Core Concepts

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Podcast Composer is easier to understand when you know the four main objects it works with.

Project

A project is a workspace.

It groups:

  • Source feeds.
  • Output feeds.
  • Indexed source episodes.
  • Episode assignments.

Use separate projects when the work should stay separate. For example, use one project for a client and another project for your own podcast network.

Source Feed

A source feed is an existing podcast RSS feed.

Podcast Composer reads this feed, extracts podcast metadata and episode data, then stores a local index in WordPress.

The original feed remains untouched.

Source feeds are good for:

  • Importing a show catalog.
  • Pulling episodes from an existing podcast host.
  • Combining multiple shows into one output feed.
  • Reusing a catalog without moving audio files.

Indexed Episodes

When a source feed syncs, the plugin saves episode data into a custom database table.

 

If an episode disappears from the source feed during a later sync, Podcast Composer marks it as orphaned instead of immediately deleting all historical data.

Output Feed

An output feed is a new RSS feed generated by Podcast Composer.

Each output feed has:

  • Its own title.
  • Its own feed slug.
  • Its own public RSS URL.
  • Its own podcast metadata.
  • Its own list of assigned episodes.
  • Its own advanced settings.
  • Optional per-episode overrides.

One project can have multiple output feeds.

Episode Assignment

Assigning an episode means adding an indexed source episode to an output feed.

The same source episode can be assigned to:

  • One output feed.
  • Multiple output feeds.
  • No output feeds.

Assignments are independent. Removing an episode from one output does not remove it from the source index or from other outputs.

Episode Override

An override changes how one episode appears in one output feed.

For example, the source episode might be titled:

Episode 24: Interview with Jane

In a curated output feed, you can override it as:

Best Of: Jane on Building a Podcast Network

The source data remains unchanged. Only that output feed uses the override.

Feed Slug

The feed slug identifies an output feed in WordPress.

Example:

best-of-show

With pretty permalinks, the public feed URL becomes:

https://example.com/feed/best-of-show

Podcast Composer makes output slugs unique across all output feeds.

Validation

Validation checks whether an output feed has the minimum required information to be publish-ready.

Validation checks include channel-level fields and episode-level fields.

A feed can exist before it is complete, but you should resolve validation issues before submitting it to podcast directories.