For Administrators.
For Instructor/Student instructions, see Generating a Web Link and Embed Code for Media.
As an Echo360 Administrator, you can generate a URL directly to a piece of media and then share that link to allow others to view it. Two types of links exist; Public ones, meaning anyone can view it, or Private ones, meaning you have to have authentication to view it. You can also generate an "embed code" to surround the public link for embedding directly into a portal, embedding in an LMS content page (using the HTML view of the editor), or onto a social media site.
Whenever an item is embedded into an LMS window using the Echo embed button or tool for that LMS, it generates a new Public link. Meaning some captures or media may have several links listed if they are embedded multiple times.
Access Links are only available when selecting an item from the Captures page and therefore not available for presentations. Also, you cannot generate an Access Link for Interactive Media (because authentication is required). Admins cannot change their role to Instructor or impersonate an instructor in a section and generate access links for any content they do not own. Instructors can generate and share public links to their content if enabled.
IMPORTANT: Setting an access link to Private means a user must log in to Echo360 to view it. LMS users (who likely do not have a direct Echo360 login) will need to have already accessed Echo360 in some way (for example, to view a section) to gain authentication. As long as they are already authenticated in Echo360 when they click the link, the link will work.
To generate a public link from the media details page
- Click on a capture row in the Captures page to open the Media Details page.
- Scroll down to the Links section of the Share Settings area below the preview pane.
- Click Add Link, as identified in the below figure.
- The link is immediately generated and the section expands to provide additional options.
Each generated link has configurable options as follows:- Share link slider: When enabled (default), the link is active and anyone clicking the link plays the linked content. If deactivated (turn Share link slider off), the link itself remains valid but users clicking the link cannot view the content. This works to temporarily disable the link.
- Copy: Use the Copy button to copy the link URL to your clipboard for pasting into your desired location.
- Embed: Use the Embed button to generate embed code to surround the link. This is described further in the next step.
- Description: Is blank by default but can be used to identify the purpose of the link or the location to which it is to be posted. The description is for your purposes only and does not appear outside of Echo360.
- Player Style: This allows you to select a specific player style that will be applied to this link and only appears if you have configured any custom player styles. See Configuring Player Styles for more information.
- Start At: This allows you to set a 'starting location' for the media. Users can view the entirety of it, but by default, it begins playing at the location you set.
- Public access slider: When enabled (default), any person with the URL can view the media. Disabling this slider will require a user to log into Echo360 to view it (making access Private instead of Public). See the IMPORTANT note above regarding LMS users and authentication.
- Delete: Permanently deletes the URL and its relationship with the content. If the URL remains posted publicly, clicking it will return a content not found error, as there is no longer any association between the URL and the content.
- If appropriate, click EMBED to generate an embed code around the link for embedding into an accommodating program or location (such as an LMS content window).
- In the Embed link dialog box, you can select Size options for the embedded frame, as well as Autoplay and Automute options. Autoplay and Automute are OFF by default.
NOTE: If you enable Autoplay, Automute is also enabled; this is to accommodate browsers that do not allow for sound with autoplay content. You can enable Automute separately from Autoplay, however.
- Once the embed options are configured, click Copy to copy the full embed code to your clipboard for pasting to the desired location.
- Click Done to close the Embed link dialog box and return to the Links list.
The link you create appears in the Links list of the Share Settings area and is available for all users who have access to the content's sharing information (content owners and admins).
When you no longer need a public link to the media, click the Delete button for that link. Deleting a link is permanent. Remember that you can deactivate a link by disabling the Share link slider when you do not want to delete it. Deactivation retains the relationship between the link and the media but makes the media inaccessible via the link.
YOU CAN CREATE MULTIPLE LINKS: Notice that after you create a link, the Add Link button remains. This allows you to create additional share links with different properties as needed.
The Add Link, Delete, and Share link (enable/disable link) options are all identified in the below figure.