Video import

[Emma Richardson]

I am just starting to look at OpenCast for a possible video management solution. I had a couple of questions I am hoping someone could answer…

1. Is it possible to connect to a network folder and sync all the videos in that folder into OpenCast? When new videos are added, I would want them to automatically be imported…

2. If vtt files are already made for a video, will OpenCast automatically connect them?

Thanks in advance!

[Rainer Rillke]

Hi,

(1)

I'm not aware of Opencast being able to add video files directly from a network drive. In old Opencast versions, you could drop video files into the inbox and they would have been added to Opencast and deleted from the inbox. Now, because meta data is usually an essential part of each video, you have to build media packages.

This is essentially building an XML file which is referencing all the content, and running zip with zero compression level on the XML file, the media, the catalogues and attachments.

If you would like to keep it on file system operations without interacting with Opencast's /ingest endpoint, you could use something like inotify or a periodical "find" for modified time, build a media package from any new video and throw it into the inbox.

Opencast Inbox Documentation: https://docs.opencast.org/r/9.x/admin/#configuration/inbox/

(2)

You can include and reference the VTT files with your the media package with correct flavor and tagging, and make sure your workflows will not loose them (make sure they are included in snapshots).

I would probably use a reverse-engeneer-approach: First add a video through the admin UI, attach the subtitles (see https://docs.opencast.org/r/9.x/admin/#configuration/admin-ui/asset-upload/ ), make sure they are played, and then go to the /archive directory on disk to see how the media package (the latest snapshot/ highest number) looks like and use that as a template.

/Rillke

[Andrew Wilson]

hey Emma.

sorry it's not a complete and perfect solution but it may provide you with a starting point. You could run a script on a schedule (cronjob) that looks at the contents of a folder and ingests the files into opencast. you would need to generate metadata via some means. If you had existing metadata in some format you could extend your script to transform it to something opencast would like. You would also need to handle existing videos not being re-ingested.

this script may be worth looking at: https://github.com/opencast/helper-scripts/blob/master/ingest/ingest-single-request.sh

but again it's not a complete solution. I'm sure someone on the list may have a solution along the same lines but a bit more expanded.

hope that helps!

-andy

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[Lars Kiesow]

Hi

>> 1. Is it possible to connect to a network folder and sync all the
>> videos in that folder into OpenCast? When new videos are added, I
>> would want them to automatically be imported…

> I'm not aware of Opencast being able to add video files directly from
> a network drive. In old Opencast versions, you could drop video files
> into the inbox and they would have been added to Opencast and deleted
> from the inbox. Now, because meta data is usually an essential part
> of each video, you have to build media packages.

The inbox still exists and can be used. And the inbox is exactly what
you are asking for: A folder you drop media files into which are then
pulled into Opencast.

But we usually discourage users from using that _in most cases_ since
this approach has shown to come with a number of problems like missing
metadata or missing errors due to the asynchronous approach.

It's often better for users to have a website then can drop a file into
and directly add emtadata and get feedback. And for integrations, it's
often better to use the APIs to send data to Opencast.

Still, the inbox exists and works.

–Lars

[Emma Richardson]

Almost a year later and I am now up and running with my Opencast server!  As I type I am ingesting my first videos from an inbox scanner...so far so good...(I think! - Logs are spewing out lots of stuff with no fatal errors thus far..) - quick question - is there a way to add videos from a specific folder to a specific series?  Do I need to create a new workflow for each one or would it possible to create an xml file in that folder that the ingestion service would read and apply to all the videos that show up in that folder?

[Dietmar Zenker]

Hi,

you could use different inbox folders as described here: https://docs.opencast.org/r/10.x/admin/#configuration/inbox/#step-1-configure-an-inbox-scanner. Additionally, it is possible to specify different workflows that should be executed on ingesting from an inbox directory in the corresponding config files ("workflow.definition=ingest-from-inbox-MY-OWN-WORKFLOW"). With an inbox-specific workflow, an ingested video can be assigned to a specific series by the series workflow operation, e.g.:

    <operation
      id="series"
      exception-handler-workflow="partial-error"
      description="Applying default series to mediapackage ingested from inbox">
      <configurations>
        <configuration key="series">INSERT_SERIES_ID_HERE</configuration>
        <configuration key="attach">*</configuration>
        <configuration key="apply-acl">true</configuration>
      </configurations>
    </operation>

Greetings,

Dietmar

 

[Lars Kiesow]

Hi
I've just noticed that documentation of one of the inboxes features is
missing. That's its support for series. You should be able to just
create sub-folders for series which must have the name of the series
identifier.

Putting files in there will automatically add the files to that
specific series:

/inbox/
|
+-- edb87f8c-803f-4fab-aec8-7d93f7cfb5a3 <- Series A
+-- 95e4c12b-2335-4f76-9e86-5317ffffe301 <- Series B

If it works, maybe you want to contribute the docs for that? :D

https://github.com/opencast/opencast/blob/r/10.x/docs/guides/admin/docs/configuration/inbox.md

Best regards,
Lars

On Tue, 4 Jan 2022 02:47:21 -0800 (PST)
Dietmar Zenker <dzenk...@online.de> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> you could use different inbox folders as described here:
> https://docs.opencast.org/r/10.x/admin/#configuration/inbox/#step-1-configure-an-inbox-scanner.
> Additionally, it is possible to specify different workflows that
> should be executed on ingesting from an inbox directory in the
> corresponding config files

> ("*workflow.definition=ingest-from-inbox-MY-OWN-WORKFLOW*"). With an

> inbox-specific workflow, an ingested video can be assigned to a
> specific series by the series workflow operation, e.g.:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

> * <operation id="series"

> exception-handler-workflow="partial-error" description="Applying
> default series to mediapackage ingested from inbox">
> <configurations> <configuration
> key="series">INSERT_SERIES_ID_HERE</configuration> <configuration
> key="attach">*</configuration> <configuration
> key="apply-acl">true</configuration> </configurations>

> </operation>*
>
> Greetings,
> Dietmar
>
>

[Emma Richardson]

I just got Dieter's solution working and it is easier for me to have my
folders named for the class - much easier to find that way!
I will try it out though, seeing as I am in the experimenting (lol,
though somewhat experimenting live) stage!  And happy to update the docs.
I have another question - currently, I am importing all these recording
from an on premise zoom recording server which is scripted to rename the
files to day of the week that they were recorded on.  This is very
useful for me as it allows me to overwrite the previous weeks recordings
and keep my drive space under control.
When I set my first inbox up yesterday, I noticed that it did not bring
in a new file - I thought the polling would control that (I just left
that setting alone-default to 5000) - could it be that the file had the
same name?  Or do I have something else going on?  A missed setting maybe?
I would like Opencast to also overwrite the previous recording with the
same name - is that possible?  Not the end of the world, I will probably
just script a cleanup of some sort..
Emma

Lars Kiesow wrote on 1/4/22 10:56 AM:

[Emma Richardson]

I just found this in the docs - "Opencast periodically scans the specified location for new files" - so is this not controlled by the polling interval?  If not, where is the time frame adjusted?

Emma Richardson wrote on 1/4/22 11:41 AM: