A little update for rss-dev, some pointers from the Podcasting list
relating to the RSS 2.0 approach to mp3+BitTorrent enclosures. I
wasn't missing anything, the proposal just takes a rather unexpected
approach, creating a new namespace and term to support a single extra
mime type.

It seems the reasoning for not using multiple enclosure elements in an
item is in part due to the /implication/ in the RSS 2.0 spec that an
item will only have one <enclosure> element, also because: "I think
when you go all the way down the multiple enclosures path you'll have
completely reinvented the RSS item inside the enclosure (inside the
item)." [1].

(I don't actually think anyone was actually suggesting going "...all
the way down the multiple enclosures path", just multiple elements
when the same recording was available in different formats/mime types,
i.e. mp3 and BitTorrent).

Anyhow, here are some refs:

David Janes -
As you say, in this (http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss) all elements
that can be repeated (e.g. <item>) are explicitly marked as so. Also this
(http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/enclosuresAggregators) says "allows an
item to have _an_ enclosure".

Ross Wm. Rader points to
http://www.byte.org/index.xml

which has an item containing multiple <enclosure /> elements.

David Janes (re-)proposes using an additional link element *inside*
the enclosure:
<enclosure
url="http://.../sixteen.mp3"
length="56248320"
type="audio/mpeg">
<link:link
rel="delivery"
type="application/x-bittorrent"
url="http://.../sixteen.torrent" />
</enclosure>

Jerry Brown points to Ray Slakinski's <podcast:attachment> proposal,
http://ipodderx.com/podcastRSSModule

Turns out there is a comment space for Dave Winer's proposal:
[1] http://www.ipodder.org/2004/11/26#a601





--

http://dannyayers.com