Kaltura API: How To Get Started (Video)
Our APIs work like secret shortcuts to our platform, however, the secret, in true Kalturian spirit, is quite open. Not long ago, we recorded a webinar that went in depth about our API. This webinar prompted us to create a series of posts detailing our APIs and answering some FAQs. Today, we are going to focus on how one gets started with the Kaltura API. So before we get to the Q&A segment, you might first want to take a look at the clip below in which our Director of Community and Developer Relations; Zohar Babin, explains the necessary steps of how to begin working with our API.
[kaltura-widget uiconfid=”6420041″ entryid=”1_x9ylxcub” width=”551″ height=”339″ addpermission=”” editpermission=”” /]
(Be sure to check out the full webinar)
Zohar has also provided us with answers to five of our most frequently asked questions that will kick-start this series.
Q. “You have a lot of documentation but how do I know which one to start with?”
A. It’s probably easiest to refer to our “getting started” segment on the knowledge center. There is a lot of information that is explained very succinctly and we also provide a vast amount of guides.
Q. “What do I do if I see that the API I am using is marked as deprecated?”
A. The general answer is that even though certain actions are deprecated they will still be able to work because Kaltura is completely backward compatible. Having said that, if you are building a new application make sure not to use a deprecated API. For every deprecated service and action you will most likely find a newer more compatible service or action.
Q. “How do I find a newer version of a deprecated API?”
A.If you go to the Testme console API, take a look at the deprecated API service. Find the deprecated API call that you want to use in the test me docs. Under the description it will say it is deprecated and it will list newer services for you to use. If there are no newer services listed contact Kaltura support or go to the forums.
Q. “How can I upload content through the Kaltura video API?”
A. There are multiple ways to upload content, mainly bulk upload and single upload video.
I would recommend doing the following:
- Create a session
- Media->add – create the entry, get entry ID
- uploadToken->add – create uploadToken object, get token ID
- media->addContent (KalturaUploadedFileTokenResource) <- pass entry ID and token ID
- uploadToken->upload
This outlines the recommended flow. We don’t mind if you change the flow. While the “Create a session “ step is obviously necessary, you can play around with the order after that and it will work the same. Although this flow shows us how to upload a single post, there is a different way to do it for a bulk upload using XML/CSV. (For more information on bulk upload, check out this tutorial.)
Q. “How do I get a Download URL?”
A. Call the playManifest API (make sure you have your Partner ID and Entry ID at hand) using this link:
https://www.kaltura.com/p/[YourPartnerId]/sp/0/playManifest/entryId/[YourEntryId]/format/url/flavorParamId/[VideoFlavorId]/ks/[ks]/video.[ext].
Then you just need to replace these parameters: Partner ID of your account, Entry ID of the video to serve, Video Flavor ID denoting the specific flavor (rendition) of the video to play, KS to identify the user who requests access to the video and Ext denoting the file extension to give the file (such as: flv, mp4, etc.)
For more information, check out this link.
In the near future, we are going to post more information providing a more comprehensive guide to our APIs, specifically related to the player API and server API. For more information on the Kaltura API and Kaltura in general:
-Listen to recorded webinars and subscribe to future ones
-Visit the Knowle
