Hi,
I apologise if mentioning this is potentially a paid gig is out of order, but this is an important workflow tool I need, and if I can find someone who can solve this, I’m happy to compensate them (or donate to the site if that’s what they prefer). The outcome of this will be freely released, I just really need it for my own workflows, and I’m at the “just pay someone and get it solved” stage.
Background: I’m trying to set up a self-hosted Podcast archive system, that doesn’t require installing a whole Plex-like media server application, where usually the first steps are “install Docker” or “Run Homebrew”, and which doesn’t require using a Web App to manage things.
Why do I want to DIY this, rather than use an existing application/ platform / tool?
Because I don’t want to invest time in a system that someone else can break, for example Plex deciding to remove Podcast support from their ecosystem. I want to build something that is freely available for anyone to implement, resilient to the commercial interests or whims of individual companies or projects, and can be configured by non-programmers / non-sysadmins.
How it would work: The structure of the project is a person would acquire their podcast episodes by whatever means they prefer (I have files going back 20 years from defunct shows that are no longer offering feeds), and have them stored in a main directory on their computer, each show in a separate subfolder. The script would fire (using Automator, Folder Actions, Shortcuts, Hazel, Keyboard Maestro - whatever automation system the user prefers) whenever a new file is added (or changed) to a show’s folder, and update / rewrite the RSS/XML file for that folder to reflect the updated folder contents.
From there, the user would have their choice of local webserver (be it a third party app, or the built-in Apache in macOS) serve that RSS feed both locally on the machine, and via the local network so that the user’s choice of player application can play the files. Then the user can stream, or download to device (using the capabilities built in to their choice of Podcasting app) if they’re leaving their local network.
End Product: The goal is to modularise every aspect of the Podcast process, so that every stage can be filled with a user’s preferred application. The one part missing currently is this generation of the RSS feeds - I’m aware of Reinvented’s Feeder, but that’s a single vendor solution, with the inherent vulnerabilities I’m trying to avoid.
I already have a developer who would be keen to make it as a commandline Rust application, but that opens questions of notarisation, and a single point of failure etc. I really want a scripting-based solution - Applescript, Shell Script, Javascript are all acceptable, so long as it’s a text file that can be dropped into a folder, and then activated by an automation tool on a completely vanilla macOS install.
I want the plumbing of this to be something a user constructs at the filesystem level in Finder, and the overall function of it to be something the user builds in a comprehendible GUI automation tool (I’m using Hazel and Keyboard Maestro for most of my automation), not an Electron / Webapp front end to a Homebrew installed port of a Linux app that was designed to run on a NAS etc, which is what most self-hosted Podcast library solutions seem to be.
If anyone is interested, please feel free to reply here, or direct message me if you prefer, and we can talk about costs etc.
Thanks.
matt.