With Zapier you can automate many tasks that you may be doing manually. We get asked quite a bit if it's possible to add videos from Google drive to Spotlightr automatically. So we'll use this example on how you can automate some of your video tasks with Zapier.
If you use other file hosting companies to store your files, you will easily understand how using any file hosting provider can work the same as long as it has a Zapier integration.
We are going to build a Zap workflow which will do 2 main things:
Listen for new files added to a specific Google Drive folder
Automatically upload those videos to Spotlightr
And then:
Perform an action with the published video URL
This will enable you to fully automate your workflows. So for example,
You can back up your Zoom calls to Google Drive and automatically have them published in Spotlightr and then send that playback video URL to your class.
Give permission to an employee to add newly created training videos to Google drive which will then be automatically uploaded to Spotlightr for a new course
Record videos on your phone or mobile device which typically get backed up to Google drive. Now those videos get uploaded to Spotlightr
Anything you can think of really... and if you get stuck anywhere, just let us know and we can help.
Basic Zapier Set-up
It's really simple. The basic set up in this example is just two steps. Step one is setting up a 'listener' that detects when a new file gets added to Google drive. This will be triggered every few minutes and it will fetch the latest files in that specific folder (or the entire drive).
Then when that happens it will trigger step two which is called a POST event. This POST event will add your video to Spotlightr.
The easiest way to set this up is to use Zapier's co-pilot and search for 'new file in google drive to post' which will give you the best matching templates. Click on the first template listed:
Step One - Set up the 'listener' when a new file is added
Now we have the set-up and configuration screen. The section in the middle is showing your workflow. On the right side is where you configure the workflow. We'll begin with the first step which is setting up the 'listener' in Google drive.
If not signed in, we'll need to sign into Google drive so we can select a folder:
If you click on the "Trigger event" field and you have options to choose from. We'll stick with "New File in Folder" so we can set a specific folder to use for Spotlightr. Then click "Continue" at the bottom of the panel.
On the next screen you will choose which Drive to use as well as the folder. I have a folder called "New Videos" so I will choose that and also choose to include any subfolders. Then click "Continue" again at the bottom of the panel.
Now we are going to test your trigger. Before you do this, make sure the folder you are using has the right permissions set. It must be set so that 'anyone with a link' can access it. Just right-click on the folder and set that:
OK now let's test the trigger to make sure it works:
It should find a record. Now click on "Continue with selected record":
Step Two - Set up the POST and upload to Spotlightr
For the next step we'll set up a "Webhook by Zapier" and select a POST event.
So we'll keep this and click on 'Continue':
Now we'll want to enter a bunch of data.
Add this URL to the URL field which will send data to this target: https://api.spotlightr.com/api/createVideo
Payload Type field should stay as "Form".
Click on the "Add value set" button so that you have 5 sets like this:
Then you'll need the following Data for those 5 sets:
Key | Value |
vooKey | Your Spotlightr Integrations key (copy from Spotlightr account) |
name | Title (click + and choose from pop-up) |
create | 1 |
zapierUpload | 1 |
file | https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=ID (click + and choose from pop-up) |
For 'vooKey' you will copy your Spotlightr API key from your Spotlightr account. To find this navigate to the Application Settings from left side menu, then the Integrations tab:
For 'name' click on the + and choose Title from the window. This window is showing you the data that Zapier can see and send to Spotlightr.
For 'create' and 'zapierUpload' add the integer 1.
For 'file' you will add this URL first: https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=
And then click on + and select ID from the data window:
That's it. Your set-up is complete. Just click on Continue:
Now we can test the Zap:
It should come back with the video URL. Now if you click on Publish the video will be published to your Spotlightr account in the Uncategorized folder.
Once you publish, all the videos you add to the specified Google Drive folder will be automatically published to Spotlightr.
There are additional options you can add, like specifying encoding, project placement, etc. For example, you can set up different Google drive folders and each folder would map to a specific Project inside of Spotlightr.
To do this, just add another Data field and use the Data point videoGroup and add the Project ID:
Perform action with published video URL
With Zapier the options are endless. Once you add the video to Google drive and it gets added to Spotlightr automatically, there are countless other ways to automate work if needed. Just click to add another step in your workflow.
For example, you may want to add a link to a document like a Google sheet or publish it via WordPress. Thousands of other use-cases are available via Zapier.
Let's try one. Let's just notify a Slack channel of a new video. Just edit the Zap, click to add another step to the workflow, then add the Slack app:
Now we'll set it up:
Choose the right Account and then add the Action event. We'll use "Send Channel Message".
Next we'll choose a Channel and add Message Text. You can add whatever text you'd like. In this example we'll manually add text "New video added" and then populate the video URL from the fetched data:
There are a bunch of other fields. Feel free to experiment with those and/or use Zapier documentation for more information on that. We'll keep the rest of the settings as default and click Continue:
Feel free to test it and then Publish and that's it. Here's what that looks like when sent to Slack:
Happy automating!
Add File Privacy Back
Once the file has been imported into Spotlightr - we host it. So you are welcome to delete it or change it's sharing permissions via a Google Drive action you prefer.
























