Create a Screenr Video Podcast in 4 EASY steps

It’s 2010, and you are dying to do something that embraces mobile learning. Why not create a Video Podcast of all your Screenr screencasts?

Here is how you can create a Video Podcast of your Screenr screencasts in 4 easy steps.

A little background

One of the cool things about Screenr, is that you can view your Screenr Screencasts on an iPhone. Articulate’s CEO @GetAdam created this Screencast to show you what Screenr Videos look like on an iPhone:

View at Screenr

Cool, so Screenr screencasts play on an iPhone…how did we do that? Only certain video types will play on an iPhone (like MP4 for example), and will only play video up to certain dimensions (640×480). In order to provide the best video quality for both iPhone users, and normal web users Screenr creates two separate video files for each screencast you create. A smaller 640×480 video that is optimized for the iPhone, and a larger full resolution video that matches your recording dimensions for web users.

When we build our Video Podcast feed we are going to link to the iPhone version of your Screencast to make sure that it will play nicely on an iPhone and iPod Touch.

Step 1: Install some tools

You need a few tools to follow these steps. Go ahead and install them now if you don’t have them.

• Firefox + the User Agent Switcher Add-On
• A text editor to edit some XML (I recommend Notepad++)
• iTunes

Step 2: Get the video links

We need to get the links to the iPhone version of the MP4s. In order to get the iPhone version of the MP4’s you will need to trick Screenr into thinking your Firefox browser is an MP4.

Here is how you can do that:

1. Install the User Agent Switcher Add-On in Firefox if you haven’t already.
2. Select Tools
3. Select Default User Agent > iPhone 3.0
4. Go to Screenr.com
5. Find the video you are looking to include in your Podcast
6. Select View > Page Source to view the HTML (this will help us find the link)
7. Find the <video> tag..hint, it should look something like this:
   <video width=”290″ height=”161″ poster=”http://c0203141.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/81e750d1-56dd-4e55-97e0-72f3cb445e79_thumb.jpg” controls=”controls”>
   <source src=”http://c0203291.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/81e750d1-56dd-4e55-97e0-72f3cb445e79.mp4″ type=”video/mp4″ /><!– Safari / iPhone video –>
   </video>
8. Copy the link to the MP4 and save it for later
9. Repeat for all the videos you want to include in your podcast

Confused by those steps? The screencast below will walk you through it.

View at Screenr

Step 3: Create the XML feed

There are easier ways to do this, but we are just going to create the XML feed for the Video Podcast by hand. This XML feed is what iTunes will use to build and update your Video Podcast. So let’s get started.

1. Grab my sample Video Podcast XML feed here (Right-Click and select Save As).
2. Open up the XML file in your favorite text editor (like Notepad++).

Ok, now a little explanation about the Podcast XML structure. A Podcast XML feed is made up of a channel, and a channel has various different items, somewhat like programs. This is kinda similar to like TV channels being made up of various different programs. Like how ESPN is a channel, and has various different programs like Sports Center, Monday Night Football, etc. The Podcast XML will be similar, we first create the channel, and then we will add a bunch of items, and the items will be the individual screencasts.

Create the channel

So lets take a look at the XML file. The first thing you will want to do is update the tags in the channel. The channel has the following tags, most of which are self-explanatory, but here is a short explanation of each:

• <title> – This is the title of the Video Podcast.
• <link> – I just made this a link to my homepage (http://www.mozealous.com).
• <language> – Assuming you can read this, you can probably leave this as is. It is set to English.
• <copyright> – This is your copyright statement.
• <itunes:subtitle> – A subtitle for the Video Podcast.
• <itunes:author> – This is you. The creator of this Video Podcast.
• <itunes:summary> – A short summary of the Video Podcast. What topics does this podcast cover?
• <description> – I just made this the same as the summary.
• <itunes:name> – Your name, the owner of the Video Podcast Feed.
• <itunes:email> – Your email address.
• <itunes:image> – A picture that will appear in iTunes next to your Podcast.

If you want to see how these items relate to what is seen in iTunes check out this diagram by clicking the image below.

So update the channel tags with your info, and let’s move on and…

Add items to the channel

Now that we have created the channel, we need to add some “items” or screencasts to our feed. Most of the item tags are pretty self-explanatory, but again, here is a short explanation of each:

• <title> – This is the title of the specific screencast.
• <itunes:author> – The creator of the specific screencast.
• <itunes:subtitle>- I just made mine the same as the title, but you want to provide more info.
• <itunes:summary> – A longer description of the screencast.
• <encloure url=”link to podcast” length=”size in bytes” type=”video/mp4″/> – The enclosure tag is made up of:
  • The URL to the screencast (from step 2). I linked to the MP4 on Screenr.
  • The length, which is the size of the screencast in bytes. I couldn’t think of a really good way to get the size of the screencast without downloading the video, so that is what I did. I downloaded it and then checked the size on disk (right-click in windows and select Properties). The size should be listed with numbers only, and in BYTES (ex. 124444. Not 124,444kb).
  • type, which should always be “video/mp4″ for screencasts.
• <guid> – A unique identifier for the screencast. I just used the URL.
• <pubDate> – The date this screencast was added to the feed.
• <itunes:duration> – The duration of the screencast (you can get this from Screenr).
• <itunes:keyword> – Keywords to help users find your screencast in search.

If you want to see how these items relate to what is seen in iTunes check out this diagram by clicking the image below.

You will want to add items for each screencast you want to include in your podcast. You can update the feed at any time to include new screencasts by adding additional items.

After you have finished updating the XML feed, save the file.

Making a Podcast is an official explanation of all this from Apple. Read it if you have trouble sleeping. Or re-read this post, it should help you sleep too.

Step 4: Submit to iTunes

Now that we have created the XML Feed for our Video Podcast we will want to host it someplace so that we can submit it to iTunes. I just hosted mine on my website at http://www.mozealous.com/vodcast.xml. Once you have it hosted you can submit it to iTunes. This will allow people to find your podcast in the iTunes Store, and to subscribe to your feed.

To submit a Video Podcast feed to iTunes

1. Launch iTunes
2. Select the iTunes Store
3. Select the Podcasts tab
4. Select Submit a Podcast
5. Enter the URL to your Podcast Feed and follow the steps outlined

Within 24 hours your Screenr Video Podcast feed will be available on iTunes.

You are done. What’s next?

It might seem like creating this Video Podcast feed was a pain in the ass…well, it was. I know I know, I said that this would be 4 easy steps, and it was closer to 40 complicated steps, well ha, I hooked you anyway. The good news is that once you created the feed it is fairly easy to update, all you need to do is add the screencasts as <items> to the XML feed and the changes will be picked up by iTunes in about a day.

If you create a Screenr Video Podcast feed let me know in the comments below. I’ll highlight them in this post.

So congrats, you are done! You have created your first Video Podcast feed of your Screenr screencasts.