Dear User,
Here is a list of the latest changes we implemented in Aviary during Sprints 42, 43, & 44. These are available on the site as of February 24, 2020.
New Features
Added support for embedding media files from local media servers. Organizations can now provide a valid URL for a media file on a public server and Aviary will stream the file directly from the storage location instead of copying the file and storing it within Aviary. In the options to add media files to a resource, an organization user can select “Local media server” as a type and provide the required URL and duration values.
Aviary’s media player has a new look and feel. Available media files for a given resource are now displayed in horizontal sequence below the media player instead of in a vertical display column on the right side of the player. Hovering over each media file reveals a pop-up that provides the name and duration of the media file.
SAML 2.0 single-sign-on (SSO) is now supported within the Aviary application for organization sub-domains.
Added new redundant fail-over storage for Aviary-managed media files. Nightly cron job writes changes to an AWS Glacier archive for content stored by Aviary in Wasabi.
Autoplay is now enabled by default in the Aviary media player. If a resource has more than one media file, Aviary will load the next file in the sequence and autoplay it in the browser. Supported in most browsers, but not all.
Organization users can configure Aviary collections so that only an audio player appears when a resource has an attached audio file (this is instead of the larger video player that was the previous default in Aviary). In the general settings tab of the collection edit page, an organization user can select an option to “Render Media Player as Audio Player for Audio Files” for the given collection’s resources.
Organization uses can now provide a time-bound accessible URL to public users for any private or restricted resource in their collections. This allows an organization user to offer access to a user that doesn’t require any action from the user (e.g., they do not have to be at an IP address, nor do they have to log in to Aviary). It offers yet another flexible option for providing access to restricted or sensitive AV content from Aviary. Organization users see a "Public Access URL" option in the "Share" pop-up on the resource detail page when a resource is private or restricted. Organization users can set a duration of availability for the URL they share. This URL gives access to all media and indexes and transcripts for the resource.
Collections can now have favicons. These favicons will be displayed in the search result card for a resource to help distinguish visually between the collections that resources are a part of as users browse search results.
Enhancements
The Aviary media player can now be embedded in such a way that all media files for a resource appear in the embed frame, instead of just the media player for the current resource or the full Aviary resource detail page. This means there are now three (3) ways to embed Aviary content in external sites: single media file player; media file player with list of loaded media files; full resource detail page with metadata and transcripts/indexes (if present).
Organization users can designate auto scroll to be “on” by default for transcripts and indexes in a particular collection. Users can still turn auto scroll off, but now organizations can set it to be on by default instead of off (which is the overall default).
Improvement to Aviary-ASpace-Preservica synchronization to select specific thumbnails for media files imported into Aviary.
Improvement to Aviary-ASpace synchronization to allow indexes, captions, or transcripts to be shared to Aviary from Google Drive folders.
Quarterly Aviary backend performance optimization completed, including database configuration improvements, query optimization, dynamic index creation for Aviary models, app cache improvements, and solr configuration improvements.
Quarterly Aviary frontend performance optimization completed, including asset handling improvements with AWS Cloudfront, css and js minification, image optimization, page header optimization for Google and GT matrix requests.
Implementation of Airbrake to monitor Aviary web performance.
Relaxation of OHMS XSD validation for Index and Transcript imports to reduce failure when XSD validation failures are not related to the Index and Transcript sections within OHMS.
Nightly cron job to check the current version of OHMS XSD to ensure that Aviary is always supporting the most current version and all past versions of the OHMS XSD.
HTTPS is supported now for custom DNS URLs on Aviary subdomains. This is an optional feature. To make use of this feature, organization users need to work with their own system administrator to register a desired domain name for their Aviary website and to add a CName/A Record to your DNS for the new custom domain.
Duration is now an available column in the Media file table that organization users have access to when managing media files.
Organization users can now see private resources on organization and collection landing pages.
Fixes
Fixed an Avalon media player embed issue that was causing all Avalon embeds to display as audio players.
Improvement for handling new mimetypes for Preservica-Aviary synchronizations.
Removed the “we accept cookies” pop-up from Aviary embedded media frame in external sites.
Complete change log can be found in the Aviary Knowledge Base.
Join the conversation!
Share your experience with other Aviary users in the Aviary Google group: https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!forum/aviary-users
Your feedback is valuable to us! Feel free to submit your questions, concerns, or requests at any time.
