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Bebo Open Media Platform: Technical Specification Guide

Last updated: November 2007

Table of Contents

Media RSS Feed

Please refer to the sample Media RSS Feed below as the guideline.

IMPORTANT NOTE: All text element values should be wrapped with CDATA, this is to ensure the proper parsing of the xml (best way to escape reserved xml chars and parser unfriendly characters);

ONLY ONE element of the same type can be applied to a media object (ITEM), others will be ignored, i.e. Each <item> element node should only have one <media:thumbnail> child element node.

Media RSS Module Specification: http://search.yahoo.com/mrss

Sample Media RSS Feed:

<rss version="2.0" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss">
  <!-- Required -->
  <channel>
   <!-- optional title (not currently processed) -->
     <title><![CDATA[ACME Network]]></title>
   <!-- optional copyright (not currently validated) -->
   <copyright><![CDATA[2007, ACME Interactive, Inc]]></copyright>
      <!-- List of videos -->
      <!-- each item is a media/video object -->
      <item>
   <!-- Required: This title of the video -->
   <media:title><![CDATA[Jennie's New Gig]]></media:title>
         <!-- Optional: This description of the video -->
         <media:description><![CDATA[Jennie talks about her new ventures performing volunteer work.]]></media:description>
         <!-- Optional: Keywords for the video [reserved for future]-->
         <media:keywords></media:keywords>
         <!-- Optional: Categories this video is part of -->
         <media:category><![CDATA[/News/Entertainment/Interviews]]></media:category>
         <!-- The media -->
         <media:content>
            <!-- Required: This the thumbnail of the video, should be close to 90x90 pixels in size and ratio --& gt;
            <media:thumbnail url="http://acme.com/thumbs/1234.jpg"/>
            <!-- Required: The url attribute is the Link to HTML page where there is more info on this video, This is a required attribute, and must be unique for each video, even if the link is not valid, since this is used as a Primary Key.   The element node value is the actual video player tags, it is absolutely required as well -->
            <!-- The Video Player tags contained in this element node must conform to the Media Player Specifications -->
            <media:player url="http://www.acme.com/videos/502138785"><![CDATA[<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8sgycukafqQ&autoplay=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="353"></embed>]]></media:player>
            <!-- Optional: The alternative Video Player which has no autoPlay/pre-roll so that it can be placed into promotional spots -->
            <media:altPlayer url="http://www.acme.com/videos/502138785"><![CDATA[<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8sgycukafqQ" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="353"></embed>]]></media:altPlayer>
        </media:content>
        <!-- Optional: for shows that are only allowed to be shown during the current season, must be in ISO-8601 date -->
        <expiredate>2007-09-11T00:01:00-07:00</expiredate>
        <!-- Optional: Any country restrictions on the video, relationship indicates the type of relationship that the restriction represents (allow | deny); based on country code. [ISO 3166] .   Remember, only one such restriction can be specified with each media item, so you much choose to either allow or deny-->
        <media:restriction relationship="allow" type="country">au us</media:restriction>
     </item>
   </channel>
</rss>

Video Player Specifications

There are multiple locations on Bebo.com where partner videos will be shown, primarily the following locations:

  1. Channel Profile where the Media RSS Feed is configured to integrate into (Where the default video player width is 450 pixels)
  2. Bebo User Profile page, within the "FlashBox" module (a place where a user can feature his/her favorite videos) (Where the default video player width is 355 pixels)
  3. Bebo Video on a video specific page where the video is shown with others individual videos from same source, and/or similar videos (Where the default video player width is 450 pixels)

The height of the player should not exceed its width. We can auto adjust the viewing area so that it'll accommodate various height, but only until approximately a 1 to 1 ratio, area below that will likely be cut-off.

The player is rendered by tags contained within the <media:player> element of the Media RSS Feed:

There must be an <object><embed> or <embed> tag that will render the actual flash movie, at this point we'll allow <img> tags and <a> tags as well. <img> tags should mostly be used for tracking purposes; <a> tags should always have the TARGET="_BLANK" attribute. Note that Modern browsers such as IE 6+ and Firefox all support <embed> tags, but the convention to wrap the <embed> tag within the <object> tag is the most "by-the-book" and widely accepted format. A couple of simple HTML formatting tags: <br>, <b>, <p>, <span> are allowed as well, however, they may not render very nicely within the given Media Player playback areas.

All other html tags, as well as Javascript will not be allowed and will automatically be stripped out.

Example:

<media:player url="http://www.acme.com/videos/502138785"><![CDATA[<object width="425" height="353"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/8sgycukafqQ "></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8sgycukafqQ" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="353"></embed></object><img width="1" height="1" src="http://acme.com/tracking/12345"/><br><a target="_blank" href="http://acme.com/12345/">Meet the director</a>]]></media:player>

The player dimensions will be automatically adjusted (while maintaining aspect ratio) to fill out the 355 width and the 450 width areas. It should result in best viewing experiences when a 450 width player is submitted to us.

Any advertising content must be contained within the Player itself, ideally above the player controls such as the play/pause buttons. There should never be any ambiguity about the fact that the ad content is coming from the media content provider.

Channel Profiles

A Channel Profile is the "home" page where the video content is hosted. Typically a media content owner can create a number of Channel Profiles to host/organize their video content, i.e. one could create an "ACME Comedy" profile to host all the comedy videos; or create a "Seinfeld" profile to host videos related to a specific program brand.

In the top section of a Channel Profile page, videos that were uploaded through the Media RSS will be featured, the latest video will be loaded into the video playing area (this can be adjusted by the profile owner), while thumbs/links to others will be shown as well.

In the sections below the area with the video player will be an assortment of viral modules that the profile owner can reorder or disable, including:

To customization the look and feel of the Channel Profile please refer to our guidance on creating branded 'skins' at http://www.bebo.com/SkinSpecification.jsp.

Integration Steps

Once your Bebo account has been approved for Media Content Partner status, you'll be able to access the Media Partner Tool section on the Home page of your Bebo Account.

This is where you can:

  1. Select which Channel Profile you're uploading content to

    If you don't have one yet, click the link to create a new Channel Profile (see separate documentation on Channel Profile spec and creative)

  2. Enter the appropriate Media RSS URL (must be hosted on the domain that you've registered with us during the approval process).

    For example:

    1. enter "http://www.acme.com/rss/comedy" into this field to get all the comedy videos into your selected "ACME Comedy" Profile or
    2. enter "http://www.acme.com/rss/comedy/Seinfeld " into this field to get all the comedy videos into your selected "Seinfeld" Profile

  3. Click on the "upload" button to initial the upload of the video content
  4. Within seconds, all the videos uploaded will appear within the Preview section below, where each video should be showing it's title, thumbnail. The actual video can be viewed by clicking on the thumbnail or the "preview" link. If any processing error occurred with any or all of the videos, messages will be show, and/or videos with issues will be marked.
  5. Once you've verified that all the videos have been proceeded correctly, you MUST click on the "Save" button at the bottom of the preview area to save all of the videos to the system.
  6. You'll be forwarded to the Channel Profile page that you've just added content to, where you can see how your videos are being presented, and make any adjustments if needed.
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