Make it possible to configure per video whether a download button should be shown

[LukasKalbertodt]

We already have a globally configurable download button, but most institutions need per-video control. It is still unclear how we do this. This information should be stored in Opencast, I suppose. We need to check with the OC community if there are already established best practices.

[LukasKalbertodt]

@oas777 said here:

I think this has to be seen in the context of "optional downloads" where users can decide whether or not to have download files. If they don't, then streaming (HLS) is the only option to consume the video and the m3u8 shouldn't be visible. If they chose downloads to be available, the workflow should produce these videos for download.

If the institution is not using HLS (like ETH currently) the two options should be "mimicked", no download option even if files are produced. Probably tricky to inform Tobira "Do not use these for download!"...

So the suggestion is that Opencast should know about this "per-video choice" and run different workflows for different choices. This is indeed a good idea when one actually wants to make it harder for users to download the video. Not showing the download button for MP4 videos only stops users with very little technical knowledge; all others will still be able to download the video. Downloading an HLS video is more tricky (tho still fairly trivial with the right tools).

[oas777]

Question: How is #679 "partially" done in #792?

And yes, I know videos in a non-HLS distribution can be downloaded easily. But lecturers don't. And ETH got to switch anyway.

[owi92]

In #792 the global configuration for this was added.

[reiferschris]

We already have a globally configurable download button, but most institutions need per-video control. It is still unclear how we do this. This information should be stored in Opencast, I suppose. We need to check with the OC community if there are already established best practices.

Just my two cents:
A neat way to accomplish this IMHO is just using an opencast publication for downloads. We have been using this mechanism for years within opencast itself as well as the ilias-opencast-plugin.
Such a publication can easily contain the right files that are relevant to the end user by selecting them using publish-configure

• Also this would have to be considered
  • with HLS you might have fragmented mp4-files that can't be played by some players. In this case you would need a version of the file that is a "regular" mp4 file
  • in case of lecture recordings with multiple files (presenter, presentation) the download should probably just be the composite. Most users won't have a need for two separate video files..

[oas777]

Thanks, @reiferschris, for sharing your experience. Could you please share a screenshot in OC/ILIAS where the users get the option to choose/add the download? We try to avoid providing too many (workflow) options to end users to prevent misuse, so I was thinking more along the lines of an "enable download" checkbox.

[reiferschris]

Sure @oas777
In ILIAS the download option depends on two separate things

1. first you must have a download-publication (in our case just a link, but that could also be an asset(s))
2. then you still have the option to disable the download for course members (to allow lectureres to download assets but not students) it looks like this (section "Einstellungen" "ohne Download" -> without download (disables download button))

In Opencast we have the option "enable/disable download links" in our standard workflow which can be used to create that publication immediately when processing the event (both scheduled or uploaded events)
It looks like this:

On the right side of the screenshot you can see our slightly customized publications column which has appropriate symbols for our three possible publications (paella, web-player and download)

The same thing can be accomplished by starting a separate workflow in case someone wants a download later (e.g. when they want to save a copy in their archive before deletion in opencast)
The aforementioned workflow to create a composite video creates a download publication if it doesn't exist, no user input required.

If you are interested in the details of the workflows used for this just let me know :) All of it depends on a workflow configuration parameter "enableDownload" which is either true|false

[oas777]

Thanks, this is helpful. I envision an option "Download" disabled by default, but that's probably different for any institution so both providing this option (to choose) and the default setting for that option (enabled/disabled) should be customisable.