How to use ShowTaxi, step by step: Creating feeds
As you already know since you're a podcaster, your feed is the RSS that is generated by whatever online system you use to manage the creation and distribution of your podcast episodes: a blogging system like MovableType or TypePad, an aggregator like Feedburner or even updating your raw RSS document by hand.
By clicking on the Feeds tab on the console, you'll begin to fill out the form to specify your feed information. From there, you'll decide what channels and offers to create.
Feed tag
For the next few items, refer to the image above - and pick a name for your feed tag that makes sense to you and describes your podcast, like HDTVpodcastfeed or VeganPodcastFeed. In the example above, mine is dlunplugged.
Feed URL
You create this as well - simply put the full URL that leads back to your RSS feed. It will usually begin with your URL and end in a filename whose extension is .xml or .rdf, but there are exceptions. In the example above, mine is http://www.thedavidlawrenceshow.com/premium_podcast_feed.xml.
Make sure that your feed URL is within your web site path, but that your content will be outside the web path. On your server, you'll usually have an /htdocs directory for your web site documents. Creating your /premium folder, which will contain your content, should be outside this path.
It's a good idea at this point to test your XML feed - even though no one will ever use this feed directly, you can plug it into iTunes (Advanced menu :: Subscribe to podcast...) and see if your episode(s) show up. Once you're clear that it's working, you can move on.
Notice
When someone's subscription has expired, they've cancelled it, or they've done something that violates the rules you'll create later about sharing the subscription, you can customize the audio message they get letting them know that they need to correct whatever has happened.
You can either record one of your own (which we recommend, o podcast voice talent), or you can use the one that David's recorded for the system. In either case, that recording serves two purposes - to not only remind people that their subscription has lapsed, but also to gently remind them not to violate your subscription rules, so be careful not to be too harsh in this audio message.
Notice URL
When things aren't quite right with a subscriber's account, that notice audio gets fed to the user in an RSS feed, in place of your podcast, although with only one "episode": your voice telling them to get things in order. In the example above, it is http://www.thedavidlawrenceshow.com/subscribe_notice.xml.
Automatic Update
You can choose to have ShowTaxi automatically update the RSS feed with our system. Usually, this is set to enabled
Once everything is set in the Register a Feed screen, you can click on Submit, and you'll now see your first feed in your Feed list:
Doorway document
The doorway.php document is the heart of the ShowTaxi system, allowing and denying access to your content, based on the rules you create. You can make them as strict or as loose as you want. Once you set your parameters, the doorway.php document will be created. Once this is created, you download it, and place that document on your server, usually via FTP. The location and content of the doorway document is set on the configure and download screen.
Configuring your doorway.php document
By clicking on the configure and download link, you're taken to the Setup doorway script screen with several items for you to fill in:
- the base URL for your doorway document,
- where your premium content is located and
- any IP addresses (like your own) that you'd always like to have the system allow access to the content.
Base (doorway) URL
ShowTaxi's system needs to know where to look up your doorway.php document on your server. A great place for it is right in the same web directory as your website. This URL should be complete, as in http://www.yourdomain.com/doorway.php. If you need to, consult with your ISP to make sure that the document can actually run in that directory. If PHP documents have to be in a special directory to run, your URL may end up being something like http://www.yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/doorway.php - your ISP (or the folks at Dreamhost, if you have a server there), can get you squared away.
Premium directory
Your content is the precious cargo ShowTaxi helps protect, and the best way to do that is to store it on your server, but not in such a way that anyone can simply access it via the Internet. The way to do this is to store it in a directory that is on your server, but is doesn't contain any web content, and has no DNS record to point to it. That makes it totally isolated from your site, and inaccessible to people who would rather not pay your subscription fees.
An easy way to do this is to create a directory - we'll call it "premium" as an example - at the same level as your DOCUMENT_ROOT folder. That's the folder that holds your website pages and content, including, now, your doorway.php document. Once you've created this directory, you'll have to tell ShowTaxi how to get from your DOCUMENT_ROOT to your premium directory, and in the example above, that looks like this:
../premium
In server-speak, that translates to: "climb up and out one level up to get to the folder called /premium". Once you determine the relative path to your premium directory, that path goes in the text box on the Setup doorway script screen - again, your ISP (or the folks at Dreamhost, if you have a server there), can get you squared away.
By-pass IP addresses
In this slot, place your own IP address, and any others you want to not be subject to ShowTaxi's control. That way, you can get your own podcast episodes every time you publish without having to give yourself a Pass, which we'll look at in a moment. If your ISP has given you what's called a static IP address, you'll probably never need to change this, but if you have what's called a dynamic IP address (and most people do - your ISP can let you know), you'll have to update this entry when your IP address changes.
If you've filled everything in, and you're sure it's accurate, click on the Submit button to create your Feed. Now, let's move on to create a Channel from your Feed.