The HTML editor that's available for agents and end users makes it easy for people to create rich, customized things like tickets, KB articles, community posts and more. Using the editor it's possible to embed images, customize the look of text, include clickable links, embed videos and much more. However, there may be times when trying to embed a video link from some providers, most notable Amazon S3 and similar cloud services, that an error is encountered. Pasting a link to the video in the "Paste in a video URL" box shows the following.
This can be frustrating, but there IS a solution.
First off, there's a reason this is occurring. SmarterTrack uses a component for creating HTML messages called Froala Editor. The Froala Editor only supports video content from a few providers, but for a very good reason: to ensure that the content being embedded is, in fact, video content and to provide an optimal level of security when the editor is used. As such, content from the following providers is supported while content from other providers is not:
- YouTube
- DailyMotion
- Yahoo!
- Rutube
- Vidyard
However, this does NOT mean video from other providers can't be used. In order to use video content from another provider, you simply need to manually add the provider's video embed code to whatever you're writing up. For example:
- Open whatever item you want to insert the video into.
- Write up the contents, and add some placeholder text where you want the video to appear.
- Next, expand the editor toolbar and click on the Code View (< >) button. This allows you to edit the HTML code that the editor generates.
- Find the location, within the HTML code, where your placeholder text is.
- Replace that code with the embed code for your video provider. In our example, we're using the embed code for a video being hosted on Amazon S3. ("PATH-TO-STILL-IMAGE" and "PATH-TO-VIDEO" in the example would be replaced with the full path to a thumbnail and to the video file, respectively.)
- Once this change is made, the item can be saved and the video will appear.
If you're unsure about the embed code available from your video provider, a simply search on their site should reveal it. In addition, if you're hosting your own videos, use of the standard HTML embed code will work as well.