Asset Info

Retrieves information about the asset corresponding to the content being played.

Request

Request syntax: 

Request syntax (playback session ID): 

If available, you must specify a playback session ID.

Define the following variable(s) when submitting the above request:

VariableA variable represents a value that must be replaced. A variable consists of either a URL segment (e.g., "0001" in /0001/) or a query string value (e.g., "3" in mediaTypes=3).	Description
Asset ID Required	Replace this variable with the system-defined ID assigned to the asset being played. Use the CMS or parse the playback URL to find this asset ID. Learn more. Ads The asset ID for other content being played (e.g., server-side ads) is only discoverable via either of the following methods: Preplay API: The response for this API includes the playback URL (playURL) and the playback session id (sid). Learn more. SegmentMap Interface: Each of our SDKs includes an interface called SegmentMap that returns a list of segments in a playout. SegmentMap indicates where ad breaks are located, their asset IDs, and information required to render ad indicators and thumbnails.
Playback Session ID Required	Replace this variable with the playback session ID. Use the Preplay API to retrieve the playback session ID (sid). If available, you must specify a playback session ID.

Response

The response for a successful request contains the following parameters:

Response Parameter	Type	Description
audio_only	Number	Returns 1 when the asset has been flagged as audio only. Valid values are: 0 | 1
boundary_details	Array	Indicates the offset and duration, in seconds, for each boundary in the asset.
error	Number	Returns 1 when an error occurred with the asset. Valid values are: 0 | 1
tv_rating	Number	Indicates the asset's TV rating. Valid values are: -1: Not Available 0: Not Rated 1: TV-Y 2: TV-Y7 3: TV-G 4: TV-PG 5: TV-14 6: TV-MA 7: Not Rated
max_slice	Number	Indicates the total number of slices available for this asset.
thumb_prefix	String	Indicates the base URL for thumbnails.
slice_dur	Number	Indicates the average duration, in seconds, for each slice.
movie_rating	Number	Indicates the asset's movie rating. Valid values are: -1: Not Available 0: Not Applicable 1: G 2: PG 3: PG-13 4: R 5: NC-17 6: X 7: Not Rated
owner	String	Indicates the user IDA user ID uniquely identifies a user account via an alpanumeric system-defined ID. for the asset's owner.
meta	Object	Returns the asset's metadata. Add metadata to an asset via the CMS, Live Slicer API, or the Asset API.
rates	Array	Reports the asset's available bitrates as a collection of number values.
thumbs	Array	Contains an object for each available thumbnail resolution.
poster_url	String	Indicates the URL for the poster image. Set an asset's poster image via the CMS or the Asset API.
duration	Number	Indicates the asset's duration in seconds.
default_poster_url	String	Indicates the permanent URL to the asset's default poster image.
desc	String	Indicates the asset's description.
rating_flags	Number	Indicates the set of rating flags assigned to the asset via a number derived from a bitwise operation on rating flags (DLSV). Sample values are provided below. 0: No rating flags 1: Coarse or crude language flag (L) 2: Sexual situations flag (S) 4: Violence flag (V) 8: Suggestive dialog flag (D) 15: All rating flags (DLSV)
external_id	String	Indicates the asset's external ID.
is_ad	Number	Returns 1 when the asset has been flagged as an ad. Valid values are: 0 | 1
asset	String	Indicates the asset's system-defined ID.

Sample Response

The following sample response contains information about the asset being played.

{
	"audio_only": 0,
	"boundary_details": [{
			"c3": {
				"duration": 73.1093,
				"offset": 362.024
			}
		}, {
			"c7": {
				"duration": 104.9706,
				"offset": 596.2079
			}
		}, {
			"halftime": {
				"duration": 1022.605,
				"offset": 996.232
			}
		}, {
			"c3": {
				"duration": 115.23,
				"offset": 2525.123
			}
		}, {
			"c7": {
				"duration": 135.1655,
				"offset": 3002.6599
			}
		}
	],
	"error": 0,
	"tv_rating": -1,
	"max_slice": 148,
	"thumb_prefix": "http://stg-ec-ore-u.uplynk.com/slices/...http://stg-ec-ore-u.uplynk.com/slices/062/e2cb36cb397f47a18371e18f40ec01b7/062048d702734ca6a38f3e7f8e4f4488/",
	"slice_dur": 4.010666666666666,
	"movie_rating": -1,
	"owner": "e2cb36cb397f47a18371e18f40ec01b7",
	"meta": {},
	"rates": [55, 105, 198, 348, 580, 995, 2055],
	"thumbs": [{
			"width": 128,
			"prefix": "",
			"bw": 128,
			"bh": 128,
			"height": 72
		}, {
			"width": 256,
			"prefix": "upl256",
			"bw": 256,
			"bh": 256,
			"height": 144
		}
	],
	"poster_url": "http://stg-cf-ore.uplynk.com/slices/...http://stg-cf-ore.uplynk.com/slices/062/e2cb36cb397f47a18371e18f40ec01b7/062048d702734ca6a38f3e7f8e4f4488/00000014.jpg",
	"duration": 596.4800000000015,
	"default_poster_url": "http://stg-ec-ore-u.uplynk.com/slices/...http://stg-ec-ore-u.uplynk.com/slices/062/e2cb36cb397f47a18371e18f40ec01b7/062048d702734ca6a38f3e7f8e4f4488/00000014.jpg",
	"desc": "Big Buck Bunny",
	"rating_flags": 0,
	"external_id": "",
	"is_ad": 0,
	"asset": "062048d702734ca6a38f3e7f8e4f4488"
}		

Thumbnails

Key information:

• Use the following parameters to render a thumbnail from an asset:

  slice_dur | thumb_prefix | thumbs | max_slice
• Thumbnails are stored as an eight character hex string with a .jpg extension.
• Thumbnails are numbered sequentially starting from 00000000 (e.g., 00000000.jpg, 00000001.jpg, 00000003.jpg, etc.).
• Thumbnails are generated at the start of each slice.

Generating a Thumbnail URL

This example demonstrates how to generate a thumbnail 60 seconds into the asset using the above sample response.

Step 1 - Slice Duration

The first step is to figure out the duration of each slice by examining the slice_dur parameter.

	"slice_dur": 4.010666666666666,

Based off of the slice_dur parameter, we know that thumbnails will be generated approximately every 4.01 seconds.

Additionally, we know that the first thumbnail (00000000.jpg) will always be generated at 0 seconds. This means that the second slice and the second set of thumbnails will be generated at approximately 4.01 seconds.

Step 2 - Slice Number

The next step is to figure out the slice that corresponds to the 60 second mark by using the following formula:

var sliceNum : Number = Math.ceil( playerTime / assetInfo.slice_dur);
// using the response data above.
// sliceNum = 15

As shown above, the 15th slice corresponds to the 60 second mark.

Step 3 - Available Slices

The next step is to verify that this value does not exceed the total number of slices available for this asset by comparing it to the max_slice parameter.

	"max_slice": 148,

Step 4 - Construct File Name

Since sliceNum is less than max_slice, we can proceed to convert sliceNum (i.e., 15) to a hex string (i.e., F) and then use this hex value to construct the thumbnail's base file name (0000000F.jpg).

Step 5 - Construct Thumbnail URL

Use the following syntax to construct the thumbnail URL:

Find the base URL for all thumbnails via the thumb_prefix parameter.

	"thumb_prefix": "http://stg-ec-ore-u.uplynk.com/slices/...http://stg-ec-ore-u.uplynk.com/slices/062/e2cb36cb397f47a18371e18f40ec01b7/062048d702734ca6a38f3e7f8e4f4488/",

Find the prefix for the desired resolution by examining the thumbs array.

	"thumbs": [{
			"width": 128,
			"prefix": "",
			"bw": 128,
			"bh": 128,
			"height": 72
		}, {
			"width": 256,
			"prefix": "upl256",
			"bw": 256,
			"bh": 256,
			"height": 144
		}
	],

For example, use the following URL to generate a 256x144 thumbnail:

Generating a Thumbnail URL with Server-Side Ads

Use either segment map data from our SDKs or the Preplay API to retrieve the playback session ID and index information.

A segment map contains a list of segment objects. Each object contains the following information:

• Asset ID
• Type (i.e., ad or segment)
• Index
• Position
• Duration

Retrieve the following information via our SDKs:

• Domain
• Playback Session ID (sid or pbs)

To generate thumbnail URLs when server-side ads are present

1. Use our SDK to retrieve segment map data.
2. For each asset, call the AssetInfo API using the asset ID. Load and cache each response.

3. Load thumbnails by:

   1. Looping through the segment map to find the location from which the thumbnail should be pulled.
   2. Adding the segment map's index value to sliceNum before converting the string to hex. This ensures that the proper offset is applied when there are multiple ads in the playout.

   Learn more about generating thumbnail URLs.

   Example

   Assuming both of the following conditions:

   • You want to load a thumbnail 60 seconds into playback.
   • The segment map indicates that there is a 30 second ad when playback starts.

   You should load the thumbnail at the 30 second mark.