Media RSS (MRSS)
The Primis unit includes a sophisticated CMS (Content Management System) for handling publishers' video content, featuring numerous ways to upload content. It can be done directly and manually, through our FTP, or through an MRSS feed.
MRSS Background
MRSS is an expansion of the RSS feed protocol. An RSS feed allows users and applications to access updates to online content in a standardized, computer-readable format. Websites usually use RSS feeds to publish frequently updated information, such as blog entries, news headlines, and episodes of audio or video series.
This article describes how to create an MRSS feed in order to transfer all the metrics required by Primis.
MRSS Advantage
- Automatically transfer all of your videos and the data, inserting them automatically into the Primis unit on your site.
- Videos and their metadata are uploaded through the MRSS link and stored on the Primis CMS.
- When the metadata is transferred, it enables the Primis algorithm to optimize the video content displayed on your site
The optimization process includes the following:
- Contextual matching using the keywords, title and description that you transferred.
- Linking each video to the relevant article page through the transferred URL link.
- Playing the relevant video of a specific article on that article page.
- Adding the textual description of the videos on the relevant video skins, for a seamless user experience, increasing user engagement.
- Presenting the most relevant cover image for the video, and the most enticing thumbnail photo for the recommendation tab
Generate an MRSS Feed
An MRSS feed acts as directions on how to get your media, and obtain metadata about that media. MRSS feeds require a server or online platform to host the information online. There are numerous platforms and options, and you should find the one best suited to your day-to-day needs.
Most Content Management Systems (CMS) provide a method to export an MRSS feed (it is usually a simple and free process). On the other hand, if you are very tech savvy, you can manage and store your content and data on your own servers, thus creating your own MRSS feed.
The lists below details the elements required by Primis in order to provide the optimum results for your video content.
Example of an MRSS feed
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/">
<channel>
<title>Example MRSS</title>
<link>http://www.example.com/examples/mrss/</link>
<description>MRSS Example</description>
<item xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/">
<link>http://www.example.com/examples/mrss/example.html</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 05 Apr 2017 19:39:15 -0000</pubDate>
<media:content url="http://www.example.com/examples/mrss/example.mp4" type="video/mp4" height="1280" width="720" duration="120" lang="en">
<media:title>Grilling Steaks for Summer</media:title>
<media:description>Get perfectly done steaks every time</media:description>
<media:thumbnail url="http://www.example.com/examples/mrss/example.jpg" height="120" width="160"/>
</media:content>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>
- As you can see from the text in line 2, it begins as an RSS file. Later on in the script, we identify it as an MRSS by adding the namespace to RSS 2.0. The MRSS at the end of:
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/">
The MRSS informs the reading software there may be media elements later on in the document.
Everything within the tags is considered one separate entry, or one separate video in our case.
An RSS and MRSS can contain several elements, depending on the information you want to transfer. We are only going to show the most common elements that we require.
RSS Item Elements
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
| channel | Standard RSS 2.0 container for all information. One feed, one channel |
| title | Name of the channel. Usually the name of your website or brand |
| description | Phrase or sentence describing the channel. |
| link | Channel URL |
MRSS Extension Elements
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
| <media:title> | Video title. Please keep in plain text with no added information |
| <media:keyword> | Keywords separated by commas describing the content of the video. This is very important for letting our machine-learning enabled algorithm match the right video to the right user. |
| <media:description> | Description of the content in the video in a paragraph. This description will be shown to viewers alongside the video in certain video templates. |
| <media:category> | Category of the video to help you manage your videos. Will not be displayed to the viewers. |
| <media:thumbnail> | Thumbnail is used as a cover image before the video is played, and in the recommendation slots. The image size doesn't matter, but the preferred aspect ratio is 16:9. The only supported format is jpg. This part must include a url attribute that links to the image. |
| <media:content> | Actual video content. This part must include the following attributes of the content: URL: Link to the video on your servers, which our system will use to download the video. Type: Type of media file. We support only video/mp4. Duration: Duration of the video in seconds. Lang: Language of the video. Width: Video width Height: Video height |
| <media:group> | a super-group for <media:content>, used when there are multiple formats for the same content, such as different file quality, sizes, etc. Then there would be multiple <media:content> items in the media:group |
Example
<media:group>
<media:content url="http://www.example.com/examples/mrss/example.mp4" type="video/mp4" duration="91" width="480" height="270" />
<media:content url="http://www.example.com/examples/mrss/example2.mp4" type="video/mp4" duration="91" width="720" height="406" />
<media:content url="http://www.example.com/examples/mrss/example3.mp4" type="video/mp4" duration="91" width="1280" height="720" />
<media:title>Grilling Steaks for Summer</media:title>
<media:description>Get perfectly done steaks every time</media:description>
<media:thumbnail url="http://www.example.com/examples/mrss/example.jpg" width="720" />
<media:keywords>Steaks, Summer</media:keywords>
</media:group>
For more information, please contact your Primis representative.
Updated about 2 years ago