jkaplon / alytfeed

At Least You're Trying podcast feed

alytfeed

This repository contains the RSS feed for the At Least You're Trying podcast. It may seem odd to have my podcast feed on github, but I assure you that it's a key piece of an overly-complex (but valuable) workflow. I configured the github webook to notify the server hosting the official podcast feed every time I push a new episode into the feed. A Node.js service running on my VPS over at Linode takes care of the subsequent cloning and file system housekeeping. This scheme also happens to provide a full version history and an offsite backup of this precious XML file.

But unit tests on a podcast feed?

Yes, this feed has some tests written in Go. This was my first experience writing Go code, and I chose it due to its simple testing story...go test. Since I update the feed by hand, I don't want to be able to make a typo in the publication date and have my podcasting empire come crashing down (this has happened a few times). The tests can run on a local git commit hook (see bash belsow) or as a GitHub action (see .github/workflows/go.yml).

Here are the contents of .git/hooks/pre-commit (don't forget to grant execution permission!):

#!/bin/sh

status=0
badtest="$(go test | grep "FAIL:" | awk '{print $3}')"
if test -n "$badtest" ; then
    for bad in $badtest; do
        echo "git pre-commit check failed: go test failed: $bad"
    done
    status=1
fi

exit $status

Become a listener...Official Feed Locations:

• RSS, www.kaplon.us/alytfeed
• iTunes, https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/at-least-youre-trying/id702153446?mt=2&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

Interact

• http://gtradio.net/alyt
• https://www.facebook.com/AtLeastYoureTrying
• [email protected]

Thanks to archive.org for media hosting and bandwidth.

alytfeed's Issues

Reproduce go test failure in GitHub Action

What happens if go test fails inside my GitHub Action?
Will I have to click into Actions UI in order to find out?...probably.
Will the stdout failure message be sent anywhere else?...probably not.
Will anything happen to rollback the push and keep webhook from publishing a podcast feed?...probably not & that's no good.

• Investigate other options to add to Action for alerting or rollback

add links to episode web pages in feed

Previous attempts to add links or extended notes into

tag have caused feed breakage. Check that overall feed tags and namespace declarations are correct and will support html links within other tags.

Add unit test to catch un-escaped ampersands

Previously had to fix this in <title> of e48:
Commit, 06de5a9

Catch naked ampersands anywhere in alytfeed except within a ![CDATA[ ]] block.

Run go test using GitHub Actions

Try to improve on git-hook-only setup by running golang tests with an Action.

Add validations w/in ruby listener script?

I would like to completely automate the updating and publishing of this feed...and a pony.

Meanwhile, some quick/dirty validation checks would be useful.
I think a good place for them would be in the ruby script that is on the listening-end of the webhook for this repository.

Checks could include such face-palmer's as:

• invalid date/time value in the tag (especially missing 'GMT'!)
• https in the enclosure URL (still not sure why this is a problem...)
• invalid enclosure URL

Add unit test to catch media player iframe included in feed

Don't want to include archive.org media player embed iframe in show notes section when pasting from ghost blog site into alytfeed.

Don't make test specific to archive.org, but probably only need to parse <description> tag for alyt use case.