Ipodcast module

Installation Instructions

1. Copy the ipodcast folder to your mod directory.
2. Copy the ipodcast.php from the moodle/mod/ipodcast/lang/en/ to your moodle/lang/en directory.
3. Copy the ipodcast folder from moodle/mod/ipodcast/lang/en/ to moodle/lang/en/help/
4. Backup your original moodle/lib/rsslib.php by renaming it to moodle/lib/rsslib-orig.php
5. Copy the new rsslib over from moodle/mod/ipodcast/lib/rsslib.php to moodle/lib/rsslib.php
6. Go to your administration and install module and make sure all succeeds

AllowOveride

Make sure to AllowOverride All(or enough to get "AddType" to function) on /mod/ipodcast folder.

Apache will need to have .htaccess override allowed for the ipodcast module directory. The module directory contains a premade .htaccess to allow scripts to run with media extensions ie. .mp3 , .mov, .mp4, .m4v . iTunes will only download files with these extensions. The folder contains a .htaccess file which allows files with media extentions to execute as php files. This fools iTunes into downloading the media file

To do this edit your httpd.conf file to include something like:

<Directory "/your_path_here/moodle/mod/ipodcast">
AllowOverride All
</Directory>

and then restart apache.

You should have a working setup here.

To this point has only been tested with Windows and mysql other OS's are untested. Also English is the only language file.

Using the Module

Setting up the Course Podcast

The next step is to hit the ipodcast module settings and make sure you want the iTunes tag support. By default the mysql.sql file enables these options. If you delete the module and try and reload it those two entries will cause a key duplicate error in v.18 the next rev fixes that issue. You will need to delete those records in the config table in order to install a second time.

Now go into a course you are a teacher or admin for and turn editing on.

Add an Activity and Podcast should now be in the list. When you select it you should get the message "iPodcast settings have not been set for this Course. Set here before continuing"

This is the first time per course setting for the podcast. It will load some default settings from the course.

Check over and hit "Save Course Settings" . The header should now read "Updating iPodcast settings for Course {coursename}" .

Select done to get back to the course outline.

Adding a Podcast

Now add a podcast activity again for whatever section you want.

Update the name summary and notes to your preference and hit the save button. You should see a tabbed window with a few options.

• View Podcast tab views it as a student would see the page.
• Comments tab views the student comments on the podcast
• Views tab shows who has viewed the media file and when.
• Edit Podcast tab edits the Name, Summary, and notes of the podcast
• iTunes Tags tab edits all the iTunes specific information
• Attachment tab loads and selects the media file.
• Visibility tab selects both the current or scheduled visibility for the podcast.

By default the iTunes tags are set from the Course settings for the podcast. No Attachment and visibility is set to hidden.

To select a media file hit the Attachment tag and select the Change... button then select Upload a file button.

You should get another window with a Browse... button select it and an open window should appear. Find the media file and select it. Remember only "mp3,mov,m4v, and mp4" files are supported. After selecting the file click Upload this file you should have a directory listing with that file listed.

Choose select from the action column and the line should go grey and the action will display "Currently Selected" .

Choose Close this window button to take you back to the Podcast.

The Attachment window will not update unless the browser is refreshed(on the list to fix).

Now change the current visibility to "Podcast visible to students" click save and the podcast entry is ready.

Subscribing

To subscribe to the podcast click on "Podcasts" under activities for the course. Its on the upper left side on my moodle. This should bring up a list of published podcasts, probably just one if you were following this from scratch. In the upper right corner should be a rss iPodcast button right click and copy shortcut or link. Now paste that shortcut into the iTunes subscribe to ipodcast window.

If all is well you should have the podcast.

The rss xml feed is built whn the link is called so you dont have to wait for cron after adding a podcast activity.

Release notes

v.22

02/05/06 Tom Dolsky - Fixed Edit button from course view causing error

v.21

Darren Smith's Database fix hopefully Blank upload popup fix delete podcast if its an external reference would fail - fixed now

v.20

uploadpopup now refreshes parent window fixed duration tag not being included in rss feed backuplib.php now backs up podcasts,podcast course settings, podcast views, and podcast comments deleting podcast deletes the media file The attachment edit box can have an external url typed in it. only links that start with "http://" or "https://" currently, and the length field will be empty

v.19

fixed the deleting and reinstalling module bug

To Do

rewrite mp3lib.php to support id3v2.x with pictures Add hours to calculate_length() in lib/mp3lib.php Write id3tag information into mp3 write mpeg4lib.php for video podcasting need to use ffmpeg for this need to have external url support - started needs a bunch of cleanup Finish help buttons and help text Backuplib.php is built but tested very little Restore is non-functional

Report a Bug

Please report any bugs or feature requests to tomtek@cytekmedia.com

The podcast module is Copyright, Thomas E. Dolsky Cytek Media Systems, Inc.