Using CDN2 video in Drupal based websites

Video is a popular media uploaded to Drupal websites. Site developers want methods of uploading large video files, in multiple video formats including Flash Video (FLV), QuickTime, Windows Media, and HD. With Drupal, you an easily upload video files to your nodes and allow them to be downloaded and viewed locally by your site visitors on their client machine. This is not always the preferred solution for uploading video content due to file sizes, quality, time spent in uploading and managing the files on your server, and complexities of module configurations, using the Flash Node or SWFTools module. Some of these modules may require more configuration time from your site content editors than they want to spend. You will want to store your video files on external servers, so these files do not bog down your own server resources.

The CDN2 Video module has been developed by a firm called WorkHabit. This module allows you to upload multiple video file formats to the WorkHabit transcoding server and stream the resulting uploaded video through the WorkHabit web service on your Drupal site. The benefit here is that the WorkHabit web service takes care of the transcoding and embedding of the video file, using best practice streaming solutions on their servers and using their application software. You can then feed this video into your Drupal site using the web service API. The service uses a SOAP-based web service framework similar to the Amazon service. So, if you know how to program using SOAP, you can integrate the CDN2 service into many web-based applications, including Drupal. CDN2 supports Flash Video (FLV), QuickTime, DVD, Windows Media, and JPEG formats. Videos are stored on the WorkHabit network, and use sophisticated caching mechanisms that allow for your video to be viewed and downloaded quickly. When the video is delivered to your Drupal site, you can still control all aspects of its playback using module mechanisms such as the Flowplayer module through SWF Tools. The CDN2 module seamlessly integrates your videos with Flowplayer. The large benefit to you, as a Drupal developer, is that you can host your large video files on external servers via the WorkHabit web service, and this relieves stress from your own server running your Drupal site.

There is a wealth of information about the WorkHabit API and service on their website at http://www.workhabit.com/products/cdn2. If you visit the WorkHabit website, you\'ll notice that they advertise CDN2 as the world\'s first video platform built specifically for Drupal. This service helps you to make the video upload process easy and fast for your clients and your content editors.

The CDN2 web service is free to install and sign up for—you can easily sign up for the API credentials for your Drupal site for free on the CDN2 website. WorkHabit does bill you for your video uploads, based on the file size.

 This is a benefit because the service allows you to take the video file, upload it to their server, and then integrate it into your content type through a CCK field. The video will then be embedded into your node. This will then allow you to theme your video nodes and use the same Drupal-based functionalities (comments, attachments) on these CDN2-powered nodes. Let\'s go ahead and sign up for a CDN2 web service account and try embedding some videos into our Drupal site using the service and module.