Re: PHP, MySQL and XML for IPodCasting

On Dec 9, 2005, at 3:45 AM, Danny wrote:

How to proceed....

I recently set-up my first Podcast... Every week I have a script that grabs three MP3 files from a remote server and puts them on my own server... Then I have another script that generates the Podcast XML. I am using CRON jobs to do all the work for me... all I have to do is open iTunes and everything starts downloading automatically.... is nice. The way I generate my XML is via output buffering and a simple text-file template. Here is my template (template.txt): <?xml version="1.0"?> <rss version="2.0"> <channel> <title>Put your title here [{_dateCheck_}]</title> <link>Link to your site/the page that explains what this podcast is all about.</link> <description>This is the description... it will show-up in iTunes... yadda yadda...</description> <language>en-us</language> <copyright>Copyright Info</copyright> <lastBuildDate>{_dateLong_}</lastBuildDate> <webMaster>Your name here</webMaster> <ttl>1</ttl> <item> <title>Name of MP3 podcast - Hour 01, {_dateCheck_}, {_dateSlashes_}</title> <description>Hour 01 ({_dateSlashes_}) of this particular podcast.</description> <pubDate>{_dateLong_}</pubDate> <enclosure url="http://www.yoursite.com/location_of_podcast_mp3/mp3_name-{_dateShort_}.mp3" length="10800040" type="audio/mpeg"/> <guid isPermaLink="false">{_randNumOne_}</guid> </item> <item> <title>Name of MP3 podcast - Hour 02, {_dateCheck_}, {_dateSlashes_}</title> <description>Hour 02 ({_dateSlashes_}) of this particular podcast.</description> <pubDate>{_dateLong_}</pubDate> <enclosure url="http://www.yoursite.com/location_of_podcast_mp3/mp3_name-{_dateShort_}.mp3" length="10800040" type="audio/mpeg"/> <guid isPermaLink="false">{_randNumTwo_}</guid> </item> <item> <title>Name of MP3 podcast - Hour 03, {_dateCheck_}, {_dateSlashes_}</title> <description>Hour 03 ({_dateSlashes_}) of this particular podcast.</description> <pubDate>{_dateLong_}</pubDate> <enclosure url="http://www.yoursite.com/location_of_podcast_mp3/mp3_name-{_dateShort_}.mp3" length="10800040" type="audio/mpeg"/> <guid isPermaLink="false">{_randNumThree_}</guid> </item> </channel> </rss> Here is my PHP (pod.php): <?php # Error checking: if((isset($_REQUEST['pass'])) && ($_REQUEST['pass'] === 'let_me_in') && (!empty($_REQUEST['pass']))) { # Begin date: $date_long = date('r'); // Example output: Mon, 21 Nov 2005 05:20:18 -0500 $date_short = date('mdy'); // Example output: 051121 $date_slashes = date('m/d/y'); // Example output: 11/21/05 $date_check = date('l'); #End date. function randNumb() { # Begin random # generation: srand ((double) microtime( )*1000000); $random_number = rand( ); return $random_number; # End random # generation. } $rand_num_one = randNumb(); $rand_num_two = randNumb(); $rand_num_three = randNumb(); // HTML to be written: ob_start(); readfile($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'/template.txt'); $contents = ob_get_clean(); @ob_end_clean(); $contents = str_replace('{_dateLong_}',$date_long, $contents); $contents = str_replace('{_dateSlashes_}',$date_slashes, $contents); $contents = str_replace('{_dateShort_}',$date_short, $contents); $contents = str_replace('{_randNumOne_}',$rand_num_one, $contents); $contents = str_replace('{_randNumTwo_}',$rand_num_two, $contents); $contents = str_replace('{_randNumThree_}',$rand_num_three, $contents); $contents = str_replace('{_dateCheck_}',$date_check, $contents); # Now open the file and write contents of template: $fp = fopen($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'/path_to_place_where_you_store_the_xml_file/xml_file_name'.$date_check.'.xml','wb'); // Open for writing only; If the file does not exist, attempt to create it. fwrite($fp, $contents); fclose($fp); } else { echo "<h1>Please Leave Now!</h1>"; } ?> I then use a cron to run the above script every week, like so: GET http://www.your_site.com/pod.php?pass=let_me_in > /dev/null Or, instead of using the CRON, you can just got to the script via your browser like so: http://www.your_site.com/pod.php?pass=let_me_in And the XML file will generate itself. Please keep in mind, I quickly slapped this script together... It gets the job done for me... I am sure there are way better ways to do what I am doing... also, the XML template could be more robust (more meta-tags maybe?)... the PHP script could probably use something other than output buffering... If anyone has ideas/thoughts/suggestions for improvements please let me know. HTH, Cheers, Micky -- BCC for Privacy: http://www.cs.rutgers.edu/~watrous/bcc-for-privacy.html My del.icio.us: http://del.icio.us/mhulse