Overview: Player Releases

A Player Release represents a collection of one or more Title and/or Media objects, packaged for embedding on an external web page.

To create a new Player release, navigate to the Release List view and click the button labeled "New Release." Enter a name in the provided text input, select "Player" from the list of available types, and click "Create."

The release edit view is separated into four workflow steps, represented by the links in the vertical navigation menu near the left side of the screen.

General

In the "General" panel, enter basic information about your release, These fields include:

• Short Description
• Long Description
• Social Media Image
• Related Links
• Notes
• Tags
• Site URL
• Analytics Info
• Publisher Details

Be sure to complete the "Site URL" field with the full URL where you intend to publish the release.

Note that many of the right panel fields will automatically populate based on your General Settings.

Content

In the "Content" panel, add or edit the content items that will appear in the release.

• Select "Add Media" or "Add Titles" to add content to the release.
• Once the desired content has been added, drag and drop the items to change their sort order.
  To remove an item from the release, click its "delete" (trash can) icon.
• Each item within the release has a few configurable settings, related to the display of the Player menu. Click an item's "gear" icon to change these settings.
  • Link Text - Enter text for the item's link in the section navigation menu
  • URL Slug - This text will appear in the URL and must contain only lowercase letters, numbers and hyphens.
  • Default Menu State
    • Open/Closed - Choose whether the menu is open or closed by default when this item is loaded.
    • Hide Menu Button - Select this option to hide the menu button entirely when displaying this title on a release.
  • Menu Items - Toggle the visibility of individual menu items 

Individual elements within the player have unique settings, each accessible via the settings (gear) icon.

Media settings

Within the MediaStorm Platform, you are able to display Video, Audio, and Image media types at their original ratio or full bleed.

Use the Display Style radio buttons in the Media Settings tab to select which you prefer.

Slideshow custom thumbnail settings

Slideshows can display custom thumbnails in the visual navigation area that are distinct from main image displayed on the slide.

Slideshows display the Original image preview in the visual navigation by default.

By customizing one of the other image previews, and then selecting this image in the Release settings when building a Player, this can be changed using the following process.

For detailed instructions on customizing slideshow thumbnails, click here.

Menu

In the "Menu" panel, configure content to be displayed in the release's menu area. The menu is useful for providing contextual information, such as "about" text, a list of external resources, or any other content that you wish to display as "secondary" to the main content of the release.

For details on configuring menu content, refer to Release Menu.

Publishing

In the "Publish" panel, configure options related to the publication of your release.

• Publish destination: This determines where the release will be hosted when published. Publish destinations are configured via our integrations with third-party hosting services. Currently we support publishing releases to Netlify and Amazon S3. To learn more about these options, including how to configure integrations, please refer to Publishing Website and Player Releases.
• Template: Click the "Edit" (pencil) icon to adjust display settings for the default player template. Here you can select a theme and custom accent color, and configure options for the player's header and footer area.
• Internal domains: When embedded on the domains you specify, the release’s header and footer will be hidden. Use this option to exclude your logo and branding from the embed when it appears on your own website.

To publish your release:

• Ensure that all of your edits are saved by clicking the "Save" button in the page's area. This is important, as any unsaved changes are not included in the published release.
• Click the "Preview" button to preview the release as it will appear when published. The preview will open in a new window or tab, and can be a useful way to spot any errors or omissions prior to publishing.
• If the release contains errors that would prevent successful publishing, they will be displayed in red text, and the "Publish" button will be disabled. Resolve these errors before continuing.
• Click "Publish" to package the release and all associated media files, and publish them to your selected destination. A progress indicator will be displayed. The process may take several minutes, depending on the amount of content in the release.
• When the publication process completes successfully, a new entry will appear in the "Publish History" log.
• The "Embed code" field will display the code needed to embed the player on your website. Copy and paste this code into the page where you would like the player to appear. There are three options regarding how the embed behaves.
  • Responsive - Embed that will scale to fit its container.
  • Responsive (Legacy) - Our previous responsive option.  Ideally, you should only use this option if the standard 'Responsive' code does not show correctly within your publishing system.
  • Fixed Size - The embed will display to the exact width and height specified.

Note: If you subsequently make additional edits and re-publish the release to the same publish destination, it is not necessary to update the embed code on your website. The changes should be reflected automatically in existing embeds. If you publish the release to a different destination, you will need to replace the embed code on your website with the updated version.

Allowing or disabling others from embedding your Release

Allowing embeds

By default, other users have the ability to embed your Release in other websites by clicking the Share button at the bottom right of your Release.

And then clicking the Embed button and copying the code in the code window and dropping it into any website.

Your Website will appear in their site with your branding on it.

Any changes you make the contents of the Release will automatically update any place it is embedded.

Disabling embeds

If you'd like to disable others from embedding your Release, you can do so via your Template Presets.

Click the hamburger menu at the top left of the Platform and find the Template Presets tab.

Click on the name of the template you are using for your Release to edit it. At the bottom will be a checkbox labeled Disable Embed.

Click the check box and hit save. 

Republish your Release.

Any Release using this template after it's republished will no longer have Embed as an option in the share features.