Administrator Manual > Implementing Website Features > Member Logins > Podcasts

  

 

 

Podcasts

 

An external page structure is necessary to allow web users to access your podcasts, and subscribe to them directly from your website. Below is an example of a basic podcasting setup. In this example, a "Podcasts" page is directly under the website homepage. Permissions allow all users to have access to the podcasts. Users can view the video podcasts on the external site. A page would have to be setup with the Feed/Item Viewer module (see Podcast Items page under External Pages setup).

Setting up these internal pages allow users to create podcast channels, add topics and actual audio/video files to host. This is sufficient setup to allow users with RSS feed catchers, such as iTunes©, to manually subscribe using the specific URL of the feed channel. This is covered in the "Creating Podcasts” section of this help file. A set of external pages must be setup to allow web users to automatically subscribe to the feeds from your website. A walk through of a basic sample website page setup is covered next.

Podcasts – This page displays available podcasts and requires the Feed/Channel View module with Image Size set to desired height and width size to display the image (default is 120), the Item View page set to Topic page and the Topic View Page set. The Flash Format setting of the module would need to be set to the feed format that carries the MIME type of the desired video file types.

Channel Details – This page displays details for the channel.

Item Details

Topic Page – This page requires the Feed/Topic View module, with Image Size set, height/width size of display image (default is 120), Item Detail page set to page that shows details of an item selected from current page (for this example, set to "Podcast Items" page). When a user selects an item, the podcast attempts to play on the next page if the file format matches the feed format selected in the module setting mentioned above.

Topic Item Detail – This page requires the Feed/Item Flash Viewer module, with Flash Format.

 

Viewing Podcasts: Directly on external website


Podcasts are viewed in two general ways, either on your church's website or through a third party pod catcher (such as iTunes, Zune, some web browsers, etc.). If an external website page structure is built to allow viewing of the items (see External Pages Setup in the Administrative Setup section), web users can either view your audio/video files on your website, or subscribe to an RSS feed directly from your site if they are using a browser that supports RSS feeds.

 

Opening Videos


Video podcasts can be viewed from the website directly when setup to do so. A page would have to be setup with the Feed/Item Viewer module (see Podcast Items page under External Pages setup). The Flash Format setting of the module would need to be set to the feed format that carries the MIME type of the desired video file types. Once this page is setup properly, the Podcast Channel page (see screenshot above) displays a link titled "Watch Online Now". Clicking this link takes the user to the Topic page (if following the structure illustrated in External Pages setup section). The topic page lists each Topic separately with all of its items displayed beneath it.

From Topic page (as setup in External Pages Setup area of Administrative Setup):

When an item is clicked, it attempts to play on the next page if the file format matches the feed format selected in the module settings.

When the web user clicks one of the Subscribe links (as seen in the screen shot above), Arena attempts to open the RSS feed (referenced by the full URL at the bottom left of the screenshot). If the browser they are using supports RSS feeds, it displays the available podcast items and allows the user to subscribe to your feed from that page.

 

Subscribing to Podcasts


Web users can subscribe to the RSS feeds by clicking one of the Subscribe links. The web user can subscribe using their preferred "pod catcher" software. If the web browser they are using is RSS enabled, it allows them to subscribe and download the items through its RSS interface.