I wanted an easy way to download a single enclosure from a podcast feed everyday. I also didn't want to use iTunes, because this download would need to sync with my Palm Centro for an alarm, and iTunes stinks at exporting things. So I used Automator and iCal to do it. I thought I would save someone else the trouble by listing the steps here. This is the feed URL I was interested in: http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=510101 -- the single enclosure is a daily poem in the form of an MP3 file.

Here are the Automator steps:
  1. Internet » Get Specified URLs (here is where you put the feed URL)
  2. Internet » Get Enclosure URLs from Articles
  3. Internet » Download URLs (specify a folder to save the MP3 to)
That's it! You now have the podcast without using any extra apps. I also have Automator (after a five-second pause) get the new file, rename it to daily poem, and move it to a new folder. It then gets synced to my Palm with the Missing Sync...

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This entry was posted on Thursday, July 24th, 2008 at 3:30 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.