Media Management

Have digital video, music, or images that you want to sell online? Have a YouTube video that you want clients to view for free? With Media Management, you can sell a series, which, if purchased, will give your clients online access to view digital media after they log in. You can set how long the media is available. You control what and how much media they can view.

Step 1. Get the Media on the Internet

For capacity reasons, we don't actually host the digital media that you sell through your website. So to use this feature, you need to first get the media online. The reason being, you need a single link that points to the media. This can be accomplished on easy-to-use services like YouTube or Google Video. Once the digital media is on the internet, figure out what the URL is. For example, the URL for a video about otters holding hands is: http://www.youtube.com/v/epUk3T2Kfno&rel=1

Step 2. Create a New Program

This feature has its own type of program called Media. To enable this feature, you must create a program that is classified as media. For example, if you wanted to offer the video of otter's holding hands in the link above, you would:

Follow this menu path: Toolbox => Services => Programs
Uncheck the box beside the text: Show Active Programs Only
To create the new program:
1. Rename an unused program (e.g., rename it to Otter Videos)
2. Check the renamed program's active box
3. Change the Program Type to Media
Click on the Update Programs button at the bottom

Step 3. Add a New Media Link

Next, you need to save the link you created in Step 1 into your MINDBODY system.

Follow this menu path: Toolbox => Setup => Options => Media Management
Click on the Add New button and fill out the following:

Link Name: Enter the name of the link (e.g., Otter's Holding Hands)
URL: Enter the URL of where the link is hosted: (e.g., http://www.youtube.com/v/epUk3T2Kfno&rel=1)
Program: Choose the program that you created in Step 2
Start and End Dates: The media link will become available to your clients on the start date. The link will completely disappear from consumer mode on the end date.
Media Description: This will be the description that your clients and staff will see beside the link when they click on the tab that you create below.

Step 4. Create a Tab

Now you give the media its own tab. You can call it "Media" or "Yoga Videos" or "Class Footage" or whatever you want. For the example above, we'll call it "Animal Clips." Here's how:

Follow this menu path: Toolbox => Setup => Options => Tab Management
Add a new tab just like you would for any other service. Make sure to associate it with the new media program that you created in Step 2 (i.e., Otter Videos)
Log out
Log back in
You'll now see the new tab

Step 5. Create a Revenue Category

Just like everything sold through your system, for reporting purposes, create a Revenue Category to track the sale or free distribution of this media.

Follow this menu path: Toolbox => Services => Revenue Categories

Step 6. Create a Series

Now you need to create a series that your clients can purchase for a cost or -- if you generously offer the media pro bono -- for free.

Follow this menu path: Toolbox => Setup => Pricing => Series & Memberships
Click on the Add New button Things to Note While Creating the Series:
1. Duration: When the series expires, so does the ability to click on links associated with the series.
2. Session Number: The number of sessions isn't how many times they can view a media link, but how many different links they can click on.
3. Price: Make the price $0 if you want to allow clients to view the media for free.
Save the Series

Step 7. After Selling the Series

After a client buys the series, they can log into your system and view the media. Here are the steps your client will take to view the media.

Your client buys the series
Your client logs into the site remotely (a.k.a. consumer mode). They click on the tab that you created in Step 4
They now have a screen that lists all media links associated with that tab
As soon as they click on a media link, the system deducts a visit from the series and it turns red. They can keep viewing that media until either the series expires (set up in Step 6) or the media itself expires (set up in Step 3)
The amount of different links a client can click on depend on how many visits remain on the client's series. For example, if the media series has two visits, they can only visit two unique links

Additional Tidbits: Additional Tidbits:

This feature does not work if the series was paid for by someone other than the client viewing the media. That is, Shared Packages and Pay For Another Client don't work with this feature (yet).

In business mode, you can click on the media tab and view all of your active media.
Once a client's media series runs out of visits, the un-clicked links can no longer be clicked.
A red link represents a link that has been viewed at least once and can be viewed until the series or Media link expire.

How do I keep clients from stealing my media?

Media Management is a great way to sell and display digital media (for example, music and video) inside your MINDBODY system. Unfortunately, an extremely savvy client could figure out how to continue using the media long after their series had expired.

But there is a great way to secure your media using what we call a handshake link. But to use this feature, you'll need to 1) host the media on your own server and 2) have access to someone with strong web development skills.

The first step is to create your handshake file. The purpose of this file is to generate a unique id or random number that MINDBODY can use to prevent users from accessing the media link directly. MINDBODY suggests creating a random global user id (guid) and inserting it into a database or file on your server whenever this page is accessed, along with any other information you would like to track (like a timestamp and a 'time to live' for the guid). The handshake file should output this guid only, as plain text.

Next, put the URL of the handshake file on your server (example: http://mywebsite.com/handshake.php). If you have entered a handshake URL, your MINDBODY system will check this page whenever a media link is clicked. Here is the process that will occur:

A user clicks on a media link with the stored URL of: 'http://mywebsite.com/showMyMedia.php'.
Your MINDBODY system first calls the handshake URL, which returns a guid ('123456' for this example).
Your MINDBODY system will then call the following URL: http://mywebsite.com/showMyMedia.php?memid=789&guid=123456

The URL of the media link returns two querystring variables: 'memid' which is the RSSID of the consumer that clicked on the media link (0 if it was a staff member) , and 'guid' which is the guid that was received from the handshake URL. With this information, the media link URL on your server can then validate the guid and grant access to the content.

This secure handshaking between your MINDBODY system and the server hosting the media does two things: One, it forces clients to view media inside your MINDBODY system. Two, it doesn't allow them to copy links and reuse them later. Using a timestamp and a 'time to live' on your server would ensure that there is no way for clients to reuse a media link after guid's lifetime has expired.

Where to enter the link to your handshake page:

Toolbox => Setup => Options => General Setup & Options => Media Handshake URL Separating AutoPays that Were Made for Payment Plans