iPodfun.de announced the second version of Remote Dircaster. It is a simple one-file php script that generates a podcast XML file.

The feed generated by Remote Dircaster is fully validated and includes iTunes extension (DTD) support.

Here is how it works:

The script sits on a PHP enabled web host. Every time a user access the script, it will automatically log into the MP3 files server, hosted on accessible FTP host and build a feed out of that list of files.

There is no way to access the MP3 audio information (ID3 tag) by FTP without requiring full downloads, so a hack was discovered to embed the description and the title of the audio in the file name.

Remote Dircaster is free and open source, so if you like the script you can further improve it to include more options, such as cacheable podcast feed. I think it is not a good idea to authenticate and fetch the MP3 file list on each access, especially on popular podcasts.

Download Remote Dircaster at iPodfun.de. http://www.ipod-fun.de/content/view/810/71/

Update: Unfortunately it seems like the software is not available any longer. Please find other podcast software instead.

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