index.rst

Getting started

To start, install typecaster with pip:

pip install typecaster

Create a podcast:

from typecaster import Podcast

my_podcast = Podcast(title='My Podcast', link='http://mypodcast.com',
                     author='Me', description='My typecaster podcast',
                     output_path='.')

Manually add and publish an episode to the podcast:

# Load synthesizer arguments and credentials
import json
synth_args = json.load(open('params.json'))

# Add episode
episode_text = open('script.txt').read()
my_podcast.add_episode(episode_text, text_format='plain', title='Episode 1',
                       author='Me', synth_args=synth_args)

# Publish episode to RSS feed
my_podcast.publish('Episode 1')

Schedule dynamically generated episodes on your podcast:

Note: scheduling will end when the process ends. This works best when run inside an existing application. Daemonizing scheduled jobs may be a feature in the future.

from datetime import datetime

def get_episode_text():
    datestamp = datetime.utcnow().strftime('%Y%m%d')
    return open('script_' + datestamp + '.txt').read()

cron_args = { 'hour': 6 }  # At 6 am every day

my_podcast.add_scheduled_job(text_source=get_episode_text,
                             text_format='plain', cron_args=cron_args,
                             title='typecaster Episode', author='Me')

# Pause scheduled job
my_podcast.scheduled_jobs['typecaster Episode'].pause()

# Resume scheduled job
my_podcast.scheduled_jobs['typecaster Episode'].resume()

IBM API

At the moment, typecaster only supports IBM Watson's text-to-speech API as a synthesizer. To use the API, you must get credentials from IBM and pass them as synth_args.

Right now, the API is free to use for the first million characters every month. That is about 7000 words per day. Additional characters are $0.02 per thousand. The API can accept 7 different languages and has a selection of voices for each language.

Learn more about getting credentials at IBM's developer cloud.

Read documentation on the text-to-speech API to learn about all possible synth_args.

Examples

Podcasts built with typecaster:

• NYT Morning Briefing (iTunes)

API

Models

.. automodule:: typecaster.models
    :members:

Utils

.. automodule:: typecaster.utils
    :members:

SSML

.. automodule:: typecaster.ssml
    :members:

License

Indices and tables

• :ref:`genindex`
• :ref:`modindex`
• :ref:`search`