Dashboard tour
Take an in-depth tour of api.video's dashboard! This guide covers everything you'll find there.
Sign-up for your api.video account
Sign up for a free account if you haven't already.
Sandbox
Use https://sandbox.api.video as your testing endpoint, and use the sandbox key from the dashboard.
The sandbox is free and offers unlimited usage. However, it is designed for your testing only, as all videos are watermarked and deleted after 24 hours.
Run in production
Use https://ws.api.video as the endpoint for production, and use your production key from the dashboard.
For detailed instructions on using the API, you can browse the tutorials.
Dashboard tour
This section goes over what you'll see in the dashboard when you log in. Sections covered include:
- Activity
- Developers
- Resources
api.video Dashboard
In the lefthand menu, you'll find:
- Activity
- Developers Section
- Resources
Developers
The Developers section gives you important details for using the service, like your API keys, upload tokens, webhooks, and our catalog including tools and libraries that help you build faster.
Overview
api.video Overview
The overview section is where you land when you open the api.video dashboard. From here, you can grab and manage your API keys, manually upload a video or start a live stream, and find content for getting started.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Sandbox/Production toggle button | In the upper right corner of the screen, you'll see a toggle button you can click to switch between Sandbox and Production. You have different API keys for each environment, and the videos you create will be slightly different. Sandbox videos are watermarked and only last for 24 hours. Production videos are hosted until you delete them and don't contain watermarks. To use this feature, you must subscribe to a plan and enter your billing information. |
| Create and upload a video | Click Create Video Object to create a video entry in your api.video account without coding. You will then be guided through the steps to upload your video. |
| Start a live stream | Click Start Live Stream to start a live stream right after creating a live stream. Development on our current live streaming product (v.1.0) is paused. The live stream feature is disabled for new accounts as of July 2022 |
| API Clients | This area shows you all the clients currently offered by api.video for consuming its API. If there's a language you'd like to see, please write us in the community forum and let us know. If there are enough requests, or you want to build an SDK yourself, we may be able to add it to our collection. |
Create and upload a video
Usage
The dashboard to see and follow your usages
You get to the Usage screen from the Overview screen by clicking Usage at the top of the page or Details in the Usage panel when you are on the Production setting. You will see a section for each of the four usage statistics listed on the front page. Each panel shows 32 days and refreshes every 24 hours to show the latest 32 days.
| Chart | Description |
|---|---|
| Transcoding | The number of minutes of video you transcode in the system is listed by the minute. |
| Hosting | The number of minutes of video you are hosting with api.video (based on how many videos you have in your Sandbox and Production areas). |
| Delivery | The number of minutes of video in your account that you or another user watched. |
| Analytics | Api.video offers analytics through the API. This one shows you how often all your video content has been played. |
API Keys
This page shows you all available API keys. You can rename or revoke your keys here if you feel they were compromised.
The view to access and manage your Sandbox and Production API Keys
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Sandbox API Key | This section shows you the base URI for all API endpoints for your sandbox key. However, you can use the production API endpoint as well - api.video will detect what key you are using and provide the correct privileges. |
| Production API Keys | This section shows you the base URI for all API endpoints for your production key. |
| Regenerate | The API key is presented in the API Key field. If a problem arises where you think your API key may have been compromised, you can click Regenerate to get a new one. |
Content
The Content panel takes you to your collection of videos, live streams, and players.
The content panel allows you to upload and manage the videos and live streams from your browser
The Content panel opens on the Videos section.
Videos
Videos is the first section you see in the Content panel. It provides a GUI interface for managing your videos. Here you can see all your uploaded videos. If you click the drop-down displaying 'Sandbox' in the upper right, you can toggle to your Production environment. If you play videos in Sandbox, note that it will say 'FOR DEVELOPMENT PURPOSES ONLY' in big letters across each video. Production will remove this message.
| Features | Description |
|---|---|
| Upload video button | Press this button to upload a video immediately to api.video |
| Sandbox/Production toggle | You can toggle between sandbox and production to |
| Search bar and magnifying glass icon | There's a search bar at the top of the screen you can use to hunt for videos by title. Enter your search term in the field labeled Search, then click the magnifying glass icon to run the search. |
| Search filter icon | To the right of the magnifying glass is a filter icon. Click the filter icon to open the Tags field. You can then enter tags to search for any videos you've tagged with special terms. Click the filter icon again to hide the Tags field. |
| Checkbox by video | Click the checkbox next to one or more videos to select them and pull up an icon bar at the bottom of the screen that allows you to copy the video link to your clipboard or delete it. |
| Created at table heading | The Created at table heading lets you toggle and list videos from most recently created to oldest, or oldest to most recently created. |
| Updated at table heading | You can list videos from most recently updated to oldest updated or oldest updated to most recently updated. |
| Views heading | How many times your video was viewed. |
| Link clickable heading | Click this to grab the embed link for your video. |
| <> Embed code heading | Click this to copy the embed code for your video to your clipboard. |
Video details pop up
From the Videos screen, you can click on an individual video to view details about it.
The features available on this screen are:
| Features | Descriptions |
|---|---|
| See details | Click the details button to see more details about the specific video. |
| Video playback | You can click the triangle icon on your video to play it. |
| Link to video | Embed link to your video. |
| Embed code | The embed code for your video. |
| Created at | When the video was created. |
| Updated at | When the video was updated. |
| Views | How many times the video was viewed. |
Video details screen
The videos screen offers several tabs of data about your video:
- Video details (Video object information)
- Video Status
- Captions
- Chapters
Video details
The features available on this screen are:
| Features | Descriptions |
|---|---|
| Video playback | You can click the triangle icon on your video to play it. |
| Edit | Click edit to edit the details section above "Link to video." You can change the video title, add a description, check whether the video is Public, Panoramic, and offers MP4 support. |
| Video details | Under your video, details are listed. Information includes whether the video is public or private, when it was created, when it was updated, and how many people viewed it. Any tags or metadata you included about your video. |
| Link to video | The embed link for your video. |
| Embed code | The embed code for your video using iframe. |
| Link to HLS | A link to the HLS manifest file. |
| Link to thumbnail | A link to the thumbnail for your video, if you uploaded one. |
| Thumbnail | You can upload a thumbnail (JPG only) for your video by clicking the Upload image button. |
| Player | You can associate a player you created with your video. Click on this section to open a drop-down containing all the players you made. |
| Delete this video | Click the Delete button to delete your video. Deletion is permanent - there is no way to retrieve your video after you press this button. |
Captions
The captions screen lets you see what captions you've set up for your video, as well as add new ones. You get to it by clicking the Captions tab at the top of the Information page for a video.
The Captions page displays closed captioning you've added for your video.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Video Id | The unique video ID for your video. |
| Upload a caption file | Click this button to upload a caption file. It must be of type .VTT. |
| Language | The language your caption is in. Displayed as a valid BCP 47 language representation. |
| Source | The link to the .vtt file containing your caption information. |
| Set default button | Lets you choose the caption file you want to play by default. |
| Delete | Click Delete to permanently remove a caption from the list. |
Chapters
The features for this page include:
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Video Id | The unique video ID associated with the video chapters. |
| Upload a chapter file button | Click this button to upload your .VTT chapters file. |
| Language (listed as the BCP code) | The language the chapter is presented in. |
Live (Livestreams from dashboard)
Create and manage all your live streams from the Live streams page.
The features for this page include:
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Start live stream button | Click the live stream button to start up your first live stream. |
| Sandbox/Production toggle | You can toggle between sandbox and production to |
| Filter field and search icon | You can enter a term to search with and then click the magnifying glass to retrieve live streams that match the terms. |
| Video heading | The title of your video, plus a thumbnail displayed if one is available. |
| Checkbox by video | Click the checkbox by one or more videos to select them and pull up an icon bar at the bottom of the screen that allows you to copy the video link to your clipboard or delete it. |
| Created at table heading | The Created at table heading lets you toggle and list videos from most recently created to oldest, or oldest to most recently created. |
| Updated at table heading | You can list videos from most recently updated to oldest updated or oldest updated to most recently updated. |
| Views heading | How many times your video was viewed. |
| Link clickable heading | Click this to grab the embed link for your video. |
| <> Embed code heading | Click this to copy the embed code for your video to your clipboard. |
My live stream pop up
The live stream pop up screen has the following features:
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Refresh stream button | Push this to refresh the stream. |
| Live + camera icon | This lets you know know if your live stream is currently live or not. If it's not it will not be highlighted. |
| Hide Self View | This only appears if your live stream is running. It allows you to stop showing the extra smaller screen. You can use it to toggle the screen on or off. |
| Livestream Id | If your live stream is running, you'll be able to see the livestream ID. |
| Stream Key | The stream key for your live stream. |
| Created at | When the live stream was created. |
| Updated at | When the live stream was updated. |
| Link to video | Click COPY to grab the embed link for your live stream. |
| Embed code | Click COPY to grab the iframe embed link for your live stream. |
| Link to HLS | Click COPY to grab the link to the HLS manifest file. |
| Link to thumbnail | Click COPY to grab the link to the thumbnail you uploaded (if you have one). |
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Live stream | If you're running a live stream, you can click the play icon in the middle of your video to get it running and test it out here. |
| Stream key | This is your stream key, you can retrieve this for your code and no-code projects. Click Copy to use it. |
| RTMP Server Url | This is your RTMP server URL. You'll need it for your encoder. OBS requires this for configuration, as do many live streaming platforms. |
| RTMP Stream Url | This is your RTMP stream URL. You'll need it when you're streaming straight to the browser with something like FFMPEG. |
| Copy code | Click this to copy the code for embedding an iframe of your live stream in an HTML page. |
| Copy link | Click this to copy the link for your live stream. You can put this in a browser and go straight to the stream. |
| Enable recording | Slide the button to the right to record your live stream. It will appear in the Videos section when it completes. |
| Edit | Click Edit to go to a page that lets you review and manage some details for your live stream. |
| Thumbnail | Click Thumbnail to go to a page that lets you upload a JPG to act as a thumbnail for your live stream. |
My live stream pop up - recorded
The features this page contains are:
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| See details button | Click see details to go to a screen that shows more details about your live stream. |
| Triangle icon | Click the triangle icon to play back your video. |
| Link to video | Click COPY to grab the embed link to your live stream playback. |
| Embed code | Click COPY to grab the iframe embed code to your live stream playback. |
| Created at | When the live stream playback was created. |
| Updated at | When the live stream playback was updated. |
| Views | How many people viewed your live stream. |
Live stream details page
Features on this page include:
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Live stream Id | The unique ID that identifies your live stream. |
| Created at | When the live stream was first created. |
| Updated at | When the live stream was last updated. |
| Save button | Click this to save any changes you make to your live stream. |
| Edit button | When you click the edit button, you can change the name of your live stream. Click Apply to save your changes to the name. |
| Enable recording checkbox | Check this box to start recording with this live stream. (You'll need to apply the change by clicking Save first.) |
| Stream key | Click COPY to grab the unique stream key you use to connect to your live stream. |
| RTMP server URL | Click COPY to grab the RTMP server URL for your live stream. |
| RTMP stream URL | Click COPY to grab the live stream RTMP URL you use to connect. |
| Embed code | Click COPY to grab the iframe embed code for your live stream. |
| Player link | Click COPY to grab the link to the player associated with your live stream |
| Delete button | Click Delete to permanently delete your live stream. |
| Thumbnail | Click on the image if there is one to change or replace the existing thumbnail. Your thumbnail must be a JPG. |
| Player | Click select a player to open a drop-down of all the players you have created. Choose by ID. |
Players
In this section, you can find a list of the different players you've created for your videos.
Features on the Players screen include:
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Create a player button | Press this button to create and customize a new player. |
| Sandbox/Production toggle | Toggle between Sandbox players and Production players with this drop-down. |
| Player checkboxes | Click the checkboxes by Players to bring up the option to delete them (click the trash can icon to delete). |
Create your player
Features include:
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Triangle icon | Click the triangle icon to playback the default video (if any) in the player window. |
| Add name button | Click this button to name your player. Click Apply to save your changes. |
| Logo | Click the Logo icon to search for a logo for your player. Logos may be up to 100px tall and either a JPG or PNG. |
| Website URL | You can enter a website URL to link to with your logo. |
| Enable API | Check this box to enable use of the player with the API. |
| Enable controls | Check this box this to enable the ability for the user to use player controls like fast forward and rewind with the player. |
| Force autoplay | Check this box to require autoplay. |
| Hide Title | Check this box to hide the title of the video on the player. |
| Force loop | Check this box to force the video to loop back to the beginning. |
| Save button | Click this to save all your changes. |
| Text color | Click PLAYBACK to get the drop-down with text color. Text color is set using rgba(255, 255, 255, 1) as the default. To the right you can see a display of the color you select. Any text depicted as part of your player controls will be this color. |
| Track played color | Click PLAYBACK to get the drop-down with track played color. Track played color is set using rgba(255, 255, 255, 1) as the default. To the right you can see a display of the color you select. As you progress through a video, the part of the track that's already played will be this color. |
| Track unplayed color | Click PLAYBACK to get the drop-down with track unplayed color. Track unplayed color is set using rgba(255, 255, 255, 1) as the default. To the right you can see a display of the color you select. As you progress through a video, the part of the track that hasn't played will be this color. |
| Track background color | Click PLAYBACK to get the drop-down with track background color. Track background color is set using rgba(255, 255, 255, 1) as the default. To the right you can see a display of the color you select. The color of the track line. |
| Link color | Click LINKS to get the drop-down with link color. Link color is set using rgba(255, 255, 255, 1) as the default. To the right you can see a display of the color you select. Any text that's a link to something and part of your player will be this color. |
| Link hover color | Click LINKS to get the drop-down with link hover color. Link hover color is set using rgba(255, 255, 255, 1) as the default. To the right you can see a display of the color you select. Any text that's a link that you hover your mouse over on your player will be this color. |
| Background text color | Click BACKGROUND to get the drop-down with background text color. Background text color is set using rgba(255, 255, 255, 1) as the default. To the right you can see a display of the color you select. Changes the color of the name of the file listed in the upper left corner. |
| Background top color | Click BACKGROUND to get the drop-down with background top color. Background top color is set using rgba(255, 255, 255, 1) as the default. To the right you can see a display of the color you select. |
| Background bottom color | Click BACKGROUND to get the drop-down with background bottom color. Background bottom color is set using rgba(255, 255, 255, 1) as the default. To the right you can see a display of the color you select. When you click the three dots in the upper right corner, the screen shifts to show the video title in the middle, and a gradient colored background. The color starting from the bottom is whatever you set here. |
Resources
Documentation
The Documentation option at the top of the page takes you to the docs site, which you are at now!
API Clients
This area shows you all the SDKs currently offered by api.video for consuming its API.
Status
The Status screen for api.video shows you details about the health of api.video's services.
You can use the Subscribe to Updates button to subscribe to future updates about api.video's system status. The system uses standard color coding for health:
- Green - healthy
- Yellow - warning
- Red - system is down
You can see the uptime for the following services:
- Live - Availability of livestream services.
- Web services - Availability of api.video dashboards, apis, and content.
- Player - Availability of api.video video player services.
- VOD - Availability of video on demand services.
- User space - Availability of user accounts and associated storage.
And you can see a list of past incidents.
Community Forum
Community (https://community.api.video/) - this will take you directly to api.video's forum, where you can ask questions and get help from our developer evangelists.
Help
- [email protected] - you can contact us for help using this email if you want. And you can always click the intercom chat balloon to send us a note.
Create a Production account
Enter your billing details in the Billing information section. You can add a new payment card if you already have one by clicking Payment card and adding your information there.
Updated 7 months ago