Automatically Download & Install Latest Episode From A Podcast Using An RSS Feed

Modified on Tue, 24 Sep at 12:55 PM

In this article we will see how to setup an Auto Importer Group to automatically download and import the latest episode from an audio Podcast provider using their RSS Feed.

You will need to have access to the Auto Importer tool which is included with Myriad Cloud Professional and Ultimate. You can also add Auto Importer as an upgrade option on Myriad Cloud Basic & Standard.

Before you start, you will need:

Myriad Cloud Professional or Ultimate (or the Auto Importer add-on for Myriad Cloud Basic or Standard).
Location of the Podcast RSS Feed.

In this example, we will download and import the latest episode into a fixed Media ID (5500 in this case) which makes it easy to include in Clocks for automatic scheduling. You can also setup a range of Media ID's or use the default range a Media Type (Song, News etc).

To setup the Auto Import, follow these steps:

Login to your https://my.broadcast.radio/ account.
On the Dashboard, click on the Settings & User Security button.

Login to Myriad Anywhere if prompted.
In the Tools section, click on the Auto Importer option.
On the ribbon in the main window, click on the New button.
Give your Auto Importer Group a suitable Name and select the Latest episode from a Podcast RSS feed from the 'Where should media be imported from' drop-down list.
Click the Next button.
Type or paste in the location of the Podcast RSS Feed. The click Next.
The next step allows you to define the type of audio being imported (Basic Media Item, Song, Link, News etc). Use the Destination Item Type drop-down list to select the appropriate Media Item type.

If you select a Media Item Type that has Categories (Songs, Links, Adverts or News etc) then you can also set the Category. You can also set whether the item can be considered for Scheduling. Please note this setting does not need to be enabled to include a fixed Media ID in your Clocks. This only applies if you want the item to be automatically scheduled alongside other content in the same Category.

In this example, we will leave the imported Media Item as a Basic Media Item as we will import it into a fixed Media ID.

Once you have selected the appropriate options, click on Next.
Next you need to set where on the Media Wall, the episode should be imported into. The options are:
1. The next empty Media ID in the Database Range for the Media Item Type (from the previous setup). So if you selected Basic Media Items and the Database Range for Basic Media Items is 1000 to 2000, the episode would be imported into the next empty Media ID in that range.
2. A specific Media ID. This will always import the episode into the same Media ID (5500 in this example).
3. The Specific Media Range option allows you to specify a range anywhere on the Media Wall and the episode will be imported into the next empty Media ID in that range.
As we are importing into a specific Media ID, we willl also tick the Overwrite the item if it already exists option so each new episode will replace the previous one.
Click on Create Importer Group.
Once the Importer Group is created, you will see the details displayed in the tab.

You can edit any of these details as required.
In the Scheduling section, you can set how often the system should check to see if a new episode is available. If your Podcast supplier always uploads new episodes once a day then there is no point checking every few minutes!

The options are:
1. Check a specific time every hour.
2. Check a specific time every day. In this example, we are checking only once a day at 13:00.
3. Check every X minutes. You can also restrict the time frame to check between and whether to stop once a new episode is imported.
There are more options available on the tabs along the top of the window.
1. Basic Overrides - Allows you to override basic information such as Title, Artist etc.
2. Schedule Overrides - Allows you to choose how the episode will be handled by Myriad Schedule.
3. Recent History - Shows the most recent activity within this Auto Importer Group.
  
  These option are covered in more detail in the Auto Importer documentation.
Click on OK to save any changes.
Once the Importer Group starts importing episodes, you will see a summary along with the status of the most recent import.

Here we can see the latest episode has been imported into the target Media ID on the Media Wall.