These credentials are strictly used for uploads to the S3 bucket and should not be shared.
This article is intended for developers who want to upload content directly to Blue Billywig, bypassing the OVP uploader and integrating BB into their own upload pipeline.
Blue Billywig uses AWS S3 (Amazon’s cloud storage service) to store all files on your account. Each BB account has its own dedicated S3 bucket. The Online Video Platform (OVP) provides an easy-to-use interface for uploading video and audio content, however, it’s also possible to programmatically upload content directly to your account’s S3 bucket using a library or SDK of your own choosing (see AWS upload SDK documentation).
Regardless of the selected implementation, the following details will be required:
- S3 access key id;
- S3 secret access key;
- S3 bucket name (derived from the S3 bucket URL; see section 1.0).
1.0 | Create S3 Upload Credentials
To generate the required S3 upload credentials:
- In the left panel menu, click to expand “Publication settings”;
- Click “Upload credentials”;
- Click “New key”.
Admin permissions are required to manage S3 access keys. If you lack the necessary permissions please contact your account’s admin user or send an email to support@bluebillywig.com.
- Enter a “Label”. The label cannot contain spaces.
- Click “save” in the lower-right corner to generate the S3 upload credentials in AWS. This process can take up to 10 seconds.
- A popup will appear displaying a new secret access key.
Please note that S3 secret access keys are only shown once for security purposes. Copy it immediately and store it in a secure location (such as a password manager or secrets vault) before clicking OK. As these secret access keys are inaccessible to Blue Billywig as well, new credentials will need to be generated when lost.
- Click “OK” to access the AWS access key id and the S3 bucket URL. The bucket name is the hostname portion of the bucket URL (e.g.
accountname.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com):
2.0 | Edit / Delete S3 Access Keys
2.1 | Edit S3 Upload Credentials
To edit existing upload credentials:
- Click the ‘edit’ icon in the credentials library:
- Change the label of the existing access key and click “save”.
Note that it is not possible to view or regenerate a secret access key after creation. If a secret access key has been lost, delete the existing credentials and create a new key pair.
2.2 | Delete S3 Upload Credentials
To delete existing upload credentials:
- Click the ‘trash can’ icon in the credentials library:
3.0 | AWS Key Management: Best Practices
Proper access key management keeps your account secure. We recommend the following best practices:
- Create separate AWS upload credentials for each implementation, so that a compromised key can be revoked without affecting other integrations;
- Avoid embedding upload credentials directly in your code or storing them in files that are part of your application’s source tree, as this could expose them publicly;
- Delete unused upload credentials;
- Periodically renew upload credentials.