Armangil's podcatcher

Version 3.1.2 released

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 15:21:40 CET

This release includes minor feature enhancements. Changes:

Updated the help text that appears when the --help option is used,
Updated the sponsor message that appears in verbose mode.

Version 3.1.1 released

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 16:26:18 CET

This is a minor bug fix release:

A bug that caused content to be listed twice in verbose mode if it is declared as both RSS enclosure and Media RSS content has been fixed.
The sponsor message displayed in verbose mode has been updated.

Version 3.1.0 released

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 12:59:25 CEST

This release adds support for yyyy.mm and yyyy formats for the --horizon option. Usage examples: --horizon 2007.06 is equivalent to --horizon 2007.06.01, and --horizon 2007 is equivalent to --horizon 2007.01.01.

Also, this version displays a message from our sponsor when used in verbose mode.

New sponsor: Qworum, the web mashup platform

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 12:48:25 CEST

I am pleased to announce that Armangil's podcatcher is now sponsored by Qworum, which is a new platform for web mashups. With Qworum, websites can provide interactive services that seamlessly integrate into other websites. Disclosure: I am the lead architect of Qworum.

Version 3.0.0 released

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 19:15:53 CEST

This release includes major feature enhancements and some minor bug fixes, as described below.

Download content directly to your media player device Previous podcatcher versions store downloaded content in the cache subdirectory of the directory specified by the --dir option. While this is still the default behaviour, this version introduces the --cachedir option which allows the user to specify another directory for content. For example, a Linux user might issue a command such as podcatcher --dir ~/podcatcher-state --cachedir /media/disk/podcasts feeds.opml. In this case, the podcatcher state (such as the download history) is stored in ~/podcatcher-state, but the downloaded content is directly stored on a media player device available at /media/disk.

Be compatible with Windows and media players The --restrictednames option makes podcatcher use content filenames that are acceptable for restrictive filesystems such as VFAT (used by Windows and many media player devices). You might want to use this option if you encounter filename-related problems.

Ignore old content The --horizon option makes podcatcher ignore content that is older than a given date. For example, a user switching to podcatcher on July 22, 2007 might use a command such as podcatcher --horizon 2007.07.22 feeds.opml in order to avoid re-downloading content that had been downloaded using another podcast client.

Select podcasts by language The --language option takes a comma-separated list of language codes, and makes podcatcher ignore podcasts whose language is not in this list. This option is particularly useful when using subscription lists generated by third parties. For example, a user who only speaks english and german might issue a command such as podcatcher --language en,de http://www.podcatcherstats.com/top_audio_podcasts.opml http://www.podcatcherstats.com/top_video_podcasts.opml.

Additional changes include a more robust handling of feeds that use the Media RSS module (in particular when a wrong namespace is specified for this module) and a bug-fix related to update checking.

FreeBSD port now available

Sun, 15 Jul 2007 09:14:07 CEST

I am happy to announce that this software is now also available as a FreeBSD port.

Now distributed by Gentoo Linux

Sun, 29 Apr 2007 17:58:48 CEST

I am pleased to announce that Armangil's podcatcher has been included into the Gentoo Linux distribution.

Version 2.0.1 released

Tue, 13 Feb 2007 17:30:45 CET

This release fixes an RSS parsing bug for feeds that use the Yahoo Media RSS module.

Version 2.0.0 released

Fri, 22 Dec 2006 21:37:05 CET

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.

Version 1.3.7 released

Thu, 07 Sep 2006 09:30:20 CEST

This release adds status code and content type check when downloading a media file using HTTP. Upgrading is recommended.