Google refused th RSS generated with this plugin

@jdembowski ok I thought user = customer. About the “open source” of this package: I’m not aware it’s an open source since it is released by Castos
I thought it was developed and maintained by them.
As Open Source i have not even clue how to push these improvements that are solving the issues . indeed if you search, you will see that there issues are not new. I spotted messages from about 2 years ago claiming the same issues.

However here a further solution

@keleigh824 I have here a solution for the tag <image>.
In fact that tag is not forecast on any RSS by itunes nor Google.
Hence the error

In the 2.23.0 you need to edit the file:
/wp-content/plugins/seriously-simple-podcasting/templates/feed/feed-item.php

And remove the lines: 70, 71, 72 and 73 . THe ones here in this screenshot.
https://www.radiobluitalia.net/issues/TAG_IMAGE_TO_BE_REMOVED.png

And here the validation from W3 Validator
https://www.radiobluitalia.net/issues/VALIDATION_OK.png

It is successfully validated also by Cast Feed Validator

Please release ASAP 2.23.1 with all these mods implemented.

NOTE 1: just the Google Namespace is out, but it’s something I submitted to Google Support.
In case of any reasonable feedback by them, I will post it here.

NOTE 2: the <image> tags are used to make appear the images of the single episodes inside the human readable webpage 30 minuti con Anna RSS Feed (radiobluitalia.net). But these are considered bad things from the validator.

Solution for the IMAGES of the single episode:

To make it more human readable, and do not violate W3 Validator, just edit the file
/wp-content/plugins/seriously-simple-podcasting/templates/feed/feed-item.php

And the line 36 is the following:

<description><![CDATA[<img src="<?php echo $description; ?&>></description>

inside the description you can add the link to the picture of the single episode, if you so desire.

I have made in this way:

<description><![CDATA[ <?php echo '<img src="' . esc_url( $episode_image ) . '" />'; ?> <?php echo $description; ?>]]></description>

• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by tormy. Reason: Added a note
• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by tormy. Reason: Corrected XLS into XSL
• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by tormy. Reason: Added solution also for the human readability
• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by tormy. Reason: corrected mistypings
• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by tormy. Reason: Added the working solution code for the image

Hello @keleigh824 an official answer from Google is not yet arrived.
meanwhile I posted the solution on StackOveflow:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/77242573/solution-for-wordpress-plugin-for-castos-seriously-simple-podcasting-ssp-rss

With those mods, the RSS is validated, and it doesn’t disrupt any podcast on any platform.
It does respect the readability of the podcasts’ episodes

As soon as (and IF) I receive formal corrections for the Google’s Namespace, I will post it by updating my thread.

Meanwhile I’m waiting for Castos SSP 2.30.1 with he implementation of all the mods I suggested.
In case of they are ignored, I just stop any update to this plugin on all my Clients’ platforms due blatant reasons.

Just for your information and because you told me it’s an “open source” project, i see there is CastosHQ on GitHub.
I provided to fork the project, to apply the mods and to pull them (#799) 3 days ago:

https://www.radiobluitalia.net/issues/Castos_SSP_Screenshot-2023-10-09-104108.jpg

But it sitll there almost died https://github.com/CastosHQ/Seriously-Simple-Podcasting/pull/779

Hence I have not clue if ever this will be implemented. I blocked all the servers of all my customers from the automatic updates of this plugin, till the moment these mods will be effectively implemented into the SSP code.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by tormy. Reason: Added Screenshot

Update:

@keleigh824 Goggle never answered about their Namespace. Not matter. With my mods, the issue is solved and the RSS are validated. Google also agreed on the validation.

But the Cast Feed validator you suggested and linked to me, is fully unreliable.

– It didn’t detect the blatant issues with the code and, consequently, into the RSS formatted feed.
– It returns false warnings like this: WARNING:?The SSL certificate at https://www.radiobluitalia.net might not be trusted by Apple Podcasts.
It’s false because I engaged the service provider (Aruba.it) and they verified the SSL Certificate IS compliant and supported by apple https://support.apple.com/it-it/HT213917?

Screenshot from the validator:
https://www.radiobluitalia.net/issues/CasteFeedValidator.png

However I see that nothing is moving forward with Castos Plugin, and it seems no one is working to implement the solution, so far.

If this is the trend and/or the case, I will work with all customers to rewrite the plugin and changing/removing any legacy/references with Castos, so that there is not any danger it’s wrongly updated, wiping out all the implemented mods.

Good news: Google restarted the crawling of ALL the RSS feeds that have been modified following what I described above. All podcasts are back in the list.
The same podcasts are still fully functional (and even more rapid in uploading episodes, in all the other platforms).

Hi @tormy,

Could you please check if the recent plugin version have fixed your issue?

Best regards,
Serhiy.

it’s the whole day today I got:

503 Service UnavailableNo server is available to handle this request.

When the validator site will be back I wil test it. I already in backup the database and the 2.23.0 modified by me.

NOTE: for decades that validator have worked … today we needed : 503 … ………..

@zahardoc the 2.24.0 is not working properly neither. I see on GitHub I pushed the solution, but my Pull Request is totally ignored. It’s the number #779 …

here the screenshot https://www.radiobluitalia.net/issues/Castos_FAULT.png

here my ignored pull request: https://www.radiobluitalia.net/issues/Castos_FAULT_2.png

Immediate roll back to my modified 2.23.0.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by tormy. Reason: Correction

@zahardoc this is the result with all my ignored mods applied https://www.radiobluitalia.net/issues/Castos_MY_MODS.png

This is what I call: correct working.

Besides the google namespace (which it is not considered an error and it’ belongs to Google), my mods are doing their job.

Conclusion: drop the 2.24.0.

Hi @tormy,
Yes, we moved from GitHub to GitLab. Here is a GitLab repository – https://gitlab.com/castos/Seriously-Simple-Podcasting.

It’s quite puzzling to me that while many users successfully utilize our plugin, your feed is encountering validation issues. Regarding the <image> tag – it’s used to show the image for humans on the feed page.

Given your proficiency in PHP, my suggestion would be to customize the feed template to your requirements. To achieve this, you can duplicate the feed-podcast.php file from the SSP plugin and copy it into your theme folder. This allows you to make modifications such as removing unnecessary elements and adding custom tags to suit your needs.

Furthermore, you can modify the feed data using the ssp_feed_data filter. If you need any assistance with these steps, please do not hesitate to reach out, and I will be glad to guide you through the process.

Best regards,
Serhiy.

hello @zahardoc I’m thinking that many ppl simply they don’t test with the validator or they get these identical issues. And if ever they did it, they have not clue on how to report it. Indeed I asked to other users they have the SSP and they got identical results. Not only that, I have made researches and I discovered that there were several complains already in the past since 2019 but this problem was never solved.

I do believe the merely accepted to survive with it. But I don’t.

However, I wrote here on StackOverflow what to do:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/77242573/wordpress-castos-plugin-seriously-simple-podcasting-rss-validator-issues-error

and what I did it works.

You can test on the validator the following links and you will see they work (if my mods are applied as I described on StackOverflow).

If you don’t implement them into the original code, it will not work as it should.

https://www.radiobluitalia.net/feed/podcast/30-minuti
https://www.radiobluitalia.net/feed/podcast/blutime/

• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by tormy. Reason: adjustments

2.24 release should include the explicit tag update on the episode (item) level. We updated initially only on the podcast level, now we’ve updated it as well on the episode level.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by keleigh824. Reason: I misunderstood

@keleigh824 I don’t see any 2.24.1 available … there still the 2.24.0 and this one has the same issue of all the previous ones, as I demonstrate in my previous comments.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by tormy.

On 2.25.3 still the issues

This feed does not validate.

• line 63, column 1: Undefined item element: image (25 occurrences) [help] <image>

line 34, column 41: Image link doesn’t match channel link [help]

<link>https://www.radiobluitalia.net/</link&gt;

in short: you didn’t modified the code as I suggested. It’s NOT your intention to solve this issue.
I drop down to 2.23.0 (with MY mods) and I deactivate Castos on all the sites of my customers.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by tormy.

@keleigh824?@zahardoc this post still NOT Resolved yet.
Today I submitted on GITLAB the correct code to solve this. And you need to merge it into the master, release a new version with it in order to really solve this topic.

NOTE: I have tested it il all these months and in ALL the platforms this kind of issue is solved AND it doesn’t create any problem.

• This reply was modified 12 months ago by tormy.
• This reply was modified 12 months ago by tormy.