Apple Mac OS X Server (early) Podcast Composer User Guide Manual V10.6

2009-08-27

User Manual: Apple Mac OS X Server (early) Mac OS X Server v10.6 - Podcast Composer User Guide

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PodcastComposer

Mac OS X Server

Podcast Composer User Guide

Version 10.6 Snow Leopard

Apple Inc. K

The owner or authorized user of a valid copy of Mac OS

X Server software may reproduce this publication for

the purpose of learning to use such software. No part

of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted

for commercial purposes, such as selling copies of this

publication or for providing paid-for support services.

Every eort has been made to make sure that the

information in this manual is correct. Apple Inc. is not

responsible for printing or clerical errors.

Apple

1 Innite Loop

Cupertino CA 95014

408-996-1010

www.apple.com

The Apple logo is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered

in the U.S. and other countries. Use of the “keyboard”

Apple logo (Option-Shift-K) for commercial purposes

without the prior written consent of Apple may

constitute trademark infringement and unfair

competition in violation of federal and state laws.

Apple, the Apple logo, Final Cut Studio, iCal, iChat,

Keynote, Leopard, Mac, Macintosh, Numbers, Pages,

QuickTime, Xgrid, and Xserve are trademarks of Apple

Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Finder,

iPhone, and Snow Leopard are trademarks of Apple Inc.

Adobe and PostScript are trademarks of Adobe Systems

Incorporated.

UNIX® is a registered trademark of The Open Group.

Other company and product names mentioned herein

are trademarks of their respective companies. Mention

of third-party products is for informational purposes

only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a

recommendation. Apple assumes no responsibility with

regard to the performance or use of these products.

019-1407/2009-08-01

5 Preface: About This Guide

5 What’s in This Guide

6 Using Onscreen Help

7 Document Map

7 Viewing PDF Guides Onscreen

8 Printing PDF Guides

8 Getting Documentation Updates

9 Getting Additional Information

10 Chapter 1: Podcast Composer Overview

11 How Podcast Composer Works

12 Navigating the Podcast Composer Stages

12 Obtaining Help

12 Creating a Workow

14 Chapter 2: Conguring Basic Workow Information

14 Conguring Basic Workow Information

16 Chapter 3: Conguring the Import Stage

18 Conguring Single Source

20 Conguring Dual Source

22 Conguring Montage

25 Chapter 4: Conguring the Edit Stage

28 Adding and Conguring an Introduction Movie

29 Adding and Conguring a Title Movie

30 Adding and Conguring a Watermark and an Introduction Overlay

32 Adding and Conguring an Exit Movie

33 Conguring Transitions

34 Previewing the Podcast

35 Chapter 5: Conguring the Export Stage

37 Adding QuickTime Encoding Formats

38 Adding Compressor Formats

Contents

4 Contents

39 Chapter 6: Conguring the Publish Stage

40 Sending Content to the Podcast Library

42 Sending Content to an Apple Wiki Server

43 Sending Content Using File Transfer Protocols

45 Sending Content to the Watch Folder of Final Cut Server

46 Sending Content to a Shared Folder

47 Sending Content to a Workow

49 Chapter 7: Conguring the Notify Stage

50 Adding Email Notications

51 Adding iChat Notications

53 Adding iTunes Podcast Directory Notications

54 Adding iTunes U Notications

55 Adding Third-Party Service Notications

56 Chapter 8: Managing Workows

56 Viewing a Summary of the Workow

57 Saving a Workow

58 Using the Workow Inspector

59 Verifying a Workow

60 Deploying a Workow

61 Opening a Workow Remotely

62 Chapter 9: Advanced Podcast Composer Topics

62 Extending Podcast Composer Workows

63 Making Resources Available to Podcast Composer

65 Working with Themes

65 Customizing Podcast Composer Themes

70 Applying a Theme to a Podcast

70 Working with Quartz Composer Compositions

70 Creating Quartz Composer Compositions

72 Selecting a Custom Quartz Composer Compositions

73 Customizing the Email Template

75 Index

This guide describes how to use Podcast Composer to create

Podcast Producer workows.

Mac OS X Server includes Podcast Composer, an application for creating and deploying

Podcast Producer workows.

Important: Before you read this guide, make sure you familiarize yourself with

Podcast Producer workows by reading the relevant sections of the Podcast Producer

Administration guide.

What’s in This Guide

This guide includes the following chapters:

Chapter Â1, “Podcast Composer Overview,” provides an overview of the Podcast

Composer application.

Chapter Â2, “Conguring Basic Workow Information,” describes how to set basic

workow information such as workow title, copyright, and description.

Chapter Â3, “Conguring the Import Stage,” explains how to specify the source types

of the input movies that your workow processes.

Chapter Â4, “Conguring the Edit Stage,” covers podcast branding, which can include

adding a watermark and introduction, title, and exit movies to the input movie.

Chapter Â5, “Conguring the Export Stage,” shows you how to specify the types of

podcast you want your workow to publish.

Chapter Â6, “Conguring the Publish Stage,” describes how to specify podcast

publishing destinations.

Chapter Â7, “Conguring the Notify Stage,” describes how to create notications to

announce the publishing of your podcast.

Chapter Â8, “Managing Workows,” explains how to save, verify, and deploy your

podcast to a Podcast Producer server.

Chapter Â9, “Advanced Podcast Composer Topics,” discusses advanced Podcast

Composer such as customizing the email template and extending workows.

Preface

About This Guide

6 Preface About This Guide

Note: Because Apple periodically releases new versions and updates to its software,

images shown in this book may be dierent from what you see on your screen.

Using Onscreen Help

You can get task instructions onscreen in Help Viewer while you’re managing

Mac OS X Server v10.6. You can view help on a server or an administrator computer.

(An administrator computer is a Mac OS X computer with Mac OS X Server v10.6

administration software installed on it.)

To get the most recent onscreen help for Mac OS X Server v10.6:

Open Server Admin or Workgroup Manager and then: m

Use the Help menu to search for a task you want to perform. Â

Choose Help > Server Admin Help or Help > Workgroup Manager Help to browse Â

and search the help topics.

The onscreen help contains instructions taken from Server Administration and other

advanced administration guides described later.

To see the most recent server help topics:

Make sure the server or administrator computer is connected to the Internet while m

you’re getting help.

Help Viewer retrieves and caches the most recent server help topics from the Internet.

When not connected to the Internet, Help Viewer displays cached help topics.

Preface About This Guide 7

Document Map

Mac OS X Server v10.6 has a suite of guides that cover management of individual

services. Each service may be depend other services for maximum utility. The

documentation map below shows some related documentation that you may need

in order to congure your desired service to your specications. You can get these

guides in PDF format from the Mac OS X Server Resources website:

www.apple.com/server/macosx/resources/

Podcast Composer

Explains how to

create Podcast Producer

workﬂows using

Podcast Composer.

Podcast Producer

Administration

Describes advanced

options for setting up,

conﬁguring, and managing

Podcast Producer service.

Podcast Producer

Workﬂow Tutorial

Walks you through

the process of creating

a complete Podcast

Producer workﬂow.

Podcast

Capture Help

Provides onscreen

instructions and answers

when you’re using

Podcast Capture to

record and submit

content for processing

by Podcast Producer.

Viewing PDF Guides Onscreen

While reading the PDF version of a guide onscreen, you can:

Show bookmarks to see the guide’s outline, and click a bookmark to jump to the Â

corresponding section.

Search for a word or phrase to see a list of places where it appears in the document. Â

Click a listed place to see the page where it occurs.

Click a cross-reference to jump to the referenced section. Click a web link to visit the Â

website in your browser.

8 Preface About This Guide

Printing PDF Guides

If you want to print a guide, you can take these steps to save paper and ink:

Save ink or toner by not printing the cover page. Â

Save color ink on a color printer by looking in the panes of the Print dialog for an Â

option to print in grays or black and white.

Reduce the bulk of the printed document and save paper by printing more than Â

one page per sheet of paper. In the Print dialog, change Scale to 115% (155%

for Getting Started). Then choose Layout from the untitled pop-up menu. If your

printer supports two-sided (duplex) printing, select one of the Two-Sided options.

Otherwise, choose 2 from the Pages per Sheet pop-up menu, and optionally choose

Single Hairline from the Border menu. (If you’re using Mac OS X v10.4 or earlier,

the Scale setting is in the Page Setup dialog and the Layout settings are in the

Print dialog.)

You may want to enlarge the printed pages even if you don’t print double sided,

because the PDF page size is smaller than standard printer paper. In the Print dialog

or Page Setup dialog, try changing Scale to 115% (155% for Getting Started, which has

CD-size pages).

Getting Documentation Updates

Periodically, Apple posts revised help pages and new editions of guides. Some revised

help pages update the latest editions of the guides.

To view new onscreen help topics for a server application, make sure your server or Â

administrator computer is connected to the Internet and click “Latest help topics” or

“Staying current” in the main help page for the application.

To download the latest guides in PDF format, go to the Mac OS X Server Resources Â

website:

www.apple.com/server/macosx/resources/

An RSS feed listing the latest updates to Mac OS X Server documentation and Â

onscreen help is available. To view the feed use an RSS reader application, such

as Safari or Mail:

feed://helposx.apple.com/rss/snowleopard/serverdocupdates.xml

Preface About This Guide 9

Getting Additional Information

For more information, consult these resources:

ÂRead Me documents—get important updates and special information. Look for

them on the server discs.

ÂMac OS X Server website (www.apple.com/server/macosx/)—enter the gateway to

extensive product and technology information.

ÂMac OS X Server Support website (www.apple.com/support/macosxserver/)—access

hundreds of articles from Apple’s support organization.

ÂApple Discussions website (discussions.apple.com/)—share questions, knowledge,

and advice with other administrators.

ÂApple Mailing Lists website (www.lists.apple.com/)—subscribe to mailing lists so

you can communicate with other administrators using email.

ÂApple Training and Certication website (www.apple.com/training/)—hone

your server administration skills with instructor-led or self-paced training, and

dierentiate yourself with certication.

Use this chapter to learn concepts about Podcast Composer

and how you can use it to create Podcast Producer

workows.

Podcast Producer workows are self-contained le bundles that contain all the

information, code, and resources that Podcast Producer needs to produce podcasts.

Developing a workow manually can be a challenging task for developers and

nondevelopers alike because it involves editing XML les, using Podcast Producer

command-line tools, and ensuring that all resources are included in the right place in

the bundle. The more complicated the workow is, the more time it takes to build.

Podcast Composer, an application that ships with Mac OS X Server, simplies and

speeds up the process of building workows by providing you with a simple graphical

user interface. All you do is provide information about the workow, without writing

XML code or worrying about where to store resources and credentials.

With Podcast Composer, creative individuals and administrators can easily develop

workows that can be immediately used, or customized later by developers.

Podcast Composer builds highly optimized workows that take advantage of the

parallel processing capability oered by Xgrid.

Podcast Composer Overview

Chapter 1 Podcast Composer Overview 11

How Podcast Composer Works

Podcast Composer groups the process of building a workow into seven stages that

step you through the process of creating a workow:

Stage 1. Information You specify basic workow information: workow name,

workow author’s name, and a brief description of the workow.

Stage 2. Import You tell the workow what to expect as input: a single QuickTime

movie, two QuickTime movies, or a set of documents that are compatible with Quick

Look. The output of this stage is a single QuickTime movie. If the input to this stage is

two movies, Podcast Composer produces a picture-in-picture movie. If the input to this

stage is documents, Podcast Composer produces treats document pages as images

and renders them into a movie with transitions between the images. If a document is

a video, Podcast Composer concatenates it with the other documents as a movie.

Stage 3. Edit You specify how you want to brand the podcast that this workow

produces by adding watermarks, introduction, title, and exit movies. The output of

this stage is called the Edited Master movie. This stage produces a high-quality movie

at the highest possible resolution based on the resolution of the input movies. The

Edited Master movie is a at QuickTime media le that is used in the following stages

of the workow.

Stage 4. Export You select the dierent types of encodings to be used for publishing

your podcast. For example, you might want your podcast to be available in three

avors: iPhone/iPod, Apple TV, and AAC (audio-only).

Stage 5. Publish You determine how the podcast is published. For example, you can

congure the Publish stage to publish the dierent versions of the podcast to the

Podcast Library.

Stage 6. Notify You create the notications that you want the workow to send after

the podcast is published. You can send notications to users and administrators with

instruction on how to access the podcast. You can also send notications to services to

let them know that new content is published to the Podcast Library.

Stage 7. Summary You verify your selections. If no more changes are required, you

deploy the workow to Podcast Producer server.

When working on a particular stage, Podcast Composer keeps the previous and next

stages in view to provide context.

The workow that you generate using Podcast Composer is a le bundle. A workow

bundle contains the code, resources, credentials, workow description, and all the

information needed to execute the workow.

In the Export, Publish, and Notify stages, you can’t have more than nine elements

per stage.

Navigating the Podcast Composer Stages

Podcast Composer provides several ways to view and navigate stages.

Using the Arrow Keys

Use the Up and Down arrow keys to move from one stage to another. Â

Use the Right and Left arrow keys to move among items in a stage. Â

Using the Commands in the Stages Menu

To move to a stage, choose Stage > Âstage name or use the Command-[stage

number] shortcut. For example, to go to the Edit stage, choose Stages > Edit or

press Command-3.

To move up or down the stages, use the Stages > Previous or Stages > Â

Next command.

To view all stages at once, choose Stages > Overview or press Command-Return. Â

To return to the normal view, use the same command. This command lets you

switch between normal and overview views. You can also double-click the header

of a stage to run the Overview mode.

You can also use the Tab and Shift-Tab keys for navigation.

Obtaining Help

To access Podcast Composer onscreen help, use the Help menu.

To access context-sensitive help about a stage, click the Help (?) button at the bottom

right of the active stage.

Creating a Workow

This section describes how to create a workow using Podcast Composer.

To create a workow in Podcast Composer:

1 Open Podcast Composer (in /Applications/Server/).

2 Choose File > New.

3 Choose File > Save.

4 In the Save As dialog box, enter the name of the workow bundle and specify where

to store it.

The name that you enter in this eld can be dierent from the name you specify in

the Information stage.

5 Go through stages 1 to 6 to congure your workow.

12 Chapter 1 Podcast Composer Overview

Chapter 1 Podcast Composer Overview 13

Remember to periodically save your workow while working on it.

To congure basic workow settings, see Chapter Â2, “Conguring Basic Workow

Information.”

To specify the input source type, see Chapter Â3, “Conguring the Import Stage.”

To brand your podcast, see Chapter Â4, “Conguring the Edit Stage.”

To specify the output formats for your podcast, see Chapter Â5, “Conguring the

Export Stage.”

To specify destinations for your podcast, see Chapter Â6, “Conguring the Publish

Stage.”

To congure notications announcing the publishing of your podcast, see Â

Chapter 7, “Conguring the Notify Stage.”

6 Save your workow (see “Saving a Workow” on page 57).

7 Verify your workow (see “Verifying a Workow” on page 59).

8 Deploy your workow (see “Deploying a Workow” on page 60).

To extend your workow, or to learn about advanced Podcast Composer topics,

see Chapter 9, “Advanced Podcast Composer Topics.”

Use this chapter to set the name, author, and description

information of a workow.

Every workow denes a set of metadata or information about the workow. Podcast

Composer lets you dene three elds that are referenced in Podcast Producer server:

Workow Name, Author, and Description.

Conguring Basic Workow Information

In the rst Podcast Composer stage, Information, you specify the following information

or metadata:

Workow Name—The name of the workow. This is the name that appears in the Â

Workow pane of the Podcast Producer service. It also appears in the Workow

drop-down menu in Podcast Capture. This name can be dierent from the name you

give to the Workow bundle you create with Podcast Composer.

Author—The name of the workow’s author information for your workow. When Â

building your workow in Podcast Composer, you can congure the workow

settings to display the author information in the resulting podcast.

Conguring Basic Workow

Information

Chapter 2 Conguring Basic Workow Information 15

Description—A brief description of your workow. The description you enter here Â

helps Podcast Producer administrators and Podcast Capture users understand what

the workow does.

When you create a workow bundle with Podcast Composer, the Workow

Name, Author, and Description metadata is stored in the Info.plist le inside the

workow’s bundle.

To set the workow name, author, and description information:

1 In Podcast Composer, go to the Information stage (choose Stages > Information or

press Command-1).

2 In the Workow Name eld, enter the name of the workow as you want it to appear

in Server Admin and Podcast Capture.

3 In the Author eld, enter the author information for your workow.

4 In the Description eld, enter a brief description of your workow.

5 Choose File > Save.

Use this chapter to learn how to specify the types of the

input sources to the workow in the Import stage of Podcast

Composer.

In the Import stage, you select the input source of the content your workow

processes. Podcast Composer provides three choices:

Single Source—A single QuickTime movie as input to the workow. The QuickTime Â

movie can be a video recording, a screen recording, or an audio-only recording.

Dual Source—Two QuickTime movies (with video tracks) as input to the workow. Â

For this choice, you cannot use a source with only an audio track. For example, a

video recording of a lecturer and a screen recording of the lecturer’s slides. The

video recordings can come from a remote camera and a local screen, two remote

cameras, or a local camera and local screen.

Conguring the Import Stage

Chapter 3 Conguring the Import Stage 17

Montage—Documents as input to the workow. These documents can be movies, Â

images, Keynote presentations, Pages documents, PDF les, Word les, and

PowerPoint les.

The output of the Import stage is a single movie, which is also the input movie to the

next stage, Edit.

Conguring Single Source

If you want the workow to create a podcast from only one QuickTime movie, select

and congure the Single Source option of the Import stage.

To congure the Single Source option of the Import stage:

1 In Podcast Composer, go to the Import Stage (choose Stages > Import or press

Command-2).

2 Double-click Single Source, or move your mouse over the Single Source icon and click

the Information button in the bottom-right corner of the icon.

If Single Source is selected, you can press Enter to display the Information dialog.

3 From the Single Source Type pop-up menu, choose one of the following options to

specify the type of recording Podcast Capture users can use with this workow:

Any—The input movie can be a video recording, a screen recording, or an audio- Â

only recording.

Video Device Only—The input movie is a video recording. Â

Screen Recorder Only—The input movie is a screen recording. Â

Audio Only—The input movie is an audio-only recording. Â

18 Chapter 3 Conguring the Import Stage

Chapter 3 Conguring the Import Stage 19

4 If you want the workow to automatically detect changes in the input movie and use

this information to assign chapters in the generated podcast, select Automatic Chapter

Generation.

In the case of a screen recording, the workow inserts a chapter marker in the video

when it detects a slide transition or when no changes occur in the video at a certain

moment. This is useful when doing a screen recording or for any video that includes

presentations.

The tool used by the workow to add chapter markers detects stability in a movie by

comparing frames and after the tool nds a stable sequence, it considers it a chapter.

Then, when the sequence changes to another sequence, the tool consider that change

a transition.

Chapter markers are recommended for screen recordings, but not for video and audio

recordings. However, there are instances when adding these markers is useful, such

as when the source video is for a screen recording captured from the VGA or DVI

stream of a computer screen. Screen recording using Podcast Capture works only on a

computer running Mac OS X v10.5 or later.

5 Click Done.

6 Choose File > Save.

Conguring Dual Source

If you want the workow to create a podcast from two QuickTime movies, select

and congure the Dual Source option of the Import stage—for example, a screen

recording of a presentation and a video of the presenter.

Important: It is recommended that you provide the audio of the entire recording in

the video of the presenter and not within the screen recording.

To congure the Dual Source option of the Import stage:

1 In Podcast Composer, go to the Import Stage (choose Stages > Import or press

Command-2).

2 Double-click Dual Source, or move your mouse over the Dual Source icon and click the

Information button in the lower-right corner.

A dialog appears, displaying the settings that you can congure and a live preview box

that reects your selections.

3 From the Dual Source Composition pop-up menu, choose one of the following

composition options to specify how the two input videos are going to be composed

to create the nal movie:

20 Chapter 3 Conguring the Import Stage

Chapter 3 Conguring the Import Stage 21

Keynote Presentation—This picture-in-picture composition displays the screen Â

recording movie in full screen and hides the second movie. After 15 seconds (by

default) this composition minimizes the screen recording movie, moves it to the right,

and displays the second movie in the bottom-left corner of the screen. Finally, after 15

seconds (by default) the composition brings back the screen recording movie into full

screen and hides the second movie. This process repeats for the duration of the movie.

Overlay—This picture-in-picture composition displays the screen recording movie Â

in full screen and overlays the second movie in the bottom-right corner of the

screen. Then, in response to conditions in the screen recording (for example, a slide

doesn’t change for more than 20 seconds) the location of the overlay is switched, if

transition detection is enabled. If transition detection is not enabled, both movies

remain in their original positions.

Overlay with Fade—This composition is similar to the Overlay composition, but Â

instead of keeping the second movie in view all the time, this composition fades the

movie in and out at certain intervals (10 seconds by default).

Theater—This composition is similar to the Overlay composition, except that you Â

always have a full view of the screen recording movie. This option is ideal if you

don’t want any part of the screen recording to be covered by the other movie.

4 If you want Podcast Composer to automatically detect transitions in the screen

recording movie, select Automatic Transitions.

With this option enabled, Podcast Composer can detect slide transitions in the movie

and use this information to determine when to switch movies in the composition.

If you choose not to automatically detect transitions, there will be no transition.

The selected dual source composition remains static. Both movies remain in their

original positions.

5 If you want Podcast Composer to automatically detect changes in the input movies

and use this information to assign chapters in the generated podcast, select Automatic

Chapter Generation.

For example, you might want chapters in the podcast to mark each transition to a

new slide.

In the case of a screen recording, the workow inserts a chapter marker in the video

when it detects a slide transition or when no changes occur in the video for a certain

moment. This is useful when doing a screen recording or for any video that includes

presentations.

The tool used by the workow to add chapter markers detects stability in a movie by

comparing frames. When the tool nds a stable sequence, it considers it a chapter.

Then, when the sequence changes to another sequence, the tool consider that change

a transition.

6 Click Done.

7 Choose File > Save.

Conguring Montage

If you want the workow to create a podcast from movies, images, Keynote

presentations, Pages documents, PDF les, Word les, and PowerPoint les, select and

congure the Montage option of the Import stage.

Podcast Composer treats the pages of these documents as images. It combines all

pages of all documents into one slide presentation and generates a QuickTime video

of the presentation.

For example, if your input is a PDF document and a Word document, Podcast

Composer treats each page in these documents as an image. Then, Podcast Composer

assembles these images into one presentation and uses the settings you specify for

the Montage option to generate a QuickTime movie of a slide show of the images.

If a document isn’t in landscape mode, displaying a page in full for each slide results in

text that might be hard to read because the page can’t ll the entire width of the slide.

To solve this problem, Podcast Composer slices each document page in half. The upper

half image of a page appears on one slide and the bottom half image appears on the

following slide. Podcast Composer also adds a transition between the two slides to

provide a scrolling eect.

22 Chapter 3 Conguring the Import Stage

Chapter 3 Conguring the Import Stage 23

The documents are ordered in the slide show by their alpha-numeric order based on

the le names of the source documents.

To congure the Montage option of the Import stage:

1 In Podcast Composer, go to the Import Stage (choose Stages > Import or press

Command-2).

2 Double-click Montage, or move your mouse over the Montage icon and click the

Information button in the lower-right corner.

A dialog appears, displaying the settings that you can congure and a live preview

video that reects your selections.

3 In the Image Duration eld, enter the number of seconds that each slide is displayed.

4 To specify a transition eect:

From the Transition Eect pop-up menu, choose an eect. Â

From the Direction pop-up menu, choose the direction of the eect (if applicable). Â

In the Duration eld, specify the duration of the transition in seconds. Â

5 If you want Podcast Composer to automatically detect changes in the input movies

and use this information to assign chapters in the generated podcast, select Automatic

Chapter Generation.

For example, you might want chapters in the podcast to mark each transition to a

new slide.

In the case of documents, every page is considered a chapter. The workow uses

Quick Look to extract a title from these pages, if available, to assign a meaningful title

to chapters. If not available, Podcast Composer uses the lename.

6 Click Done.

7 Choose File > Save.

24 Chapter 3 Conguring the Import Stage

Use this chapter to congure the introduction, title, and exit

movies, and add a watermark to your podcast.

In the Edit stage of Podcast Composer, you can brand your podcast by adding any of

the following items:

Introduction movie—For example, you might want your podcasts to start with a Â

10-second movie that displays you organization’s logo.

Title movie—For example, you might want your podcast to have a title screen that Â

displays information extracted from the workow’s metadata, such as title, author,

Watermark—For example, you might want the podcast to display the logo of your Â

organization as a watermark.

Exit movie—For example, you might want your podcasts to end with the same Â

movie, giving credit to your organization.

Conguring the Edit Stage

You can also add transitions between these items.

In the Edit stage, Podcast Composer places the branding items and the input movie in

a timeline from left to right, in the following default order:

Introduction movie (optional) Â

Transition (optional) Â

Title movie (optional) Â

Transition (optional) Â

Input movie Â

Transition (optional) Â

Exit movie (optional) Â

26 Chapter 4 Conguring the Edit Stage

Chapter 4 Conguring the Edit Stage 27

In the Edit stage, you can drag movies and watermarks onto the corresponding

elements in the timeline and in dialog boxes.

In the Edit stage, you can also:

Use the Remove (–) button or press Backspace to remove an optional item. Use the Â

Add (+) button to add an item. To delete all optional items, press Command-Delete.

Skim through video clips in the timeline to preview video content. Â

Use the Preview button to preview the movie that will be generated by the Edit stage. Â

Adding and Conguring an Introduction Movie

By default, the lm strip in the Edit stage includes an introduction movie. If an

introduction movie isn’t present, click the Add (+) button and select Introduction to

add the movie.

To congure the introduction movie:

1 In Podcast Composer, go to the Edit stage (choose Stages > Edit or press Command-3).

2 Double-click the icon of the introduction movie.

3 From the Introduction movie pop-up menu, choose a default introduction movie that

comes with Podcast Composer.

To select a custom movie, select Choose, browse for the movie, select it, and click

Open. You can also drag the movie onto the preview movie in the pop-up menu.

You can also drag a movie directly onto the icon of the introduction movie without

opening the pop-up menu.

4 Click Done.

5 Choose File > Save.

28 Chapter 4 Conguring the Edit Stage

Chapter 4 Conguring the Edit Stage 29

Adding and Conguring a Title Movie

By default, the lm strip in the Edit stage includes a title movie. If it isn’t present, click

the Add (+) button and select Title to add the movie.

To congure the title movie:

1 In Podcast Composer, go to the Edit stage (choose Stages > Edit or press Command-3).

2 Double-click the icon of the title movie.

3 From the Bumper title pop-up menu, choose one of the default styles.

4 From the Logo media, if enabled, choose a default style. You can also select Choose to

add your own logo, or drag the logo onto the preview video.

5 Select the items to include in the title video:

Title Â

Date Â

Description Â

Author Â

Organization Â

Depending on your selection from the Bumper title pop-up menu, some of these

items might be disabled.

6 Click Done.

7 Choose File > Save.

Adding and Conguring a Watermark and an Introduction

Overlay

You can use the Edit stage to add a watermark and an introduction overlay to the

input movie.

A watermark can be an image, a movie, or a Quartz Composition.

An introduction overlay is a title that appears on top of the movie for a specied

amount of time at the beginning of the movie.

30 Chapter 4 Conguring the Edit Stage

Chapter 4 Conguring the Edit Stage 31

To add a watermark to the input movie:

1 In Podcast Composer, go to the Edit stage (choose Stages > Edit or press Command-3).

2 Double-click the icon of the input movie.

3 From the Watermark pop-up menu, choose a default watermark style.

To use a custom watermark, select Choose and select the watermark. You can also drag

the watermark onto the preview movie.

You can also drag a watermark onto the watermark and introduction overlay icon

without opening the pop-up menu.

4 To specify the opacity of the watermark, move the Opacity slider to the left (more

transparent) or to the right (less transparent).

5 To specify the size of the watermark, move the Sizing slider to the left (smaller) or to

the right (bigger).

6 To specify the position of the watermark, choose an option from the Position

pop-up menu.

You can also drag the logo to one of the other corners of the preview movie.

7 To add an introduction overlay over the input movie and under the watermark,

choose an overlay style from the Introduction overlay pop-up menu.

Select the information to display in the overlay by selecting checkboxes. Depending

on the overlay style you choose, some of the checkboxes might be disabled.

You can also drag a movie onto the watermark and introduction overlay icon without

opening the pop-up menu.

8 Click Done.

9 Choose File > Save.

Adding and Conguring an Exit Movie

By default, the lm strip in the Edit stage includes an exit movie. If an exit movie isn’t

present, click the Add (+) button and select Exit to add the movie.

To congure the exit movie:

1 In Podcast Composer, go to the Edit stage (choose Stages > Edit or press Command-3).

2 Double-click the icon of the exit movie.

3 From the Exit movie pop-up menu, choose a default exit movie that comes with

Podcast Composer.

To select a custom movie, select Choose from the pop-up menu, browse for the movie,

select it, and click Open. You can also add an exit movie by dragging the movie onto

the live preview box.

4 Click Done.

5 Choose File > Save.

32 Chapter 4 Conguring the Edit Stage

Chapter 4 Conguring the Edit Stage 33

Conguring Transitions

You can congure transitions between movies in the Edit stage.

To congure transitions:

1 In Podcast Composer, go to the Edit stage (choose Stages > Edit or press Command-3).

2 Double-click the icon of the transition.

3 Choose a transition from the Transition pop-up menu.

If you don’t need a transition, choose None.

4 If the Direction pop-up menu is enabled, choose the direction of the transition.

5 If the Duration eld is enabled, enter the duration of the transition in seconds.

6 Click Done.

7 Choose File > Save.

Previewing the Podcast

The Edit stage provides a live preview window where you can preview the QuickTime

movie generated by the Edit stage. While the window is open, changes you make in

the Edit stage are instantly reected in the live preview.

To open the live preview window:

1 In Podcast Composer, go to the Edit stage (choose Stages > Edit or press Command-3).

2 Click the Preview button.

To display a bigger live preview window, alt-click the Preview button.

34 Chapter 4 Conguring the Edit Stage

Use this chapter to learn how to specify the encoding

formats to use for publishing your podcast.

In the Export stage of Podcast Composer, you select output formats for your podcast.

For example, to optimize your podcast for iPhones and Apple TV, you can select those

two formats in the Export stage. For every format you select in the Export stage,

Podcast Composer creates a corresponding task in the workow.

Podcast Composer supports the following QuickTime encoding formats:

Apple TV Â

Video: H.264 Video, 1280 x 720, 5 Mbps, 30 fps

Audio: AAC-LC Music, Stereo, 128 kbps, 44.1 kHz

Audio Â

Video: None

Audio: AAC-LC Music, Stereo, 128 kbps, 44.1 kHz

Computer Â

Video: H.264 Video, 1920 x 1080, 10 Mbps, 30 fps

Audio: AAC, Stereo, 256 kbps, 44.1 kHz

iPod / iPhone Â

Video: H.264 Video, 640 x 480, 1.5 Mbps, 30 fps

Audio: AAC-LC Music, Stereo, 128 kbps, 44.1 kHz

Mobile Â

Video: H.264 Video, 176 x 144, 56 kbps, 15 fps

Conguring the Export Stage

Audio: AAC-LC Music, Mono, 24 kbps, 16 kHz

Podcast Composer lets you specify custom encoding formats that you create with the

Compressor application, which must be installed on the computer running Podcast

Composer and launched at least once before you can use it with Podcast Composer.

The Compressor application should also be installed on the Xgrid nodes used by

Podcast Producer to run the workow.

Compressor is a post-production application. It ships with Final Cut Studio.

Note: Only a few default Compressor encodings are playable on an iPod or iPhone.

Before deploying a custom composition, be sure it ts the target device requirements.

36 Chapter 5 Conguring the Export Stage

Chapter 5 Conguring the Export Stage 37

Adding QuickTime Encoding Formats

You can add up to four QuickTime encoding formats in the Export stage.

To add a QuickTime encoding format to the Export stage:

1 In Podcast Composer, go to the Export stage (choose Stages > Export or press

Command-4).

2 Click the Add (+) button.

If the Compressor plug-in is installed, a pop-up menu appears.

3 Choose QuickTime.

A QuickTime encoder is added to the Export stage and a dialog box appears.

4 From the QuickTime Encoder pop-up menu, choose the encoder you want to use.

5 Click Done.

6 Choose File > Save.

Adding Compressor Formats

Podcast Composer supports encoding formats that you create using the Compressor

application. However, you must rst install Compressor on your computer. For more

information on how to install Compressor, see the Compressor documentation.

To add Compressor encoding formats to the Export stage:

1 In Podcast Composer, go to the Export stage (choose Stages > Export or press

Command-4).

2 Click the Add (+) button.

3 From the pop-up menu, choose Compressor.

A Compressor encoder is added to the Export stage and a dialog appears.

4 From the Compressor Encoder pop-up menu, choose the encoder you want to use.

This menu shows the custom encodings you created using Compressor.

5 To use the Apple Qmaster distributed processing system to speed up the encoding

process, click “Use remote Qmaster” enter the required information.

Apple Qmaster speeds up encoding of a movie at a time by dividing the total number

of frames in a job into smaller segments. Each of the processing computers then works

on a dierent segment. Because the nodes are working in parallel, the job is nished

sooner than it would be on a single computer.

Note: To produce a podcast as fast as possible, use Compressor (running on Xgrid) and

Qmaster (with segment and encoding setup). To produce many podcasts as fast as

possible, use default encoders or Compressor running on Xgrid.

For more information about the Apple Qmaster distributed processing system, see

Apple Qmaster 2 and Compressor 2 Distributed Processing Setup.

6 Click Done.

7 Choose File > Save.

38 Chapter 5 Conguring the Export Stage

Use this chapter to specify and congure the publishing

destinations of your podcast.

In the Publish stage, you specify a destination for each podcast export format you

added in the Export stage.

The Publish stage supports the following content destinations:

Podcast Library Â

Apple Wiki (optional) Â

File Transfer (optional) Â

Final Cut Server (optional) Â

Folder (optional) Â

Workow (optional) Â

Conguring the Publish Stage

Sending Content to the Podcast Library

The Podcast Library is where Podcast Producer stores published content. The Podcast

Library publishes the content through Atom or RSS feeds, and keeps track of your

content automatically.

Podcast Library is the default Podcast Producer distribution system in Mac OS X Server

v10.6. This provides an easy solution out of the box.

For more information about Podcast Library, see Podcast Producer Administration.

40 Chapter 6 Conguring the Publish Stage

Chapter 6 Conguring the Publish Stage 41

To add the Podcast Library to the Publish stage:

1 In Podcast Composer, go to the Publish stage (choose Stages > Publish or press

Command-5).

By default, the Podcast Library is added to the Publish stage.

2 Double-click the Podcast Library element.

3 In the dialog box, from “Publish media les to Podcast Library” pop-up menu, select the

media le to publish to the Podcast Library:

Original Sources—Select this option to archive the original source les used to Â

create your podcast.

Preview Files—Select this option to archive the preview les generated by Podcast Â

Composer.

Edited Master—Select this option to archive the edited master le from which Â

encoded content is generated. This is a high-quality at movie that you may need

later if you want to re-encode the podcast using a dierent format.

Generated Media Files—Select this option to publish the media les generated by Â

the workow.

4 (Optional) In the Tags eld, add tags, separated by commas, to make it easier to nd

your content.

The Podcast Library adds these tags to every published media le, and creates a feed

for every tag.

Tags are a good and easy way to create multiple feeds for the same podcast. For

example, you might want to have some podcasts be accessible based on the year of

the class and the department’s name.

5 Click Done.

6 Choose File > Save.

Sending Content to an Apple Wiki Server

One way to publish podcasts is to post your podcast on an Apple blog. You can add

one or more Apple blog destinations.

To post a podcast to an Apple wiki:

1 In Podcast Composer, go to the Publish stage (choose Stages > Publish or press

Command-5).

2 Click the Add (+) button and choose Apple Wiki.

A dialog box appears.

3 From the “Podcast to post to the Apple wiki” pop-up menu, choose the podcast format

for posting to the blog.

4 In the Server eld, enter the address of the blog.

5 If the wiki requires Secure Socket Layer protection, select Use Secure Socket Layer

(SSL).

6 In the User Name and Password elds, enter the administrator credentials to access

the blog.

7 To specify the destination of the podcast in the blog, select one of the following options:

42 Chapter 6 Conguring the Publish Stage

Chapter 6 Conguring the Publish Stage 43

Submitting user’s blog—The blog of the user who submitted the podcast. Â

Custom blog—In the corresponding eld, enter the user name of the blog’s owner. Â

Custom wiki—In the corresponding eld, enter the group name required for Â

accessing the wiki.

8 Click Done.

9 Choose File > Save.

Sending Content Using File Transfer Protocols

Podcast Composer lets you send content to backup le systems using these le

transfer protocols:

FTP Â

FTPS Â

SFTP Â

WebDav Â

WebDavs Â

You can add one or more File Transfer destinations.

To send a podcast to a backup le system:

1 In Podcast Composer, go to the Publish stage (choose Stages > Publish or press

Command-5).

2 Click the Add (+) button and choose File Transfer.

A dialog appears.

3 From the “Podcast to transfer” pop-up menu, choose the podcast format for backing

up to the le system.

4 From the Protocol pop-up menu, choose the le transfer protocol to use.

5 In the Server eld, enter the address of the server to send the les to.

6 In the Path eld, enter the path to where the podcast should be stored.

7 In the User Name and Password elds, enter the administrator credentials to access the

le system.

8 Click Done.

9 Choose File > Save.

44 Chapter 6 Conguring the Publish Stage

Chapter 6 Conguring the Publish Stage 45

Sending Content to the Watch Folder of Final Cut Server

In the Publish stage of Podcast Composer, you can choose to send content to the

Watch folder of Final Cut Server for further processing.

You can add one or more Final Cut Server destinations.

To submit content to Final Cut Server:

1 In Podcast Composer, go to the Publish stage (choose Stages > Publish or press

Command-5).

2 Click the Add (+) button and choose Final Cut Server.

A dialog appears.

3 From the “Podcast to copy” pop-up menu, choose the podcast format for sending to

Final Cut Server.

4 In the “Path to Final Cut Server Watch Folder” eld, enter the path to the Watch folder.

Important: The path you specify must have write access for the pcastxgrid user.

5 Click Done.

6 Choose File > Save.

Sending Content to a Shared Folder

The Publish stage of Podcast Composer lets you send content to a shared folder.

You can add one or more shared folder destinations.

To send content to a shared folder:

1 In Podcast Composer, go to the Publish stage (choose Stages > Publish or press

Command-5).

2 Click the Add (+) button and choose Folder.

A dialog appears.

3 From the “Podcast to copy” pop-up menu, choose the podcast format for sending to

the shared folder.

4 In the “Path to Shared Folder” eld, enter the path to the shared folder.

Important: The path you specify must have write access for the pcastxgrid user.

46 Chapter 6 Conguring the Publish Stage

Chapter 6 Conguring the Publish Stage 47

5 To use day folders, select “Use day folders.”

This option creates an intermediate folder for every day of the year to store all content

published on that day.

6 Click Done.

7 Choose File > Save.

Sending Content to a Workow

You might want to send your podcast to another custom workow or workow chain

deployed on the Podcast Producer server to perform additional tasks that you can’t

congure in Podcast Composer.

You can add one or more workow destinations.

To send content to a workow:

1 In Podcast Composer, go to the Publish stage (choose Stages > Publish or press

Command-5).

2 Click the Add (+) button and choose Workow.

A dialog appears.

3 Click the Add (+) button to add media les to the list of media les to send to Podcast

Producer.

4 In the Workow eld, enter the name of the workow that Podcast Producer will use to

process the submitted content.

5 In the User Name and Password elds, enter the user credentials needed to submit the

job to Podcast Producer.

6 Click Done.

7 Choose File > Save.

48 Chapter 6 Conguring the Publish Stage

Use this chapter to learn how to create notications, which

Podcast Producer sends to announce published podcasts.

In the Notify stage of Podcast Composer, you add and congure notications to be

sent to users announcing the publishing of podcasts.

You can add the following types of notications:

Email Â

iChat Â

iTunes Podcast Directory Â

iTunes U Â

Service Â

Conguring the Notify Stage

Adding Email Notications

In the Notify stage, you can add one or more email notications.

To add an Email notication:

1 In Podcast Composer, go to the Notify stage (choose Stages > Notify, or press

Command-6).

2 Click the Add (+) button and choose Email.

A dialog appears.

3 Select the mail recipients:

Podcast Producer administrator—Select this option to send an email notication to Â

the administrator of the Podcast Producer server.

This information is stored in the DIrectory Service. In Workgroup Manager, you can

set up this information for every user.

Submitting user—Select this option to send an email notication to the user who Â

submitted the workow.

This information is stored in the DIrectory Service. In Workgroup Manager, you can

set up this information for every user.

50 Chapter 7 Conguring the Notify Stage

Chapter 7 Conguring the Notify Stage 51

Others—Select this option and enter the email addresses (separated by commas) Â

of the notication recipients.

4 In the Email address eld, enter the address of the person sending the email.

5 In the Server eld, enter the address of the server used for sending the email.

6 If the email requires Secure Socket Layer protection, select Use Secure Socket Layer (SSL).

7 From the Authentication pop-up menu, choose the authentication type.

8 In the User name and Password elds, enter the administrator credentials to send

the email.

9 Click Done.

10 Choose File > Save.

Adding iChat Notications

In the Notify stage, you can add iChat notications.

For iChat notications to work, you need access to an iChat server running on

Mac OS X Server v10.6. If not, you must set up your own iChat server. Notications fail

if sent through an iChat server running on Mac OS X Server v10.5 or earlier.

However, if you need to send the notications through an iChat server running on

v10.5, you can set up an iChat server on a computer running v10.6 and federate it to

an iChat server running on a computer with v10.5. The notications rst go through

the iChat server running on the v10.6 computer and then through the iChat server

running on the v10.5 server.

The iChat server doesn’t need to run on the Podcast Producer server.

For more information about setting up an iChat server, see iChat Service Administration.

To add an iChat notication:

1 In Podcast Composer, go to the Notify stage (choose Stages > Notify, or press

Command-6).

2 Click the Add (+) button and choose iChat.

A dialog appears.

3 Select the iChat recipients:

Podcast Producer administrator—Select this option to send an iChat notication Â

message to the administrator of the Podcast Producer server.

This information is stored in the DIrectory Service. In Workgroup Manager, you can

set up this information for every user.

Submitting user—Select this option to send an iChat notication message to the Â

user who submitted the workow.

This information is stored in the DIrectory Service. In Workgroup Manager, you can

set up this information for every user.

52 Chapter 7 Conguring the Notify Stage

Chapter 7 Conguring the Notify Stage 53

Others—Select this option and enter the iChat addresses (separated by commas) of Â

the notication recipients.

4 In the Jabber ID and Password elds, enter the administrator credentials to send the

iChat message.

iChat notications work with Jabber accounts only.

The ichat address of the sender should be dierent from the address of the Podcast

Producer administrator and the submitter.

5 In the iChat message eld, enter the text of the notication message to be sent via iChat.

When Podcast Producer receives a job, it generates the properties.plist le which

contains metadata, including the Podcast Producer properties dened in Server Admin.

In the iChat notication message, you can add $$KEY$$ variables, which are replaced

by the values of these keys dened in the properties.plist le.

For example, to display the full name of the user who submitted the job (Bill James),

use $$User Full Name$$ in the iChat message. The Xgrid agent processing the job

replaces $$User Full Name$$ with Bill James.

For more information about dening Podcast Producer variables and the properties.

plist le, see Podcast Producer Administration.

6 To add publishing information to the iChat message, select “Display publishing

information.”

7 Click Done.

8 Choose File > Save.

Adding iTunes Podcast Directory Notications

In the Notify stage, you can add only one iTunes Podcast Directory notication. For

this notication to work, you must rst register your feeds with iTunes. When this

notication is sent to iTunes, the iTunes podcast repository syncs with your Podcast

Library as soon as possible to reect all changes. This action is asynchronous.

For more information about Podcast Library and how to register feeds with iTunes,

see Podcast Producer Administration.

To add an iTunes Podcast Directory notication:

1 In Podcast Composer, go to the Notify stage (choose Stages > Notify or press

Command-6).

2 Click the Add (+) button and choose iTunes Podcast Directory.

3 Choose File > Save.

Adding iTunes U Notications

In the Notify stage, you can add iTunes U notications. You specify the address of the

iTunes U site to send the notication to. Upon receiving the notication, iTunes U syncs

with the feeds you registered with it as soon as possible. This action is asynchronous.

Before sending iTunes U notications, you must register feeds with the iTunes U site.

For more information, contact the iTunes U site administrator.

To add an iTunes U notication:

1 In Podcast Composer, go to the Notify stage (choose Stages > Notify or press

Command-6).

2 Click the Add (+) button and choose iTunes U.

A dialog appears.

3 Enter the address of the iTunes U site.

4 Click Done.

5 Choose File > Save.

54 Chapter 7 Conguring the Notify Stage

Chapter 7 Conguring the Notify Stage 55

Adding Third-Party Service Notications

In the Notify stage, you can add Service notications. You specify the URL of the

service to ping.

When the service receives the ping, the service performs the predened actions.

To add a Service notication:

1 In Podcast Composer, go to the Notify stage (choose Stages > Notify or press

Command-6).

2 Click the Add (+) button and choose Service.

A dialog appears.

3 Enter the URL of the service.

4 Click Done.

5 Choose File > Save.

Use this chapter to learn how to use Podcast Composer to

verify, deploy, and manage workows.

Podcast Composer allows to upload and download workows from Podcast Producer

server. Podcast Composer also allows you to verify workows to ensure that they

contain all required information.

Viewing a Summary of the Workow

The last stage in Podcast Composer provides a bird’s-eye view of your workow by

listing the icons of the tasks you’ve dened in your workow. Use this stage to make

sure your workow is complete.

Managing Workows

Chapter 8 Managing Workows 57

To see a summary of your workow:

In Podcast Composer, go to the Summary stage (choose Stages > Summary or press m

Command-7).

Saving a Workow

To save a workow in Podcast Composer, use the Save or Save As command from the

File menu. You can also use the Save button in the Summary stage.

When you save a workow, Podcast Composer generates a workow bundle that

contains all information and resources needed to process the workow. This includes

images, movies, presets, templates, tools, and compositions used by the workow.

The workow bundle also includes workow metadata, password information, and the

XML code that denes the workow. The bundle also contains your credentials and the

Xgrid job template the denes the tasks to execute and which tasks can be executed

in parallel.

If the workow has credentials, they are secured using a master password stored in

your keychain.

To save a new workow:

1 Choose File > Save (Command-S) or press the Save button in the Summary stage.

2 In the Save As dialog, enter the name of the workow bundle and specify where

to store it.

The name that you enter in this eld can be dierent than the name you specied in

the Information stage.

3 Click Save.

To save changes to an existing workow bundle, choose File > Save (Command-S) or

press the Save button in the Summary stage.

To change the name of a workow bundle, choose File > Save As (Command-Shift-S).

4 In the Save As dialog, enter the new name of the workow bundle.

Note: A workow can be saved even if not complete and not correct.

Using the Workow Inspector

The Workow Inspector in Podcast Composer lets you:

Specify the poster image for the podcast. This is the image associated with the Â

published podcast. If you don’t specify a poster image, Podcast Composer extracts a

poster image from a frame that’s about one third of the way into the presentation.

View workow statistics. The inspector displays the number of tasks in the workow Â

and the maximum number of tasks that can be run in parallel.

Add notes about the workow to the Workow Notes eld. These notes are stored Â

as metadata in the info.plist le at the root level of the workow bundle.

To open the Workow Inspector:

1 In Podcast Composer, choose Window > Workow Inspector.

2 To set the workow’s poster image, drag a .png or .ti image onto the Episode Poster

Image eld.

3 To add notes about the workow, enter the text in the Workow Notes eld.

58 Chapter 8 Managing Workows

Chapter 8 Managing Workows 59

Verifying a Workow

Before deploying a completed workow, it is good practice to verify the workow,

even though Podcast Composer veries it before deploying it. By verifying the

workow, you can deploy it at a moment’s notice.

To verify a workow in Podcast Composer:

1 Choose File > Verify Workow (Command-Y).

If the workow isn’t congured correctly, a message appears describing the problem

with the rst workow element that has missing settings. Podcast Composer displays a

red arrow pointing to the element in question.

2 If an error message appears:

a Click OK to dismiss the dialog.

b Fix the problem.

c Verify the workow again.

You might need to repeat these steps several times until the workow passes

verication.

3 When the workow is congured correctly and a message appears indicating

successful workow conguration, click OK.

Deploying a Workow

When you nish building a workow, you can use Podcast Composer to upload

the workow bundle to a Podcast Producer server. Podcast Producer makes the

workow available to Podcast Capture clients, as determined by the Podcast Producer

administrator.

Before you can deploy a workow, make sure you have the necessary credentials to

access the Podcast Producer server.

To deploy a workow to a Podcast Producer server:

1 In Podcast Composer, choose File > Deploy to Server (Command-U) or press the

Deploy button on the Summary stage.

If your workow is incomplete, a dialog appears describing the problem with the rst

incomplete setting in the workow. Podcast Composer displays a red arrow pointing

to the element that has the incomplete setting.

2 If a dialog appears indicating that the workow is incomplete, click the OK button to

dismiss the dialog, x the problem, and then try to deploy the workow again.

You might need to repeat the process several times until the workow passes

verication.

3 In the Server eld of the Deploy dialog, enter the address of the Podcast Producer

server or choose a server from the pop-up menu.

4 Click Deploy.

5 In the Name and Password elds, enter the administrator user name and password

assigned to you by the Podcast Producer administrator.

If a workow with the same name or same unique identier exists, Podcast Composer

prompts you whether to overwrite the workow, install the workow with a dierent

unique identier, or cancel the operation.

What makes a workow unique is a unique identier (UUID). This means that you can

have multiple workows with the same name, as long as the UUIDs are dierent.

6 Click Deploy again.

A dialog box appears indicating that the workow was successfully uploaded to the

Podcast Producer server.

When you deploy a workow, Podcast Producer changes the name of the workow to

an automatically generated name. For example:

631CDEA3-AC0D-4DC8-BF7E-1A24DC306A02.pwf

Podcast Producer also adds checksum information to the workow to ensure integrity.

60 Chapter 8 Managing Workows

Chapter 8 Managing Workows 61

Opening a Workow Remotely

To make a local copy of a workow residing on a Podcast Producer server, use the

File > Open Remote command in Podcast Composer.

To open a workow remotely in Podcast Composer:

1 Choose File > Open Remote (Command-Shift-O).

2 In the Server eld of the Open Remote Workow window, select a Podcast Producer

server or enter its and then click Connect.

3 In the Name and Password elds, enter the user name and password assigned to you

by the Podcast Producer administrator.

4 Click Connect again.

5 Choose the workow you want to edit from the Workow list.

6 Click Open.

7 In the Save As eld, enter the name of the workow.

8 In the Where eld specify where to store the workow.

9 Click Save.

Podcast Composer opens the workow so you can make changes to it.

Use this chapter to perform advanced Podcast Composer

tasks such as customizing email templates and Quartz

Composer compositions.

Extending Podcast Composer Workows

Podcast Composer helps you quickly generate self-contained workows that are ready

for deployment. However, you might want to extend your workow in a way that isn’t

possible in Podcast Composer.

To extend your workow, you can congure it in the Publish stage of Podcast

Composer to send the output of the workow to another workow that you manually

created. The second workow adds your custom tasks to the workow for execution.

Alternatively, you can take the workow generated by Podcast Composer and extend

it manually. To learn more about workows and how to congure them manually, see

Podcast Producer Administration and Podcast Producer Workow Tutorial.

WARNING: If you create a workow using Podcast Composer and then manually

extend the workow, you can’t edit it again in Podcast Composer.

Advanced Podcast Composer

Topics

Chapter 9 Advanced Podcast Composer Topics 63

Making Resources Available to Podcast Composer

Podcast Composer stores all the resources needed to build a workow in its

application bundle. These resources are grouped in the /Applications/Server/Podcast

Composer/Contents/Resources/Materials/ folder.

These resources are:

Compositions Â

Images Â

Movies Â

Templates Â

Themes Â

When you create a new workow in Podcast Composer, only resources inside the

application’s bundle are available to you. If you need to add your own resources (for

example, a watermark or introduction and exit movies), you have to manually add

them through drag and drop or by browsing.

However, you can make your own resources available to Podcast Composer by storing

them in one of the following folder:

/Library/Application Support/Podcast Composer/Resources/—Resources stored in Â

this folder are available to all users.

~/Library/Application Support/Podcast Composer/Resources/—Resources stored in Â

this folder are available to one user.

By default, the ~/Library/Application Support/Podcast Composer/Resources/ folder

contains an empty folder structure that mimics the folder structure of the the contents

of the /Applications/Server/Podcast Composer/Contents/Resources/Materials/ folder.

To store resources in the /Library/Application Support/Podcast Composer/Resources/

folder, you must rst create the same folder structure as that of the Materials folder.

Important: If two resources with the same name are in the ~/Library/Application

Support/Podcast Composer/Resources/ and /Library/Application Support/Podcast

Composer/Resources/ folders, Podcast Composer lists both.

To make your resources available to Podcast Composer:

1 Quit Podcast Composer.

2 Store the resources in the relevant folders.

For example, to make your introduction movies available to Podcast Composer, store

them in the ~/Library/Application Support/Podcast Composer/Resources/Movies/

Introduction/ folder.

3 Launch Podcast Composer.

4 Verify that the resources are now available to Podcast Composer.

For example, to verify that your custom introduction movie is now available to Podcast

Composer, in the Edit stage, double-click the Introduction movie icon. Your movie

should be listed in the User Content section of the Introduction movie pop-up menu.

Tip: ∏When you highlight a resource in the User Content section of the pop-up menu, a

tooltip displays the path to the resource.

64 Chapter 9 Advanced Podcast Composer Topics

Chapter 9 Advanced Podcast Composer Topics 65

Working with Themes

By default, Podcast Composer ships with one theme. However, if you add custom

themes, Podcast Composer displays the Theme button in the Edit stage, which lets you

select a theme to apply to your podcast.

“ ÂCustomizing Podcast Composer Themes” on page 65

“ ÂApplying a Theme to a Podcast” on page 70

Customizing Podcast Composer Themes

Podcast Composer ships with only one theme bundle (Apple Podcast.pwt). This theme

is in /Applications/Server/Podcast Composer/Contents/Resources/Materials/Themes/.

A theme denes the following aspects of a podcast:

Introduction movie—Whether to add an introductory movie to the podcast. Â

Introduction movie transition—Whether to add a transition between the Â

introductory movie, and the following movie and the properties of the transition.

Watermark properties—Whether to add a watermark to the input movie, and the Â

properties of the watermark.

Title movie—Whether to add a title movie to the podcast. Â

Title movie transition—Whether to add a transition between the title movie and the Â

input movie, and the properties of the transition.

Exit movie—Whether to add an exit movie to the podcast Â

Exit movie transition—Whether to add a transition between the input movie and Â

the exit movie, and the properties of the transition.

To create themes, copy the default theme (Apple Podcast.pwt), rename the copy, and

customize it as needed.

If you plan to deploy multiple computers for creating workows in your organization

using Podcast Composer, make sure the les referenced by the theme are accessible

from all computers.

To create a custom theme:

1 Copy the default theme (/Applications/Server/Podcast Composer/Contents/Resources/

Materials/Themes/Apple Podcast.pwt) to the following folder:

~/Library/Application Support/Podcast Composer/Resources/Themes/

If this folder is not there, create it.

2 Rename the theme bundle.

3 Open the bundle.

4 Modify the following les:

Contents/Info.plist—See “ ÂModifying Info.plist” on page 67.

Contents/Resources/en.lproj/InfoPlist.strings—See “ ÂModifying InfoPlist.strings”

on page 67.

Contents/Resources/theme.plist—See “ ÂModifying theme.plist” on page 67.

You can also add your own resources to the bundle if needed.

When modifying these le, you can test your changes by restarting Podcast Composer

and applying your custom theme.

66 Chapter 9 Advanced Podcast Composer Topics

Chapter 9 Advanced Podcast Composer Topics 67

Modifying Info.plist

In the Contents/Info.plist le, change the values of the following keys:

CFBundleIdentier—Change the last part in the theme bundle identier to reect Â

the name of your theme bundle:

com.apple.PodcastWorkow.theme.custom_name

CFBundleName—The name of the theme bundle. This name should match the last Â

part of the theme bundle identier.

Version—Specify the version of the theme. Â

Modifying InfoPlist.strings

For every supported language in the theme bundle, there is an InfoPlist.strings le,

which contains localized strings. The English version of InfoPlist.strings is in Contents/

Resources/en.lproj/InfoPlist.strings.

In the InfoPlist.strings le for every language you’re supporting, change the values of

the following keys:

Description—The description of the theme. Â

Name—The name of the theme. This name, unlike the name of the theme bundle, Â

can contain spaces.

Modifying theme.plist

The Contents/theme.plist le denes the theme’s attributes. You can customize the

following attributes of a theme:

Introduction movie Â

Introduction movie transition Â

Watermark properties Â

Title movie Â

Title movie transition Â

Exit movie Â

Exit movie transition Â

Specifying the Introduction Movie

In the theme.plist le, the intro key lets you dene the path to the introduction movie.

To specify an intro movie, under <key>intro</key>, replace the value of the path key

with the path to your introductory movie.

If Podcast Composer cannot nd your movie, it uses the introduction movie of the

default theme (Apple Podcast.pwt).

Conguring the Introduction Movie Transition

To congure the introduction movie transition, under the introTransition key, modify

the values of the following keys:

direction—The direction of the transition as a number between 0 and Ân-1, where n

is the possible number of directions.

duration—The duration in seconds. Â

path—The path to the Quartz Composer transition. Â

Conguring the Title Movie

In the theme.plist le, the title key lets you congure a title movie.

To specify a title movie, under <key>title</key>, modify the values of the following keys:

authorEnabled—If true, adds the name of the person submitting the podcast to the Â

title movie.

copyrightEnabled—If true, adds the copyright text (dened in the Default Properties Â

list of Podcast Producer in Server Admin) to the title movie.

dateEnabled—If true, adds the date on which the podcast was submitted. Â

descriptionEnabled—If true, adds the description (provided by the person Â

submitting the podcast) to the title movie.

organizationEnabled—If true, adds the name of the organization (dened in the Â

Default Properties list of Podcast Producer in Server Admin) to the title movie.

path—The path to the Quartz Composer composition that denes how the title Â

movie is rendered.

titleEnabled—If true, adds the title of the podcast (provided by the person Â

submitting the podcast) to the title movie

Conguring the Title Movie Transition

To congure the title movie transition, under the titleTransition key, modify the values

of the following keys:

direction—( ÂIf applicable) The direction of the transition as a number between 0 and

n-1, where n is the possible number of directions.

The numbers match the array provided by the transition in the Info.plist le of

the transition.

duration—The duration in seconds. Â

path—The path to the Quartz Composer transition. Â

68 Chapter 9 Advanced Podcast Composer Topics

Chapter 9 Advanced Podcast Composer Topics 69

Conguring the Watermark

In the theme.plist le, the contentWatermark key lets you congure a title movie.

To congure the watermark, under <key>contentWatermark</key>, modify the values

of the following keys:

opacity—The opacity of the watermark as a numerical value between 0 and 100, Â

with 0 being invisible and 100 being opaque (no transparency).

path—The path to the watermark. Ideally, the watermark must be a .png le. Â

However, you can use other formats such as jpeg and PDF.

position—The position of the watermark as a number between 0 and 3: Â

Top left: 0 Â

Top right: 1 Â

Bottom left: 2 Â

Bottom right: 3 Â

sizing—The size of the watermark as a value between 0 and 40. Â

Specifying the Exit Movie

In the theme.plist le, the outro key lets you dene the path to the exit movie.

To specify an exit movie, under <key>outro</key>, replace the value of the path key

with the path to your exit movie.

If Podcast Composer cannot nd your movie, it uses the exit movie of the default

theme (Apple Podcast.pwt).

Conguring the Exit Movie Transition

To congure the exit movie transition, under the outroTransition key, modify the values

of the following keys:

direction—( ÂIf applicable) The direction of the transition as a number between 0 and

n-1, where n is the possible number of directions.

The numbers match the array provided by the transition in the Info.plist le of

the transition.

duration—The duration in seconds. Â

path—The path to the Quartz Composer transition. Â

Applying a Theme to a Podcast

Themes provide a consistent look and feel to your podcast, especially if your podcast

consists of movies created by dierent people.

To select a theme for your podcast:

1 In Podcast Composer, go to the Edit stage (choose Stages > Edit or press Command-3).

2 Click the Theme button in the Edit stage of Podcast Composer.

3 Choose a theme from the pop-up menu.

A dialog appears prompting you to conrm that changing the theme modies your

current settings in the Edit stage.

4 Click Yes to change the theme; otherwise, click No.

5 Choose File > Save.

Working with Quartz Composer Compositions

Podcast Composer provides a number of Quartz Composer compositions. However,

you can create your own and make them available to Quartz Composer.

“ ÂCreating Quartz Composer Compositions” on page 70

“ ÂSelecting a Custom Quartz Composer Compositions” on page 72

Creating Quartz Composer Compositions

You can customize Quartz Composer compositions that ship with Podcast Producer or

you can create your own compositions. However, you must have strong familiarity with

Apple’s Quartz Composer, the application you use to create Quartz compositions.

The default Quartz Composer compositions that ship with Podcast Producer are in the

following folder:

/Applications/Server/Podcast Composer/Contents/Resources/Materials/Compositions/

This folder contains the following folders:

DualSource Â

This folder stores the dual source transitions, which you can access in the Edit

stage of Podcast Composer. For example, the Keynote.pqz bundle represents the

Keynote composition.

Titles Â

This folder contains two folders:

Bumper contains the bumper title composition bundles.

Overlay contains the overlay title composition bundles.

70 Chapter 9 Advanced Podcast Composer Topics

Chapter 9 Advanced Podcast Composer Topics 71

Transitions Â

This folder contains the transition bundles.

To customize Quartz Composer compositions or create new ones, you must install

Quartz Composer on your computer. Quartz Composer is included with the Mac OS X

developer tools.

To customize Quartz Composer compositions:

1 Copy the Quartz Composer composition you want to edit to the relevant folder inside

the following folder:

~/Library/Application Support/Podcast Composer/Resources/Compositions/

2 Rename the Quartz Composer composition.

The name of the Podcast Producer Composition that wraps a Quartz Composition

must end with .pqz.

3 Locate the Info.plist le inside the Quartz Composer composition bundle (Contents/

Info.plist).

4 Open the Info.plist le.

5 Change the value of the CFBundleIdentier key by replacing the name of the old

Quartz Composer composition with the new name.

The value of this key should match the name of the composition bundle. For

example, if you copy a dual source composition and name it C2.pqz, the value of the

CFBundleIdentier key should be com.apple.PodcastProducer.composition.dualsource.C2.

You can also change the Threshold key in the Info.plist le for dual source

compositions. This key denes the length of time the video has to stay static before

a transition is triggered.

The default values of the Threshold key are:

Overlay composition: 20 seconds Â

Keynote composition: 15 seconds Â

Overlay with Fade composition: 10 seconds Â

Theater composition: 20 seconds Â

6 Change the values of the localized keys listed in Info.plist.

For example, to change the values of the English strings, open Contents/Resources/

en.lproj/InfoPlist.strings and change the Copyright, Name, and Description strings to

reect the properties of the new composition.

7 Save Info.plist.

8 Locate the Quartz Composer le (ends with .qtz) which denes the composition.

For example, Contents/Resources/DualSource.qtz.

A .qtz le is a Quartz Composer composition.

9 Rename the le.

10 Open the Quartz Composer le using Quartz Composer, customize it as needed, and

save your changes.

11 Replace the Preview.mov le (Contents/Resources/Preview.mov) with a new preview

movie of the composition.

Selecting a Custom Quartz Composer Compositions

Custom Quartz Composer compositions appears in the User Content area of the

pop-up menu listing all available compositions.

72 Chapter 9 Advanced Podcast Composer Topics

Chapter 9 Advanced Podcast Composer Topics 73

Customizing the Email Template

Podcast Composer uses an email template to compose email notications.

This template resides inside the Podcast Composer application bundle

(/Applications/Podcast Composer/Contents/Resources/Materials/Templates/Mail/).

You can customize the template in two ways:

Modify the images used by the default email template Â

Modify the template itself, which is not recommended unless you have the Â

requisite knowledge

If you add a custom email template, Podcast Composer displays the Mail Template

button in the Email dialog, which lets you select the mail template to use.

To customize the email template:

1 Locate the Podcast Composer email template bundle:

/Applications/Podcast Composer/Contents/Resources/Materials/Templates/Mail/Apple

Podcast.pmu

2 Copy the email bundle “Apple Podcast.pmu” to the following folder:

~/Library/Application Support/Podcast Composer/Resources/Templates/Mail/

3 Rename the email bundle.

4 In the Contents/Info.plist le inside the bundle, change the value of the

CFBundleIdentier key by replacing ApplePodcast with the new name.

This name need not be the same as the name of the .pmu bundle. No spaces are

allowed in the name. This name serves as a unique identier of the bundle.

5 In the Contents/Resources/en.lproj/InfoPlist.strings, change the values of the

The Name string contains the name of the template that appears in Podcast Producer.

If you support other languages, modify the corresponding InfoPlist.strings le.

6 In the Contents/Resources/en.lproj/Localizable.strings le, change the strings that

appear in the email notications.

If you support other languages, modify the corresponding Localizable.strings le.

7 To customize the images used in the email notications, replace the contents of the

PodcastCapture.png and Spacer.png les (in /Resources/Images/) with your own content.

Do not change the names of these les because they are referenced in the

part.html.erb le.

8 To customize the actual email template, edit the HTML code in the following le:

~/Library/Application Support/Podcast Composer/Resources/Templates/Mail/Apple

Podcast.pmu/Contents/Resources/Templates/part.html.erb

CAUTION: When editing this le, take extra caution. If this le is not edited properly,

email notications might fail.

74 Chapter 9 Advanced Podcast Composer Topics

Apple TV 35

audio encoding formats 35

Author eld 14

blogs 42

Compressor 36, 38

Description eld 15

documentation 7, 8

dual source workows 16, 20

Edit stage

exit movie 32

introduction movie 28

introduction overlay 30

overview 25

previewing podcast 34

title movie 29

transitions 33

watermarks 30

email notications 50, 73

encoding formats 35, 37, 38

exit movie 25, 32

Export stage 35, 37, 38

le sharing 46

File Transfer Protocol. See FTP

Final Cut Server 45

folders

shared 46

Watch Folder 45

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) service 43

help, using 6, 12

iChat notications 51

Import stage 16, 18, 20, 22

Inspector 58

introduction movie 25, 28

introduction overlay 30

iPhone 35

iPod 35

iTunes Podcast Directory notications 53

iTunes U notications 54

messages. See notications, Notify stage

metadata elds 14

mobile encoding formats 35

montage workows 17, 22

movies. See QuickTime movies

naming conventions, Workow Name 14

notications 73

Notify stage 49, 50, 51, 53, 54, 55

Podcast Composer

overview 5, 10, 11

Quartz Composer 70

themes 65, 70

Apple Mac OS X Server (early) Podcast Composer User Guide Manual V10.6

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