Upload metadata for channels
When ingesting new channels you will need to upload a JSON file per channel with the metadata. The metadata file is used to populate the EPG and other pages so that your customers can decide what they want to watch.
You can upload all metadata as a JSON file directly to the S3 bucket. Read more about how to connect to your bucket here. When you upload a JSON file for a new channel it will trigger the ingestion of metadata and the channel will shortly appear in your service.
Required fields for features
The presentation of your content is only as good as your metadata and some features like parental control need specific metadata to function.
- Collections: To get a wide selection of collections you will need to add genre and labels to your metadata. You can compile collections with movies, shows and channels.
- Search: This feature uses title, actors and directors
- Parental control: If you want to implement this feature you will need to add an age rating to the content.
Updating the metadata after the initial upload
There are two ways how the system can handle EPG metadata updates. Which logic should apply can be configured by Magine Pro.
- The JSON file overwrites everything. Recommended if you want to handle all updates automatically and don't do any manual updates in the console. The only metadata that is preserved are labels, new labels in the imports will be added to the existing ones but none will be removed.
- The JSON file only overwrites the rights and start and end time of the broadcasts. Recommended if you buy the metadata from an external source and you want to be able to adjust images and texts for single broadcasts if necessary.
In the first scenario, the JSON files is your sole truth. Any changes you make to broadcasts will be overwritten when the another JSON file is uploaded for the same period.
In the second scenario, if you upload a second JSON file for the same channel and airing period you can adjust the rights and the start and end time of the broadcasts only. The main metadata like title, pictures, cast etc. won't be overwritten. If you need to change the metadata that is visible on the details page of a broadcast you need to do the changes manually through the Magine Pro Console in the content section.
Best practice
You will upload your metadata in batches e.g. 7 days or 2 weeks in advance. To avoid holes between the two files it's best to always overlap the data so that you upload the data for one day twice. Our system will make sure that no duplicates will be created.
Example:
You want to add a batch from Monday to Sunday then your file should include the data from Sunday to Sunday.
Additionally, if you ingest metadata on the same day for that day i.e. upload new data today, including todays schedule), you need to have data from 0000 in the night, else any missing metadata for that day will be left blank.