Building a Podcast Platform with Rails: Episodes and Subscriptions

Podcasts have gained immense popularity in recent years, and building a podcast platform with Rails can be an exciting and rewarding project. In this article, we will explore how to create a podcast platform using Rails, focusing on episodes and subscriptions.

Episodes

An episode is the heart of a podcast platform. It contains audio content, show notes, and other relevant information. Here’s how you can create an episode model in Rails:


rails generate model Episode title:string description:text audio_url:string duration:integer


This will generate a migration file where you can define the necessary attributes for an episode, such as title, description, audio URL, and duration. Don’t forget to run the rails db:migrate command to create the episodes table in your database.

Next, you can create a form for users to upload new episodes:


<%= form_with model: @episode, url: episodes_path, local: true do |f| %>
<%= f.label :title %>
<%= f.text_field :title %>

<%= f.label :description %>
<%= f.text_area :description %>

<%= f.label :audio_url %>
<%= f.text_field :audio_url %>

<%= f.label :duration %>
<%= f.number_field :duration, step: "any" %>

<%= f.submit "Upload Episode" %>
<% end %>


With this form, users can provide the necessary details for an episode, including the title, description, audio URL, and duration. Once submitted, the episode will be saved in the database and ready to be shared with your podcast listeners.

Subscriptions

Subscriptions allow users to stay updated with their favorite podcasts. To implement subscriptions, we can create a join table between users and episodes. This table will keep track of which users have subscribed to which episodes:


rails generate model Subscription user:references episode:references


This command will generate a migration file that defines the user and episode references for the subscription model. Don’t forget to run the rails db:migrate command to create the subscriptions table in your database.

Now, let’s create a button to allow users to subscribe to an episode:


<% if current_user >
<% if current_user.subscribed_to?(episode) %>
<%= button_to "Unsubscribe", unsubscribe_path(episode), method: :delete, class: "unsubscribe-btn" %>
<% else %>
<%= button_to "Subscribe", subscribe_path(episode), method: :post, class: "subscribe-btn" %>
<% end %>
<% end %>


In this code snippet, we check if the user is logged in (current_user) and if they are already subscribed to the episode. If they are subscribed, we display an “Unsubscribe” button; otherwise, we show a “Subscribe” button. The buttons are linked to the respective unsubscribe and subscribe paths, allowing the user to update their subscriptions accordingly.

Conclusion

With Rails, building a podcast platform that handles episodes and subscriptions becomes manageable and straightforward. By leveraging the power of Rails models, migrations, and forms, you can create an engaging platform where users can upload and share podcast episodes, as well as subscribe to their favorite shows.

Remember to take advantage of Rails’ notification mechanisms, authentication systems, and frontend frameworks to enhance your podcast platform and provide an exceptional user experience.

As always, make sure to consult the official Rails documentation for more detailed information on models, migrations, and other features.

References

• Ruby on Rails Guides
• Rails Documentation

Related posts:

“Building a Forum Platform with Rails: Threads and Replies” “Building a Blogging Platform with Rails” “Using GraphQL Subscriptions in Rails: Real-Time Updates” “Building a Job Board with Rails: Listings and Applications”