How to setup PowerPress With Advanced Sermons #
Introduction
Podcasting is currently not a feature built into Advanced Sermons, however, we do have quite a few users who use Advanced Sermons and a free podcasting plugin called PowerPress. PowerPress is by far the experts in WordPress Podcasting with a ton of great features.
Install PowerPress
To get started, the first thing you need to do is make sure you have Advanced Sermons and PowerPress installed and activated on your WordPress installation. If you do not have PowerPress already installed, from the WordPress dashboard navigate to ‘Plugins’ and search ‘PowerPress’. Next click ‘Install Now’ and ‘Activate’.
Enable Post Type Podcasting Feature
In order to use PowerPress with the post type ‘Sermons’, you need to enable Post Type Podcasting within PowerPress. To do so navigate to ‘PowerPress’ from the WordPress dashboard and click the submenu item called ‘Settings’. Once you’re on the settings page, you will see a new top navigation. Click the ‘Advanced’ tab to go to the advanced settings.
Now that you’re on the Advanced Settings page of PowerPress, scroll down till you see a feature called ‘Post Type Podcasting’. Once you have found it, click the checkbox to enable it. In order for this feature to be fully enabled, scroll down and make sure to save your chances by click ‘Save Changes’.
Once you have saved your changes, you should see a new submenu item under PowerPress in the sidebar menu called ‘Post Type Podcasting’. If you do not see this, try refreshing the page. If you’re using a caching plugin on your WordPress installation, make sure to purge your cache.
Adding Podcasting to a Custom Post Type
Now its time to create a new feed for the post type Sermons. To do this, navigate to the new menu item under PowerPress called ‘Post Type Podcasting’. On this page you will see a form with a dropdown for Post Type. Click the dropdown and select the post type ‘sermons’. Next you can add your own custom Feed Title and Feed Slug. Once you have completed this, click the button ‘Add Podcasting to Post Type’.
You should now see your new feed below like the following:
Validate The Sermon Podcasting Feed
Once you have created the new Sermon podcasting feed, we need to validate this feed. To do so, you need to create a new sermon. Note: Even if you have sermons already created on your WordPress installation, you will still need to create a new temporary Sermon to validate your feed.
From the WordPress dashboard, click on ‘Sermons’ and ‘Add Sermon’. Once you’re on the edit sermon page, add in your Sermon title and details. Now scroll all the way down and you should see a new meta box being generated by PowerPress called ‘Podcast Episode: Sermons’. From here you can paste in the media file for this Sermons podcast. Note: Adding in your podcasting media file is required when you’re validating your feed.
If you do not see this new meta box on the edit Sermon page, navigate to PowerPress from the WordPress Dashboard and go to ‘Tools’. Once you’re on the Tools page, click the ‘Clear Plugins Cache’ button. Now that you have cleared the cache, navigate back and complete the process of creating a new sermon to validate your feed. If you’re still not seeing the new meta box on the Sermons page, try clearing any other caching plugin that you have installed or make sure that you’re using the role ‘Administrative’ on your WordPress installation.
Once you have created and published your new Sermon and assigned your Podcasting Media File, navigate back to the ‘Post Type Podcasting’ settings and hover over the Feed URL for your Sermon Podcasting feed and click the ‘Validate Feed’ button. From here it will open up a new tab where you can start the validation process.
Once your feed has been validate, you’re all set to use PowerPress and Advanced Sermons for your podcasting needs!
Because PowerPress is a 3rd party plugin, unfortunately support is not offered for setting up Podcasting with your Sermons. We have put together this free resource in hopes that it will help you in the process of getting things setup and running. If you’re still having issues, we recommend contacting your WordPress developer to see if they can assist or the support team of PowerPress.
