RDCastManager is a Rivendell module designed for posting items and managing item metadata for audio podcasts managed by Rivendell. The RDCastManager Main Window When started, RDCastManager will display the list of available podcast feeds for the currently logged in user. Each line begins with an icon, showing the assigned channel image for the repective feed. To see the list of items posted to a particular feed, select the desired feed on the list and then touch the View Feed button to open the Podcast Item List dialog. The Podcast Item List Dialog Each posted item has a status, indicated by the color of the icon in the Status column. Status Meaning Item is active and visible to the audience. Item is inactive and not visible to the audience. Item is active, but currently embargoed and not visible to the audience. To view (and possibly modify) an item's metadata, select the item on the list and then touch the Edit button to open the Editing Item dialog. The Editing Item Dialog The following controls are available: Item Active When ticked, this makes the item visible to the audience (but see Air Date/Time below). Unticking this is a good way to put an item "on hold" without permanently deleting it from the feed. Posted By This is a "read-only" field that provides details on the provenance of the item. Title The title of the item. Author E-Mail The e-mail address (and optionally, full name) of the author/originator of the item. Description Text describing the content of the item. The accompanying Item contains explicit content checkbox should be ticked if the item contains content that may not be suitable for under-age listeners. Image The icon that will associated with this item when viewed by the audience. Air Date/Time The date/time that the item was/will be published. If this is set to a value in the future, the item will be embargoed --i.e. hidden from the audience-- until this date/time. Expires If this dropdown is set to Yes, then the item will be automatically deleted from the feed at the specified date/time. If set to No, the item will never be deleted automatically. Deleting an item cannot be undone! To save any changes made to the item's metadata and close the dialog touch the OK. To close the dialog while abandoning any pending changes, touch Cancel. To delete an item and permanently remove it from the feed, select the desired item and touch the Delete button. The system will prompt for confirmation: The Delete Item Dialog then touch the Yes button to complete the operation. Deletion of an item is permanent; it cannot be undone! If it is desired to temporarily hide an item, simply untick the Item Active checkbox in the item's Editing Item dialog. "Posting" is the action by which a new item is added to a podcast feed. RDCastManager is capable of posting to a feed from three different sources: a Rivendell cart/cut, a Rivendell log, and directly from an audio file. To post the contents of a Rivendell cart/cut, touch the Post from Cart/Cut button to open the Select Cut dialog: The Select Cut Dialog Select the desired cart/cut, then touch the OK button. RDCastManager will upload the audio and then open the Editing Item dialog to allow the new item's metadata to be set. To post one or more events from a Rivendell log, touch the Post from Log button to open the Select Log dialog: The Select Log Dialog Select the log to post, then touch the OK button to bring up the Log Render Options dialog: The Select Log Dialog The following controls are available in this dialog: Virtual Start Time Set the virtual start time to be used when rendering the log. This can be useful for simulating a "real" log play-out so that dayparting of cuts works as expected. By default, the wall time when the OK is touched will be used. At STOP transition Set the action to take during log rendering if a STOP transition is encountered. If Treat as PLAY (the default) is selected, rendering will continue as if a PLAY transition were found. If Stop Rendering is selected, rendering of the log will be terminated at that point. Selected Log Events By default, all of the events in the log will be rendered (subject to possible truncation by a STOP transition as specified by the setting of At STOP Transition). To select a subset of events to be rendered, touch the Select button bring up the List Log dialog: The List Log Events Dialog Select the events to be rendered and then touch the OK button to return to the Log Render Options dialog. After the desired rendering options set, touch the OK button. RDCastManager will upload the audio and then open the Editing Item dialog to allow the new item's metadata to be set. To post the contents of an audio file, touch the Post from File button to bring up the Select Audio File dialog. The Select Audio File Dialog Select the file to be posted and then touch the OK button. RDCastManager will upload the audio and then open the Editing Item dialog to allow the new item's metadata to be set.