Syndication-Based Automation

You can also implement an automated video/audio publishing process using the Content Engine's syndication format. This is a proprietary Escenic XML file format that can be used for import/export purposes. It is described in detail in the Escenic Content Engine Syndication Reference.

To define and create a content item in this way you simply create a syndication file containing all the required information and upload it to a specified import folder on the Content Engine server. The Content Engine will then automatically import the file and create a corresponding content item, triggering the transcoding and key frame generation process.

For a general description of how to use the Content Engine's import service, see http://documentation.escenic.com/ece-syndication-ref/5.6/the_import_service.html.

The following example shows a syndication file that could be used to import a video content item, based on the content type example given in Defining an External Video Content Type:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<escenic xmlns="http://xmlns.escenic.com/2009/import" version="2.0">
  <content source="my-video-library" sourceid="1" type="external-video" state="published">
    <section-ref unique-name="videos" home-section="true"/>
    <field name="title">My First Imported Video</field>
    <field name="video">
      { "master" : { "uri" : "http://my-video-server/video1.mpeg", "mime-type" : "video/mpeg"}}
    </field>
  </content>
</escenic>

Following is another example which shows a syndication file that could be used to import an audio content item, based on the content type example given in Defining an External Audio Content Type:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<escenic xmlns="http://xmlns.escenic.com/2009/import" version="2.0">
  <content source="my-audio-library" sourceid="1" type="external-audio" state="published">
    <section-ref unique-name="audios" home-section="true"/>
    <field name="title">My First Imported Audio</field>
    <field name="audio">
      { "master" : { "uri" : "http://my-audio-server/audio1.mp3", "mime-type" : "audio/mp3"}}
    </field>
  </content>
</escenic>

The video/audio fields (highlighted in the examples above) must contain the URI and the MIME type of the video or audio clip, and must be specified in JSON format, since video/audio fields are defined with a MIME type of application/json (see Defining an External Video Content Type and Defining an External Audio Content Type).

Note also that, in order to trigger transcoding, the content items must be published on import, by setting the content element's state attribute to published.