Earlier this week WordPress 2.3 was released. While the majority of my plugins were updated for 2.3 compatibility before the release, I’ve remained silent on this matter thanks to Halo 3. Now after spending the entire week killing anything that moves, I’m ready to inform you on my plugin’s 2.3 compatibility.
Currently every WordPress project I manage has been updated for WordPress 2.3 with a couple of exceptions. Clean and Mean will be updated this weekend if all goes to plan, and I’m discontinuing support for WebSTAT Tracker. Very few people use WebSTAT Tracker and I personally feel it’s a waste of time updating it.
In addition to updates, my Summer of Code project, Podcasting, saw a release this week. After some discussion on WordPress Trac, the general consensus was for me to release it as a standalone plugin, improve it, and reconsider core support in WordPress 2.4. So, you can now download Podcasting on WordPress.org. If you run into any problems, let me know, but I feel confident with the release.
Finally, I updated cavemonkey50.com to WordPress 2.3 tonight. The whole update process went smoothly. I only needed to update a few plugins before everything was back to normal. With the update, I plan to take advantage of my Podcasting work and start a podcast. I currently have no idea when that will occur, but keep an eye out.
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Oh, I’m so waiting forward to you upgrading Clean and Mean – I want to make it into double-sidebar theme.
I’m trying to activate Podcasting 1.01 on my self-hosted Wordpress blog, and it keeps telling me:
Plugin could not be activated because it triggered a fatal error.
This is the first time a plugin hasn’t worked for me, any ideas?
Thanks!
-bret
Nevermind, I just realized I’m not running WordPress 2.3. Duh.
Hi. Ive got a problem with the Podcasting plugin. Wonder if you could help, pls?
I’m running WP 2.3.2.
I’ve managed to add a Podcast tag to my current (unpiblished) WordPress post by:
1. Entering the URL of the MP3 file in the “File URL” box (found in the Podcasting section, at the bottom of the page where you edit your post) and clicking on the “Add” button
2. Clicking on the “Send to editor” button that appeared next to the file
BUT, although this basically added code to my post that ends up looking like an MP3 player ready to go, I cannot trigger the Podcast to run (although a Flash object was added to the HTML code of the page). I cannot tell why the MP3 file won’t play. Any ideas/suggestions, pls?
How are you encoding the MP3 file? I know some MP3 files tend to be more tricky to play through Flash. If you try another MP3 file that has been encoded differently does it work?
Thanks for your super-prompt response, Ronald - appreciated.
In the meantime, my host (ICDSoft) Support has identified and corrected the problem. The plugin files included a directory called “player”, with two files inside - player.swf and player.js. In my account, however, these files were residing with all the other plugin files, directly in the “plugins/podcasting” folder. They have now been moved to plugins/podcasting/player (a new directory that Support created).
Now the Flash player is correctly displayed upon previewing the draft post. So, the problem had nothing to do with the name of the MP3 file - it was related to an improperly installed plugin.
And the final bit of good news - I have just posted the podcast to the web and it works fine! So, my fault! Thanks again.
Ronald, there’s just one more query I have. I’m a bit of a tech dummy, especially with podcasting (this is my first one).
I’m not sure if I’ve set up the Podcasting Options properly. My assumption was that every time I post a new podcast, I need to fill the Options info out again with information specific to that particular podcast. Is this correct, pls?
Or does the Options info relate to one’s podcasts generally? (If so, since I intend to post only intermittent podcasts on a variety of themes in amongst my text-based posts, what sort of info should I put in the Options? Is it necessary to have anything in there at all?)
Hello Rolan, Glad to hear your issue has been solved.
Regarding filling out podcast information, the main information found under WordPress’ options page is mostly optional. Filling out information there will of course help better identify your podcast in podcast aggregators and in iTunes. It can’t hurt filling out as much information as possible. Then again, it doesn’t hurt to fill out nothing at all.
Regarding the options for the individual updates, if you have more than one podcast format, you’ll want to fill out the format section each time, but if you’re just using the default, you can leave that alone. Other than that, I would recommend filling out the length for each episode so listeners know how long you’ll be. The other values inherit the setting in the main WordPress’ options page, and only need to be changed if the overall option does not apply to that episode.
Hope my explanation makes some sense. If not, feel free to ask more questions.
Thanks for your effort in explaining the above to me, Ronald. I can’t say I understand much, but that’s nothing to do with your explanation and everything to do with my lack of knowledge of matters technical and associated terminology.
From my sole experience with podcasting using your plug-in, it seems excellent. Great effort there.
Cheers
PS: Good to know you’re receptive to further questions if need be. I’ll try to work my way through the info you’ve supplied to date and will bother you again only if really necessary. (Having the duration of a podcast displayed is something would be handy …will certainly investigate that).
I love this plugin. It’s really cool. I installed wordpress with my phpbb 3.
Is it possible to make this plugin available for admins only? So that only the admin is able to podcast and no other user?
I am not able to do this on my own. A hint would be great.
Are you running into issues where users are adding podcast episodes when they shouldn’t be? The Podcasting interface should go hand and hand with how you allow users to write. If you allow them to publish right away, so will Podcasting. If you need to approve a draft, the draft will contain the episode.
This is really the only way to do this, because WordPress will handle podcasts regardless. Even if I hide the interface, if a user links to an MP3, WordPress will automatically enclose that MP3. If you’re running into issues, you should handle it at the post level; approving posts if you have to.
Ok, thanks for your answer.
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