NOT STOPPED ALL DAY 

Still crankin'... Two steps forward, one step back. Slowly but surely, coming at it from all angles. Brainache. Bzzzzzz....

A NOTE FOR ALPHA TESTERS (WHEN THEY GET IT) 

I will try and do a podbat alpha devcast today or tonight, to explain a few things. I did actually record a blinder last week, but my flipping mp3 recorder didn't save it, for some reason. Ho hum. It's was thundering loudly here earlier. I should have stepped out and did it in the garden then

I think I might start a Yahoo! group to act as a support/feedback forum for this, as though I could write my own forum, I simply don't have the time to do everything right now. And why the hell not eh? Yahoo! is good for that type of instant community. It's a shame though, that you can't switch on an RSS feed for a group until it's been made public. I imagine I will setup a public feedback group for in eventually with a nice Flashy feed thing for us to monitor activity.

Amy asks if she can use it to do an existing feed. The answer is YES! As a brand new user, you can opt to 'import' an existing RSS feed (not downloading mp3s or anything like that) and begin to tack new entries on the end, or create a fresh podcast and feed.

The thing is: podbat creates its own feed, which gets uploaded to your webspace (along with new mp3s). The alpha version will create and upload an RSS feed called 'podbat.xml' with an xsl and css file, so you can view it in a browser. It doesn't 'do' html. The next version will let you specify any filename you like. So, no existing systems will be altered in this alpha phase (unless of course, your existing feedname happens to be podbat.xml, but I think we'll be fine! heh).

Podbat will ID3 stamp and upload your mp3s, so theoretically, you could use the final destination url in the enclosure tag of your existing RSS feed, using your existing methods. Podbat therefore simply becomes a glorified ftp client which happens to stamp ID3 tags and insert album art. Cool enough though, right?

I've considered releasing a simple ID3 'tagger' tool for people, to test the installation of the custom dll file required to do its business. I still might, as it's a pain in the ass.

I have spent my own money to aquire and develop the tools to build all this, so I may add a donate button in there, if no one minds.

So, stay tuned... I've just got me a BIG hot cup o'Latte and a pile o'smokes. Time to crack on...

Maybe I'll quit smoking when this is all done!

As well as making sure the app itself works as I I expect it to, I have also been building a simple tracking server, so all content published using podbat pings it, so we can see how everyone is doing. Podbat alpha will also ping audio.weblogs.com. The beta will let you add as many ping servers as you like. Fun Fun Fun!

So, I've come across the issue of tags and category routing. I think I have to create a basic category structure first (in OPML naturally) and let alpha tester choose a branch that fits to sit on. Next phase: custom categories.

In fact, the next phase will let users create their own OPML 'channel', having as many feeds as they like in there. Alpha is one feed only folks. The podbat server will then tie all these channels together as a directory. Yummy!

I really hope to reopen comms with old mates when this is done. You know who I mean.

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PODBAT ALPHA... 

..could well be ready this weekend! I've been working solid on it in all my spare time (as well as creating 'new' spare time by staying up later )

It's incredible how pernickity I'm getting as I test, test, test and fix, and test, and fix and build etc. in these closing stages of 'phase one'.

The good thing is: is appears to be working!

Stay tuned, I might well pull an all-nighter tonight to get this done.

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