Getting Started

The Basics: Setting Up

It only takes a few steps to get started using the Upload Video API:

1. First, you will need a valid AOL or AIM screen name in order to use the Upload API. If you don't have one, then you can easily register for a free one.
2. Next, head over to the AOL Developer Network Agreement and Terms of Service, read through them (and our accompanying Usage Rules ) and if you agree, click yes, and we will then give you a developer ID (devId). This allows you to use our Video Upload API and other APIs here on dev.aol.com
3. You will first need to incorporate OpenAuth, AOL's authentication protocol into your pages. This will allow you to authenticate your users when they enter their AOL screen name and password. This is the first step to building video uploading into your site.
4. After you are successfully authenticating your users, you can go ahead and start incorporating our Video Upload API into your site. Be sure to allow your users to read and agree to our User Agreement (see FAQs). Our APIs use HTTP calls, and we respond with XML. For instance, to begin an upload, you will need to call a post statement with the following required parameters:
• devId (your developer ID required to access AOL APIs)
• f (the required format of the response (xml))
• a (authentication token returned by the directLogin call)
And an XML response will be sent to you with the form:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<response>
  <statusCode>200</statusCode>
  <statusText>Ok</statusText>
<data>
   <assetId>1234<assetId>
</data>
</response>

5. After submitting a file, you can use the status API to check on the file's process.
6. After incorporating our code into your site, you will have the functionality of Upload, but you will be limited to 50 file upload API calls per day. In order to increase the number of calls, contact us to perform a site review, and we will visit your site to ensure that you are requiring users to agree to our User Agreement TOS. If you are not requiring the TOS, then we will revoke your devId and all videos uploaded with your service will be expunged from the AOL Video library.
7. You can use the video IDs returned via the upload API with the AOL Video Player Module to play back your user's content on your page.

Steps to upload a video

1. User visits a third-party site that has incorporated OpenAuth and the Video Upload API
2. The user signs in using a valid login and is authenticated by OpenAuth
3. The user provides the information to create a video upload, including the video file, the title of the video, etc.
4. The site uses the devId, the authentication token (provided by OpenAuth), and the user metadata and creates a valid HTTP post statement to upload a file.
5. The site receives an XML response signifying success (or failure) of the upload and the asset ID of the video just uploaded.