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Configuring RSS Feeds

Multimedia.RSS History

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What is included in your Sermons Online feed

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What is included in your Sermons Online feed

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Customizing Your Feed

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Customizing Your Feed

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Church Name\\

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Church Name

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Church Sermon Page URL\\

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Church Sermon Page URL

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Technical Point-of-Contact\\

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Technical Point-of-Contact

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Multimedia Format\\

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Multimedia Format

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Number of past sermon dates\\

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Number of past sermon dates

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Image to display with the feed\\

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Image to display with the feed

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https://www.sermonsonline.com/images/openbook144.jpg.

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https://www.sermonsonline.com/images/openbook144.jpg

May 23, 2015, at 02:36 PM EST by Dave - Modified help text for RSS feeds
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When you enable the RSS Feed feature on your Site Settings page, an RSS Feed icon will appear at the bottom of all sermon views and the sermon cover page. Clicking the icon takes the user to a page where they can subscribe to a feed of the most recent sermons you have added to your archive. A variety of one-click subscription methods are provided for iTunes and other podcasters that support one the following protocols:

  • Universal Subscription Mechanism (USM)
  • podcast://
  • pcast://
  • .pcast

An RSS 2.0-compatible feed is also provided for manual subscription.

to:

When you enable the RSS Feed feature on your Site Settings page, an RSS Feed icon will appear at the bottom of all sermon views and the sermon cover page. Clicking the icon takes the user to a page where they can subscribe to a feed of the most recent sermons you have added to your archive. A variety of one-click subscription methods are provided for RSS readers such as browsers and multimedia players.

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By default, the feed includes all the sermons preached over the past five dates. If multiple sermons are preached on the same date, all are included in the feed for that date. Example: your church publishes two services per week. Your feed will contain 10 sermons (2 services each over the past 5 weeks.)

The number of dates can be customized by adding the following parameter to the feed URL:

&sermonsite_pagesize=[number_of_dates]

Where [number_of_dates] is the number of publication-dates to include in the feed. For example, if you publish sermons once a week and you set this number to 10, your feed will include all the sermons published over the last 10 weeks.

The feed is populated with the information you have entered on your Site Settings page and the Sermon Publisher. The following fields are used:

  • Site Settings fields:
    • Church Name
    • Church Sermon Page URL
    • Technical Point-of-Contact
    • RSS Multimedia file format1
    • RSS Feed Image (see tutorial, below)
  • Sermon fields:
    • Title
    • Preacher
    • Date and Service Time
    • Description
    • Series/Topic
    • Scriptures
    • Sermon Multimedia file

1 We recommend you select MP3 Audio for maximum compatibility. If there are multiple files with the same format for a sermon, the one with the highest bandwidth is used.

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By default, the feed includes all the sermons preached over the past five dates. If multiple sermons are preached on the same date, all are included in the feed for that date. Example: your church publishes two services per week. Your feed will contain 10 sermons (2 services each over the past 5 weeks.) The number of past dates to include in the feed can be customized; see below. For each sermon, the feed will include the title, name of the speaker, date and time, and a link to the sermon's audio or video file. If the optional description, series, and scripture references are published, those will be included in the feed as well.

The feed subscription (the overall collection of your sermons) will include the name of your church, the contact information of your technical point-of-contact, and a link to your church's sermon page. This information is taken from your site settings page. A default "open book" logo graphic is used on the feed, but this can be customized; see below.

Customizing Your Feed

The following feed parameters can be customized via the Site Settings page:

Church Name
This is the name that also appears as the title of the Sermon Site Manager.

Church Sermon Page URL\\

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Replacing the Sermons Online "Open Book" Icon with Your Own Image

Be default, the image displayed with RSS feeds is the Sermons Online "open book" icon, 144 pixels square (see above, in the Sermons Online bar at the top of this page). You can substitute an image of your own choosing for this one.

  1. Go to the EDIT SITE SETTINGS page of your account
  2. Scroll down to the SERVICE CONFIGURATION section of the page
  3. In the RSS FEED area, type or cut/paste the url address of the image you wish to use.
    NOTE: Only JPG, GIF, and PNG image types are allowed.
  4. OPTIONAL: customize the size at which you wish the image to display by entering pixle numbers in the image Height and Width fields.
    NOTE: For iTunes, the height and width settings are ignored. The image MUST be 1400 pixels square, and iTunes will scale it as required.
  5. Click SAVE

That's all there is to it. The image will now appear on your sermon page.

If you need help with any of these steps, just sign in to the Site Manager and open a Support Ticket

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Technical Point-of-Contact
The Technical point-of-contact email is used as the "managingEditor" and "webMaster" attributes of the feed.

Multimedia Format
We recommend you select MP3 Audio for maximum compatibility. If there are multiple files with the same format for a sermon, the one with the highest bandwidth is used.

Number of past sermon dates
This is the number of publication-dates in the past to include in each feed. If you publish once a week and you set this number to 5 (the default), then all the sermons you published in the last 5 weeks will be included (that is, the past month.) What is counted are unique publication dates, not sermons. For example, if you publish the sermons for 3 services per week, then the default feed will include 15 total sermons (3 sermons for each of the past 5 weeks.)

Image to display with the feed
By default, the image displayed with RSS feeds is the Sermons Online "open book" icon:

https://www.sermonsonline.com/images/openbook144.jpg.

You can substitute an image of your own choosing for this one by filling in the following fields:

  • Image URL: cut/paste the url address of the image you wish to use. It must be a .jpg, .gif, or .png image. For maximum quality, make sure the image is at least 1400 pixels and square.
  • Height: the height of the image to display in the feed listing, in pixels; the default is 144px. Note, iTunes ignores the height and width settings. The image must be 1400 pixels square, and iTunes will scale it as needed to fit.
  • Width: If your graphic is square, then you only need to specify just the height. If the image is not square, then specify its display width here.

If you need help with any of these steps, just sign in to the Site Manager and open a Support Ticket

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When you enable the RSS Feed feature on your Site Settings page, an RSS Feed icon will appear at the bottom of all sermon views and the sermon cover page. Clicking the icon takes the user to a page where they can subscribe to a feed of the most recent sermons you have added to your archive. A variety of one-click subscription methods are provided for iTunes and other podcatchers that support one the following protocols:

to:

When you enable the RSS Feed feature on your Site Settings page, an RSS Feed icon will appear at the bottom of all sermon views and the sermon cover page. Clicking the icon takes the user to a page where they can subscribe to a feed of the most recent sermons you have added to your archive. A variety of one-click subscription methods are provided for iTunes and other podcasters that support one the following protocols:

July 24, 2014, at 12:08 PM EST by Dave - Added instructions on how to customize the pagesize
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The number of dates can be customized by adding the following parameter to the feed URL:

&sermonsite_pagesize=[number_of_dates]

Where [number_of_dates] is the number of publication-dates to include in the feed. For example, if you publish sermons once a week and you set this number to 10, your feed will include all the sermons published over the last 10 weeks.

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  • Link to the Sermon Multimedia file
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  • Sermon Multimedia file
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(:title Configuring RSS Feeds (Podcasts):)

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(:title Configuring RSS Feeds:)

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  • Link to the Sermon Multimedia file
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  1. In the RSS FEED area, type or cut/paste the url address of the image you wish to use.NOTE: Only JPG, GIF, and PNG image types are allowed.
  2. OPTIONAL: customize the size at which you wish the image to display by entering pixle numbers in the image Height and Width fields.NOTE: For iTunes, the height and width settings are ignored. The image MUST be 1400 pixels square, and iTunes will scale it as required.
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  1. In the RSS FEED area, type or cut/paste the url address of the image you wish to use.
    NOTE: Only JPG, GIF, and PNG image types are allowed.
  2. OPTIONAL: customize the size at which you wish the image to display by entering pixle numbers in the image Height and Width fields.
    NOTE: For iTunes, the height and width settings are ignored. The image MUST be 1400 pixels square, and iTunes will scale it as required.
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Introduction

May 22, 2013, at 12:37 PM EST by Dave Marney - Updated information, added section on RSS feed contents
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The feed contains all the sermons preached on the most recent day. For example, if you most recently published a Morning and an Evening service, the feed will contain two sermons.

Specifications

You must pick a multimedia file format to include in the feed; we recommend you select MP3 Audio for maximum compatibility. If there are multiple files with the same format for a sermon, the one with the highest bandwidth is used.

Subscribers to your feed can link from a podcast to your sermon site. The Church Sermon Page URL in your Site Settings page is used as the link target. If this URL is not defined, then the subscriber will be shown a generic page of your sermons with the Sermons Online logo.

to:

What is included in your Sermons Online feed

By default, the feed includes all the sermons preached over the past five dates. If multiple sermons are preached on the same date, all are included in the feed for that date. Example: your church publishes two services per week. Your feed will contain 10 sermons (2 services each over the past 5 weeks.)

The feed is populated with the information you have entered on your Site Settings page and the Sermon Publisher. The following fields are used:

  • Site Settings fields:
    • Church Name
    • Church Sermon Page URL
    • Technical Point-of-Contact
    • RSS Multimedia file format1
    • RSS Feed Image (see tutorial, below)
  • Sermon fields:
    • Title
    • Preacher
    • Date and Service Time
    • Description
    • Series/Topic
    • Scriptures

1 We recommend you select MP3 Audio for maximum compatibility. If there are multiple files with the same format for a sermon, the one with the highest bandwidth is used.

Each sermon in the feed links to the Sermon Cover Page on your web site. The Church Sermon Page URL in your Site Settings page is used as the link target. If this URL is not defined, then the subscriber will be shown a generic page of your sermons with the Sermons Online logo.

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(1) Go to the EDIT SITE SETTINGS page of your account

(2) Scroll down to the SERVICE CONFIGURATION section of the page

(3) In the RSS FEED area, type or cut/paste the url address of the image you wish to use.

    NOTE: Only JPG, GIF, and PNG image types are allowed.

(4) OPTIONAL: customize the size at which you wish the image to display by entering pixle numbers in the image Height and Width fields.

    NOTE: For iTunes, the height and width settings are ignored. The image MUST be 1400 pixels square, and iTunes will scale it as required.

(5) Click SAVE

to:
  1. Go to the EDIT SITE SETTINGS page of your account
  2. Scroll down to the SERVICE CONFIGURATION section of the page
  3. In the RSS FEED area, type or cut/paste the url address of the image you wish to use.NOTE: Only JPG, GIF, and PNG image types are allowed.
  4. OPTIONAL: customize the size at which you wish the image to display by entering pixle numbers in the image Height and Width fields.NOTE: For iTunes, the height and width settings are ignored. The image MUST be 1400 pixels square, and iTunes will scale it as required.
  5. Click SAVE
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Replacing the Sermons Online "Open Book" Icon with your own Image

to:

Replacing the Sermons Online "Open Book" Icon with Your Own Image

April 12, 2013, at 10:34 PM EST by Jay - Added explanation of replacing the RSS feed icon
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Introduction

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Specifications

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REPLACING THE SERMONS ONLINE "OPEN BOOK" ICON WITH YOUR OWN IMAGE

to:

Replacing the Sermons Online "Open Book" Icon with your own Image

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REPLACING THE SERMONS ONLINE "OPEN BOOK" ICON WITH YOUR OWN IMAGE

Be default, the image displayed with RSS feeds is the Sermons Online "open book" icon, 144 pixels square (see above, in the Sermons Online bar at the top of this page). You can substitute an image of your own choosing for this one.

(1) Go to the EDIT SITE SETTINGS page of your account

(2) Scroll down to the SERVICE CONFIGURATION section of the page

(3) In the RSS FEED area, type or cut/paste the url address of the image you wish to use.

    NOTE: Only JPG, GIF, and PNG image types are allowed.

(4) OPTIONAL: customize the size at which you wish the image to display by entering pixle numbers in the image Height and Width fields.

    NOTE: For iTunes, the height and width settings are ignored. The image MUST be 1400 pixels square, and iTunes will scale it as required.

(5) Click SAVE

That's all there is to it. The image will now appear on your sermon page.

March 29, 2013, at 11:26 PM EST by Jay - Added link to new support ticket system
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If you need help with any of these steps, just sign in to the Site Manager and open a Support Ticket

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(:title Configuring RSS Feeds (Podcasts):)

When you enable the RSS Feed feature on your Site Settings page, an RSS Feed icon will appear at the bottom of all sermon views and the sermon cover page. Clicking the icon takes the user to a page where they can subscribe to a feed of the most recent sermons you have added to your archive. A variety of one-click subscription methods are provided for iTunes and other podcatchers that support one the following protocols:

  • Universal Subscription Mechanism (USM)
  • podcast://
  • pcast://
  • .pcast

An RSS 2.0-compatible feed is also provided for manual subscription.

The feed contains all the sermons preached on the most recent day. For example, if you most recently published a Morning and an Evening service, the feed will contain two sermons.

You must pick a multimedia file format to include in the feed; we recommend you select MP3 Audio for maximum compatibility. If there are multiple files with the same format for a sermon, the one with the highest bandwidth is used.

Subscribers to your feed can link from a podcast to your sermon site. The Church Sermon Page URL in your Site Settings page is used as the link target. If this URL is not defined, then the subscriber will be shown a generic page of your sermons with the Sermons Online logo.