed generator and also a stats tool. FeedBurner is not "hosting" any files that you can edit. When you put your content through FB, you remember that URL they wanted, the one that got you started? That is what they are getting their info from, and that is the file that you have to edit. You can't edit your feed by copying FB's code, modifying it, and then uploading to FB. That is not the way it works; you can add some iTunes tags through their "SmartCast" feature, but that's about as far as you can edit your feed through them.
So, where is your "burned" URL? Is that through Blip.tv? Or are you posting the Blip.tv videos to a blog, and then you "burned" the blog? (Like I said, it would be really great if you could post all URLs related to your feed, so I can get an idea of how you are putting it together.)
Is there a better resource to use than Blip.tv or Feed Burner?
I don't know much about video hosts; I host my own files. But if Blip.tv is free, doesn't put ads in your videos, and claims minimal rights over your content, it's probably fine. There are others on this board that can probably make good recommendations - there are tons of hosts out there, with varying degrees of usability and freedom. For stats, I don't think you are going to get much better than FeedBurner, especially for a free service.
In the mean time, I picked up a copy of the "Podcaster's Bible". I'm a pretty technical guy (with aircraft at least) and I would really like to know this stuff inside and out.
I know there are a lot of sources out there, and I'm glad you have been reading them - that is how I learned. But obviously some of them are conflicting (especially online), and don't apply in all cases. I hope the "Bible" is a good resource; I've never looked at it.
Just to give you a real simple breakdown of how this stuff works, I'm going to give you a list of what I think you've done:
1. Generate media - through GarageBand, iMovie, etc. -> video, audio, whatever. Make sure it is properly formated, per the Podcast Tech Spec.
2. Upload the media to a server - in your case, Blip.tv
3. Generate or hand-code an RSS/XML feed - I'm not sure how you are doing that at this point, but there are many generators and methods, and this link tells you what the code all means. Or you could copy from an example feed and then hand-edit it. You also might have blog space that you are telling FB to generate a feed from - in that case ignore the next two steps.
4. Upload your XML file to a server - again, you will need somewhere to host the file.
5. Sign up for an account with FeedBurner, and "burn" the URL you got in the previous step.
6. Submit the new URL you get with FeedBurner to iTunes, and publicize the URL wherever you can.
If you have submitted a URL to iTunes that isn't your FB URL, don't resubmit the new one. That will cause you problems.
Here are some resources that I've found useful in the past: (some of them are real jargon-filled, so watch yourself)
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/
http://www.podcast411.com/page5.html
http://catalyst.washington.edu/help/web/podcasting/xml.html
http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/podcaststechspecs.html
http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/podcastsfaq.html
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rss/rss.html
Try to keep in mind that there are many ways to do this, so not all instructions will apply in all cases. You'll run into specific problems if you use a specific generator. If you read a tutorial talking about code, but you set up your feed without ever touching any code, it probably doesn't apply to you.
This got to be a really long post, and I apologize for that. If you post your links, I promise to reply with something shorter
Peach