File Size

[jawbone]

How do you put the file size into your XML file so it shows up here on Podcast Alley and also on other sites? I'm guessing it's a tag or something, but I'm not sure what it is. Any help would be greatly appreciated. :)

[notyourusualbollocks]

<enclosure url="http://xxx/xxx/xxx.mp3" length="58391705" type="audio/mpeg" />

MK

[jawbone]

Thanks. I thought it was something easy like that.

Now do I have to type MB in there? Or does it automatically convert?

[notyourusualbollocks]

...and that's a 58 meg file.....so convert it to bytes / bits? I can never get it right.

MK

[jawbone]

What if I type 16.9 MB. Will readers understand it?

[jawbone]

I just typed that in Google and couldn't get it to work. It gave me results for that search, but not the exact number. And yes, I did replace the 16 with my file size.

[jeffoest]

Since the enclosure tag uses the 'Bytes' as the unit of measure, i would not recommend converting from MB (you lose precision)... If you can get the exact size of your file in bytes it would be better.

If you must, just multiply the number of MB by 1024 to get KB then multiply by 1024 again to get Bytes...

[jawbone]

Ok, I got it to work. I did it for the last 7 shows and it seems to be working fine. I wrote the XML file a long time ago and I am finding I have to tweak as I go along. But this is a nice addition to enhancing it. I don't know if anyone really cares about the size of these files, though.

[jeffoest]

I may be completely wrong here but I was under the impression that it's kind of important for some of the podcast readers.

If a problem occurs mid-download it enables them to recover either quicker or be able to recover at all... in either case, i do believe that podcast readers use these to somehow efficiently download and error-correct.

[allthewhile]

just run the xml file that you hand create through feedburner. You don't have to actually use that feed, but it'll tell you how big your files are when you look at the enclosure tags it creates!

-jayson

[pdadave]

FYI:

If you want to google a conversion, just type "XUnit1 to Unit2" where X is a number, Unit1 is the first unit, and Unit 2 is the second.

For example:
16.9MB to Bytes
will result in:
16.9 megabytes = 17 720 934.4 Bytes

http://www.google.com/search?q=16.9MB+to+Bytes

[Version3]

I would not recommend using a conversion. Many servers will abort a file resume when the aggregator, browser, FTP utility or download resumer uses a different file size (estimated in this case) than the actual file size.

In windows, right click on the file and choose properties. You will get the actual size on disk right there. On Mac, you can get this with a ctrl-click and choose get info on the file.

Using an accurate file size will make the resume function work correctly for everyone.

[jeffoest]

Um.. I think I just said that like two hours ago.... ;-)

I would not recommend using a conversion. Many servers will abort a file resume when the aggregator, browser, FTP utility or download resumer uses a different file size (estimated in this case) than the actual file size.

In windows, right click on the file and choose properties. You will get the actual size on disk right there. On Mac, you can get this with a ctrl-click and choose get info on the file.

Using an accurate file size will make the resume function work correctly for everyone.

[Version3]

Seems like you were pretty vague on it, all i got from your message is that it's not accurate but you can use it if you want. I'm simply stating that using it if you want might result in no resuming at all.

Not a big deal though, I was just added what I hoped might be useful information, if it's duplicate info skip over it.

[allthewhile]

dudes, my method will give you the accurate file size and you won't have to convert. In fact, you can just copy all of the feedburner feed into your xml file. Windows does not give you the filesize in bytes, btw.

[jawbone]

I've burned that feed with Feedburner, but where are you looking to get the file size?

I think (as always) I am making this more complicated than it needs to be, :(

[Version3]

XP pro DEFINITELY shows you file size in bytes.

[jawbone]

Ferf:

Here is the issue. I have 2 seperate feeds. The one from my Blog. The second one is the original RSS feed that I created when we started doing the show. (That's the one I use here on PA and the one that a lot of other sites have used.) When I update my blog, it automagically does a bunch of stuff for me. But that wasn't the original feed that I used for the show. That feed is the one I created manually and still do update manually when I do our show. Both are burned by Feedburner and I track both.

What's happening now is since I am doing manual changes to the original hand created RSS feed, I'm getting XML Parsing errors all over the place. I don't know why it's happening, but it is.

If there is a simpler way to edit RSS, please let me know. I don't want to have to edit two files, but since they are both being tracked, I need to. But as I get deeper into tweaking the RSS, it's getting crazier. It's like I'm unraveling a huge cable knit sweater that someone keeps knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting and ....

[Craig]

Um.. I think I just said that like two hours ago.... ;-)
FWIW I thought you were vague on it too. Also, bear in mind that when you get info/properties on a file you will get two sizes...the size of the file on disk and actual size of the file (in parentheses on Mac OS X). You want the actual size of the file.

For the curious, your disk is divided into chunks, called sectors, for the sake of efficiency. The size of a sector can vary depending on the OS and how the drive was formatted but typically it's 512 bytes. When you save a file it is assigned to a group of sectors, which means that in the case of a 512-byte sector each file will always be a multiple of 512 bytes on disk, regardless of its actual size. A one-byte file, for example, will take up 512 bytes on disk.

Craig "Geek" Patchett

[Version3]

Yeah, and looking back I just realized I wrote the wrong one to use! Ha. Yeah, Craig is right. File size.

I know that both versions of XP and 2k will show it this way (on disk and actual size) but on Mac OSX I think the first number is on disk, but the ones appearing in parenthesis are actual file size. Am I wrong that? It's what I use for my xml file and resumes work great.

[Craig]

I know that both versions of XP and 2k will show it this way (on disk and actual size) but on Mac OSX I think the first number is on disk, but the ones appearing in parenthesis are actual file size. Am I wrong that?
No, you're correct...I updated my previous post to avoid confusion. That's what I get for working on both Windows and Mac.

Craig