Podcast catcher in Python

[Chuck]

On Sep 11, 8:32 pm, Chris Rebert <c... at rebertia.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 11, 2009 at 11:09 AM, Chuck <galois... at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Sep 11, 12:56 pm, Chuck <galois... at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> On Sep 11, 10:30 am, Falcolas <garri... at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> > On Sep 11, 8:20 am, Chuck <galois... at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >> > > Hi all,
>
> >> > > I would like to code a simple podcast catcher in Python merely as an
> >> > > exercise in internet programming.  I am a CS student and new to
> >> > > Python, but understand Java fairly well.  I understand how to connect
> >> > > to a server with urlopen, but then I don't understand how to download
> >> > > the mp3, or whatever, podcast?  Do I need to somehow parse the XML
> >> > > document?  I really don't know.  Any ideas?
>
> >> > > Thanks!
>
> >> > > Chuck
>
> >> > You will first have to download the RSS XML file, then parse that file
> >> > for the URL for the audio file itself. Something like eTree will help
> >> > immensely in this part. You'll also have to keep track of what you've
> >> > already downloaded.
>
> >> > I'd recommend taking a look at the RSS XML yourself, so you know what
> >> > it is you have to parse out, and where to find it. From there, it
> >> > should be fairly easy to come up with the proper query to pull it
> >> > automatically out of the XML.
>
> >> > As a kindness to the provider, I would recommend a fairly lengthy
> >> > sleep between GETs, particularly if you want to scrape their back
> >> > catalog.
>
> >> > Unfortunately, I no longer have the script I created to do just such a
> >> > thing in the past, but the process is rather straightforward, once you
> >> > know where to look.
>
> > I am not sure how eTree fits in.  Is that eTree.org?
>
> No, he's referring to the `xml.etree.elementtree` standard module:http://docs.python.org/library/xml.etree.elementtree.html#module-xml....
>
> Although since you're dealing with feeds, you might be able to use
> Universal Feed Parser, which is specifically for RSS/Atom:http://www.feedparser.org/
>
> Cheers,
> Chris
> --http://blog.rebertia.com

Brilliant!  I will give that a try.
Cheers!