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Review: Cast Feed Validator for podcasts with accented domains in their RSS feed

Allan Tépper

Review: Cast Feed Validator for podcasts with accented domains in their RSS feed 1

As clarified in many past articles, in the second edition of my ebook Branded RSS Podcasting: The definitive guide, and more recently in Pseudopodcasts, brought to us by YouTube, Spotify and Apple, if there is no RSS feed, it’s not a true podcast, After creating your Branded RSS feed based your show’s own domain, it is important to validate it before beginning its syndication to avoid rejection —and to optimize it. After creating your Branded RSS feed hosted at CombinedHosting.com (or other of the few podcast hosts which allows truly Branded RSS feeds and byte range requests), Cast Feed Validator is a great and free tool to do both, as long as you know how to handle accented or other IDN domains with it and become aware of Cast Feed Validator’s few false positives. I’ll cover both ahead and more.

What does Cast Feed Validator do?

Cast Feed Validator diagnoses your RSS feed to detect any potential problems that could be preventing your episodes from reaching listeners (or even being accepted by syndication platforms). There are four phases of testing, performing more than 100 checks on your RSS feed’s various components.

  1. Cast Feed Validator checks the XML to ensure it’s working properly and follows RSS 2.0 and Apple Podcasts feed specifications. I.e., is your RSS feed viable for podcasting?
  2. Cast Feed Validator analyzes your feed server, making sure it’s configured correctly and fast enough to communicate with streaming apps. I.e., is your RSS feed and podcast host fast and does it offer Byte Range Requests?
  3. Cast Feed Validator inspects your artwork. checks to see if it loads quickly and renders correctly in podcast directories.
  4. Cast Feed Validator analyzes the audio file of the most recent episode. In the case of the more modern AAC type audio file with .M4A extensions (whose benefits surpassed the older MP3 26 years ago in 1997, as covered in our FAQ), Cast Feed Validator tells if the file is proper. In the case of the older MP3 audio files, Cast Feed Validator format, it checks ID3 tags too.
  5. Cast Feed Validator checks that all SSL/TLS certificates associated with your podcast and its hosted audio files are recognized and accepted by Apple Podcasts.

 

How to use Cast Feed Validator with an RSS feed that uses a standard (unaccented) domain

  1. Copy your complete RSS feed. An example of a standard Branded RSS feed without any accent mark is https://radioprodu.com/feed/podcast/ (This show is not mine, but is a client of mine who hosts it with CombinedHosting.com from TecnoTur.)
  2. Visit CastFeedValidator.com and paste your RSS feed there.
  3. Click the blue button: Start Validation
  4. Wait a few seconds for the results and read them.
  5. If anything needs correction, correct it and retest.

 

How to use Cast Feed Validator with an podcast RSS feed that uses an accented (or other IDN) domain

For at least 15 years, I have been a fan and promoter of IDN domains. IDN stands for International Domain Names. They can include accented letters, the ñ/Ñ, letters with a diaeresis/tréma/umlaut, as well as those with different (non-Latin or not Roman) alphabets. Languages covered by IDN domains include Arabic, Bengali, Chinese (Mandarin, simplified or traditional), Castilian (aka “Spanish”), Cyrillic (including Bulgarian, Russian, Serbian and Ukrainian), Devanagari, accented English, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean Polish, Portuguese,Tamil and Thai. I personally own several accented domains, and I have clients who purchased accented domains via my AccentedDomains.com service (which exists in Castilian as DominiosTIldados.com).

One of the first objections from unaware people about IDNs is: “Very few people will be willing or able to type the accented domain into the browser.” They are correct. That’s why it is always advisable to purchase both the accented and unaccented version of the domain and redirect the unaccented one to the accented one. You pay for a single hosting account. All visitors reach the accented version of the website like magic, whether they entered the accent mark version or not. Here are a few examples:

The third one on that list, CapicúaFM is my most active on-demand radio show which is syndicated as a podcast. Even though I have owned the CapicúaFM.com accented domain since 2009, I only recently moved the CapicúaFM website to work directly with that domain. As I migrated the website to its new location, I wanted to verify that the new RSS feed was working properly before creating a 301 redirect from its original location to the new one, both the RSS feed and the website itself. CapicúaFM’s new RSS feed is: https://capicúafm.com/feed/podcast/ (Notice the accent mark on the letter Ú.)

I quickly discovered that Cast Feed Validator wouldn’t accept it directly, since —as of the publication date of this article, Cast Feed Validator isn’t yet ready for IDN domains directly. No problem! I just fed Cast Feed Validator the Punycode version of the same RSS feed, which I was 99% sure it would accept, and I was right.
The Punycode version of https://capicúafm.com/feed/podcast/ is https://xn--capicafm-s5a.com/feed/podcast/

If your podcast domain and RSS feed are IDN (accented, etc.), you need to convert the human extended ASCII version to Punycode in order to test it with Cast Feed Validator. One free place to convert the human extended ASCII version of a domain or complete RSS feed is Punycoder.com.

Here are the steps to use Cast Feed Validator with your IDN RSS feed:

  1. Copy your complete IDN RSS feed in Punycode format. An example of an accented Branded RSS feed in Punycode is https://xn--capicafm-s5a.com/feed/podcast/ (CapicúaFM is my most active online radio show with podcast syndication. So far, CapicúaFM has received two awards and has achieved 488,816 global unique downloads according to Podtrac. Ahead we’ll discuss Podtrac stats versus Blubrry stats.) 
  2. Visit CastFeedValidator.com and paste your RSS feed (Punycode version) there.
  3. Click the blue button: Start Validation
  4. Wait a few seconds for the results and read them.
  5. If anything needs correction, correct it and retest.

If and when I ever become aware that Cast Feed Validator has started to accept IDN RSS feeds directly (without prior conversion to Punycode), I’ll update this article and publish a new one to celebrate it.

 

Who makes Cast Feed Validator and what relationship does it have with me?

Cast Feed Validator is a free service from Blubrry Podcasting, the same people who make PowerPress, the amazing WordPress plugin that (on a proper server, with proper HTTPS and proper Byte Range Requests) creates a proper Branded RSS feed. I have covered PowerPress for many years in articles, ebooks and in my BeyondPodcasting show, where I have had Angelo Mandato of Blubrry at least twice so far.

Blubrry also offers professional paid stats for podcasts, whether they are hosted with Blubrry, with CombinedHosting.com or any other appropriate server. In fact, for all clients who are hosting a podcast with a podcast plan, TecnoTur pays their Blubrry professional paid stats on their behalf directly to Blubrry, after they have their first episode uploaded and request it.

 

Why do I have the policy of having TecnoTur pay for Blubrry professional stats for those clients on their behalf?

  1. Because I like Blubrry professional paid stats in addition to Podtrac stats, since I find different benefits to each.
  2. Because I want to support one of the extremely few podcasting companies I know of that fully embraces the important concept of Branded RSS with the show’s own domain (not anybody else’s), not as a second thought with extra fees and hassles like another podcast hosting company we know, but as standard and by design.
  3. Because it’s an indirect way of thanking Blubrry for PowerPress.

 

What do podcasters get from CombinedHosting.com from TecnoTur that they wouldn’t get if they hosted with Blubrry instead of TecnoTur?

 

Two known false positives with Cast Feed Validator

FALSE POSITIVE 1:

Your RSS feed should be linked in the head of your podcast website, using a link tag. even when you already have the box properly checked in PowerPress.

Response from Tech Support:

Sometimes, Cast Feed Validator has trouble picking up the feed link in site headers. If you have the box checked in PowerPress settings, you don’t need to do anything else. Also, that setting isn’t that important. It was helpful with Google Podcasts when Google Podcasts first launched but with changes they’ve made to Google Podcasts recently, it’s not really that necessary.

FALSE POSITIVE 2:

More than likely you have a theme or plugin that is adding an image to your RSS feed. Most likely this is a favicon image that is small, 16×16 or 32×32. This will cause problems if you want to put your podcast on Spotify.

I have several sites that have been on Spotify for more than a year and still produces this “error”, so I consider it to be a false positive.

 

Ratings

General use for stated purpose, when used with standard unaccented RSS feeds with unaccented domains

 

Use for stated purpose, for accented or other IDN RSS feeds

 

Conclusions

Cast Feed Validator is a wonderful tool to test podcast feeds, before and after syndication. Cast Feed Validator fearlessly and tirelessly confirms or complains about details that a even a human podcast expert might not remember to check, especially since very often, many different collaborators create different elements: one might make the podcast graphic, one might encode the audio files, another might actually configure the RSS feed. Of course, there are things that are beyond what Cast Feed Validator can do, like checking to see if a podcast image complies with Apple’s safe area rules. However, that does not take away from the amazing things where Cast Feed Validator truly shines. I am glad that it works partially with accented IDN domains when fed the Punycode version. I hope that someday, it will be able to work even with the human extended ASCII versions directly too, without conversion to Punycode.

 

Lee este artículo en castellano (“español”)

Reseña: Cast Feed Validator para podifusiones con dominios tildados en su RSS

 

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Most of my current books are at books.AllanTepper.com, and also visit AllanTepper.com and radio.AllanTepper.com.

FTC disclosure

Blubrry is not paying for this article review. Allan Tépper and TecnoTur LLC pay standard rates for all of the paid professional stats purchased from Blubrry, and sometimes uses a promotional code at the beginning of new subscriptions. This is the case with his own podcasts and those he pays for on behalf of his clients. Some of the manufacturers listed above have contracted Tépper and/or TecnoTur LLC to carry out consulting and/or translations/localizations/transcreations. So far, none of the manufacturers listed above is/are sponsors of the TecnoTur, BeyondPodcasting, CapicúaFM or TuSaludSecreta programs, although they are welcome to do so, and some are, may be (or may have been) sponsors of ProVideo Coalition magazine. Some links to third parties listed in this article and/or on this web page may indirectly benefit TecnoTur LLC via affiliate programs. Allan Tépper’s opinions are his own. Allan Tépper is not liable for misuse or misunderstanding of information he shares.

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