Watch Directory Documentation

Modified: 2008/08/20 02:42 PM by headCodeWrangler - Categorized as: Documentation, Video Sources
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Overview

The video service monitors video sources defined as watch directories through
the application and synchronizes the contents of those directories with the
application. By default, monitoring for changes occurs every 15 seconds.

The rules for processing files inside a "Watch Directory" are:

  • The watch directory video source must be enabled in the application
  • The file content type must exist as a content type record inside the dbo.contentTypes table
  • Any XML files in the directory will be treated as meta data "shadow" file with or without media file present
  • Thumbnails will be generated for each media file unless the "generateThumbnails" flag is set to false for the particular contentType record in the dbo.contentTypes table. If the flag is false, then generic images will be used for the thumbnail and preview image

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Media Without a Shadow File

  • Adding a media file will create a new video with the file as the encoding
  • Deleting a media file will delete the encoding record and mark the video as deleted
  • Renaming a media file will create a new video with the file as the encoding, delete the old encoding and mark the old video as deleted. This is a two step process with the encodings and video being deleted first and the media being re-imported the next time the watch directory is processed.
  • Updating a media file can have three distinct effects:
    • If the media file is the same file with the same extension, nothing will happen
    • If the media file has a different extension, the video meta data will be updated, a new encoding added and preview/thumbnail images regenerated from the new encoding
    • If the media file is a different file with the same extension, the video meta data and the existing encoding will be updated from the new media file

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Shadow (XML) Files Without Media File

  • Adding a XML file will create a new video with the meta data from the file (file specifications below)
  • Deleting a XML file will mark the video as deleted
  • Renaming the XML file name will not have any effect on the video record
  • Changing the XML file can have two distinct effects:
    • Changing the "primaryTitle" value will create a new video and mark the old video as deleted
    • Changing any other values will update the existing video record with the data from the file

The XML file does not have to be complete or even have anything in it. Here
are the guidelines for using shadow files:
  • An empty XML file will create a blank video record by using the name of the XML file as the video title
  • An incomplete XML file (missing the root "metaData" node) will also create a blank video record by using the name of the XML file as the video title
  • A partial XML file (having the root "metaData" node but not all the individual element) will use the values in the available elements as the meta data for the video record. This means that you can specify only the value of the "primaryTitle" or the "dateProduced" element and either leave everything else blank or not even create nodes for the elements you do not care about.

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Media with Shadow File

  • Adding a media file with a shadow file will create a new video with meta data from the shadow file and the media file as the encoding
  • Deleting can have three distinct effects:
    • Deleting a shadow file and leaving the media file will update the video with data from the media file
    • Deleting the media file and leaving the shadow file will remove the encodings associated with the video and use a generic image for the thubmnails and preview
    • Deleting both shadow file and media file(s) will remove the encodings associated with the video and mark the video as deleted
  • Renaming and/or updating the media and/or the shadow file will have the same effect as described above for the media and/or shadow file

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Shadow File Format Example



<video xmlns="http://ensembleVideo.com/dataImportSchema/video">
  <metaData>
    <primaryTitle>Ellen-Miller-Sunlight</primaryTitle>
    <abstract>Some abstract text</abstract>
    <subjectKeywords>doh, doh, doh</subjectKeywords>
    <duration>10:06:02</duration>
    <dateProduced>2008-03-25</dateProduced>
    <copyright>Mine</copyright>
  </metaData>
</video>


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Shadow File Schema



<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<xs:schema attributeFormDefault="unqualified" elementFormDefault="qualified" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
  <xs:element name="video">
    <xs:complexType>
      <xs:sequence>
        <xs:element name="metaData">
          <xs:complexType>
            <xs:sequence>
              <xs:element name="primaryTitle" type="xs:string" />
              <xs:element name="abstract" type="xs:string" />
              <xs:element name="subjectKeywords" type="xs:string" />
              <xs:element name="duration" type="xs:string" />
              <xs:element name="dateProduced" type="xs:dateTime" />
              <xs:element name="copyright" type="xs:string" />
            </xs:sequence>
          </xs:complexType>
        </xs:element>
      </xs:sequence>
    </xs:complexType>
  </xs:element>
</xs:schema>


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