Tag Archives: SharePoint Web Parts

Embedding and Sharing Video in SharePoint. Part Three: Aggregating Video Feeds and utilizing API

Introduction

Previous two posts were devoted to discussion of how to integrate video from YouTube and another Video Providers into SharePoint. In the first post we have discussed how to store embedded video properties and render YouTube player using Computed Field. In the second one we have discussed how to store embed code itself as it was generated by Provider.
This time we will discuss at how you can aggregate video from RSS/Atom Feeds and provide some information about using API for retrieving video content from Video Providers.

Aggregating from Video Providers RSS/Atom Feeds using YouTube

When you retrieve a video feed or list of search results, YouTube returns an Atom feed. Below is presented description of how to display videos from YouTube Feed, in our case we will display results from YouTube channel only.
For retrieving video content and displaying results  YouTube Viewer web part will be used here. In fact, it is just RSSAggregator web part, but with custom XSLT style sheet for processing YouTube feed, for details see implementation section.
So, let’s  see how to add video from YouTube feed on page:

  • Add YouTube Viewer web part which located under category Media Extensions on page
  • Specify FeedUrl for YouTube channel, for example to display video feed from Critical Path Training specify value as shown on picture
  • Result page with  YouTube web part configured is shown below

Utilizing Video Providers API

Another option to retrieve YouTube content  is to use .NET  or JavaScript client libraries directly in SharePoint.
The table below represents summary information about API for commonly used Video Providers listed in oEmbed.

Table 1. API support for Video Providers.

Provider Name API Description
YouTube Data API, Google Data client libraries for use the YouTube Data API (Java, .NET, PHP, Python, Objective-C, JavaScript)
Viddler Viddler API
Qik Qik API, client for JavaScript
Vimeo Vimeo APIs

And for displaying it we need some logic to be implemented, for example by creating  custom web part. Implementation details for this functionality  are omitted here.

Implementation

For aggregating and rendering  YouTube Feeds RSSAggregator web part is used as was noted earlier with custom XSLT style sheet for processing YouTube Video Feeds.

To render YouTube feeds we provide custom  XSLT style sheet by specifying XslLink property

and the following XSLT style sheet

References

Rendering Content Query Web Part results in Table Layout

It is known that OOB Content Query Web Part (CQWP)  renders results using Lists for arranging items as shown below

In ASP.NET WebForms for Web Control DataList there is a possibility to specify layout rendering mode using property RepeatLayout, what if the similar functionality would be available in CQWP?

So, our  goal to extend CQWP, i.e. in addition to List Layout rendering mode, lets implement functionality for rendering Content Query Web Part results in Plain Old Table Layout.
In this approach, we would like to achieve the following options:

  • Possibility to easily arrange results in columns
  • Specify items direction (horizontal or vertical)

Solution Structure

Content Query Web Part Class

Tool Part Class Implementation with the ability to specify Table Layout properties

Web Part manifest file

Pay attention that we provide custom XSLT for processing of the CQWP, for more details see How to: Customize XSL for the SharePoint Content By Query Web Part.

Main XSLT style sheet for rendering results in Table Layout

Results

Below is shown Web Part configured  to display results in 4 columns and horizontal mode layout

CBQTableLayoutHorizontal2