Developer Tools

Client Libraries and Plugins

Be sure to read about how to Manage your library with the API.

JW Player provides the following client libraries and plugins to help you to quickly incorporate products, features, and functionality into your existing workflow. These tools reduce the amount of code you need to write and simplify authorization and authentication.

A language listed under both the Platform Management API v2 and Platform Management API v1 uses the same client library repository. However, the client library usage differs between API versions. The client library will default to the v2 version. To access the v1 version, you must follow the instructions within the client library repository to explicitly instantiate a v1 client.

Platform Management API v2

Client libraries

You must use secret to authenticate the API calls that you make with the client libraries. When using these client libraries, be mindful of JW Player's API rate limit of 60 requests/minute per API token or IP. Exceeding this limit will result in a 429 error.

To monitor transcoding progress, we recommend using our Webhooks.

go get -u github.com/jwplayer/jwplatform-go

pip install jwplatform

/*
Add this dependency to your project's POM:
*/

<dependency>
  <groupId>com.jwplayer</groupId>
  <artifactId>jwplatform</artifactId>
  <version>{VERSION_NUMBER}</version>
</dependency>

composer require jwplayer/jwplatform

Postman Collection

You can also use Postman to query the Platform Management API v2.

Use the following video and steps to configure Postman.

1. Obtain your API secret and site ID.
2. From your Postman workspace, click Collections > Import. The Import popup window appears.
3. On the Link tab under Enter a URL, paste the following collection URL: https://www.getpostman.com/collections/2b9960eb24a76a432ddb.
4. Click Continue. A table appears that lists JW Player V2 Management - Production.
5. Click Import to import the JW Player V2 Management - Production collection.
6. Hover over the JW Player V2 Management - Production collection name.
7. Click ◦◦◦ > Edit. In the main panel, the JW Player V2 Management - Production collection settings appear.
8. On the Variables tab, set the INITIAL VALUE for api_secret and site_id:
      • Paste your API secret for api_secret.
      • Paste your site ID for site_id.

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Some routes require additional values (path and body parameters). Be sure to use the Platform Management API v2 Reference to identify which values a specific route requires.

9. Click Reset All. The CURRENT VALUE is replaced with the INITIAL VALUE.
10. Click Save.

Now that you have imported and configured the collection, you can query the Platform Management API. The following example guides you through a simple API call return a list of videos.

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Example API Call with Postman

As a first API call to the Platform Management API v2, the following steps explain how to request a list of media resources within the site (site_id) that you defined above:

1. Within the JW Player V2 Management - Production collection, expand media.
2. Click GET List media.
3. In the main panel on the Authorization tab, select Bearer Token from the Type dropdown menu.
4. Click Send. The API response appears at the bottom of the panel.

Platform Management API v1

Client libraries

You must use both your key and secret to authenticate the API calls that you make with the client libraries.

1. From your API Credentials page, scroll down to the V1 API Credentials section.
2. Click Show Credentials in the row of the relevant property to reveal the Key and Secret.
3. Copy the Key and Secret.

When using these client libraries, be mindful of JW Player's API rate limit of 60 requests/minute per property for most properties. The /videos/list route is limited to 30 calls per minute per property. Calls that exceed this rate will result in a 429 Rate Limit Exceeded error and will not be executed.

To monitor transcoding progress, we recommend using our Webhooks.

dotnet add package jwplatform

go get -u github.com/jwplayer/jwplatform-go

/*
Add this dependency to your project's POM:
*/

<dependency>
  <groupId>com.jwplayer</groupId>
  <artifactId>jwplatform</artifactId>
  <version>{VERSION_NUMBER}</version>
</dependency>

npm install jwplatform --save

composer require jwplayer/jwplatform

pip install jwplatform

gem install jwplayer-api-client

📘

The Ruby client library is a community-maintained library. Be sure to thoroughly test this library in a development or staging environment before deploying it within a production environment.

Plugins

Without having to manually add code to your WordPress pages, the JW Player for WordPress (VIP or Premium) plugin enables you to create a video experience for your viewers with a cloud-hosted or self-hosted HTML5 player.

Web Player

Demos

Demos
Code examples for all levels of developers implementing the Web Player.

Testing tools

Ad Tester
Debug your ad tags or test Web Player's video ad capabilities using our VAST MP4, VPAID 1, VPAID 2, and Google IMA sample tags.

JW Lens
An easy-to-use toolkit for understanding the Web Player, including its event lifecycles, and for troubleshooting player errors.

Player Event Inspector v8
Test and debug your Web Player setup with our return of all available JW Player events, getters, and utils.

Stream Tester
Debug streams and test DRM functionality with the Web Player in HTML5 or Flash mode.

SDK Best Practice Apps

Webhooks

Webhooks allow you to automate your workflow by notifying you when specific events occur in the JW Player video process.

📘

TIP

If you are not a developer or prefer a simpler implementation, you can use Zapier to create Zaps to manage your notifications.

Requirement

Before you begin to use JW Player's webhooks, you need your secret.

Create a webhook

JW Player's webhooks support the following notifications.

Webhooks are enabled at the property level. So, if you have multiple properties under a single account, you will need to create webhooks for each property.

In your platform or language of choice, use the following steps to create a webhook:

1. Create a POST api.jwplatform.com/v2/webhooks call.
2. Add your secret to the header of your POST call to authenticate your request. For example, in the use case below: 'Authorization: 123Four56==7123Four56==7'
3. Create a request body. The request body must include a metadata object that defines the appropriate webhook properties.
4. Append the query body to your POST request.
5. Execute the API POST request.

👍

USE CASE

A publisher wants to automate the publishing workflow for a property whose key is 1A23bCD4. Without needing to poll JW Player's API, the publisher wants to know when newly uploaded videos are ready to be published to its site.

SOLUTION: The publisher must create a webhook for the property (1A23bCD4) that subscribes to the Media Available (media_available) notification. As noted in the table at the beginning of the section, the Media Available notification event indicates when media has been indexed and can be shared.

curl -X POST https://api.jwplayer.com/v2/webhooks \
 -H 'Authorization: 123Four56==7123Four56==7' \
 -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
 -d '{"metadata": {"name" : "Media Available Webhook", "description": "Webhook to notify me when media is ready to be published", "webhook_url": "https://my-endpoint.com", "events": ["media_available"], "site_ids": ["1A23bCD4"]}}'

If the API call is successful, the publisher receives the following response.

{
    "created": "2019-09-05T11:54:37.182547+00:00",
    "id": "c0Y6ebVU",
    "last_modified": "2019-09-05T11:54:37.182547+00:00",
    "metadata": {
        "description": "Webhook to notify me when media is ready to be published",
        "events": [
            "media_available"
        ],
        "name": "Media Available Webhook",
        "site_ids": ["1A23bCD4"],
        "webhook_url": "https://my-endpoint.com"
    },
    "schema": null,
    "secret": "efZQiWvaaoqx1Hpgi-hhLGInZUhWa1UyWjVaVk5ZVldoR2FVZERja3BoV0hWNE4xTjYn",
    "type": "webhook"
}

Verify the authenticity of a webhook

JW Player gives you the ability to verify the authenticity of a webhook. To verify that a webhook originated from JW Player, JW Player's webhooks use JWT encryption.

When a webhook is created, the JSON response contains a secret property. The value of the secret is the shared key used for decryption. Be sure to securely store the value of the secret. This secret is returned only in the response to the POST api.jwplatform.com/v2/webhooks call.

Incoming webhooks include a header Authorization whose value is Bearer {Token}. The token is generated by hashing the webhook payload with the shared secret.

To verify the authenticity of a webhook, use the JWT decode method. The {Token} and secret should be used as arguments in the decode method. The value returned from this method should equal the body sent in the request.

🚧

JW Player's webhooks do not support a rotating webhook secret. In order to generate a new webhook secret, you must first delete the existing webhook and then, create a new webhook.

The following code example shows how this workflow might look in Python.

"""
Sample code showing how to decode the JWT token to verify authenticity of sender
"""

import json
import jwt


def parse_token_from_request(request):
  """
  Extracts JWT token from Authorization header

  Args:
    request: Incoming HTTP Request
    
  Returns:
    bytes: JWT token
  """
  # The header will be in the form of "Authorization: Bearer {Token}"
  return request.headers["Authorization"].split(" ")[1]


def verify_authenticity(jwt_token, webhook_secret, webhook_payload):
  """
  Uses the JWT Token and Request body to verify 
    
  Args:
    jwt_token (bytes): token
    webhook_secret (str): shared secret returned on POST /v2/webhooks
    webhook_payload (json): Incoming Webhook notification JSON body
  """
  jwt_payload = jwt.decode(jwt_token, webhook_secret, algorithms=["HS256"])
  return jwt_payload == webhook_payload


def webhook_handler(request):
  """
  Route handler for the endpoint handling incoming webhooks

  Args:
    request: Incoming request
  """
  jwt_token = parse_token_from_request(request)
  # This assumes a Flask implementation, but parse JSON body
  webhook_payload = json.loads(request.data)

  # This represents the shared secret returned on POST /v2/webhooks
  # This should be stored securely.
  shared_secret = "secret!"

  is_jw_webhook = verify_authenticity(jwt_token, shared_secret, webhook_payload)

  if is_jw_webhook:
    # Congrats it is a valid JW webhook!
    process_webhook(webhook_payload)
  else:
    # Not a JW webhook!
    return

Understand available webhooks API routes

In addition to creating webhooks, you can list, return, update, and delete webhooks.

Click the badges below to read the API explanation of each route.

   List all webhooks on the account
   Retrieve a webhook resource by ID
   Delete a webhook resource
   Update a webhook resource