Aviary User Guide

Aviary Features

Create a RSS/Podcast Feed for an Aviary Collection (or Playlist)

In Aviary, Organizations can publish RSS Feeds for each Collection or Playlist that they create. This is an optional feature that can be turned on in the Collection Settings menu (or in the Playlist Info tab of an Edit Playlist page). RSS feeds are required to publish podcasts with popular aggregators such as iTunes or Google Play. Organizations can also use the RSS feeds as ways for their users to be alerted to the presence of new Resources in a Collection.

Organizations have the ability to include all Resources in a Collection in the RSS feed, or to select specific Resources from the Collection to include in the feed. This gives the Organization total control of what is included in the feed, but also the ability to automate updating the feed if they desire to have all Resources present in the feed.

Read below for instructions on how to set up RSS/Podcast Feeds in Aviary.

Step-by-step guide

Create a Collection that will hold your RSS/Podcast content

Name the Collection with the title that you want to appear in Aviary. It can be the same as the title you want to use for your RSS/Podcast feed; however, you will get another chance to provide a Podcast title at a future step.

The Collection status must be set to "Public".

The Collection can be featured or not-featured. This won't affect the RSS/Podcast feed behavior.

If you intend to use the feed as a Podcast feed, then use the "About your collection" section to provide a description of your podcast.

Save the Collection.

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Now in the list of your Collections, select "Edit" for the new Collection you created

Find the tab entitled, "RSS/Podcast Settings," and click it.

This will open a new window that looks like the following image.

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Note: For Playlists, you'll find this option in the "Playlist Info" tab on the Edit Playlist page.

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In both case, the first time you set up the feed you will need to select "Create Feed"

When you click "Create Feed" a pop-up window will display.

Fill in the information accordingly and follow all guidance for proper sizing of images, etc.

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When you have completed filling out the form, select "Save".

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Now you will see options on your Collection edit page (or the Playlist Info tab) that allow you to enable or update the RSS feed you have created

When you "enable" the feed, you need to select the "Update" button at the bottom of the page in order for the change to take affect.

You can also update the metadata you just provided by selecting the "Update feed" option at any time.

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Once you have enabled your feed, you will now see an option to "Get Feed Link"

This is your URL that you provide to anyone or any site that wants to use your RSS/Podcast feed for your Collection or Playlist.

Clicking on the link will load the feed into a browser window. You just need to provide the URL when sharing the feed.

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Customizing which Resources are included in your feed

If you selected "Custom" in your feed settings in order to be able to select which Aviary Resources are included in your feed, then follow these additional steps to add Resources from your Collection into your feed.

View the list of Resources for your Collection (or create a Resource to add to your Collection if you do not currently have any created)

For each Resource that you want to include in your feed for your Collection, select "Edit".

On the "General Settings" screen check the checkbox called "Include in RSS/Podcast Feed"

If you want to add additional details about the resource that are specific to a podcast feed, then on the "General Settings" screen check the checkbox called "Add RSS/Podcast Information."

When you are finished, select "Save".

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See Analytics for your Podcast/RSS downloads

You can see the analytics for your podcast related downloads in the Analytics → Resource Analytics sidebar when you are logged into your organization.

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Podcast Publication Date⁠

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Edit a Collection⁠

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Create a RSS/Podcast Feed for an Aviary Collection (or Playlist)⁠

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Create a RSS/Podcast Feed for an Aviary Collection (or Playlist)

Step-by-step guide

Customizing which Resources are included in your feed

See Analytics for your Podcast/RSS downloads

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