Most podcasters maintain blogs notifying their subscribers of new episodes. Unfortunately, WordPress only supports the basic enclosure. In the current state, podcasting has evolved beyond the enclosure, using proprietary feed information from iTunes. Many podcasters also maintain multiple formats of their podcast, each requiring their own feed.

My idea involves enhancing WordPress' support of podcasts. To best aid podcasters WordPress would need support for multiple formats and podcasts, support for custom podcast feeds, and inclusion of iTunes information. With the rise of video podcasts, WordPress should not forget them either. My idea would include adding support for video podcasts as well.

All of these inclusions would be managed easily and efficiently in the WordPress GUI. Podcasting should be as simple as blogging. Podcasters should not have to worry about the technical details of podcasting; they should be able to upload an episode and have WordPress handle the bulk of the work.

Milestones:

1: Examine existing enclosure support in WordPress. Find out exactly how podcasters are currently using WordPress for podcasting. Figuring out the best method of implementation. For example, does podcasting require a new tab in options? How will users manage their feeds and episodes?

-- May 28th: Coding Begins --

2: Provide support for separate podcasting feed. Allow users to configure options somewhere in the WordPress GUI.

3: Add support for iTunes options in separate feed. Allow image upload for podcast’s album artwork (Low priority).

4: Develop management method for adding episodes to the podcasting feed. Will be based on adding episodes to posts. Will include an upload tool for adding episodes directly in the WordPress GUI. (Not possible on a wide variety of WP installs due to php.ini upload limits)

-- Jul 9th: Mid-term Evaluation --

5: Provide configurable options for episodes such as iTunes custom fields and episode album artwork. (Episode album artwork can only be embedded in the file upon creation, and cannot be included in the feed.)

6: Add support for multiple podcasts and formats. Allow users to upload multiple formats to a post.

7: Allow podcast to be played in WordPress posts. For example, a flash audio player for audio podcasts; video player for video podcasts. Similar to adding images to posts.

-- Aug 20th: Conclusion of Coding --


Optional Milestones (as time allows):

1: Prevent listeners from downloading scheduled episodes before release. Most likely will involve uploading episodes to a temporary directly which listeners cannot access. Then, move the episode to public directory when scheduled time has passed. (Not possible due to the large variety of server configurations.)

2: Create an easy display method for seeing what posts are assigned podcast episodes.

3: Provide some method for importing existing non-WP podcasting data into WordPress.

4: Feed validation to prevent iTunes errors. (No validation necessary. All input is checked for validity by WordPress.)