Podcast Creation in SnapKast

Note: Podcast creation and publishing are advanced features of SnapKast. The assumption is that you have access to a web server to host the podcast content and that you know how to publish files from your PC to that web server.

Once you have formatted your recorded session(s) to audio and/or video media files, you can go to the next step of creating a podcast (aka RSS feed).

If you are new to podcasting, please review this tutorial. You need access to a web server in order to host the podcast.

Creating a podcast in SnapKast involves first choosing which formatted sessions to include and specifying the details for the resulting RSS file. On the Podcast tab, select the "Create RSS" tab to begin.

Figure 1: SnapKast Podcast Creation Tab

Choosing Which Sessions to Include

SnapKast provides three groupings of sessions to select for inclusion in the podcast. To choose a particular group click on the relevant radio button.

Figure 2: Included Podcast Sessions

1. All Sessions (A): choosing this option causes every formatted session in every album to be included in the podcast. Warning! Choose this option with care as the more sessions there are, the longer the process takes and the larger the podcast folder will become.
2. All in Album (A): all the sessions in the chosen album will be selected. To select the album, chose from the "SnapKast Album" pull-down list (B).
3. Single Session (A): the currently selected session will be chosen. To choose a different session first select the appropriate album from the "SnapKast Album" pull-down list (B) and then select the specific session you desire from the "Formatted Sessions" pull-down list (C). You can view the properties for the chosen session by clicking on the View Properties button.

RSS File Specifications

The final step required to create the podcast involves populating the fields in the "Podcast Details" section. Fields in red are required. The values you provide are used in the RSS files to fully describe the podcast cargo you are making available to others. Let's review the meaning of the various podcast fields you will enter below:

Figure 3: Podcast Details

Title (A) (required)

Specify the title for your podcast. This defaults to the title of the currently selected formatted session. If you selected multiple sessions to be included in the podcast (e.g. with "All in Album" or "All Sessions"), then you may wish to enter a more appropriate title that better represents the group of sessions you are including. Try to keep the name as simple as possible (the title is used in the URL for the podcast) The title must start with a letter or number and may contain only letters, numbers, dashes, spaces, and/or underscores.

You may select an already existing title from the pull-down list if you wish to recreate an exiting podcast. You would typically recreate a podcast when you have added more formats to an existing session (more details available here). When you select an existing podcast your original podcast settings will be loaded in the Podcast Details section. You can leave them as is or make any changes your require.

Examples:

• If the "All in Album" group was chosen, and the selected album was "Guitar Lessons", then a good candidate for the title could be "Guitar Lessons by Martin" (add your own name ;-) or just "Guitar Lessons".
• If "All Sessions" was chosen, then name the podcast "All My SnapKast Sessions".
• If "Single Session" was chosen, the field is automatically filled with the session title, so no changes are required (unless you prefer another name).

Publish URL (F) (required)

Enter the full URL of the location that this podcast will be hosted on you web server. SnapKast organizes all the relevant podcast files on the basis of this URL. All URLs are made up of four main parts:

        ----1---   -----2-----  -3-  -4-
   PROTOCOL://SERVER_NAME:PORT/PATH
     
   For example in the URL, http://www.snapkast.com:80/install
     1. PROTOCOL = http
     2. SERVER_NAME = www.snapkast.com
     3. PORT = 80 (80 is the default http port for http; omitted in most cases)
     4. PATH = install
        

So if the podcast is to be hosted on myserver.com in the podcasts folder, then the URL would be http://myserver.com/podcasts. Note that this folder must exist on the server before publishing the podcast.

Media Formats (E) (required)

Choose the formats to include: check "Video and Audio (mp4)" and/or "Audio Only (mp3)". For single sessions, SnapKast detects the available formats and checks the appropriate boxes for you. If a format is unavailable, then that checkbox is disabled. For multiple sessions, the boxes are automatically checked according to the availability of the formats for the selected sessions.

Description (B) (required)

Enter a brief description of the podcast.

Author Email (C) (required)

Enter the email of the author who is creating this podcast. This is filled in automatically with the email address associated with the selected formatted session.

Copyright Owner (D) (optional)

If you wish to include any copyright information with your podcast, enter that here. This defaults to the author email.

Podcast Generation

Click the Create button to start the process. The progress bar indicates how far along the creation step is toward completion. When the RSS has been created, SnapKast performs the following steps. These details are provided in case you wish to access the podcast files outside of the SnapKast Media Center. The good news is that for most uses the SnapKast Media Center is all you need to access the created podcast folder to get it published to a web server.

1. Creates a folder based on the title of the podcast. All spaces in the title are converted to underscores for the folder naming. This folder is stored in the SnapKast outbox. This folder is referred to as the podcast folder.
2. Stores copies of all media files in the podcast folder while creating the podcast xml file.
3. Creates an index.html file with links to video and/or audio-only podcasts. This is stored in the podcast folder.

When RSS creation process is complete, you are taken to the Publish tab, where the newly created podcast folder is displayed.