Creating and Managing Player Instances for Assets (Flex Core)

A player instance (or player) is a web-based media player that enables Dalet Flex users and public internet users to view Dalet Flex assets. When viewing an Dalet Flex asset through a player, a user will be able to play, stop, pause, and carry out all of the other common features of modern web media players. Hence, players enable Dalet Flex users to make assets available publicly or privately for viewing on platforms and devices outside the Dalet Flex console.

Publishing, Un-Publishing and Re-Publishing Players

Asset publishing is managed by three related actions.

• Publish Actions: You must use the publish action that is configured to publish assets to FlexB2C.
• Un-Publish Actions: You must use the un-publish action that is configured to un-publish assets from FlexB2C.
• Re-Publish Actions: You must use the re-publish action that is configured to re-publish assets to FlexB2C.

The Publish Player action references a player definition and supports associated undo and redo action types. This means that when a user publishes a player, they can optionally choose to un-publish and re-publish the player in the future.
This can be done through launching jobs from the asset toolbar. The Un-publish job is useful if you wish to remove a player instance from the public domain. Re-Publish is useful if users have updated the title, description, metadata or keyframes associated with an asset and therefore wish to update the player instance properties.

The fact that publishing, un-publishing and re-publishing is carried out through the execution of Dalet Flex jobs offers users some significant benefits:

• Players can be published, un-published and re-published as part of a workflow.
• Players can be published manually as part of a job and therefore publishing can be scheduled to occur in the future.
• A single asset can be published against more than one publish player action type and therefore the same content can appear in different player definitions.
• If a player publish job fails, the the job can be retried or cancelled.

Player instances are created (published) when a publish player job is run against an asset. When this happens, the Dalet Flex job scheduler identifies the action associated with the job and evaluates the player definition associated with the action. It then makes the asset and player code available to the public by publishing it to FlexB2C.
A player instance can be deleted (un-published) when an un-publish player job is run against a player.

FlexB2C is a publicly-facing portal service that allows remote platforms to search for and query information about published assets and player instances.

You can see a list of all players that have been published for an asset by looking at the Players tab in the Asset Details screen.

The Player Dashboard

The Player dashboard provides an overview of the status of your player instances. This section provides an overview of the information available:

The Recent Player Activity

The Recent Player Activity provides a real-time update of all events occurring in relation to player instances. Rolling over each entry provides a tool-tip pop-up that provides further information on the event with links to the underlying player instance.

Player Summary

This section shows a summary of the number of player instances that exist for each player definition. For all numerical values that are greater than zero you can click through to see the results in the search results view.

Shortcuts

This section shows all Shortcuts to player instances.

Saved Searches

This section shows all searches you have saved from the Player Instance search section.

Player Search

This section explains how to search for player instances in the player section of Dalet Flex. In this section we focus on the elements of search that are specific to player searches.

Player Options

The Player Options drop down shows fields relevant to searching for player object types. The fields available are:

• Player Definition: This feature allows for searching for player instances by player definitions that have been defined in Dalet Flex.
• Asset ID: This feature allows for searching for player instances that belong to an asset with a particular asset ID.
• Asset Title: This feature allows for searching for player instances that belong to assets with a particular asset title.

Search Results

Executing a search in the player instance search section will return zero or more results. Users can view the player instance details using the List view. Users can also toggle bulk actions to display the toolbar and enable actions to be carried out against one or more player instances. Clicking on an item in the player search results will take the user to that player details screen.

Player Details

The Player Details screen displays information about an individual player instance. The tabs and relevant fields are described below.

From the Player Details screen, you can use the tab navigation to browse. Below we will introduce the Player-specific tabs.

Summary Tab

Content Preview

A preview of the Player and its related Embed code, can be viewed in the Summary tab.

Embed Code

The embed code is used to embed the player instance inside an HTML page.

Asset Title

The asset title provides the title of the asset that is associated with this player instance. By selecting the asset title hyperlink, you will be taken to the Asset Details screen for this asset.

Status

The Status fields provides the currents status of this player instance.

Config Tab

This screen shows all the configuration that is related to a particular player publish action. The configuration information can only be edited if the job is in a failed or timed out state. An example is shown below:

Creating a New Player Definition

On the toolbar, click New, select Player Definition from the drop down menu.

In the Create new Player definition section, fill in the relevant details such as name, visibility, and plugin.

Once you've created your player definition, click the Extended Configuration tab in order to define the values that you wish to assign to your new resource. The Configuration sub-tab contains the following configuration options:
- Player Instance Configuration: These options allow you to change how the player instance looks and how it behaves. You can choose whether the video starts playing automatically, whether the controls are enabled, whether it plays on a loop, whether you can view it in full screen view, and so on.

- Preferred Size: These options enable you to change the height and the width of the player.

- Media Source: Enables you to add media source details such as asset context, mime type, and validation profile.
- Player Files: Including:
- Embed File: This .vm file can be used to generate an embed code. Thus allowing you to embed your player in any HTML File.
- Player File: This .vm file takes all the configuration and adds this configuration to your asset player.

- Player Option: This field is for adding plugins that need certain endpoints. Examples include: analytics and comment plugins.

Publishing a Player Instance

The following steps will walk you through the process of publishing a player instance for an existing asset in Dalet Flex.

In this scenario, the process is initiated from the asset toolbar in the Asset Details section for an asset. It could equally be started from the Bulk Actions toolbar available in the asset search results screen, or the asset basket.

Note: The asset *must* be published before you can publish the player.

Create a player definition.

Click the Configuration tab, and enter the configuration details for your player definition.

Navigate to your chosen asset.

Click the Publish Player button.

In the Create Publish Player Jobs dialog box, select the player definition that you created from the drop down.

At the bottom of the window, click the Run Now button.

When the progress bar reaches 100% the publish has completed. Simply click Done to finish.

Navigate back to the asset, and click on the Players sub-tab. Here you will be able to select the player and view a preview of it.

Un-Publishing a Player Instance

In this scenario, the process is initiated from the Asset toolbar in the Asset Details section for an Asset. It could equally be started from the Bulk Actions toolbar available in the Asset Search Results screen, or the asset basket.

In the Player Details section for the player instance, click on the Un-Publish Player action in the Asset Toolbar.

The Create Un-publish Player Jobs pop-up appears. Select the Player Un-publish action to use and fill in scheduling and configuration options.

Click Run Now, and the job is run.

Re-Publishing a Player Instance

In this scenario, the process is initiated from the Asset toolbar in the Asset Details section for an asset. it could equally be started from the Bulk Actions toolbar available in the Asset Search Results screen, or the asset basket.

1. In the Asset Details section, click on the Re-Publish Player action in the Asset Toolbar.
2. The Create Re-Publish Player Jobs pop-up appears.
3. Click Run Job, and the job is run and the player is re-published.