3 Podcast properties
This is a collection of all the properties that can be specified for the podcast.
The name of the property can be used in the config.yml file with the following syntax: [name of property]: [value].
Some of the descriptions of the following items were imported from external source. In these cases the source is at the end of the description.
-
title
-
link
-
description
-
language
-
copyright
-
managingEditor
-
webMaster
-
pubDate
-
lastBuildDate
-
category
-
generator
-
docs
-
cloud
-
ttl
- image
-
rating
- textInput
-
skipHours
-
skipDays
-
itunesImage
-
itunesCategory
-
itunesExplicit
-
itunesAuthor
- itunesOwner
-
itunesType
-
itunesNewFeedUrl
-
itunesBlock
-
itunesComplete
Authority: RSS Advisory Board, Apple
The name of the channel. It's how people refer to your service. If you have an HTML website that contains the same information as your RSS file, the title of your channel should be the same as the title of your website. /RSS Advisory Board/
The show title.
It’s important to have a clear, concise name for your podcast. Make your title specific. A podcast titled Our Community Bulletin is too vague to attract many subscribers, no matter how compelling the content.
Pay close attention to the title as Apple Podcasts uses this field for searching.
If you make your title a long list of keywords in an attempt to game podcast search, your podcast will be removed from the Apple directory. /Apple/
Default value: The URL of the website.
Authority: RSS Advisory Board, Apple
The URL to the HTML website corresponding to the channel. /RSS Advisory Board/
The website associated with a podcast.
Typically a home page for a podcast or a dedicated portion of a larger website. /Apple/
Authority: RSS Advisory Board, Apple
Phrase or sentence describing the channel. /RSS Advisory Board/
The show description.
Where description is text containing one or more sentences describing your podcast to potential listeners. The maximum amount of text allowed for this tag is 4000 characters. /Apple/
The description is properly encoded meaning that you can include links and formatting. But try to limit yourself to basics (e.g. bold, italic, links...) as this won't be viewed in browsers. /Podcast-template/
Options: from Netscape or W3 or ISO 639
Authority: Apple, RSS Advisory Board
The language the channel is written in. This allows aggregators to group all Italian language sites, for example, on a single page. A list of allowable values for this element, as provided by Netscape, is here. You may also use values defined by the W3C. /RSS Advisory Board/
The language spoken on the show.
Because Apple Podcasts is available in territories around the world, it is critical to specify the language of a podcast. Apple Podcasts only supports values from the ISO 639 list (two-letter language codes, with some possible modifiers, such as "en-us").
Invalid language codes will cause your feed to fail Apple validation. /Apple/
Default value: Copiright tied to the name of the podcast.
Syntax: © [year(s)] [podcast name], All rights reserved.
Authority: RSS Advisory Board
Copyright notice for content in the channel. /RSS Advisory Board/
Syntax: [email of the managing editor] ([name of the managing editor])
Authority: RSS Advisory Board
Email address for person responsible for editorial content. /RSS Advisory Board/
Syntax: [email of the webMaster] ([name of the webMaster])
Authority: RSS Advisory Board
Email address for person responsible for technical issues relating to channel. /RSS Advisory Board/
Default value: Release date of the latest episode.
Syntax: RFC 822
Authority: RSS Advisory Board
The publication date for the content in the channel. For example, the New York Times publishes on a daily basis, the publication date flips once every 24 hours. That's when the pubDate of the channel changes. All date-times in RSS conform to the Date and Time Specification of RFC 822, with the exception that the year may be expressed with two characters or four characters (four preferred). /RSS Advisory Board/
Default value: Date of when the feed was last generated.
Syntax: RFC 822
Authority: RSS Advisory Board
The last time the content of the channel changed. /RSS Advisory Board/
Options: Recommended you choose from iTunes categories.
Authority: RSS Advisory Board
Specify one or more categories that the channel belongs to. Follows the same rules as the -level category element. More info. /RSS Advisory Board/
Even tough the RSS Advisory Board leaves the requirements very loose, I recommend choosing a category from iTunes' list of options. In case you want to have a different category from the iTunes defined ones you will have to specify a category from iTunes' list in the
itunesCategoryproperty. /Podcast-template/
Default value: https://github.com/kristofk/podcast-template
Authority: RSS Advisory Board
A string indicating the program used to generate the channel. /RSS Advisory Board/
Default value: https://github.com/kristofk/podcast-template/wiki
Authority: RSS Advisory Board
A URL that points to the documentation for the format used in the RSS file. It's probably a pointer to this page. It's for people who might stumble across an RSS file on a Web server 25 years from now and wonder what it is. /RSS Advisory Board/
Authority: RSS Advisory Board
Allows processes to register with a cloud to be notified of updates to the channel, implementing a lightweight publish-subscribe protocol for RSS feeds. More info here. /RSS Advisory Board/
Cloud is an extremenly customizable property. For this reason anything you specify here will be simply enclose by
<cloud [property] />. /Podcast-template/
Authority: RSS Advisory Board
ttl stands for time to live. It's a number of minutes that indicates how long a channel can be cached before refreshing from the source. More info here. /RSS Advisory Board/
Specifies a GIF, JPEG or PNG image that can be displayed with the channel. More info here. /RSS Advisory Board/
Image is a property that appears in the feed but you cannot directly edit it. It is made up of other properties:
imageUrl,imageTitleandimageLink. If all three of the aformentioned properties are present then the image property will appear in the feed. Otherwise it won't.I recommend that you put an image here that conforms to the specifications of iTunes. Otherwise you have to specify such an image in the
itunesImageproperty.iTunes image specs: Artwork must be a minimum size of 1400 x 1400 pixels and a maximum size of 3000 x 3000 pixels, in JPEG or PNG format, 72 dpi, with appropriate file extensions (.jpg, .png), and in the RGB colorspace. These requirements are different from the standard RSS image tag specifications.
Make sure the file type in the URL matches the actual file type of the image file.
/Podcast-template/
Syntax: URL
Authority: RSS Advisory Board
The URL of a GIF, JPEG or PNG image that represents the channel. /RSS Advisory Board/
This is the URL that links to the artwork of the podcast. It is recommended to store this on an external server e.g. cloudinary. It is also possible to store it with this website, in which case you need to still provide the full URL. /Podcast-template/
Default value: Value of the title property.
Authority: RSS Advisory Board
Describes the image, it's used in the ALT attribute of the HTML
tag when the channel is rendered in HTML. /RSS Advisory Board/
Default value: Value of the link property.
Authority: RSS Advisory Board
The URL of the site, when the channel is rendered, the image is a link to the site. (Note, in practice the image <title> and should have the same value as the channel's <title> and .) /RSS Advisory Board/
Authority: RSS Advisory Board
The PICS rating for the channel. /RSS Advisory Board/
Specifies a text input box that can be displayed with the channel. More info here.
The purpose of the element is something of a mystery. You can use it to specify a search engine box. Or to allow a reader to provide feedback. Most aggregators ignore it. /RSS Advisory Board/
textInputis a property that may appear in the feed, but you cannot directly edit it. This property is made up of 4 other properties:textInputTitle,textInputDescription,textInputNameandtextInputLink. If all of these properties are set thentextInputwill appear in the feed. /Podcast-template/
Authority: RSS Advisory Board
The label of the Submit button in the text input area. /RSS Advisory Board/
Authority: RSS Advisory Board
Explains the text input area. /RSS Advisory Board/
Authority: RSS Advisory Board
The name of the text object in the text input area. /RSS Advisory Board/
Authority: RSS Advisory Board
The URL of the CGI script that processes text input requests. /RSS Advisory Board/
Authority: RSS Advisory Board
A hint for aggregators telling them which hours they can skip. This element contains up to 24 sub-elements whose value is a number between 0 and 23, representing a time in GMT, when aggregators, if they support the feature, may not read the channel on hours listed in the element. The hour beginning at midnight is hour zero. /RSS Advisory Board/
Authority: RSS Advisory Board
A hint for aggregators telling them which days they can skip. This element contains up to seven sub-elements whose value is Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Aggregators may not read the channel during days listed in the element. /RSS Advisory Board/
Default value: The value of the image property.
Syntax: URL
Authority: Apple
The artwork for the show.
Specify your show artwork by providing a URL linking to it.
Depending on their device, subscribers see your podcast artwork in varying sizes. Therefore, make sure your design is effective at both its original size and at thumbnail size. You should include a show title, brand, or source name as part of your podcast artwork. Here are additional marketing best practices. For examples of podcast artwork, see the Top Podcasts chart. To avoid technical issues when you update your podcast artwork, be sure to:
Change the artwork file name and URL at the same time
Verify the web server hosting your artwork allows HTTP head requests
Artwork must be a minimum size of 1400 x 1400 pixels and a maximum size of 3000 x 3000 pixels, in JPEG or PNG format, 72 dpi, with appropriate file extensions (.jpg, .png), and in the RGB colorspace. These requirements are different from the standard RSS image tag specifications. /Apple/
Make sure the file type in the URL matches the actual file type of the image file.
Default value: The value of the category property.
Options: You must choose from the iTunes category list.
Authority: Apple
The show category information.
Please pick the category that you feel best reflects the content of your show.
You can also define a subcategory if one is available within your category. Although you can specify more than one category and subcategory in your feed, Apple Podcasts only recognizes the first category and subcategory. For a complete list of categories and subcategories, see Apple Podcasts categories. /Apple/
Options: true or false
Authority: Apple
The podcast parental advisory information.
The explicit value can be one of the following:
true if you specify true, indicating the presence of explicit content, Apple Podcasts displays an Explicit parental advisory graphic for your podcast.
Podcasts containing explicit material aren’t available in some Apple Podcasts territories.
false if you specify false, indicating that your podcast doesn’t contain explicit language or adult content, Apple Podcasts displays a Clean parental advisory graphic for your podcast. /Apple/
Authority: Apple
The group responsible for creating the show.
Show author most often refers to the parent company or network of a podcast, but it can also be used to identify the host(s) if none exists.
Author information is especially useful if a company or organization publishes multiple podcasts. Providing this information will allow listeners to see all shows created by the same entity. /Apple/
This field can be the name of the network the podcast is part of or the list of the hosts. /Podcast-template/
The podcast owner contact information.
Include the email address of the owner in a nested itunes:email tag and the name of the owner in a nested itunes:name tag.
Note: The itunes:owner tag information is for administrative communication about the podcast and isn’t displayed in Apple Podcasts. Please make sure the email address is active and monitored. /Apple/
This property might appear on the feed but you have no way of directly editing it. This property is made up of two other properties:
itunesOwnerEmailanditunesOwnerName. If both of these properties are defined then this item will appear in the feed. /Podcast-template/
Authority: Apple
This email can be the email of one of the hosts' email or the podcast's email or even the email of the network. Whoever Apple should talk to regarding the podcast. /Podcast-template/
Necessity: recommended
Authority: Apple
The name of the person Apple should address in the email sent to
itunesOwnerEamil.
Default value: episodic
Options: episodic or serial
Authority: Apple
The type of show.
If your show is Serial you must use this tag.
Its values can be one of the following:
episodic (default). Specify episodic when episodes are intended to be consumed without any specific order. Apple Podcasts will present newest episodes first and display the publish date (required) of each episode. If organized into seasons, the newest season will be presented first - otherwise, episodes will be grouped by year published, newest first.
For new subscribers, Apple Podcasts adds the newest, most recent episode in their Library.
serial. Specify serial when episodes are intended to be consumed in sequential order. Apple Podcasts will present the oldest episodes first and display the episode numbers (required) of each episode. If organized into seasons, the newest season will be presented first and itunes:episode numbers must be given for each episode.
For new subscribers, Apple Podcasts adds the first episode to their Library, or the entire current season if using seasons. /Apple/
Authority: Apple
The new podcast RSS Feed URL.
If you change the URL of your podcast feed, you should use this tag in your old feed.
Use the itunes:new-feed-url tag to manually change the URL where your podcast is located. itunes:new-feed-url http://newlocation.com/example.rss </itunes:new-feed-url>
You should maintain your old feed until you have migrated your existing subscribers. For more information, see Update your RSS feed URL.
Note: The itunes:new-feed-url tag reports new feed URLs to Apple Podcasts and isn’t displayed in Apple Podcasts. /Apple/
Options: Yes
Authority: Apple
The podcast show or hide status.
If you want your show removed from the Apple directory, use this tag.
Specifying the itunes:block tag with a Yes value, prevents the entire podcast from appearing in Apple Podcasts.
Specifying any value other than Yes has no effect. /Apple/
Options: Yes
Authority: Apple
The podcast update status.
If you will never publish another episode to your show, use this tag.
Specifying the itunes:complete tag with a Yes value indicates that a podcast is complete and you will not post any more episodes in the future.
Specifying any value other than Yes has no effect. /Apple/