Micro app 3 - Podcast Dashboard

I built a micro-app for the folks over at MacStories, who as you know, produce a lot of podcasts. My aim was to streamline some of the data entry we do every week.

Whenever a new podcast episode comes out, there's a form we have to fill out that requires links to the episode on all the major podcast platforms. We need the Apple Podcasts embed code, the show notes, the episode title, all that stuff. It's all perfectly doable, but it's a manual process that involves jumping around to a bunch of different apps, often across several devices.

I wanted to make it easier, so I created a little app called Podcast Dashboard, specifically designed for this task. You can add as many podcasts as you like, though most users will probably only need one or two. You start by entering the Apple Podcasts URL. You can also add the Spotify and YouTube URLs. Unfortunately, there's no way to grab those programmatically, so they're part of the initial setup, but you can always add them later.

Once you've entered the podcast URL, the app loads the show info, giving you access to everything you need. Need to copy the episode title? Just hit the copy button. Done. You'll also find the Apple Podcasts URL and the embed code right there. The show notes are available for download in both HTML and Markdown formats. You can even download the MP3 file directly from here if you need it.

Getting the exact podcast episode links for apps like Overcast and Pocket Casts is a bit trickier. I haven't found a way to automatically determine those yet. However, both Overcast and Pocket Casts create public websites for each show based on the Apple Podcast ID. So, when you enter your Apple Podcast link, it allows me to generate links to the Overcast and Pocket Casts pages for that show on the web. The latest episode will always be at the top, making it easy to grab and share the link.

Spotify and YouTube are static links that take you directly to the show page, where you can easily find the most recent episode and share those links. The one app that's currently missing is Castro. While Castro does have episode-specific web links, it doesn't seem to offer show links. This means I don't currently have a way to easily direct you to Castro to grab the link; you'll still need to open it on your phone.

That's essentially it: basic information about your show, readily accessible, all in one place. It was built specifically for the MacStories crew to make their data entry a little less painful.