Similar Assets Recommendations

Learn about using the Discovery APIs to provide recommendations for similar videos.

About Similar Assets

To provide Discovery recommendations for similar videos, use the similar/assets route. Use this API to return discovery recommendations based on the relationship to the active video. Relationships are determined based on labels and asset metadata. For example, if a viewer is watching skydiving videos, the Ooyala Discovery algorithms might return other skydiving or extreme sports videos.

To improve the accuracy of recommendations based on similar videos, make sure Backlot assets are well defined with labels and/or metadata, and use the score_type attribute to manage returned results.

Steps

Use the following steps to test Discovery recommendations based on similar assets using The Scratchpad.

Choose an source asset for the similar recommendations and find the asset_id. This is the Content ID shown for the asset in Backlot. For more information refer to Routes and Attributes Common to All Asset Types Routes and Attributes Common to All Asset Types.
Open a browser and navigate to The Scratchpad.
Configure the Credentials to work with your Backlot account:
1. Select the Your Account radio button.
2. Enter your Backlot API Key.
3. Enter your Backlot Secret Key

Enter the following route in the left hand text box replacing asset_id with the content_id of a video from your Backlot account:

/v2/discover/similar/assets/asset_id?score_type=default?limit=2

This route is comprised of the following parameters:

Table 1. Similar Assets With Score Type Details
Parameter	Description
`v2`	The version of the API to use for this request.
`discover`	The API to use for this request.
`similar`	Use the similar route for this request.
`assets`	Return similar assets.
`asset_id`	The content ID for the asset from which to base the results.
`score_type`	The algorithm to use for the query.
`limit_2`	Return no more than two results.

Select Get from the dropdown menu.

Backlot returns results with the following parameters:

Table 2. Similar Assets With Score Type
Parameter	Example
`duration`	`"duration": "37033"`
`name`	`name": "arthurbday.mp4"`
`created_at`	`"2014-09-11 21:15:16 +0000"`
`preview_images`	`"preview_images": "<previewImage>\n<url>https://ec.c.ooyala.com/12345678abcdefg</url>\n<width>400</width>\n<height>250</height>\n</previewImage>",`
`bucket_info`	`"bucket_info": "1{\"encoded\":\"12345678abcdefg\",\"position\":0}", "embed_code": "12345678abcdefg"`
`hostedAtURL`	`https://ec.c.ooyala.com"`
`content_type`	`"content_type": "Video"`
`external_id`	`"preview_image_url": "https://ec.c.ooyala.com/12345678abcdefg/12345678abcdefg",`
`preview_image_url`	`"preview_image_url": "https://ec.c.ooyala.com/12345678abcdefg"`
`publishing_rule_id`	`publishing_rule_id": "12345678abcdefg"`
`description`	`"description": "Video compilation of pictures from Arthur's second birthday."`
`reason`	`reason": "label:12345678"`

Note: Try out the code samples using your account credentials in the Ooyala Scratchpad. To launch the Scratchpad, go to Ooyala API Scratchpad. For information about using the Scratchpad, see Practice Making Requests with the Scratchpad.