Video and Drupal

Here are some notes I pulled together for a discussion on using videoblogging with Drupal for Drupal Camp LA.

Some Questions


  • Who is audience for your video content? How will they use it? (e.g., browsing political video archives vs. searching demo reels for video production teams).
  • Who will post? User submitted? Admins or members? Access/permissions on Javascript and embeds.
  • Who will host? Hosting services or your own?
  • What formats do you need/want to support? Transcoding services?
  • What kind of (meta)data do you wish to collect? Embeds vs. CCK. License info.
  • What version of Drupal are you running?

Some Approaches


  • Cut and paste code from sites like Archive, YouTube or blip.tv
    • Requires near full HTML posting permissions
  • Cross-post from blip.tv
    • What is XML-RPC end-point for your site?
  • Filter urls and tags
    • May conflict with other filters
  • Fill out a form
    • What data? CCK? emfield?
    • How render (teasers, blocks, views)? Contemplate?
    • Hosting provider support in emfield
  • Upload a file as a node attachment
    • How copy path to a field?
    • Display progress bar in new Drupal versions.
    • How add to feed?
    • How add metadata? License?
    • Storage location?
    • What formats supported?
  • Discovery
    • XML feeds & cron jobs
    • Page scraping (leech)
    • Aggregation / Feeds

Some Discussions & Articles

Groups.Drupal.Org


  • Video - This group aims to get ideas and coordinating efforts between the different people involved in the video content development. The goal is to provide drupal with an easy, powerful and extensible support for videos.
  • Podcasting - A place to share thoughts, ideas, questions, tips and general information about podcasting using Drupal.
  • RSS Aggregation - Working on the improvement of the RSS/ATOM aggregation provided by Drupal.
  • Flash Embedding - The focus of this group is on object embedding and, based on what is currently available, this is mainly Macromedia Flash related. There are a number Drupal modules that provide integration with Flash based media players and Javascript replacement techniques. We also welcome more general discussion about embedding techniques and conundrums which can cover Quicktime through to ActiveX if it takes your fancy.
  • Videocasting Drupal - This group is for learning, teaching, and coordinating videocasts about Drupal. Videocasts are one of the most effective ways to engage and teach users or potential users of Drupal and are pretty easy to make. Join this group to learn how and pitch in.

Drupal Contributed Filters


  • Coolfilter - This allows you to use HTML-like tags as an alternative to HTML itself for adding almost any type of media to your posts for most of modern browsers both in windows & linux easily. It can also help you make Videos on GoogleVideo,YouTube, Ifilm, VSocial etc.(many more, refer to document for detail) embedded in your drupal page.

Drupal Contributed Modules

  • Embedded Media Field - This extensible module will create fields for node content types that can be used to display video, image, and audio files from various third party providers.
  • Video - Submit videos to a Drupal site. Videos are embedded into html pages and can also be downloaded.
  • FlashVideo - FlashVideo is a complete video solution that expands the upload module to allow web developers and users to upload video files, automatically convert those videos to the popular Flash format, and then embed their video in any node type in the Drupal System using the simple [video] tag.
  • OpenPackage Video - OpenPackage Video is a set of modules for Drupal that enables video functionality for your site. Submitted videos are transcoded to FLV format so they can be viewed directly in the web browser. Transcoding either occurs locally using FFmpeg, or videos are transferred to OpenPackage.biz, transcoded and then returned to your site. To use the transcoding service on OpenPackage.biz, transcoding credit must be purchased. Transcoding locally with FFmpeg is, of course, free of charge.
  • Media Mover - Media Mover is a set of modules which allows website administrators to easily create complex file conversion processes.
  • SWF Tools - Flash embedding with simple syntax like: print swf('mymovie.swf'); and filter syntax like <swf file="mymovie.swf">. Allows you to convert a list of files into a playlist and also includes an helper functions to streamline various tasks.
  • Flashnode - If you just want to add Flash content to nodes without having to worry about writing any HTML or PHP then this module is for you!
  • Media Field - This is a bundle of two modules audiofield.module and videofield.module which are CCK fields for storing audio and video files. They are similar to filefield.module and imagefield.module fields.
  • Embed Filter - Many great sites like YouTube, iFilm and NowPublic allow their media assets to be served to 3rd party websites (like this one). They usually offer snippets of code to be embedded in a web page that will then load a media object (usually Flash) from their servers. This module lets your site users embed such snippets into posts but gives you the power to decide which hosts to trust.
  • Googtube - Googtube allows users to embed Youtube and Google Videos. When users post a url to videos on either of the two sites, the link is automatically converted to embed code.
  • FeedBurner - Integrates Drupal with the services provided by FeedBurner. Currently this module provides the means to redirect requests for your site's feeds to user-specified/created FeedBurner feeds. Special user agents, like FeedBurner and Feed Validator (this can be customized) are still allowed access to the direct feeds so there is no need for any special .htaccess hacking.
  • Syndication - Syndication.module offers a web page which centralizes all of the RSS feeds generated by Drupal. This helps users find interesting feeds from your web site.
  • RSS Remote Enclosure - RSS Remote Enclosure allows a user to attach a remote resource link (say, to an MP3 on OurMedia.org) to any node (subject to administrator perogative). The node author enters the URL and the Link Text in the appropriate textboxes, and the link appears in an <enclosure> tag in the RSS feed (complete with correct size and MIME type). The link also appears in the links area below the body of the node.
  • Related links - The relatedlinks module enables nodes to display related URLs to the user via blocks. Related links can be defined in 3 ways (parsed, manual, discovered).
  • Creative Commons - The Creative Commons module allows users to select and assign a Creative Commons license to a node and any attached content. Additionally, the site admin can select a license to assign to the entire site. This module uses the Creative Commons api (api.creativecommons.org) and can update when new Creative Commons licenses are available (for example, the more recent sampling licenses). Admins can restrict the licenses available to users, as well as require specific metadata be included.
  • Creative Commons (Lite) - The Creative Commons Lite module simplifies the functionality of the Drupal creativecommons module. This module allows users to add creativecommons license to any type of drupal node. License is shown as block on node view page. This has been built to make easier for user to choose creative commons licence while adding content as existing creative commons module is too complex with 2-3 steps procedure. This module does not uses any api for getting license because some license like developing nations is not supported by api.
  • Copyright - The copyright management module can set and display a copyright/license for a Drupal site and for any node. Licenses can be chosen from a built-in list or those added by admins. It handles URLs to the full text of the license and an associated image. Notices can be displayed in a block or site footer. Book pages can optionally set a license for all children, allowing each book or section to have its own license.
  • XSPF Playlist - xspf_playlist module generates a XSPF playlist from files that are attached to a node. It was designed for Jeroen Wijering's flash player, though it should work with other flash players. The admin interface allows the administrator to select what node types it works on, choose a default thumbnail file to use, and forthcoming support for CCK fields. It also supports multiple file types (audio, video, flash) that are supported by the flash player.
  • Acidfree - A full-featured media management system for drupal. This makes it so you can easily manage your photos and videos with drupal. Acidfree albums and media items are drupal nodes to integrate better into your system. It offers themeable drawing routines for albums and each media type so it can fit in better with the rest of your website. Items can be added individually (the drupal node-centric method) and also via a mass-import page that allows server-side directories of media to be imported or zipped, bzipped or gzipped archives to be uploaded and imported.

Drupal Contributed Distributions


  • FilmForge - FilmForge is a distribution (or profile) of the Free/Libre Open Source Softare content management system Drupal, tailored to the needs of videomaking communities. FilmForge makes it simple to install and run your own video sharing site. See the demo site.

Drupal Patterns


Free Video Hosting


Some Example Sites


Some Screencasts


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