The Facebook wrapper module enables uStudio players to stream Facebook-hosted VOD content.
With uStudio's Facebook wrapper module, customers can stream Facebook-hosted video on demand (VOD) content through a uStudio HTML5 player, effectively overlaying a custom uStudio player on top of a Facebook player.
There are several reasons why you might want to wrap a Facebook-hosted video with a uStudio player:
- If your content is already public on Facebook, you can cut streaming bandwidth costs by using Facebook's content distribution for free.
- When you embed a Facebook player on your website and drive additional views to your video there, all this viewing data goes directly to Facebook and can influence how prominently they display your content in audience Facebook feeds.
- Combined with a custom-branded uStudio player, you can have all the benefits above without compromising on your video player's unique look or feel, as well as add custom interactivity.
- Moreover, all playback stats (including any custom viewer interactions) can still be captured via uStudio's analytics (in our UI and/or our APIs).
If you'd like to use uStudio's Facebook wrapper module, follow these steps:
1. Contact support@ustudio.com to have the Facebook Wrapper module provisioned in your studio.
2. Also request (or create via a POST to our uStudio APIs) a video metadata field to store the Facebook video URL:
{
"uid": "facebook_url",
"searchable": false,
"label": "Facebook Video URL",
"help": "Enter the full URL to the Facebook video",
"default_value": null,
"type_uid": "text",
"public": true,
"hidden": false,
"options": {}
}
3. Add the Facebook Wrapper module to any player via the Playground Player Builder, so the player will know to reference the Facebook video URL to stream from Facebook.
4. You will need to upload a "placeholder" video to uStudio. This video should be published to the player with the Facebook Wrapper module on it. A small video file is recommended, as it will use less storage space. The video must be longer than 1 second in duration.
5. Go to the Edit Video page of the placeholder video and paste the Facebook video URL into the metadata field you created above. Now the Facebook video will be streamed through the uStudio player when you go to the video embed code. Note: if you leave this piece of metadata blank, your placeholder video will play instead.
Note: Having trouble finding the Facebook video URL? Right-click on a video playing in Facebook and select “Show video URL.” The URL will be similar to the following:
https://www.facebook.com/uStudioInc/videos/1324782920881216/.
