Feeds and RSS

[eagle4life69]

So I run a Podcast site. I use the powerpress plugin for my feeds heres my issue. Powerpress allows you to restrict a feed to users who are logged in or it prompts you to log in if you are not logged in. Here is what it looks like
http://www.otrwesterns.com/feed/members/

So how can I get S2 to handle this. I would rather have a prompt come up with a login so people can login not redirect to members page. This will allow rss subscription to still happen but require a login. I figure it would be difficult but would be a great reason for me to buy the S2member Pro.

The Free version is great and is allowing me to sell some of my content. Thanks again.

[eagle4life69]

*BUMP* Please help... I would love to know either how it is done or if S2member can do it for me.

[eagle4life69]

*Bump*

[podcastcoach]

I'm looking for a solution where I can have premium mp3 files delivered via RSS. Then if a member cancels, it stops their RSS. I don't want people to have to return to the site to login. I want a way so that they can receive premium content in iTunes (they would have to manually subscribe). Is this possible in S2?

[Jason Caldwell]

Thanks for the excellent question.
~ and thanks for the heads up Cristián.

Yes, this is possible with s2Member v3.5.8+. You'll will find the details on this inside your Dashboard, under: s2Member -> Download Options -> Remote Authorization / Podcasting.

All you do, is you add this to the end of your Download Links:
&s2member_file_remote=yes

Remote Header Authorization ( optional )

This can be enabled on a case-by-case basis. Just add this to the end of your download links: &s2member_file_remote=yes. Remote Header Authorization allows access to file downloads through an entirely different approach. Instead of asking the Member to log into your site through a browser, a Member will be prompted automatically, to log in through HTTP Header Authorization prompts; which is the same technique used in more traditional security systems via .htaccess files. In other words, Remote Header Authorization makes it possible for your Members to access files through remote applications that may NOT use a browser. This is often the case when a Member needs to access protected files through a software client like iTunes®; typical with podcasts.

[podcastcoach]

Does the file have to be in the protected folders? Can it be hosted on another server? Right now I've added it, and because the link no longer ends in .mp3 iTunes doesn't even see the attachment. (I'm working on writing the enclosure from scratch). I'm using PowerPress plugin to add my media location, and it bugs out that "Media URL contains characters that may cause problems for some clients. For maximum compatibility, only use letters, numbers, dash - and underscore _ characters only." Then when I click on update I get this message "Error [http://bartspokerpodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Deuce_Plays_-More_Live_Hands_and_Concepts.mp3&s2member_file_remote=yes]: Unable to determine content type of media (e.g. audio/mpeg). Verify file extension is correct and try again."I was bummed this was not covered in the download video. Is there any step by step instructions? After I add this string, and go to my websites.com/feed the mp3 file that I have not protected shows in the feed, the one I have does not, but when I put the feed into iTunes its not prompting me for a login and password. I'm sure I'm missing a step. Any ideas? I'm using libsyn.com as my media host. If I need to use Amazon S3 to get this to work, I'll switch.

[Cristián Lávaque]

Dave, since the file is an MP3 file, it'll do nothing with the query string, unless your .htaccess were picking it up and using a script, etc., which I'm not sure is the case.

I'm pretty sure you have to have the files in s2Member's directory for file protection. Then the URL may look something like this:

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http://bartspokerpodcast.com/?s2member_file_download=Deuce_Plays_-More_Live_Hands_and_Concepts.mp3&s2member_file_remote=yes


[podcastcoach]

I will give this a shot. Typically hosting (Host Gator) is not a fan of posting mp3s files for sharing (its in their terms), but as this is a membership site, he may not have the thousands of dowloads as if it was free. I'll have to check, but I think Wordpress allows you to specify where uploads go. If I could specify a protected folder, it would make this a breeze. What about if he used Amazon S3? Does that open any doors? I know there is an Amazon S3 plugin for wordpress that allows you to specify (this would eliminate the Host Gator potential issue). Thanks for the replies in advance.

[Cristián Lávaque]

Amazon S3 could be a solution for you. The latest s2Member release integrates with Amazon S3 for download protection. WP Admin -> s2Member -> Download Options -> Amazon S3/CDN Storage Option

[podcastcoach]

I uploaded the file into a protected folder. I updated the URL of the media in the post. The mp3 is now seen in the feed. When I load the RSS feed into iTunes it shows a "!" which means the mp3 file is not available. It does not prompt me for a login and password. Has anyone got this to actually work? Is that why there is no video for this feature? I mean if adding the tag makes the audio "disappear" to iTunes, then how would this work? And adding it to the protected folder allows it to be seenm but doesn't prompt iTunes to ask for a password, then how does it work.

According to this site "In other words, Remote Header Authorization makes it possible for your Members to access files through remote applications that may NOT use a browser. This is often the case when a Member needs to access protected files through a software client like iTunes®; typical with podcasts."

If Jason is making any new videos, this would be my suggestion. Show this in action. I really need this to work. I hope you can help.

[cclambie]

Hi,
Just want to jump in as I am trying to do this too.
Haven't successfully managed to play a Podcast/ MP3 file from Amazon S3 or otherwise yet using the "&s2member_file_remote=yes" parameter.
Would love some help - I am using a PLS file to initiate the default audio player, but the URL is not correctly pointing to the file when hit by Winamp (in my case)
other forum on this

[podcastcoach]

Can we get someone to get this to work? Maybe a tutorial?

[Jason Caldwell]

Thanks for the heads up on this thread.

I can certainly understand the frustration. I don't have time to do a full video at the moment, but I will certainly consider that for the future. For now, I'll just do a quick tutorial in this thread.

Please let me know if any of you have trouble.

1. Upload your feed itself ( i.e. your XML file ), along with all MP3 and other media files into the /plugins/s2member-files/ directory so that everything is guarded from public access. Or, if you'd prefer to use Amazon S3 storage, that's fine too. s2Member comes preintegrated with Amazon S3.

The most important thing with iTunes, is that your feed itself MUST also be password protected ( e.g. also uploaded to the /s2member-files/ directory ), otherwise the iTunes software client will NOT be capable of downloading protected files once it connects to and updates your Podcast feed. When your feed is protected ( as it must be for this to work ), the iTunes software will automatically prompt you to enter a Username/Password, thanks to s2Member's Remote Header Authorization ( i.e. s2member_file_remote=1 ).

2. Now formulate the link to your XML feed for iTunes. Yours might look something like this:

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http://jason.websharks-inc.net/?s2member_file_remote=1&s2member_file_download=itunes.xml

3. Now formulate the links to all media that you're protecting as well.
A protected file being served with Remote Header Authorization might look like this:

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http://jason.websharks-inc.net/?s2member_file_remote=1&s2member_file_download=kalimba.mp3

( be sure that your link ends with .mp3, otherwise ITunes will not recognize it as an MP3 file )

4. Review the example file that I've posted (below) as a guideline.
You can test my Test Podcast yourself, using the instructions provided here:
http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/specs.html#testing

The Podcast feed URL for this test is:

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http://jason.websharks-inc.net/?s2member_file_remote=1&s2member_file_download=itunes.xml

( includes one MP3 file with song: Kalimba )

Code: Select all

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"?>
<rss xmlns:itunes = "http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd" version = "2.0">
    <channel>
        <language>en-us</language>
        <title>Jason's Test Podcast</title>
        <link>http://jason.websharks-inc.net/</link>
        <itunes:author>Jason Caldwell</itunes:author>
        <itunes:subtitle>Demonstrates s2Member's Remote Header Authorization</itunes:subtitle>
        <itunes:summary>Demonstrates s2Member's Remote Header Authorization</itunes:summary>
        <description>Demonstrates s2Member's Remote Header Authorization</description>
        <itunes:owner>
            <itunes:name>Jason Caldwell</itunes:name>
            <itunes:email>websharks-group@googlegroups.com</itunes:email>
        </itunes:owner>
        <itunes:image href = "http://jason.websharks-inc.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/itunes-icon.png" />
        <itunes:category text = "Technology">
            <itunes:category text = "Gadgets" />
        </itunes:category>
        <item>
            <title>Test MP3 File</title>
            <itunes:author>Unknown</itunes:author>
            <itunes:subtitle>Kalimba</itunes:subtitle>
            <itunes:summary>Track that comes with Windows 7.</itunes:summary>
            <itunes:image href = "http://jason.websharks-inc.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/itunes-icon.png" />
            <enclosure url = "http://jason.websharks-inc.net/?s2member_file_remote=1&amp;s2member_file_download=kalimba.mp3" length = "8409550" type = "audio/mpeg" />
            <guid>http://jason.websharks-inc.net/?s2member_file_remote=1&amp;s2member_file_download=kalimba.mp3</guid>
            <pubDate>Wed, 1 Jul 2011 01:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <itunes:duration>5:48</itunes:duration>
            <itunes:keywords>testing,s2member</itunes:keywords>
        </item>
    </channel>
</rss>

* Be sure that links containing ampersands ( & ) are converted to HTML entities inside your XML file ( i.e. & becomes & ). See: http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/sp ... onmistakes

[podcastcoach]

Jason,
Ah... That's the piece I'm missing. I was trying to use the RSS created by Wordpress. The key to this is to get some other sort of RSS feed (not the one from feedburner).

I'll have to give this a try

Dave