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Ernest Prabhakar wrote:
> Hello everyone,
>
> To help both provide and capture useful context, we've create a
> syndication-dev FAQ:
>
> http://lists.apple.com/faq/pub/syndication-dev/
>
> I've added some background information about the purpose of the spec,
> and best practices for filing bugs. In addition, I've captured the
> earlier exchange about <itunes:block>.
The earlier exchange says case-insensitive. The page you created says
case-sensitive.
> Perhaps more importantly, it provides you a mechanism for both:
> - asking a FAQ that you'd want us to answer
> - proposing an answer to an FAQ that you'd want us to post
The "best way to file bugs" mentioned directly testing against the
iTunes application. I have a problem with encouraging
reverse-engineering as a path towards interoperability.
The current behavior of "<itunes:block> yes </itunes:block>" (note the
spaces) is to NOT block. We already have indications on this mailing
list that this behavior is considered a bug in the implementation.
That being said, the developers of the Feed Validator are already doing
a fair amount of reverse engineering. For example, Phil Ringnalda
checked in a change earlier today [http://tinyurl.com/8de9m] which
re-syncs the list that the feed validator checks categories against with
what he has observed by visiting [itms://itunes.com/browse?bp=/26] and
transcribing what he found.
- - -
Let me rephrase the above more constructively. I believe that the
combination of clear specifications, plentiful samples that exemplify
best practices, an easy to use online validator is something that will
benefit everybody.
Let's take a look at a concrete example: http://tinyurl.com/8occa
People *will* base their feeds on what ESPN does. And people will try
to subscribe to the ESPN feeds and wonder why the category specified in
the feed isn't respected by the iTunes application.
Let's work together to improve on this. For starters, I would like to
request that Apple consider limiting the "Featured Podcasts" on
http://www.apple.com/podcasting/ to ones that exemplify the best
practices that Apple would like to see in feeds. Note: I am not trying
to dictate what these best practices are, I am merely offering to help
make them a reality.
Suggestion: run the feeds through the Feed Validator. The Feed
Validator is open source, and also has a bug tracking system. If the
errors produced are unclear, misleading, or outright wrong, let us know.
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=626803&group_id=99943&func=browse
Meanwhile, I have questions that aren't clearly bugs, though I am
willing to record them as such if you prefer. For example:
> Can categories be anything the producer wants them to be, or must they
> be in a predefined list? If the latter, where can I find the list?
Unlike Karl, I don't care if this list is RDF/XML, N3, XHTML, or YAML.
But I would prefer that it be available via http: instead of itms:.
Is that something we could discuss?
- Sam Ruby
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