Use an existing DigitalOcean Spaces bucket as the source for your SmartVideo videos.
Public files are visible to anyone on the internet who has the URL. Files default to Private. Only make videos public if you intend to publish them; DigitalOcean’s file-permissions guide explains public access.
The clips below show an older interface; follow the written steps for current labels.
- Open your bucket’s Files tab and click Upload, following DigitalOcean’s upload guide. In the Upload files window, choose Public under Select the file permissions, then click Upload. The control panel uploads files smaller than 2 GB; use an S3-compatible tool for files of 2 GB or larger. To make a file you already uploaded public, click … beside it, choose Manage Permissions, select Public, then click Update. This changes the object’s ACL, not every file in the bucket. Leave file listing restricted; public listing is not needed to fetch a video.
- In Files, click … beside the video and choose Quick Share. For a public file, copy the Virtual-hosted style file URL or Path-style file URL; DigitalOcean documents these in Share links to files. The virtual-hosted form is
https://<space>.<region>.digitaloceanspaces.com/<object-key>(see the Spaces API reference). Use the full copied URL so folders and encoded characters are preserved.
A private-file Quick Share URL expires when its Sharing duration ends. Use a non-expiring public URL so original-source playback and later conversion requests do not depend on a temporary link. SmartVideo reads the original for the first conversion, for playback before conversion finishes, as a fallback when the converted copy can’t be served, and to re-convert. The first conversion can also wait in the queue until after the link has expired. The source URL has to stay readable for as long as the video is embedded. If you can’t make the file public, upload the video to the SmartVideo Library instead, if your plan includes it.
Open the copied URL in a signed-out or private browser window. It must return the video itself without a login or cookies, not a control-panel page.
3a. If you are using our WordPress plugin, use the copied URL as the video source. See the WordPress video guide for the plugin steps.
3b. On another CMS, use the copied URL as the source in a SmartVideo tag.
No Spaces CORS change is needed for SmartVideo’s server-side import or plain video playback without crossorigin. Before conversion finishes, the player can play directly from your original URL. If your SmartVideo tag has a direct-child <track> element, SmartVideo sets crossorigin="anonymous"; original-source playback then requires Spaces to allow cross-origin GET requests from your website. The same applies if you set crossorigin yourself. Follow DigitalOcean’s CORS guide for that setup. CORS does not replace file permissions.
A video usually takes about as long as it runs to convert, and longer when our encoders are busy. Keep the original file in Spaces and its URL public for as long as the video is embedded. SmartVideo re-fetches the original for fallback playback and re-conversion, so keeping it accessible is required, not just a backup precaution.