Automate Content Ingestion using Drop Folders – Part I

Welcome to the second blog post in our series of video tutorial blogs. Here we will talk about advanced ingestion functionality, specifically the Kaltura monitored Drop Folder feature.
You can use a drop folder to automate an on-going workflow of media and/or metadata ingestion into Kaltura.  This allows for efficient and fast content ingestion in complex operational environments that require parallel work on metadata and media, as well as bulk ingestion of large amounts of content. This feature is intended for advanced Kaltura users who wish to utilize a more scalable and automated ingestion process than the manual upload functionality can provide.
Kaltura offers multiple configuration options for setting each drop folder to a specific workflow that fits your needs, from simple media upload tasks to bulk ingestion of complex media packages that include multiple media files and metadata items.
The video tutorial below will demonstrate an ingestion flow of pre-transcoded media files via a drop folder (option 2a below).

[kaltura-widget uiconfid=”6420041″ entryid=”1_v7nd425g” width=”551″ height=”330″ addpermission=”” editpermission=”” /]KMC Video Tutorial – Drop Folder
Key configuration options include:

1. Drop folder location:
   1. Hosted on the Kaltura Cloud (publisher pushes the content) – open for FTP/SFTP upload  using simple/advanced FTP client.
   2. Hosted on-premise by the publisher (Kaltura pulls the content) – full FTP/SFTP/SCP access is required.
2. Drop folder input package
   1. Media file/s  – An automatic ingestion process is triggered for uploading these files to Kaltura. The Transcoding Profile determines whether the media files are handled as a single media source (Kaltura fully transcodes) or as part of a media package that consists of multiple bit-rate transcoding flavors that were generated by a local transcoder (added to a single media entry as one unit). You can conveniently edit the metadata in the KMC.
   2. A Kaltura MRSS-formatted XML – The XML file includes both metadata and references to related media files (which can reside within the drop folder itself or on a remote location). The automatic ingestion process creates or updates media entries in Kaltura while populating the metadata fields of the entries from the XML and adding the media files referenced in the XML to each related entry.
3. Drop folder processing policy
   1. Create a new entry based on the input package.
   2. Add to an existing entry (source file and transcoded flavors are automatically matched to their placeholder within the entry in the KMC, using naming conventions).

Please stay tuned for part II of this post, which will describe option 2b i.e. how to use an XML file to facilitate an automated ingestion of media files along with metadata.
Note that you can configure the drop folder via the admin console. The tutorial below assumes that the drop folder has been adequately pre-configured.
Contact your Kaltura account manager to learn more about how drop folders can simplify your workflow, and to activate and configure drop folders on your account. If you haven’t opened a trial account yet, open one today on www.kaltura.com and experiment with our newest features.
Write in the comments below if you are interested in other use cases for drop folder.