Streaming Video Search API Integration Guide

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Note: If your institution's account has moved to the new Infobase Platform, please visit our new Help Center for the most up-to-date documentation and support.


With the abundance of electronic resources available today, many schools and public libraries prefer to access their educational assets in one place. Federated Search Engines and other Discovery Tools allow libraries to do just that - easily browse through multiple content sources in their catalog at the same time.

The Infobase Search API provides a much needed "Communication Bridge" between our content and any Discovery Tool that our mutual customers may be using. api.infobase.com/ quickly indexes search results from our Streaming Video Platform in a universal XML format. These customizable XML search results can then be parsed with search results from other outside sources by an Infobase Discovery Tool partner.

In this Search API Integration Guide, you will find everything you need to know to get started as an Infobase Discovery Tool partner.
 

Available Products

The Infobase Streaming Video Search API is currently available for the following online products:

    -Films on Demand
    -Learn360
    -Classroom Video on Demand
    -Access Video on Demand
 

Search Query

In order to utilize the API, certain query parameters must be added to the URL routing:

api.infobase.com/msearch/accountID/vendorID/productID/searchterm/format/

Parameter Description
Account ID This is the customer's Infobase Account ID. If you are using the API to harvest meta-data, there are specific Discovery Tool Partner Account IDs separated by Market/Region that can be provided.
Vendor ID This is the Discovery Tool Partner ID that will be provided once a connection has been established with Infobase.
Product ID This is the Product ID for what Infobase products you would like to query.
Search Term

 

This is the key word(s) you are attempting to search by. In order to get all results, please leave this blank. It is possible to do multiple word searches as well.

 

Format This is the desired output format you would like the results to be returned in.
Paging Optional; There is a paging mode for the API query engine that should help get around any timeout issues. You have two new parameters added to the tail of the URL, after the format command.

 

Product IDs


Academic
 
Collection / Package ID
Master Academic Collection (Package of the following) 105
FOD: Business & Economics Collection  100
FOD: Health Video Collection  97
FOD: Humanities & Social Sciences Collection  98
FOD: Science & Mathematics Collection  99
Career & Technical Education Collection (Package of the following) 106
FOD: Careers & Job Search Collection  101
FOD: Family & Consumer Sciences Collection  102
FOD: Guidance & Counseling Collection  103
FOD: Technical Education Collection  104
Additional Collections  
FMG Archival Films & Newsreels Collection  125
FMG World Cinema Collection  196
^Canadian versions available.  
Other & International  
FOD: United Kingdom  183
FOD: Asia  184
FOD: International Markets  185
FOD: Australia  194
Individual Subject Collections (Sold Separately)  
FOD: Anthropology  150
FOD: Area Studies  152
FOD: Art & Architecture  153
FOD: Biology  154
FOD: Business & Economics  100
FOD: Careers & Job Search  101
FOD: Communication  157
FOD: Criminal Justice & Law  158
FOD: Earth Science  159
FOD: Education  160
FOD: Engineering  161
FOD: English & Language Arts  162
FOD: Environmental Science  163
FOD: Family & Consumer Sciences  102
FOD: Geography  165
FOD: Guidance & Counseling  103
FOD: Health & Medicine  167
FOD: History  168
FOD: Mathematics  169
FOD: Music & Dance  170
FOD: Nursing Core Collection  186
FOD: Nursing Current Concepts  438
FOD: Philosophy & Religion  171
FOD: Physical Science  172
FOD: Political Science  173
FOD: Psychology  174
FOD: Sociology  175
FOD: Technical & Trade Education  176
FOD: Technology & Society  177
FOD: World Languages  178
FOD: Veterinary Science & Technology  214
FOD: Physical Therapy  215

K-12
 
Collection / Package ID
Classroom Video On Demand  121
CVOD: Career & Technical Education Video Collection  124
^Canadian Versions available.  
Curriculum Video On Demand: Australia  189
Additional Collections  
FMG Archival Films & Newsreels Collection  125
FMG World Cinema Collection  196
Learn360  136
Learn360 Canada  143
Learn360 International  187
Learn360 Feature Film Collection (Criterion On Demand)  145

Public Library
 
Collection / Package ID
Access Video On Demand (Package) 107
AVOD: Health & Wellness  108
AVOD: Science, Mathematics & Technology  109
AVOD: Business & Economics  110
AVOD: Arts & Humanities  111
AVOD: Social Sciences  112
AVOD: Careers & Trades  113
AVOD: Home & Family  114
AVOD: Travel & Recreation  115
AVOD: Film & Television  180
^Canadian Versions available.  
AVOD: Australia  193
AVOD: International Markets  195
Additional Collections  
FMG Archival Films & Newsreels Collection  125
FMG World Cinema Collection  196

 

Search Term

Example: "Dogs+AND+Cats"/"Dogs+OR+Cats"

This field does not support special characters, including periods (.) and ampersands (&).
 

Format

The available formats are:

  • XML
  • XML-file (this will return a file stream)
  • XML-zip
  • JSON
     

Paging

suffix to add:    0/0 in form of     row/start 

(Number of Rows to return in the query and what row to start on.)

The search below returns 1000 rows starting at the first item and highest weight

Here an example for databases:

api.infobase.com/msearch/accountID/vendorID/productID/searchterm//xml/1000/0

For more results you can then change the last suffix to start further out.

Return Grade Level

To enable returning grades in the results, you must add txtmode=true. For example:

http://api.infobase.com/msearch.ashx?AccountID=AccountID&VendorID=VenderID&ProductIDs=0&format=json&txtmode=true&SearchTerm=term

 

Search Results

After you have submitted a search query to the API, your results will then be returned with the available meta-data for your requested records. Here are the currently included meta-data fields for the Infobase API:

Field Name Description
Database The Infobase Platform that contains the record
AssetType Asset type of the record
TitleID The Infobase specific ID for the record
IsSegment Whether or not the record is a Full Title or Segment Clip
SegmentNumber  The Segment Sequence number if the record is not a full title
Title Title name of the record
Description Full text description of the record
Source Source of Record
Record URL Account specific access URL to the record (authentication required)
runTime Length of video record
copyrightYear The Copyright year of the record
language The primary language of the video record
collections Listing of any Infobase Streaming Video Collections this title belongs to
subjects Listing of Subject Areas this record is categorized as

imageURL

Grade

a link to the thumbnail image of the video

 

Please note: The Account ID in the Record URL with match the Account ID provided in the original Search Query. Using a customer's correct Account ID is the only way for any authentication settings and usage statistics recording to work properly.

Non-video asset types are supported as well. Learn360 queries will include Images, Printables, Articles, Audio, and Interactives.

 

Sample Search

Here is an example Search Query for the term "frogs":

http://api.infobase.com/msearch/0/0/0/frogs/xml

The Account ID and Vendor ID have been set to 0 for this example.

Once completed, the XML end result would look like this for the first record returned:

<Root xmlns:json="http://james.newtonking.com/projects/json" json:id="1">
<Record json:id="2">
<Database>Classroom Video on Demand,Learn360</Database>
<AssetType>Educational Video</AssetType>
<TitleID>80418</TitleID>
<isSegment>false</isSegment>
<Producer>Planet Bonehead Studios</Producer>
<SegmentNumber>0</SegmentNumber>
<Title>A Future For Frogs: Planet Bonehead</Title>
<Description>
Students learn the importance of frogs and toads to healthy ecosystems and to human health as well. The adaptations of these incredible amphibians to their environment is showcased through brilliant photography and video of endangered frog species.
</Description>
<Source>Infobase</Source>
<RecordURL>
http://cvod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=0&xtid=80418
</RecordURL>
<runTime>26:24</runTime>
<copyrightYear>2010</copyrightYear>
<language>English</language>
<collections>CVOD Master, Learn360</collections>
<subjects>
Environmental Problems & Management,Biology,Animal Biology,Environmental Science,Ecosystems,Survey / Basic Concepts,Populations, Communities & Biodiversity,Economics, Conservation, & Public Policy,Survey: Environment,Zoology
</subjects>
</Record>
 

Record URL Authentication

It is the Discovery Tools partner responsibility to ensure that the customer's Infobase Account ID is used in the provided Record URLs. When harvesting for meta-data, the Account ID returned in the results will be for the Discovery Tool Partner's specific account. Using a customer's correct Account ID is the only way for any authentication settings and usage statistics recording to work properly. Please replace the Account ID when being displayed for a mutual customer.

<RecordURL>

http://cvod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=0&xtid=80418

</RecordURL>

 

Additional Help

You can now set up a POST method to receive data. This option does not disable the current methods of access and just adds forms as an acceptable data source. To see more on how to set up the POST method, click here.