Batch Builder 2 allows processing and deposit of WebVTT captions for existing video files in DRS. For instructions on depositing video files see Creating Video Object Batches.

What are WebVTT captions?

WebVTT video caption is a plain text file that contains timed captions to streaming video delivered out of DRS. The caption file can contain timed captions to a particular video file (it cannot contain captions referencing multiple video files with different content).

WebVTT captions are created according to the WebVTT specification (which is currently in the W3C Candidate Recommendation phase), which defines WebVTT, the Web Video Text Tracks format. Its main use is for marking up external text track resources in connection with the HTML <track> element. WebVTT files provide captions or subtitles for video content.

How to create WebVTT captions?

3Play Media has a very good tutorial on how to create WebVTT caption files: https://www.3playmedia.com/2017/06/30/how-to-create-a-webvtt-file/.

Depositing WebVTT captions

WebVTT captions are deposited to the DRS as text objects after the video files are already in the DRS. The processing and deposit procedure is similar to the Batch Builder text object content model processing and deposit procedure. See Creating Text Object Batches for more information.

After the deposit of the WebVTT captions, the video files in DRS (both archival masters and deliverables) need to be linked to the newly deposited text objects objects by a HAS_SUPPLEMENT relationship, where the video file is the source and the WebVTT text object is the target of the relationships. This relationship needs to be created manually in DRS Web Admin after ingest of the WebVTT captions.

Additionally, a role CLOSED_CAPTION_DATA needs to be set for the WebVTT text object in DRS Web Admin after it has been deposited. This role should be set in the Admin. Metadata tab in the Web Admin Object Summary page for the text object.

Note that although DRS ingest automatically creates File Delivery Service (FDS) URNs for each WebVTT text file on ingest, these URNs are not used by the Streaming Delivery Service for Video to deliver captions. The file access flag is also not used for the captions delivery by the Streaming Delivery Service for Video. The FDS URNs and the file access flags are used by the File Delivery Service in cases where a collection manager decides to deliver the caption files separately from the Streaming Delivery Service UI.

Here is an example of the WebVTT video caption file

WEBVTT

00:11.000 --> 00:13.000
<v Roger Bingham>We are in New York City

00:13.000 --> 00:16.000
<v Roger Bingham>We’re actually at the Lucern Hotel, just down the street

00:16.000 --> 00:18.000
<v Roger Bingham>from the American Museum of Natural History

00:18.000 --> 00:20.000
<v Roger Bingham>And with me is Neil deGrasse Tyson

00:20.000 --> 00:22.000
<v Roger Bingham>Astrophysicist, Director of the Hayden Planetarium

00:22.000 --> 00:24.000
<v Roger Bingham>at the AMNH.

00:24.000 --> 00:26.000
<v Roger Bingham>Thank you for walking down here.

00:27.000 --> 00:30.000
<v Roger Bingham>And I want to do a follow-up on the last conversation we did.

00:30.000 --> 00:31.500 align:right size:50%
<v Roger Bingham>When we e-mailed—

00:30.500 --> 00:32.500 align:left size:50%
<v Neil deGrasse Tyson>Didn’t we talk about enough in that conversation?

00:32.000 --> 00:35.500 align:right size:50%
<v Roger Bingham>No! No no no no; 'cos 'cos obviously 'cos

00:32.500 --> 00:33.500 align:left size:50%
<v Neil deGrasse Tyson><i>Laughs</i>

00:35.500 --> 00:38.000
<v Roger Bingham>You know I’m so excited my glasses are falling off here.