Capture Agent Input Selection

Capture agents usually run autonomous with a minimum of user interaction. One of the few ways for users to interact is the optional input selection which may be shown when scheduling events. It allows capture agents to present a set of inputs which users can select for each event and which are returned to the capture agent as part of the schedule.

A capture agent may specify and change potential inputs at any time. Users will select inputs when scheduling at which point the selection is stored and will not be updated by future capture agent specification changes.

Setting Input Options

For setting input options, the capture agent can use the REST endpoint POST /agents/{name}/configuration.

The payload must represent Java properties and can be provided as JSON or XML. The configuration key used for input selection is capture.device.names. The value for this key is a comma separated list of options.

For example, to define three options input a, input b and something else, send a payload like this:

{"capture.device.names":"input a,input b,something else"}

Use the REST docs to try this.

from now one, the options will automatically show up as input fields in the admin interface when the capture agent is selected:

Receiving the selection

Capture agents get the selection as part of the scheduling information they retrieve via GET /recordings/calendars. Each event may contain these selections. They are encoded as a Java property file named org.opencastproject.capture.agent.properties. It is up to the capture agent to act on these or not.

BEGIN:VCALENDAR
...
BEGIN:VEVENT
...
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=application/text;VALUE=BINARY;ENCODING=BASE64;X-APPLE-FILENAME=org.opencastproject.capture.agent.properties:Y2FwdHVyZS5kZXZpY2UubmFtZXM9aW5wdXQgYSxzb21ldGhpbmcgZWxzZQpvcmcub3BlbmNhc3Rwcm9qZWN0LndvcmtmbG93LmRlZmluaXRpb249ZmFzdApvcmcub3BlbmNhc3Rwcm9qZWN0LndvcmtmbG93LmNvbmZpZy5zdHJhaWdodFRvUHVibGlzaGluZz10cnVlCmV2ZW50LmxvY2F0aW9uPWV4YW1wbGUKZXZlbnQudGl0bGU9VGVzdAo=
...

Decoding this, the properties file may again contain a key capture.device.names with all selected options as comma separated list:

capture.device.names=input a,something else