Video Streaming, Amazon S3, Cloudfront and VV quicktags

[bubbins]

Hi everyone,

I'm launching a membership site using S2Member on the 20th of October and I'm having a REAL problem setting up the videos for the tutorials.

I have 1 membership level - s2member level #1

I have protected pages for members only, some of which need videos displayed inline (I want these videos to be streamed NOT downloaded) - at the moment I am using Viper's Video Quicktags and linking directly to the Amazon S3 bucket I have set up - however, this is not entirely secure because anyone can look at the source code and find my videos - plus I'm not sure I have the right permission settings in Amazon S3.

The problem I'm having is making sure that these files are protected. I would like to use S2Member to display these videos because apparently that takes care of everything in terms of security. I have managed to get s2member to integrate with Amazon S3 and Cloudfront (I think!!) but now I don't know what to do.... how do I embed these videos into my pages? I had a look at JWPlayer and it's definitely the player I want to use but I can't seem to get it to work - I installed exec-php and tried to use the code provided in the JWPlayer documentation but it just doesn't work - do I need to use PHP code? I'm so confused?!

What I need:
Step-by-step guide to show me how to set everything up from scratch - I have an Amazon S3 bucket and I also have S2Member set up with Cloudfront... I think!

I need help to make sure the settings in Amazon S3 are right as well as how to embed the appropriate player and how to check that everything is set up properly!

If anyone could help me that'd be great! I've been reading the forum and searching online for about 2 days now and still can't seem to figure it out!

Thanks
Eleanor

[Cristián Lávaque]

Eleanor, did you read the documentation in the Download Options page? WP Admin -> s2Member -> Download Options -> Amazon S3/CloudFront CDN and JW Player & RTMP Protocol Examples

I hope that helps.

[Profusion]

Hi all.

I have the exact same problem.

S2Member has excellent documentation up to this point. I know it is a tricky thing to do but I also can not get the JW Player to work. Thanks @Christian Lavaque for the advice - Yes I have gone through all the documentation in the entire "s2Member® File Download Options" section several times but I am affraid it is confusing. Maybe if you can tell us what to do with the code given in the "JW Player® & RTMP Protocol Examples" secrion cause it does not seem to work if I paste it into the actual post, even with "PHP Execute" plugin installed.

Many thanks.

[Profusion]

Okay I figured out a few things that may help the community.

I actually got it to work from my S3 Bucket. Only thing I am struggling with is getting Cloudfront to connect,..

Basically I work it through the JW Player Plugin http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/jw-player-plugin-for-wordpress/. If you install that and define the file URL through s2member's "Advanced Mod-Rewrite Linkage" configuration it works like a charm

Here's What I Did
1. Everything stays exactly as documented up to and including "Amazon® S3/CDN Storage & Delivery"
2. Install the wordpress plugin "JW Player for WordPress – Flash & HTML5 Video Player" b) first delete the "/jwplayer/" directory and all its files if you uploaded it to your root directory as instructed under "JW Player® & RTMP Protocol Examples" in s2member as this appears to conflict with the full plugin install.
3. Configure the plugin options as you like for normal use.
4. Upload your media file to your Amazon S3 bucket (or your protected file area i.e. .../wp-content/plugins/s2member-files/) if you are not using S3.
5. If using S3, add a metadata tag "Content-Disposition=inline" for this file. I just added a new line and typed it into the box under the "Properties -> Metadata" section for the file.
6. Now simply use the "JW Player for WordPress" plugin's functionality to insert the player wherever you like it to appear in your post. I just click on the grey "Upload/Insert Video" button top left of your Edit Post screen.
7. Here comes the important part. Use the "External Media" tab but define the protected file path, i.e. "/wp-content/plugins/s2member-files/XXX.flv" (where XXX.flv is your file name - even if it resides in your S3 bucket). If you link to files in your "Media" folder it will not be protected of course. s2member automatically links through to the file in your S3 bucket, stream it if you defined the "Content-Disposition=inline" meta tag and protects it as you define it in all the other settings of s2member.

Hope that helps

Now if I can only get the Coudfront part to work. I am pretty sure it is becuase I can not get the connection beween s2member and Cloudfont to automatically set up the ACL's to work. Any help there will be highly appreciated.

[Cristián Lávaque]

Thanks for sharing that.

Check DrByte's posts, he seems to be the most experienced one with CloudFront and has posted quite a bit about it. See if one of this posts helps you: search.php?author_id=65&sr=posts

If you still can't solve it, please post more details about the problem you're having and I'll get Jason to look at it.

I hope that helps.