Body
Environment
MiVideo Mediaspace
Issue
The purpose of this guide is to assist Mediaspace admin in planning their new Mediaspace site. This guide does not detail how to configure the site. See the New MiVideo Mediaspace Configuration Guide for how to configure the site.
Resolution
If you have any questions or would like assistance further customizing your site contact the ITS-MiVideo team through the ITS Service Center.
Outline
Audience
Frontend Site Roles
Media Ownership
Media Ownership Roles
Media Publishing Status
Organization
Channels vs. Categories and Galleries
Channel Management
Metadata and Tags
Navigation
Homepage
Styling
Static HTML Pages
Audience
- Who is your audience?
- Your team, anyone affiliated with the University, the public, all the above?
- Will different people have different permissions for the site?
- For example, everyone on your team will be able to create and publish media while the rest of the University can only view it.
Frontend Site Roles
- Every user is assigned one site role on the Mediaspace frontend.
- The anonymousRole is automatically assigned to every user until they authenticate via weblogin (or level-2 for Mediaspaces on the med domain). Therefore the public only ever receives the anonymousRole.
- Example: the Library Mediaspace does not require authentication to view media published in public channels.
- You can chose to lock your Mediaspace down behind weblogin (or level-2) so only those affiliated with the University (or Michigan Medicine) can access the site.
- You decide what role to assign authenticated users.
- Typically the default role for authenticated users is viewerOnly.
- You can disable the default role so only a small group (e.g. your team) are able to login to the frontend.
- unModeratedAdmin is a small group typically containing yourself and a few others on your team who are administering the Mediaspace.
- We can utilize MCommunity groups (AD groups for the med domain) to control access
- For example you will have an unModeratedAdmins MCommunity/AD group and everyone in that group will be given the unModeratedAdmins role after authentication.
- You may also use additional groups for additional roles. For example you may have an MCommunity/AD staff group you want to have the privateOnlyRole.
- Any authenticated users not in one of these MCommunity/AD groups will be given the default role.
- You can also completely lockdown access to the Mediaspace to only those in an MCommunity group.
- For example, if the Mediaspace is behind weblogin (or level-2) and the default user is disabled, then only authenticated users in specific MCommunity/AD groups will have access to the site.
anonymousRole
- The non-authenticated user.
- Can view public content but not interact with the site (upload, comment, create playlists, etc).
viewerRole
- The authenticated anonymous role.
- Can browse open galleries and public channels.
- Is not authorized to upload/create/publish content.
- Does not have a My Media library.
- Can be a channel member but cannot contribute content to channels.
privateOnlyRole
- Can upload content to their My Media library.
- Cannot publish to galleries.
- Can add/publish media to channels if given appropriate channel permissions (contributor or manager).
unModeratedAdminRole
- Ultimate front end user.
- Can upload content to their My Media library.
- Can publish their own content to gallery categories.
- Will NOT have access to all channels and media published on the site.
- Can publish media to channels if given appropriate channel permissions (contributor or manager).
- Can publish and edit media (not owned by them) if given appropriate collaboration role (co-publisher or co-editor).
- Can view any media published in a channel they have access to.
- For example, a private channel in which they have been added as a member.
Media Ownership
- Who will be contributing content to your site?
- You will want to make sure that anyone on your team who will be uploading and publishing media to the site have at least a privateOnlyRole site role.
- How will your audience be accessing your media?
- Presumably your audience will be visiting your Mediaspace site, but do you also want to be able to share links to media via email or embed onto an external site?
- Do you have existing media that will need to be bulk ingested into MiVideo?
- The ITS-MiVideo team may be able to assist with these requests.
Media Ownership Roles
- Being assigned a site role provides access to the Mediaspace, however, depending on the publishing status and ownership of a media item, a user may not be able to access the media item (even if the user is an unModeratedAdmin).
- Every media item will have one owner and may have one or more collaborator.
- Collaborators are necessary for users other than the owner to edit or publish the media item.
- You will find any media you are a collaborator for in your My Media library.
- Media published to a channel can be viewed by any user with viewing access to the channel, without having to be a co-viewer for the media.
- Only authenticated users can own or be a collaborator for a media item.
- We can utilize MCommunity groups (AD groups for the med domain) to add as collaborators to media
- For example you may want everyone in your unModeratedAdmins MCommunity/AD group to be a co-editor on the channel.
- In this case, instead of adding each person individually as a manger, you only add the unModeratedAdmins group.
- Note: site roles take precedence over media ownership roles
- In other words, if the user does not have a site role high enough to contribute content to a Mediaspace (user must have privateOnlyRole role or higher), adding the user as a collaborator will not allow the user to edit/publish the media.
Owner
- Owns the media entry and can view, publish, edit, and delete.
- Only owners can add/remove collaborators.
Co-viewer (collaborator)
- Can watch videos shared with them from their My Media.
- Co-viewers cannot publish or edit media.
- This type of collaborator is not typically necessary. If the user has access to the channel this media item is published in, then they already have the ability to view the media.
Co-publisher (collaborator)
- Can publish the media in any destination they have access to (eg. a channel).
- Co-publishers cannot edit media.
Co-editor (collaborator)
- Can edit the media (in the media editor), change media settings and metadata, but NOT collaboration settings.
- Co-editors cannot publish or delete media.
Media Publishing Status
- All media has one publishing status in the Mediaspace.
- In addition to a publishing status in a Mediaspace, media can also be embedded onto an external site.
- The media item can simultaneously be published to a channel in the Mediaspace and embedded into an external site.
- Anyone who can access the external site can access the media.
- Using embed code disregards any system level permissions (for example if a private video is embedded externally it can be viewed by users who are not collaborators on the media).
- Published media can be published to any number of channels and playlists at the same time.
- Access to published media depends on the channel type the media is published to.
- For example, anyone with access to the Mediaspace can view all media published in a "public, restricted" channel.
Private
- This is the default option.
- Media will only be seen in your My Media library and is not viewable by others unless they are a collaborator on the media item.
Unlisted
- This type of published media is accessible via a link.
- Anyone who has the link can view the media, regardless if they are affiliated with the University.
- If your Mediaspace is locked down behind weblogin (or level-2) then only people affiliated with the University (or Michigan Medicine) can access the media since those are the only people with access to the site.
- Alternatively to using unlisted, you can publish the media item in a “public,restricted” or “restricted” channel on your site and then share the URL to the media item.
Published
- Media is published to one or more channels and/or one or more galleries/categories.
- See the next section for more information about channels.
Organization
- What kind of media will you be uploading
- Meeting videos, how-to videos, etc?
- Is some media better suited to a specific audience?
- For example, you may have media that you want only your team to be able to view and other media that anyone at the University can view.
- Or you may have media everyone at the University can view and other media that can be viewed by the public.
- How is the media related to each other?
- Start thinking about an organization scheme
- You will want to create one channel to contain related videos then use playlists to organize the media within the channel.
- For example, you may have a “Grand Rounds” channel and then create a “2023” playlist within the channel.
- Is there any specific metadata you want to collect on your media?
- For example, a “Presentation Date”?
- MiVideo automatically collects a creation date, owner, title, description, and tags.
- Do you want to utilize tags to help your viewers find related media?
- Create a dedicated taxonomy and then be consistent in adding these tags to your new media.
- Who will be keeping these videos updated?
- Have a plan regarding who will be archiving outdated media.
Channels vs Categories vs Galleries
- Galleries are a hierarchical structure of the Mediaspace.
- Galleries can contain sub-galleries.
- Galleries can only be created by KMC admins and only those with an unModeratedAdmin role can publish media to a gallery on the frontend.
- A gallery is a type of category in the Mediaspace.
- Gallery categories can automatically build out the site navigation.
- Gallery categories are not used most often nowadays because channels offer more flexibility.
- A channel is also a type of category in the Mediaspace.
- Benefits to using channels:
- Channels are user generated content repositories, they can be created on the frontend.
- Can add playlists and styling to channels.
- Channels support multiple permission levels.
- This Mediaspace planning guide focuses on using channels to organize your site.
- Article: Categories, Galleries,
- Article: Galleries and Channels - What are the differences?
Channel Management
- Permissions on channels are called channel entitlements and channel entitlements are necessary to add content and view the channel for some channel types.
- For example, if a user is not at least a member of a "private" channel they will not have access to the channel.
- Every channel will have it's own channel type and entitlements.
- Only authenticated users can have a channel entitlement.
- Note: site roles take precedence over channel entitlement roles.
- In other words, if the user does not have a site role high enough to contribute content to a Mediaspace (user must have privateOnlyRole role or higher to contribute to the Mediaspace), providing the user a channel entitlement will not allow the user to contribute to the channel.
- You will want to make sure that anyone on your team who will be publishing media to the site have at least a privateOnlyRole role.
Channel Entitlement Roles
- It’s far easier to create channels from the front end but they can be managed on the KMC if needed (for example a KMC admin can add themselves as a channel manager).
- We can utilize MCommunity groups (AD groups for the med domain) to add as members to a channel.
- For example, you may want everyone in your unModeratedAdmins MCommunity/AD group to be a manager on the channel.
- In this case instead of adding each person individually as a manger, you only add the unModeratedAdmins group.
- The channel owner has the same permissions as a channel manager.
| Permissions |
Member |
Contributor |
Moderator |
Manager |
| View content and category |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Add/remove content to category |
|
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Approve content added to category |
|
|
Yes |
Yes |
| Edit category’s settings, privacy options and user permissions |
|
|
|
Yes |
| Remove category |
|
|
|
Yes |
Channel Types
- Channel entitlement depends on the type of channel.
- Some channel types such as "public, restricted" do not require channel members since everyone has the ability to view content.
- A site role of privateOnlyRole or higher is required to create a channel.
- You are able to configure what channel types are available for each site role.
- For example, typically only unModeratedAdmins are able to create “public,restricted” channels.
- The most common channel types are listed below. There are also “open” channels but those are typically not used because open means that anyone with access to the site is able to publish content to them.
- Any channel can have moderation enabled.
- In this case any media published by a contributor will need to be approved by a moderator or manager before it appears in the channel.
Public, Restricted
- Anyone, including anonymous visitors, can view content but only specific users can add content.
- You can utilize an MCommunity/AD group to be a manager of the channel.
- If the Mediaspace site is locked down behind weblogin, then a "public, restricted" channel is really just a "restricted" channel since anonymous users cannot access the site.
Restricted
- Authenticated users (limits access to anyone with a U-M weblogin) can view content but only specific users can add content.
- You can utilize an MCommunity/AD group to be a manager of the channel.
Private
- Limits access to only specific authenticated users to view and add content.
- You can utilize an MCommunity/AD group as a member of the channel.
- For example, this is how you can limit channel access to only your team.
Channel Customization
- Each channel on the site is a page that lists all the media published in the channel and any playlists associated with the channel.
- You can set a channel thumbnail image or a rotating carousel which displays media from a playlist.
- Example: the Clements library uses a thumbnail image for this channel
- Example: the HR site uses a playlist on this channel page
- The channel description also appears at the top of the page.
- Analytics are available for the media published in the channel.
Metadata and Tags
- You can create your own custom metadata fields to be filled out when creating new media and decide what fields are required and if they are searchable.
- Tags help viewers find similar media.
- Tags can be used to associate keywords to media items to describe the content.
- Tags must contain more than 3 characters and can include spaces and special characters.
- Example: the Bentley library uses all tags to organize their media instead of channels.
- Tags can be added to channels and appear on the channel homepage.
- Selecting a tag displays all media on the site tagged with this term.
- Example: the Clements library uses tags on this channel page:
Navigation
- Your site’s navigation will be based on your site’s organization.
- Channels can be manually added to the navigation menu.
- The navigation menu can have submenus.
- Example: the HR Mediaspace has several submenus in their navigation.
- You can create static HTML pages on your site and link to them in the navigation.
- Example: the UM library has a static “About” page.
- You can link to external sites.
Homepage
- You can have a custom homepage or use a channel as the site’s home.
- Example: the UM library is an example where the homepage displays all media in a category/channel.
- The homepage can have a carousel
- The homepage can display lists (most recent, most viewed, etc)
- The homepage can be a static HTML page.
Styling
- The following can be configured on the site:
- Title
- Footer
- Not required.
- Can add custom HTML including links
- Will use the same background color as the navigation.
- Example: the UM library has a simple footer with links.
- Header logo
- A transparent image works best.
- Whether to allow attachments to media items.
- Whether to enable comments for media items.
- Example: the Bentley Historical library uses the Michigan Blue on the navigation bar along with their custom logo.
- There are many other options available and can be set on the site’s admin backend.
- The default styling (maize & blue) will be applied to your site however you do have the ability to customize fonts, colors, and add your own CSS styling.
- Default player skins will be created for your site however you have the ability to customize the players as needed.
- Machine-generated captions (which are free) will be configured for your site.
Static HTML pages
- You can create your own static HTML page.
- Example: the Bentley library uses an HTML page for an "about" page.
Questions
Need additional information or assistance? Contact the ITS Service Center.