Defining an External Video Content Type

A video content type must at least have the following:

• A parameter called com.escenic.video that is set to true

• A basic field with:

  • mime-type set to application/json

  • a video sub-element with a value attribute set to true. This element must belong to the namespace http://xmlns.escenic.com/2010/video.

The following example shows such a minimal content-type:

<content-type name="external-video">
  <parameter name="com.escenic.video" value="true"/>
  <panel name="main">
    <field name="video" type="basic" mime-type="application/json">
      <video xmlns="http://xmlns.escenic.com/2010/video" enabled="true"/>
    </field>
  </panel>
</content-type>

Here is a more realistic version of the same example, this time including a title field, label and so on, but with the important parts highlighted.

<content-type name="external-video">
  <parameter name="com.escenic.video" value="true"/>
  <ui:icon>graphic</ui:icon>
  <ui:label>External video</ui:label>
  <ui:title-field>title</ui:title-field>
  <panel name="main">
    <field name="title" type="basic" mime-type="text/plain"/>
    <field name="video" type="basic" mime-type="application/json">
      <video xmlns="http://xmlns.escenic.com/2010/video" enabled="true"/>
    </field>
  </panel>
</content-type>

The com.escenic.video parameter identifies the content type as a video content type managed by the Video plug-in. The video sub-element identifies its parent field as the field that is to hold video metadata. This metadata, supplied by VME Online, describes all available versions of a video object: data format, resolution, URL and so on. It is encoded in JSON format, and the parent field must therefore have its mime-type attribute set to application/json.

When a content item of this type is opened in Content Studio, then the metadata in the video field is displayed in a table, and the user can access the various versions of the video by right-clicking on a row in the table and selecting Play from the displayed menu.

On Windows clients only, and only if Escenic Content Pilot is installed, a Select video... button is displayed above the table that can be used to select a video from Viz Media Engine. For more information about this, see Working With External Video Content Items.