How To: Manual Feeds:
Basic Photocast
In this tutorial you're going to build a photocast of pictures from a lovely
wedding. You'll be creating a Manually edited Photocast that you will use the
Basic interface to build.
A photocasts is the same as any other Podcast or RSS feed, except that instead
of linking to an HTML file it will link to photo file (JPEG). So building a
photocast follows the same steps. Begin by creating a new feed. Press the New
Feed button in the toolbar of the RSS DreamFeeder floating panel. (If RSS DreamFeeder
isn't open you can access it through the Window menu.)
The first step in the basic interface is to select the type of feed (iPhoto
Photocast) and to provide the Title and Description of the feed. After entering
that content we click the next button to proceed to the next panel.
The second step is to provide additional descriptive content about the feed.
You can provide as much or as little of this information as you like, but the
more you fill in the easier it will be for aggregators and search engines to
find and organize the content. The is particularly important if you plan to
submit your podcast for inclusion in the Apple Podcast Directory.
The third step is to provide the domain name of the website. This is so the
links can be built properly as full urls so they will work on no mater where
your content is republished. If you provided this information when setting
up the website in Dreamweaver's site management tool it will be copied here.
The fourth step is to decide how you want the content for this feed to be
built. A Manual feed is appropriate for this case. You'll be managing the content
yourself, adding or deleting feed entries, typing or copying/pasting the text.
Now that these configuration issues have been completed you can edit the content
of the new feed in the Content tab. You can either press the Edit Feed Content
button or simply click on the Content tab.
In the Content tab you can manage the feed's entries yourself and build as
many as you like. To add an entry we click the plus button at the top of the
Feed Entries list. Now you simply edit the fields to contain the content you
want, with a headline (title of the photo),
thumbnail (link to a small photo) and photo enclosure (links to the full size
photo).
Fill in the content for the first feed entry:
For the Headline use: "Quiet Preparations are Made"
For the Enclosure you'll need to select the file you want to link to. Click
the folder icon to the right of the Enclosure field and then simply select
the file to link to. Use freer01.jpg from within the photos folder.
For the Thumbnail you'll need to select the file you want to link to. Click
the folder icon to the right of the Thumbnail field and then simply select
the file to link to. Use freer01thumb.jpg from within the photos folder.
Finally you can save your photocast within the website. Call it phototutor.rss
and save it in the root of the website. Its OK that it only has one episode
for now. You'll add more later.
Once saved the new Podcast is listed in the RSS DreamFeeder floating panel.
The panel also indicated when the file was last updated and that it is a manual
feed.
You can try this out in a news reader to see how the feed looks. That's easy
to do with the local content. I like to use Safari because I can just drag
and drop the feed on it and see what is happening.
But more importantly we want to use this feed in iPhoto, so the feed has to
be put on a web server. This doesn't have to be it's final home but it does
have to be a web server and that server has to be the one in the configuration
you provided when editing the feed (and you can always change that later).
Be sure to upload all the related graphic files too.
Launch iPhoto. Select the File menu and Subscribe to Photo Feed. Now provide
the url of the photocast. The photocast you created now appears in the Podcast
list in iPhoto.
Now if you want to add a few more episodes to your podcast it is a simple
process. Go back to Dreamweaver and select the Photocast Tutorial from the
list in the RSS DreamFeeder floating panel and press the edit button (looks
like a little pencil). Because this is a Manual feed and because all the configuration
information is already entered the dialog will open directly to the Content
tab so you can add new content.
Press the plus button to add another feed entry and then fill in the content
and enclose freer02.jpg with freer02thumb.jpg as the thumbnail. For the Headline
use: "Joy, Happiness, Flowers, and Running"
Do it again for freer03.jpg. For the Headline use: "A Happy Pair of Lovers"
Now save and upload the feed to the website and test it in iPhoto again. To
refresh in iPhoto press the small refresh icon to the right of your photocast
in the subscriptions list.
Excellent . You have created a Photocast.
You may proceed with one of the other Manual Feed tutorials
How To: Manual Feeds: Basic Text Feed
How To: Manual Feeds: Basic Podcast
You have now had your first taste of the ongoing maintenance required to keep
an RSS feed (of any type -- text or podcasts) up to date. You probably can
see the value in automating this process, especially for large websites. If
you do then you'll want to get the next set of files and try out one of our
tutorials for Automated feeds.
How To: Automated Feeds: Files and First Steps
How To: Automated Feeds: Basic Text Feed
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