Include Summer of Code's Podcasting Support With WordPress

[cavemonkey50]

Based on the recommendation of few people, I am proposing my Summer of Code project be included with WordPress. For those of you unfamiliar with my project, I recently ​wrote a concluding write up on my site. The actual source code can be viewed at the ​Summer of Code repository.

I feel podcasting is an addition worth distributing with WordPress due to the sheer number of WordPress podcasters. From my research during the summer, WordPress appears to be second in podcast blogging software next to Drupal. Having only basic enclosure support and no iTunes support currently is a major downside to running a podcast with WordPress. If WordPress would have some enhanced support for podcasts, it could easily become the go to choice for podcasters.

If you looked over my work this summer, my number one goal with my project was to fit in with WordPress. My project takes advantage of WordPress 2.3's new taxonomy system, thus requiring no extra database overhead. In addition to that, I designed the interface to fit in with current UI and be as minimalist as possible. Therefore, I feel my project could easily be distributed with WordPress.

I understand this is a major suggestion, so I'm looking for feedback from everyone. Do you feel better podcasting support should be included with WordPress? If so, how should it be distributed?

Personally, I feel this should be distributed as a plugin with WordPress since not everyone will take advantage of it. I know Matt mentioned at one point over the summer he would like to see this included in core. What do you think?

[Enric]

Are there unique features to this that Podpress doesn't have:

​http://www.mightyseek.com/podpress/

-- Enric

[cavemonkey50]

Replying to Enric:

Are there unique features to this that Podpress doesn't have:

​http://www.mightyseek.com/podpress/

-- Enric

Yes, quite a few. The feeds created by this are true podcasting feeds in that they contain x podcasts, not x posts with podcast information attached. Also, podPress does not allow separate feeds for different formats. This does.

Finally, like I mentioned above, I strived to keep with the WordPress UI. If you look at the interface on my write up, it's clean and concise. podPress' UI is confusing and does not fit with WordPress. Same goes for coding. If you look on podPress' page, he's battling memory overload issues on many servers. When I coded this, I tried to keep code down to a minimum. The whole plugin is only 857 lines of code.

[cpoteet]

Ron,

I was in your demo team, and it did look quite promising but I'm not quite sure if it should be shipped in the core. It seems to be a perfect plugin, but I don't know if podcasting is something that would be used on the level of widgets, tinymce, etc.

[cavemonkey50]

Replying to cpoteet:

Ron,

I was in your demo team, and it did look quite promising but I'm not quite sure if it should be shipped in the core. It seems to be a perfect plugin, but I don't know if podcasting is something that would be used on the level of widgets, tinymce, etc.

Point taken, but look at ​the top WordPress.org plugins. podPress is currently number 3, roughly showing podcasting is the third most requested plugin.

[seek3r]

Replying to cavemonkey50:

Yes, quite a few. The feeds created by this are true podcasting feeds in that they contain x podcasts, not x posts with podcast information attached. Also, podPress does not allow separate feeds for different formats. This does.

Actually podpress does this with the podcast feed.

Finally, like I mentioned above, I strived to keep with the WordPress UI. If you look at the interface on my write up, it's clean and concise. podPress' UI is confusing and does not fit with WordPress. Same goes for coding. If you look on podPress' page, he's battling memory overload issues on many servers. When I coded this, I tried to keep code down to a minimum. The whole plugin is only 857 lines of code.

This is largely due to the additional blog player features and other such features. As the feature set grew, I did have memory issues to tackle, but have done so.

[cavemonkey50]

Replying to seek3r:

Actually podpress does this with the podcast feed.

Ah, when did that change occur? The version I was testing back in April/May did not work for me and all the people I talked to while gathering ideas claimed podPress didn't do this. I found that quite odd since I would think that would be feature number two to next to iTunes support. Glad to hear podPress supports that.

This is largely due to the additional blog player features and other such features. As the feature set grew, I did have memory issues to tackle, but have done so.

Yeah, I remember you mentioning that at WordCamp. If I recall correctly, you said you're going to be working to clean up podPress and make it more manageable. That's good to hear and I'm sure will be appreciated.

I hope my previous statements didn't come as harsh. I believe both podPress and my plugin have their uses and can still coexist. For example, if you need to do more complex podcasting such as keeping track of downloads or offering a paid subscription feed, podPress is the choice. But, I also feel there needs to be a simpler solution for those who don't want all the extra features.

[foolswisdom]

Replying to cavemonkey50:

Personally, I feel this should be distributed as a plugin with WordPress since not everyone will
take advantage of it. I know Matt mentioned at one point over the summer he would like to see this
included in core. What do you think?

I think Matt has consistently expressed that he would like to see better podcasting support in WordPress. I don't know enough about podcasting to know what that looks like, but likely it means providing infrastructure in core to make your plugin and others work more smoothly.

[cavemonkey50]

Replying to foolswisdom:

I think Matt has consistently expressed that he would like to see better podcasting support in WordPress. I don't know enough about podcasting to know what that looks like, but likely it means providing infrastructure in core to make your plugin and others work more smoothly.

Understood. Should I distribute this via WordPress.org Plugins for the time being?

[foolswisdom]

Replying to cavemonkey50:

Understood. Should I distribute this via WordPress.org Plugins for the time being?

I don't think you can go wrong with that. Anyway, the venting period for this sort of addition would likely take us past the 2.3 scheduled release date.

[jacobsantos]

I'm not sure this is ever going to make it into WordPress. It'll be cool.