Parse and generate podcast rss feed using Ruby

I am a podcaster, audio only. The first thing after I wake up every morning is to sync my iPod/iShuffle. Recently, I noticed one of my favorite channels failed in update. Later I figured out the reason is the podcast owner put too many items in their rss feed. Even it was only 66 items, but due to the source is from Singapore, the slow network also kill the podcast sync.

I need to find a way to re-generate their podcast rss feed then.

Start thinking of php, then python, finally I chose Ruby. A few more resources than the other two. The example to parse and generate the regular rss feed using ruby is not hard to find. But, there is only one demo of how to generate itunes feed, which is using a rss lib created by a Japanese guy, 須藤功平(Kouhei Sutou).

My re-generate code looks like this:

require ‘rss/itunes’
require ‘open-uri’

# url of original rss feed
source = “http://podcast.overseakids.com/moviecafe/index.xml”
content = “” # raw content of rss feed will be loaded here

# read rss feed
open(source) do |s| content = s.read end
rss = RSS::Parser.parse(content, false)

# start re-genereat the podcast rss feed
feed = RSS::Rss.new(“2.0″)

feed.channel = rss.channel

# only keep the top 5 items, slice the rest of them
feed.channel.items.slice!( 5 ,feed.channel.items.size – 1 )

puts feed.to_s

When I tried to run this code on my DH share host, it failed due to no rss lib installed. I don’t have root rights, then I found another way to install my own Ruby on DH.

One lesson I learn from last night is, after download lastest ruby bin package using wget and the following installation:

./configure prefix=[YOUR_OWN_RUBY_PREFIX]
make
make install

I moved the ruby folder into another place I think it’s more appropriate. That extra action almost drove me nuts, I got ‘Unable to find rbconfig.rb’ problem later when I tried to run any ’setup.rb’ code.

I looked into ruby/lib folder, there are some file with hard code path info in it. So I decided re-do my installation procedure. The problem went away.

To tell which ruby you are running, run: which ruby. What a natural command!

2 Comments

  1. I want to generate podcast from my DB.How can I generate that in my rails application.Can some body can help me?

  2. class AudioItem
   attr_accessor :page_url, :mp3_id, :mp3_url, :title,
   :description, :pub_date, :author, :mp3_file_size,
   :image_url
end

class Collection
  attr_accessor :title ,:link, :description, :author, :audio_items
end

class FeedMaster

   # Read the feed from the podcast this app created.
   # to do the comparision for checking new items from source.
   def self.read_podcast_feed(feed_content)
    require 'rss/itunes'
    require 'open-uri'

    #~ source = "http://podcast.overseakids.com/moviecafe/index.xml" # url or local file
    #source = "http://www.podcast.sg/rsi_chinese/Movie_Reviews/movie_feed.xml" # url or local file
    #~ content = "" # raw content of rss feed will be loaded here
    #~ open(feed_url) do |s| content = s.read end
    RSS::Parser.parse(feed_content, false)

  end

  # generate rss feed based on collection data
  # then merge / concat with the existing data in old_rss (hash)
  def self.generate_podcast_feed(collection, old_rss)
    require 'rss/2.0'
    require 'rss/itunes'

      feed = RSS::Rss.new("2.0")
      feed.encoding = 'utf-8'

      channel = RSS::Rss::Channel.new

      category = RSS::ITunesChannelModel::ITunesCategory.new("Arts")
      category.itunes_categories <<   \
                      RSS::ITunesChannelModel::ITunesCategory.new("Literature")
      channel.itunes_categories << category

      channel.title = collection.title
      channel.description = collection.description
      channel.link = collection.link #collection.link  # mandatory!!!!
      # channel.language = 'cn' #collection.language
      # channel.copyright = '2007' #collection.copyright
      # channel.lastBuildDate = Time.now
      # the above uses a method I built on the Audio model that finds
      # the last modified file and makes that the build date for the
      # whole podcast channel

      # below is your "album art"
      channel.image = RSS::Rss::Channel::Image.new
      channel.image.url = @channel_image_url #collection.image.url
      channel.image.title = 'image title' #collection.image.title
      channel.image.link =  channel.image.url #collection.image.link

      # channel.itunes_author = collection.author
      # channel.itunes_owner = RSS::ITunesChannelModel::ITunesOwner.new
      # channel.itunes_owner.itunes_name = collection.author
      # channel.itunes_owner.itunes_email= 'no@email.com' #collection.email

      # channel.itunes_keywords = %w(Common Misspellings of Key Words)

      # channel.itunes_subtitle = 'subtitle' #collection.itunes_subtitle
      # channel.itunes_summary = 'summary' #collection.itunes_summary

       # below is what iTunes uses for your "album art", different from RSS standard
       #~ channel.itunes_image = channel.image.url #collection.tunes_image
       #~ channel.itunes_explicit = 'Clean' #collection.itunes_explicit
      # above could also be "Yes" or "Clean"

    unless collection.audio_items.nil?
      collection.audio_items.each do |r|

        item = RSS::Rss::Channel::Item.new
        item.title = r.title
        item.link = r.mp3_url
        #~ item.link =  r.image_url
        # item.itunes_keywords = %w(Keywords For This Particular Audio Clip)
        item.guid = RSS::Rss::Channel::Item::Guid.new
        item.guid.content = r.image_url
        item.guid.isPermaLink = true
       item.pubDate = r.pub_date.strftime("%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S %z")
#        item.pubDate = r.pub_date.rfc822 

        item.description = r.description
#        item.itunes_summary = "<img src=\""+r.image_url+"\" />"
# I use guid to save image url instead.
#        item.itunes_summary = r.image_url
        # item.itunes_subtitle = "audio.nice_title"
        # item.itunes_explicit = '' #r.itunes_explicit
        #item.image = r.image_url
        item.itunes_author = r.author

        # TODO can add duration once we can compute that somehow

        item.enclosure = \
          RSS::Rss::Channel::Item::Enclosure.new(item.link, r.mp3_file_size, 'audio/mpeg')
        channel.items << item

       end
    end

    if old_rss.nil?
      puts 'old_rss is nil'
    else
      channel.items.concat( old_rss.items  ).uniq!

      # re-sort
      channel.items.sort!{|a,b|b.pubDate <=> a.pubDate}
    end 

    # feed.channel.items.slice!( 5 ,feed.channel.items.size - 1 )
    feed.channel = channel

    #~ puts feed

    feed

   end

end

Post a Comment

*
*