Ping Podcast for Update

Question

Can someone see if I have done something wrong with my XML. The first podcast is showing, but I have 3 others that are not.
The itunes link is : http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=258039244&s=143 441
The xml is here:
http://www.htccv.org/sermons_files/podcast.xml
I tried to ping is using this:
https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/pingPodcast?id=258039244&s= 143441
and it worked, but this way didn't:
https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/pingPodcast?feedURL=http://www.htccv.org/sermons_files/podcast.xml
It says no Podcast found.
Thanks for any help!!!

Answer 1

I wouldn't depend on pinging using the Feed URL method...it's not very reliable...usually resulting in exactly what you have found "no podcast found". Pinging by FEEDID is more dependable.
There really isn't any difference in what it ultimately does.
This is the proper ping for your feed:
https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/pingPodcast?id=258039244
If you look at your podcast in the podcast directory, and right-click (or ctrl-click on the mac) the podcast artwork you are given an option to copy the iTunes store URL.
So your iTunes store URL is the following:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=258039244
The number after the "=" is your FEEDID....in your case it is 258039244
So you add this to the podcast ping URL:
https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/pingPodcast?id=
that can be found in the iTunes podcast tech spec:
http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/podcaststechspecs.html
Add everything together to get your own podcast ping url:
https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/pingPodcast?id=258039244
You can bookmark the ping page...every time you add new episode or make changes to your feed, you can go to the bookmarked page to ping your podcast.
Each of your podcasts will have a different FEEDID (think of it like a social security number...it's unique for everyone)
So if you have three different podcast feeds, you'll have three different FEEDID's.
Remember that it is good practice to check your feed with feedvalidator.org after every time you modify your feed. It can really help to catch typos and other little mistakes than can make your feed unreadable to iTunes. In your case your feed validates...this is a start.
However, looking at your feed there may be some potential for problems:
Each of your <item> tags (with the exception of the first one) has a <itunes:summary> tag is that is not closed properly and doesn't contain anything:
Currently it says: <itunes:summary />
This should either be removed or closed properly..this is a good opportunity to give more detail about your episode, it has a limit of 4000 characters, so you can put a lot in there:
<itunes:summary>Song of Courtship #3. Pastor Kim Buckman continues his Song of Courtship Series with episode #3. etc...etc...etc...</itunes:summary>
The <itunes:summary> is what pops up when you hit the "i" at the end of each listing in your feed. The <itunes:subtitle> is that one line description for each feed.
Anyway, correct the <itunes:summary> tags and all your episodes should be visible.
However, that is only the tip of the iceberg.
Check the URL's to your mp3 files contained in the enclosures...the link to your latest episode results in an "401 authorization" error "PAGE NOT FOUND We cannot locate the page you're looking for. Please check the address and make sure all letters are lowercased with no spaces. You may also move to a different page by using the links in the menu bar above."
So this tells me that either the folder and/or file doesn't exist or there are permissions that are set that prevent any anonymous access. If iTunes can't get to it...it can't download it.
Oh...also, if you notice that the filenames for your episodes have %20 in them...these are spaces (You may see other % numbers for other special characters that are not valid in URLs). Spaces in filenames are certainly valid filenames in Win XP and Mac OS but often time the internet doesn't understand them and replaces them with %20 which represents a space. Try to avoid using spaces in filenames...the usual convention is either to run the words together using initial caps:
03SongOfCourtship4.mp3
or using underscores:
03Song_of_Courtship4.mp3
This will make them more readable to us humans and prevent potential problems with iTunes reading your feed. You'll of course need to change the filenames in the feed to match the filenames on the server.
Erik