14 November 2012, 4:11

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who's using the Helix Media Library. I find that the external video building block doesn't work with it. In fact the only way I can bring video in successfully is using the legacy Flash embed code in a text building block.

http://uhi-mahara.co.uk/view/view.php?t=QCwxcDOr7BA6gLljPYMn

Regards

Marion

14 November 2012, 11:53

Hello Marion,

What kind of embed code does Helix produce? If it is an iframe and you use Mahara 1.5 or 1.6, you can add the iframe source to your list of allowed iframes (cf. http://manual.mahara.org/en/1.6/administration/extensions.html#new-in-mahara-1-6-allowed-iframe-sources for Mahara 1.6). Then you can use the iframe around Mahara in any text box and also in the external media block.

If you have <embed> or <object> embed code, you can only embed that in a text box, but not in the external media block.

Cheers

Kristina

14 November 2012, 22:10

Hi Kristina

We're using Mahara 1.4 (upgrading at Christmas) so I know about iFrame. I also have the option to use a Javascript embed code which uses the <div> tag and a Flash embed code which uses <embed>. These I've tried with the text block and the Flash one works. I only tried the video URL with the external media block but it doesn't work.

I was only interested if anyone had used Helix with Mahara. Otherwise, I'll just wait for Santa!

Regards

Marion

16 November 2012, 12:17

Hello Marion,

Thank you for the explanations. Javascript is stripped out of Mahara per default. You can only use the sites listed in the external media block for putting just the URL into the field. All others would need a custom filter. If Helix does not have an iframe, it will not work with the external media block in the future. If you wish to just paste in the URL and not the entire embed code, you'd still have to create a filter. Here's a summary:

• <object> / <embed> code can work out of the box in text boxes and journal entries no matter which Mahara version you have
• iframes can be set up to be allowed from 1.5 on through the safeiframe feature and can then be used in the external media block, text boxes and journal entries for example: the entire iframe needs to be entered.
• only the sites listed in the external media block that allow the use of the URL only don't require the full embed code. If you want to add more sites, a special filter would need to be written.

Cheers

Kristina