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Any ideas for downloadable videos?
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manabeads View Drop Down
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Points: 7 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote manabeads Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Any ideas for downloadable videos?
    Posted: 19-January-2013 at 8:43pm
I offer downloadable instructions (pdfs) which work great through Product Cart. However, with an instructional video sale it's a lot trickier.

I can't have the customer download the whole video because the file is ridiculously large. I can create a video that easily plays on a webpage (basic htm file), but then the customer only downloads the htm file and can't see the embedded video - since it has not been downloaded.  

Plus, I appreciate the hidden URL feature and expiring download link.

Any ideas out there on how to work this great Product Cart element into a video provider?
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Guests View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20-January-2013 at 1:29am
Hi @Manabeads,

I'm not sure I'm following what you are ultimately requesting here. 

Are you wanting customers to be able to download video files, or are you wanting them to download a web page file that has the video embedded?

We've a client using PC to provide video content via Amazon's CDN service, but I'm not sure what you're wanting is the same as what they are doing.

If you could flesh out your request a bit more, that would be helpful.
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Greg Dinger View Drop Down
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Points: 238 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Greg Dinger Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20-January-2013 at 10:14am
I'm checking into something for you.  Someone spoke of an alternat solution that he used on a different cart just in the last couple days.
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manabeads View Drop Down
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Points: 7 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote manabeads Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20-January-2013 at 11:31am
Sorry for the confusion.

Ultimately I want a customer to be able to purchase an instructional video through Product Cart. I would like them to receive a link to the video just as they do when they purchase a pdf file from me. 

If I have them download the video file, it's too cumbersome.  They need to be able to watch it through their computer.

I would like the location (URL) of that file to be hidden.  And I would like the link to expire in a designated amount of time.

I am capable of creating a page that features a video (one for free, for example) that is easy to watch, that loads up quickly etc on a regular webpage (using a flv file format).

So, my problem is how can I configure my video into a file that Product Cart can handle, OR how can I modify PC for making this purchase possible.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21-January-2013 at 7:12pm
Hi @manabeads,

I'm thinking what I would probably do here is the make the actual download a simple .htm file. That file would include an iframe which would pull a custom .asp file from the site. That file would authenticate login, if customer is not currently logged in and still has access to the deliverable, else load the movie. This would protect the location of the .swf (see a proto-mockup here: http://www.wmsmerchantservices.com/zTest-hideFLASH.asp -- no way to discover where the movie is actually sourced).

Aside from some custom scripted for the above, the bit that would need to be added to PC is a second file location for these downloadables. If the movies are all the same width/height, then this could just be the path to the .swf; else it could be a file or script in which you do the embed.

Does this sound like something that would work for you?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21-January-2013 at 8:46pm
Actually, skip the bit about adding a second file location for this; I've got an even simpler idea. Nothing in the PC application would need to be touched -- only a bit of external scripting and protocol would be needed.

PM me with your phone number if you'd like to discuss.
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Brett View Drop Down
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Points: 89 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Brett Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24-January-2013 at 3:54am
Maybe something like this? http://vzaar.com/about/commercial_video_hosting I believe it would be easy to integrate into productcart
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24-January-2013 at 10:28pm
Hi Brett,

I'm not seeing how vzaar would solve Pam's concern here vis a vis the downloadable product features of ProductCart.

Could you enlighten us how this would be a solution for her request?
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Brett View Drop Down
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Points: 89 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Brett Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24-January-2013 at 11:17pm
Hi Sean,

Prepare to be "enlightened". I'm not an expert with vzaar, but since the title was "Any ideas for downloadable videos?" I figured I'd throw an idea out there. He said in his post:

Quote
Ultimately I want a customer to be able to purchase an instructional video through Product Cart. I would like them to receive a link to the video just as they do when they purchase a pdf file from me.


And according to other posts, the only problem with this approach is the logistics of hosting and making the video files available for download, in terms for file space and bandwidth.

So heres what he would do. Sign up for vzaar, and upload his instructional videos. For each of them, set a different password (check out vzaar and you'll see this is all quite easy to do - i just figured it out in about ten minutes).

Then, he will add a new downloadable product on the ProductCart backend. For the Downloadable file location field, he will enter the URL of the video on vzaar, such as: http://vzaar.com/videos/1161680

As you can see, it asks for a password to view the video. So, in productcart, he will enter the password in the License Field.

Then, all the customer has to do is purchase the downloadable product, follow the link, and enter the password to download their video. It does open the risk of people sharing the passwords, but I believe that could be solved byt using "Signed Keys" which, according to vzaar, are "dynamically generated by your application using your secret signing key". (http://vzaar.com/help/kb/features/securing-content-with-signed-keys)

Though I'm not sure that would really be necessary, unless he is worried about people sharing passwords and download links.

After running a quick test, it appears he would be able to add downloadable products, link to the videos, and have them available for download by his customers, secured by a simple password on each video.

If he needed added security and was worried about customers sharing download links and passwords, he could use the signed key security. However, the customer could just as easily download the video and host it themselves if they really wanted to, regardless of any security measures.

Or am I seriously overlooking something here? Please, enlighten me.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-January-2013 at 2:22am
Hi Brett,

Thanks for the illumination. I totally see where you're coming from, and it's definitely a viable option for someone working with this feature offering in PC -- the main difference being the option to:
  • "Hide the URL" -- this option secures the file to an unknown location (typically one would locate it about their web root folder so there is absolutely no way to browse to it); the downside is that this requires a response buffer and that is limited to 4 MB. One might also consider the hosting costs of storage and bandwidth a possible downside compared with the other option ...
  • Use an HTTP path -- this option let's the "cat out of the bag" with no real direct protection from PC. The HTTP path itself cannot be protected through any "out of the box" PC features. The upside is that one cold elect to serve the content from other sources such as Amazon's CDN service or, say, vzaar.
The Singed Keys feature sounds interesting though and might could be played off features PC does provide.

I'll be discussing this with  Pam @ManaBeads tomorrow. I'll make sure she's seen this as an option.

As I understand it, ManaBeads:
  • Does not want customers to have to download the videos (they are too large)
  • She wants the URL location hidden
  • She'd like to use the PC features to control the access, esp. expiration date
I've got a pretty simple solution for all of that.

PS: RE "However, the customer could just as easily download the video and host it themselves if they really wanted to, regardless of any security measures."

The solution I came up with makes that impossible (or at least I haven't found a way to hack my solution yet -- so that would rule out 99.9999% of ManaBead customers, I expect). The source with this solution could indeed be some other service such as vzaar or even a CDN service -- provided that service didn't provide some other back door into discovering the file HTTP location (a YouTube video wouldn't work as it's too searchable, for example).
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