If you already store videos in Publitio, you can use a public video file URL as a SmartVideo source. If you do not need a separate host, upload directly to the SmartVideo Library instead.
The clips below show older interfaces; follow the written steps for the current Publitio workflow.
- Upload your video to Publitio. On the files page, choose Upload Files, select your video, set its privacy to public, and click Start Upload. Do not assume the default privacy setting is public.
SmartVideo needs a URL that returns the video file without a login. Publitio’s private file URLs carry access tokens that expire after 24 hours. A private URL works for the first conversion as long as the token is still valid when SmartVideo fetches it, but once it expires, SmartVideo can no longer fall back to it or rebuild the video from it, so use a public file URL. A public source file is accessible to anyone with its URL; if you cannot make the video public, use the SmartVideo Library instead.
- After upload, open the file’s View page by clicking its name or eye icon, then click Share. You can also click the Share icon below the file name. In the Share modal, choose Source and copy only the video file URL from a
<source src="…">entry, preferably the MP4 entry—not the entire HTML, poster image URL, or Iframe embed code. Publitio’s HTML Source example shows where these video URLs appear. If the URL has a transformation-options segment right after/file/(comma-separated options such ash_480orw_1280,h_720, for example/file/h_480/your-video.mp4), remove only that segment so the URL points to the original upload:https://media.publit.io/file/your-video.mp4. Keep any folder name in the path.
Open the copied URL in a private browser window while signed out of Publitio. It should play or download the video itself, not show a login or sharing page. Keep this URL publicly accessible without an expiring token for as long as the video is embedded.
3a. If you use our WordPress plugin, add a SmartVideo block and paste the copied video file URL into Video URL in the block’s settings sidebar. If you have not set up the plugin yet, follow Install SmartVideo on WordPress first.
3b. On a non-WordPress site, first install the SmartVideo head snippet, then use the copied URL as the src of a <smartvideo> tag. Follow Using SmartVideo on non-WordPress platforms for the snippet and tag.
After you preview or publish the page with SmartVideo installed, SmartVideo downloads and converts the video. A video usually takes about as long as it runs to convert, and longer when our encoders are busy.
Keep the original file in Publitio and its URL public for as long as the video is embedded. SmartVideo re-fetches the original for fallback playback and re-conversion; keeping it accessible is required, not just a backup precaution.
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