Specifications

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Cisco Internet Streamer CDS 2.0-2.3 Software Configuration Guide
OL-13493-04
Appendix B Creating Manifest Files
Working with Manifest Files
Manifest File Requirements
The Manifest file needs to support different attributes and tags to support content prefetching and hybrid
ingest. The basic requirements for a Manifest file are the following:
• Specify Content to Be Prefetched—There are two ways to specify prefetched content. One is to use
a single item, where users specify a single URL and the Content Acquirer ingests only the content
pointed to by this URL. Another way is by using a crawler item, where users specify a crawl job
with parameters like start-url, depth, prefix, and reject or accept. In this case, the Content Acquirer
crawls the origin server to fetch content based on the parameters.
• Specify Schedule Information—To instruct the Content Acquirer when to ingest the content and how
often to check the server for updates.
• Specify Publish Information—Information regarding how content is accessed by the end users; for
example, the playserver attribute specifies which server to use for playing the content, the cdn-url
attribute specifies which URL is used by end-users to access the content, the serveStartTime and
serveStopTime attributes instruct the CDS when it can serve the content and provides additional
metadata for playing.
• Specify Live Streaming Content—The Manifest file can also be used to specify live stream splitting.
• Specify Metadata for Hybrid Ingest Content—For hybrid ingest, the Manifest file can be used to
specify the content serve start and stop time for content ingested on demand.
Working with Manifest Files
This section provides Manifest file samples for carrying out specific tasks. Each sample has an
associated explanation of its purpose and function. The Manifest file can specify a single content object,
a website crawler job, or an FTP server crawler job to acquire prefetched content or to acquire
information about live content that is distributed to edge Service Engines later.
Specifying a Single Content Item
Use the <item> tag to specify a single content item, object, or URL. The required src attribute is used to
specify the relative path portion of the URL. If the server name attribute is omitted, the server name
attribute in the last specified <server> tag above it is used. If there are no <server> tags close by in the
Manifest file, the server that hosts the Manifest file is used, which means that the relative URL is relative
to the Manifest file URL.
The following example provides an example of a Manifest file that specifies single content items:
<CdnManifest>
<item src="http://www.my-server/test.html" />
<item src="test.html" />
<server name="my-origin-server-one">
<host name="http://www.my-server-one.com/eng/" />
</server>
<server name="my-origin-server-two">
<host name="http://www.my-server-two.com/eng/" />
</server>
<item src="project-two.html" />
<item server="my-origin-server-one" src="project-one.html" />
</CdnManifest>