Customizing the Link URL

Brightcove players include a "get link" control that enables viewers to copy and paste a link to the video they've been watching, as well as an "email" control that enables viewers to send an email with a link to the video. By default, the sharing link for a player points to the Brightcove-hosted player. You might want, instead, to give viewers links that point to the parent page on your site that contains the player (or to some other page altogether). There are a few ways you can override the default link URL to use a custom sharing link, depending on how you publish your player:

• Edit the publishing code for your Player. If you are using JavaScript, set the link URL like this:
  

  <param name="linkBaseURL" value="http://www.example.com/news/article.php?id=847984" />

  If you are using ActionScript, set the link URL like this:
  

  config["linkBaseURL"]="http://www.example.com/news/article.php?id=847984";

• If you are using an HTML embed snippet to publish your Player, add this query parameter to the FlashVars in your embed snippet:: &linkBaseURL=http://someurl. For example:

  <embed src="MyPlayer.swf" FlashVars="autoStart=true&width=540&linkBaseURL=http://www.example.com/news/article.php?id=847984"
    ...additional attributes... />

• If you are using the Brightcove Player API to call a player from a SWF wrapper, use a command like: player.getModule("social").setLink("http://www.example.com/news/article.php?id=847984");

In each case, set the linkBaseURL value to the URL you want to use in your sharing links.

Using a custom sharing link is a way to ensure that web links spread virally can point to the page of the article that contains the video. This URL configuration moves around with viral players, helping to drive traffic and audience back to your web property. When viewers click "get link", they will fetch the article URL. If viewers send an email to share the video, the email will contain the link to the article. If viewers grab an embed code and publish the viral player on another blog, that player will direct users back to the source article page, and not to the URL of the player.