December 2006

Version 2.0.0 released

This release includes many major feature enhancements, as described below.

Download any type of content Use the --content option to specify a regular expression that matches the types of content to be downloaded. Examples:

• podcatcher --content '^audio/mpeg$' http://www.podshow.com/feeds/dailysourcecode.xml downloads MP3 content from Adam Curry's Daily Source Code,
• podcatcher --content '^audio/' http://www.podtech.net/home/feed/ downloads audio content from PodTech.net,
• podcatcher --content '^audio/|^video/' http://www.podtech.net/home/feed/ downloads audio and video content from PodTech.net,
• podcatcher --content '' 'http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photos_public.gne?tags=green&format=rss_200' or podcatcher 'http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photos_public.gne?tags=green&format=rss_200' downloads any content from Flickr photos tagged with "green".

Download content in chronological order Some podcasts, such as audio books, are best consumed in chronological order. This version introduces three new download strategies for that purpose: chron_one, chron and chron_all. For example, podcatcher --strategy chron_one http://www.jchutchins.net/7thSonPodcast.xml downloads the oldest episode of the audio book 7th son that has not been downloaded before.

Change the order of feeds Here is the problem: if the cache size (specified with the --size option) is small and the list of subscribed podcasts is long, podcasts at the end of the list might never get heard by the user! The new --order option, in particular its random value, is introduced to address this issue: with a command such as podcatcher --order random podcasts.opml, all podcasts have an equal chance when downloading content, regardless of cache size. Other values for this option are alphabetical, sequential (this is the behaviour of previous versions) and reverse. The default value for this option is random: the --order option does not need to be specified when this value is used.

Put arguments in a file Use the --arguments option for specifying the filename or URL (HTTP or FTP) of a text document that contains one argument per line. A sample arguments document is bundled with the software.

Put options in a file Use the --options option for specifying the filename or URL (HTTP or FTP) of a YAML document. A sample options document is bundled with the software.

Other novelties include the --checkforupdate option for informing the user when a new version is available, the --vote option for voting in favour of downloaded podcasts at PodcatcherStats (another website of mine), and support for the Yahoo Media RSS module.