How to get list of podcast episodes from an album (iTunes Search API)

Question

I'm trying to obtain the list of podcasts episodes from the iTunes Search API. I'm able to make a call to the API and get back all podcast albums based on a search term:

https://itunes.apple.com/search?media=podcast&term=nerdcast

This returns the following json (cropped):

{
"resultCount": 20,
"results": [
    {
        "wrapperType": "track",
        "kind": "podcast",
        "collectionId": 381816509,
        "trackId": 381816509,
        "artistName": "Nerdcast",
        "collectionName": "Nerdcast",
        "trackName": "Nerdcast",
        "collectionCensoredName": "Nerdcast",
        "trackCensoredName": "Nerdcast",
        "collectionViewUrl": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/nerdcast/id381816509?mt=2&uo=4",
        "feedUrl": "http://jovemnerd.com.br/categoria/nerdcast/feed/",
        "trackViewUrl": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/nerdcast/id381816509?mt=2&uo=4",
        "artworkUrl30": "http://a5.mzstatic.com/us/r30/Podcasts/v4/e1/95/35/e1953536-8437-834e-eac8-01147ae11c9e/mza_3422052630315608394.30x30-50.jpg",
        "artworkUrl60": "http://a4.mzstatic.com/us/r30/Podcasts/v4/e1/95/35/e1953536-8437-834e-eac8-01147ae11c9e/mza_3422052630315608394.60x60-50.jpg",
        "artworkUrl100": "http://a1.mzstatic.com/us/r30/Podcasts/v4/e1/95/35/e1953536-8437-834e-eac8-01147ae11c9e/mza_3422052630315608394.100x100-75.jpg",
        "collectionPrice": 0,
        "trackPrice": 0,
        "trackRentalPrice": 0,
        "collectionHdPrice": 0,
        "trackHdPrice": 0,
        "trackHdRentalPrice": 0,
        "releaseDate": "2014-05-16T12:12:00Z",
        "collectionExplicitness": "notExplicit",
        "trackExplicitness": "notExplicit",
        "trackCount": 301,
        "country": "USA",
        "currency": "USD",
        "primaryGenreName": "Society & Culture",
        "radioStationUrl": "https://itunes.apple.com/station/idra.381816509",
        "artworkUrl600": "http://a2.mzstatic.com/us/r30/Podcasts/v4/e1/95/35/e1953536-8437-834e-eac8-01147ae11c9e/mza_3422052630315608394.600x600-75.jpg",
        "genreIds": [
            "1324",
            "26"
        ],
        "genres": [
            "Society & Culture",
            "Podcasts"
        ]
    },
.....

I'd like now to get all episodes from that first result. I've tried to do a lookup request using the collectionId, but it just returns back the same output as above instead of all podcasts from that collection.

https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?id=381816509&entity=podcast

From reading the documentation and some other posts this is how I believe it should work, but it doesn't. Is anyone able to help me out? Thanks.

Answer 1

I think what you need to do is to take that feed URL and get the tracks from there directly

"feedUrl": "http://jovemnerd.com.br/categoria/nerdcast/feed/",

I suspect that the iTunes search API documentation and implementation contain caveats that are not written clearly out.

Answer 2

For me, this works. I use this code: https://github.com/ijanerik/PHP-iTunes-API/blob/master/README.md

foreach($results as $item){
$url = $item->feedUrl;
}
$xml = simplexml_load_file($url) or die("feed not loading");
print_r($xml);