What is Infobase Hosted custom content versus what I have been using previously?
Infobase Hosted Custom Content is now available, where Infobase will host all of your videos. To view more information on Infobase Hosted Custom Content, click here.
To add one custom content title at a time, click on the New Title button, located at the top of the Custom Content Titles tab. To improve the data integrity of your custom content titles and ensure a reliable addition process, several fields in this wizard are required and contain drop downs, instead of allowing free form text.
Before adding new titles, verify that the desired Server, Producer and Series already exist. The "Infobase Hosted" server will automatically be available, and set as the default server. You will automatically have 10 titles available to upload for Infobase Hosted Custom content. Series is an optional field, but must be setup prior to adding a new title.
Clicking on the "New Title" button will open the new title wizard and walk you through a series of steps to add a new title.
Step 1: Metadata
Step one includes all of the basic metadata fields associated with your title.
For "Infobase Hosted" Titles: If the server is set to "Infobase Hosted", at the top of the screen it will show the total number of titles your account has, the number of titles you have remaining, and the storage used. For this server ONLY, you will be able to upload your video file.
Media File Formats: Mpeg-4 and QuickTime Formats (MP4, MOV, QT, and M4V), Flash Video (FLV and F4V), Microsoft Windows Formats (AVI, ASF, WMV, and WMA), MPEG-1/2 (MPG, M1V, M2V, MP3), WAV, Matroska (MKV), OGG OGM & OGV, WEBM, 3GP, RM, Webex (ARF), MXF
To see more information on upgrading your Infobase Hosted Custom Content package, click here. To see a video tutorial on how to add a new "Infobase Hosted" title, click here.
- Server- required field.
- Title - required field
- Description- required field
- Keywords/Tags
- Producer - required field. You have the ability to add a new producer, if it doesn't already exist.
- Series - select box, must already exist.
- Copyright Year - drop down to select a copyright year.
- Filename (Required)(Self-Hosted Only) - text field for entering the filename of the video or audio file, without any extension. If your video was named, "mymp4video.mp4," you would only enter "mymp4video" in this field.
- File Extension (Required)(Self-Hosted Only) - drop down containing the current two options for custom content: MP4 and MP3.
- Grade Levels - required field. Multi-select box, click into the box to make as many grade selections as needed.
- Expiration Date - enter date for title to expire in the following format: 12/31/2018. Once this date has been reached, the title will become expired and disappear from the platform 24 hours later.
- Thumbnail Path (Self-Hosted Only) - enter the complete path to the thumbnail image stored on your own server. The path should start with HTTPS://.
- Allow Segmentation - checkbox to allow segmentation of the title.
Step 2: Subjects
Step two includes selecting subjects for your title.
At least one subject is required. Select your subject from each subsequent drop down and then click the Add Subject button to add your new subject.
Step 3: Related Resources
Step three allows you to optionally add related resources to your title. You can add as many resources as needed from this step. The related resource file must be uploaded to a website or Google Drive and the complete path, starting with HTTPS://, should be added to the File Path. This process only works with weblinks; if you prefer to upload a PDF, skip this step, publish the video, and see the section below on editing an existing file.
- File - required field, enter the complete HTTPS path to the resource stored on your server.
- Title - text field for naming your resource. This will control the display name that is found on the Related tab on the viewer page.
- Type - select HTTPS link.
To add more resources, click on the Add Resource button near the bottom of this pop-up window.
Step 4: Terms of Use
Before your new title can be added, you must check the box on this final step and certify that you have obtained the proper license for the content you are adding.
To complete the process of adding your new title, click the Add Title button.
Finding the video on the platform
The new title will take a few minutes to change status from "Converting" to "Ready." Once this is complete, you can click the eye icon at the far right of the video listing to see the video on the platform. If you accidentally click the trash can (delete) icon instead, you will be given a chance to cancel the operation before the file is deleted.
Once you reach the video page on the platform, use the "Share" function under the video player to get the record URL with your authentication and account ID included.
The search index takes from about an hour to overnight to populate after the video is uploaded. Once this is complete, the video should be searchable by title. You can also do an advanced search, leave the metadata fields blank, and under "Search Options" select "Custom Videos" to see them all.
Editing an existing custom video
To edit the metadata for an existing video, click the title of the video. This will take you to an edit screen.
Any information about the video, including title, description, and expiration date, can be updated once the video is created, but you should not edit the filename or server as this will interrupt the access. The changes can take an hour to overnight to populate in the search index.
Editing a video to add a PDF as a related resource:
Note: there is a security warning currently associated with PDF files which we hope to resolve shortly. Users can push through the error and download the file as expected.
- Click the title of the video to reach the edit screen
- From the edit screen, click "Resources" in the upper right menu
- Click the "Upload File" area, then select your file. Ignore the warning about file size and dimension as it will not stop you from uploading a larger file.
- Click "Add resource" to complete the upload.
Adding Closed Captions with an SRT file
An SRT file is a time-coded transcript file that will populate the closed captions area of your video.
- Click the title of the video to reach the edit screen
- From the edit screen, click "Captions" in the upper right menu
- Click the "Upload File" area, then select your file. Ignore the warning about file size and dimension as it will not stop you from uploading a larger file.
- The "Name" field is what will display when the user clicks the cc button on the video.
- The Language field does not display, so you may wish to use "English" or the appropriate language in the name field.
- Click "Save" to complete the upload.
Note: uploading an SRT file will not populate the transcript area of the video player; this is a known issue that we hope to address with a video player update soon.