Searching Videos and Playlists

In this topic you will learn how to search for videos and playlists.

The Media module provides a Search... field that can be used to search videos in a Beacon account.

The following types of searches can be performed:

Video search

Terminology

In this section, the term exact means that the search string is enclosed in quotation marks. For example:

Exact Search Non-Exact Search
"great blue" great blue
name:"great blue" name:great blue

Note that "exact" means that all terms inside the quotation marks must be matched, but they may not match exactly. For example, a search on "running water" could return a video that has the phrase water runs downhill in the title or description.

To search the videos in your account, enter a search term in the Search... field. By default, the search will be performed on videos.

To search for multiple video IDs, use the following syntax: id:xxx id:xxx id:xxx. For example, id:5985323381001 id:5715142164001.

It is also possible to search playlists or enter advanced search terms.

The following video fields will be searched:

  • Video id (id)
  • Name (name)
  • Short description (description)
  • Long description (long_description))
  • Tags (tags)
  • Reference id (reference_id)
  • Custom fields (custom_fields or {field_name})

Query support for video fields differ. Some fields support partial-word searches and stemming searches, and some do not.

Search field  Supports Does Not Support Examples
Name and descriptions exact matches for one or more whole words; stemming support no partial-word support
  • name:"great blue" will match "Great Blue Heron"
  • name:"great blu" will not match "Great Blue Heron"
  • name:great blu will match "Great Blue Heron"
Video ID exact matches only no partial-word or stemming support 5591838791001 will match video with id 5591838791001 5591838791 will not match that video
Tags matches only for whole words no partial-word or stemming support tags:publ will not match videos with tag "public"
Reference ID partial string matches that start with the Ref ID (first 3 chars.) and whole string matches no partial-strings that do not start with the Ref ID
  • reference_id:myv matches video with reference id "myvid1"
  • reference_id:"myv" does not match video with reference id "myvid1"
Date fields   not searchable using the text box, searchable using advanced search  
Individual text custom fields matches for one or more whole words and stemming support; for exact search strings, whole word matches only no partial-word support
  • custom_fields:place will match video with a custom field value of "places"
  • custom_fields:plac will not match video with a custom field value of "places"
  • custom_fields:"place" will not match video with a custom field value of "places"
Individual list custom fields matches for one or more whole words and stemming support; exact search stings, whole word matches only no partial-word support
  • topic:place will match video with a topic list-type custom field value of "places"
  • topic:plac will not match video with a topic list-type custom field value of "places"
  • topic:"place" will not match video with a topic list-type custom field value of "places"

Ignored words

Certain words are ignored in search strings because they are so common that they are likely to return many results unrelated to what you are actually searching for. Below is a list of words that are ignored by search:

"a", "an", "and", "are", "as", "at", "be", "but", "by", "for", "if", "in", "into", "is", "it", "no", "not", "of", "on", "or", "such", "that", "the", "their", "then", "there", "these", "they", "this", "to", "was", "will", "with"

In addition, non-alphanumeric characters such as hyphens, underscores, line-breaks, "$", "&", "*", etc. are treated as word delimiters. For example, a search string like small-town will be treated as small town.

What is stemming?

Video fields that support stemming return words that have the stem of the search word in common. In addition, stemming supports entering whole words only, not partial words:

  • Example 1: Searching on running will return results containing: running, run, runs
  • Example 2: Searching on vid will not return results containing: video

General rules

  • For an exact match, enclose strings in quotes
  • By default, Brightcove Beacon assumes an OR logical operator between words
  • Search is case-insensitive

Examples

Search Term Returns
financial planning all videos that contain financial OR planning
"financial planning" all videos that contain financial AND planning. Note that the quotation marks ensure that matching videos will have all the terms, but possible not the exact terms - for example, the search terms here might also return videos with finance and plan in the title or description
walk all videos that contain walk, walks, or walking

Playlist search

To search the playlists in your account, enter a search term in the Search... field and then click on the playlists option.

A list of playlists will appear in the body of the page.

Advanced search

Advanced search allows you to search for values in specific fields using search qualifiers. For example, you can specify that only the video name or tag fields should be searched. You can also exclude videos with certain terms. For example, you can search for videos that contain sports but exclude the videos that include baseball. To open the Advanced Search dialog, click the More Search Options link.

Advanced Search

The following criteria can be used to customize the search:

Tags

Advanced search can be used to return videos based upon video tag. There are three options when searching using tags:

  • Any - Return videos with any of the tags (OR)
  • All - Return videos will all of the tags (AND)
  • None - Return videos that do not have any of these tags

This example would return all videos that are tagged with either birds or animals.

Additional tags criteria can be entered by using the delete/add buttons ().

Date Range

Advanced search can be used to return videos based upon date range. The following dates can be searched:

  • Created At (created_at)
  • Updated At (updated_at)
  • Scheduled Starts At (schedule.starts_at)
  • Scheduled Ends At (schedule.ends_at)

This example would return all videos created between March 1, 2016 and March 31, 2016.

Additional date ranges can be entered by using the delete/add buttons ().

Text to Include

Advanced search can be used to return videos based upon text in video metadata. The following fields can be searched:

  • All
  • Name
  • Name and Description
  • Reference ID
  • Custom Fields
  • A specific custom field

Assume the account has two custom fields, Year and Subject. This would return all videos with the Year custom field equal to 2016 and the Subject custom field equal to birds.

Additional criteria can be entered by using the delete/add buttons ().

Text to Exclude

Advanced search can be used to exclude videos based upon text in video metadata. The following fields can be searched:

  • Name
  • Name and Description
  • Reference ID
  • Custom Fields
  • A specific custom field

This example will not return videos that have private in the name or description fields.

Additional criteria can be entered by using the delete/add buttons ().

Playable

Advanced search can be used to return videos based upon their status:

  • All
  • Playable
  • Not Playable

After entering the search criteria, the advanced search syntax will appear in the search box.

See the Advanced search syntax section for more information.

Advanced search syntax

When the Advanced Search dialog is used to search for videos, the advanced search syntax will appear in the search box after entering the search criteria. This section outlines the search syntax. The search syntax can also be entered into the search box without using the Advanced Search dialog. To open the Advanced Search dialog, click the More Search Options link.

To mark a search term as required (returned videos must match) or excluded (returned videos must not match), add a + or - sign immediately preceding the term.

The following search qualifiers and values are supported.

Qualifier Valid Values
name strings or quoted strings
text strings or quoted strings (name)
tags strings or quoted strings
reference_id strings or quoted strings
custom_fields - searches all custom fields strings or quoted strings
<custom_field_name> - searches specified custom field name strings or quoted strings
state[1] ACTIVE, INACTIVE, PENDING
updated_at date range
created_at date range
schedule.starts_at date range
schedule.ends_at date range
published_at[2] date range
complete[3] true or false

Notes

[1] A video would be in a PENDING state when it has been shared to an account but it has not been accepted.

[2] The date the video was last activated.

[3] A video has a complete state of true when the video has at least one playable rendition. It does not necessarily mean that all transcoding is complete.

Working with date fields

When working with date fields, the dates can be in UTC (2012-08-01T00:00:00Z) format or use a relative format:

  • -1day
  • -2days
  • +4hours
  • -60minutes
  • -1d
  • -2d
  • +4h
  • -60m

Examples

When combining multiple search terms, separate them with a space so that additional terms are not interpreted as part of the first one.

Search Term Returns
+name:florida all videos with Florida in the video name
+text:meeting all videos with the word meeting in the video name or short or long description
+tags:birds all videos that are tagged birds
+tags:birds +state:inactive all videos that are tagged birds and have a status of inactive
+tags:live,"now playing" +state:ACTIVE all videos that are tagged live and now playing and have a status of active
+custom_fields:"2015" all videos that have a value of 2015 in any custom field
+subject:birds all videos that a value of birds in the subject custom field
+producer:"Bob Bailey" all videos that a value of Bob Bailey in the producer custom field
+created_at:-3d all videos created in the last 3 days
+updated_at:-1d all videos updated in the past day
+updated_at:-2d +state:INACTIVE all videos that have been updated in the last two days and are inactive
+schedule.starts_at:2015-06-01..2015-06-07 all videos that are scheduled to start between June 1, 2015 and June 6, 2015
+updated_at:2015-06-01T13:00:00Z..2015-06-01T15:00:00Z all videos that were updated on June 1, 2015 between 1pm and 3pm

Saving searches

Searches that you run frequently can be saved so they can be re-run quickly without having to re-enter the search syntax. After you have entered the search syntax that returns the videos you want to see, click Save Search. Enter a name for the saved search and then click Save.

To re-run the saved search, click the Saved Searches link under the search box and click on the saved search to run.

To delete any of the saved searches, click the delete icon () next to the search.

Ignored words

Certain words are ignored in search strings because they are so common that they are likely to return many results unrelated to what you are actually searching for. Below is a list of words that are ignored by search:

a an and
are as at
be but by
for if in
into is it
no not of
on or such
that the their
then there these
they this to
was will with