Frame.io API Getting Started Guide
Getting Started with the Developer Console
Adobe Developer Console is the ultimate developer destination to access Adobe APIs & SDKs including the Frame.io API. The details for accessing the Developer Console can be found here: https://developer.adobe.com/developer-console/docs/guides/getting-started/.
The first step to use any Adobe API is to create a Project in the Adobe Developer Console. The concept of Project in the Developer Console corresponds to an application you are building to consume the Frame.io Developer API. This is distinct from a Project within Frame.io.
After creating a Project in the Developer Console, we can then add the Frame.io API to it. More details on Projects in the Developer Console can be found here: https://developer.adobe.com/developer-console/docs/guides/projects/.
Getting Started with the Frame.io API
Authentication
Adobe is committed to the privacy and security of our users and their data. The first step in accessing the Frame.io API is getting authenticated. For that, you will need to create the user authentication credentials and then the access token. The steps below will show you how to create the user authentication credentials and generate an access token and make your first API call.
Frame.io API can be added to the Project in three different ways, which lead to different types of user authentication credentials available.
These different types of user authentication credentials are:
- OAuth Web App credential: If the API is added as a web app, then this kind of credential is applicable. More details about configuring this type of credential can be found here.
- OAuth Single Page App credential: If the API is added as a single page app, then this kind of credential is applicable. More details about configuring this type of credential can be found here.
- OAuth Native App credential: If the API is configured as a Native app, then this credential is applicable. More details about this can be found here.
User authentication credentials rely on OAuth2.0
authorization_codegrant type, commonly known as 3-legged OAuth. More information about this can be found here: https://developer.adobe.com/developer-console/docs/guides/authentication/UserAuthentication/
Adobe Identity Management Service (IMS) is Adobe’s OAuth 2.0-based identity management feature that supports authentication. There are two steps required for generating the access token:
- The first step is the authorization step. The user has to authorize the application before the token generation. The details for this can be found here.
- The next step is fetching the access token. The above step returns a “code” in the response body. This is used in this step. The exact endpoints to trigger and the parameters to use can be found here.
The above two steps are required for all the three types of App credentials. However there are some differences in the way the IMS endpoints /authorize/v2 and /token/v3 are to be triggered for getting the token. These differences are listed in detail in the two links above.
After we have the access token, we can use it to trigger any of the Frame.io V4 APIs.
What’s New in Version 4 of the Frame.io Developer API
Just as the Frame.io application has been completely transformed for Version 4, the V4 API has also been redesigned from the ground up. Although some key concepts remain similar to legacy versions, many have been replaced or redesigned to support more powerful collaboration workflows and integrations. The introduction of a completely new API has also provided an opportunity to drastically simplify our operations and prioritize important customer workflows.
Within the V4 API, some resources, such as Workspaces (previously referred to as Teams in the legacy version of Frame.io), have been renamed in order to match Frame.io Version 4, while others, like Assets in the legacy version, have been renamed to refer to specific storage entities (Files, Folders, and Version Stacks) in order to reduce developer confusion. Still others, for example Custom Fields and Shares, are entirely new. Among other substantial changes, we have drastically pared down the amount of data returned by default for resource requests, renamed some property names in our responses to be more accurate and consistent across the entire API surface, and switched to a new, cursor-based pagination mechanism. As such, it is important to realize that, with the exception of the Camera to Cloud (C2C) API, clients that integrate with the legacy API are not compatible with the V4 API.
Additionally, some features remain in-progress and are expected to follow and evolve quickly in response to real-world customer use cases and feedback. Examples include the ability to create custom actions and version stacks. If a feature that was previously available in our legacy API appears to be missing, it’s quite likely that there is an alternative or that it will be available soon, but we’d like to hear from you about it.
Before diving into the V4 API it is helpful to first understand the core concepts expressed in the Frame.io Version 4 application. A good place to start is the Frame.io V4 Knowledge Base. Concepts like Accounts, Users, Workspaces, Projects, Collections, Shares, and Custom Fields (Metadata) are modeled as distinct resources in the V4 API, and understanding their relationships and capabilities in the application will aid in understanding how they work in the V4 API.
API Overview
The Frame.io V4 API is designed to follow RESTful architectural principles, and uses standard HTTP methods and response codes in conjunction with unique, resource-specific URLs. Frame.io publishes an OpenAPI 3.0 specification for our V4 API, which provides detailed information about its endpoints, request parameters, and responses. The OpenAPI spec can be consumed by a variety of third-party code-generation tools to facilitate rapid client application development.
URL and Path Conventions
URL paths published in the OpenAPI specification generally reflect resource ownership and containment relationships. As such, some request parameters (e.g. account ids, folder ids, etc.) are embedded within the resource path. While these paths are intended to be predictable and easy-to-understand, the structure of some URLs returned by API requests (e.g. pre-signed upload URLs or display links) may be subject to change, and should never be composed directly by a client application.
Request Query Parameters
Request parameters that control pagination behavior and the optional inclusion of related resources in response objects are defined as a standard set of query parameters: include, page_size, include_total_count. Some requests may support additional query parameters that are specific to that resource or operation.
Copied to your clipboardGET https://api.frame.io/v4/accounts/{account_id}/folders/{folder_id}/children?&include=project&page_size=5&include_total_count=true
Request and Response Payloads
Request and response payloads both are composed as JSON objects, and, as such, the content-type header of an HTTP POST, PUT, or PATCH request must specify the application/json media type. When creating or updating resources, the data property of the request must contain the resource object. Attributes of the resource being created or updated are contained within this object. Similarly, successful responses that include resources will provide these within the data property of the response.
Pagination
Responses that may potentially return large numbers of resource objects (e.g folder or comment listings) are paginated in order to reduce request latency as a result set grows large.. This means that the response to a request may only include a single “page” of results. As mentioned above, a client may choose a specific page size, up to a maximum of 100 elements through the page_size query parameter when making the request. If left unspecified, the page size will default to 50 elements. The V4 API uses a form of pagination known as cursor-based pagination and includes a relative link in the links property of the response object (see example below) that contains an opaque (clients should not attempt to construct this string themselves) cursor string in the after query parameter, which allows the client to retrieve the next page of results (see example response below) by making subsequent requests. At present, the V4 API only supports unidirectional pagination.
Copied to your clipboard{"data": [{"created_at": "2024-10-02T00:22:44.887775Z","creator_id": "8ea72912-d40d-4b88-8d31-3762e055a2aa","file_size": 102432,"id": "df171f3e-c95f-4454-9071-825cd924b572","media_type": "application/pdf","name": "sample.pdf","parent_id": "e183c7ba-07d9-425a-9467-ebdf0223d9ce","project": {"created_at": "2024-08-21T17:45:41.881596Z","description": "For demonstration purposes","id": "976dd413-a92b-4af6-b465-98aded0174a8","name": "Demo Project","owner_id": "8ea72912-d40d-4b88-8d31-3762e055a2aa","root_folder_id": "e183c7ba-07d9-425a-9467-ebdf0223d9ce","storage": 20881946,"updated_at": "2024-10-02T00:22:47.168489Z","workspace_id": "378fcbf7-6f88-4224-8139-6a743ed940b2"},"project_id": "976dd413-a92b-4af6-b465-98aded0174a8","status": "created","type": "file","updated_at": "2024-10-02T00:22:44.927993Z"}],"links": {"next": "/v4/accounts/6f70f1bd-7e89-4a7e-b4d3-7e576585a181/folders/e183c7ba-07d9-425a-9467-ebdf0223d9ce/children?after=g3QAAAACZAAGb2Zmc2V0YQVkAAR0eXBlZAANb2Zmc2V0X2N1cnNvcg%3D%3D"},"total_count": 21}
Errors
In the event that an error occurs, the errors property in the response object will contain an array of one or more error objects that provide details about the error(s) that occurred. At present, batch operations are not supported by the V4 API so there are no cases where partial success and errors must be handled by the client.
Copied to your clipboard{"errors": [{"detail": "Unexpected field: foo","source": {"pointer": "/data/foo"},"title": "Invalid value"}]}
The following table lists common status codes used by the V4 API
| Status Code | Status | Description |
|---|---|---|
200 | OK | Request succeeded. |
201 | Created | Resource was created. |
204 | No Content | Resource was deleted. No response payload. |
400 | Bad Request | The request was invalid, often due to a malformed or missing parameter or payload. |
401 | Unauthorized | The Authorization token is missing or invalid. |
403 | Forbidden | The Authorization token doesn’t have sufficient permissions for this request. |
404 | Not Found | The requested resource doesn’t exist. |
422 | Unprocessable Entity | The request payload and/or parameters are well-formed but are otherwise invalid, preventing execution of the request (largely interchangeble with 400 Bad Request). |
429 | Too Many Requests | The request has exceeded our API rate limit for this account. See Rate Limiting section of the Getting Started guide for details. |
5xx | Server Errors | An unexpected error was reported by our server. Clients should be wait a minimum of 30 seconds before retrying the event and any automated retries should be limited and include a randomized interval in additonal to employing exponential back-off in successive requests. |
Authentication and Authorization
The V4 API relies on OAuth 2.0 and Adobe Identity Management Server (IMS) to authenticate a user (AuthN) and generate access tokens on behalf of that user. An access token must be provided with each API request via the HTTP Authorization header (i.e. Bearer token authentication). Note, however, that the token scopes generated by IMS are static, and that authorization (AuthZ), which determines what the user is allowed to do (and what operations can be performed by the API on behalf of that user), is determined by the roles and permissions granted to the user within Frame.io. See Getting Started with the Developer Console and Authentication Setup (under Start Developing with Postman) sections for more detail about generating and requesting access tokens.
Versions and Backward-Compatibility
The Frame.io V4 API is not backward-compatible with earlier versions of Frame.io APIs and, generally, cannot be used to access or update resources contained within legacy accounts as there have been significant changes to the V4 concepts and data model. As such, the URIs associated with the V4 API all include a /v4 path prefix. However, the V4 API is still evolving quickly and it is possible that new features may occasionally warrant breaking changes. More commonly, Frame.io will release new additions to the API that we consider to be experimental for some period of time, allowing us to receive and respond to customer feedback and usage metrics. Recognizing that backward-compatibility is a major concern for customers managing production-quality integrations with high uptime requirements, we are designing the V4 API to support an additional level of versioning via a custom HTTP header in order to allow clients to opt into using experimental endpoints, avoid breaking changes, and provide backward-compatibility guarantees within the V4 namespace. More details are forthcoming, but for now it is safe to assume that the initial release of the V4 API is considered to be stable and that it will be some time before we contemplate introducing breaking changes.
Rate Limiting
All V4 API calls are rate-limited, and each API resource and operation is configured with its own limit, The limits range from as low as 10 requests per minute to as high as 100 requests per second. At present, each limit is enforced by account, but the policies and limits themselves are subject to change.
The V4 API uses a “leaky bucket” algorithm of progressive rate limiting, in which limits refresh gradually during their allotted time window. In other words, there is not a concept of any hard cutoff after which limits refresh for a particular resource (i.e. "fixed" and "sliding window" enforcement strategies). Rather, remaining limits are constantly refreshing at a pace relative to a resource's limit and time window. Requests that exceed the rate limit for a particular endpoint will fail with a 429 HTTP error.
Our recommended strategy for responding to 429 errors is usually referred to as "exponential back-off." In short:
- When receiving a
429, pause for a period (at least one second) before retrying the request - If another
429is received, exponentially increase, or at least double, the previous wait period until normal function resumes
In order to determine the rate limits that apply to a particular request, clients may inspect the the following HTTP headers returned in the response:
| Header | Value Description |
|---|---|
x-ratelimit-limit | The rate limit for this resource path, measured in requests. |
x-ratelimit-remaining | The number of requests remaining in the current time window. |
x-ratelimit-window | The time window for this resource path's limits, measured in milliseconds (ms). |
API Details
The definitive documentation to the V4 API is our API Reference Guide, but understanding the resource hierarchy as modeled by the V4 API will be helpful before issuing your first requests.
Resource Hierarchy
An Account is typically associated with an organization and represents the fundamental resource that determines a subscription plan, content ownership, user roles / permissions, and Workspace organization. As such, the URL path to almost all of the endpoints in the V4 API include a prefix that identifies the Account in which the resource resides.
Workspaces (previously called Teams in the legacy version of Frame.io) and Projects are used to organize both content and users, including who has access to what content.
The basic hierarchy of content resources within Frame.io is as follows:
Account → Workspace → Project → Folder → Folder / Version Stack / File
Every asset uploaded to Frame.io is ultimately represented as a File, while Folders and Version Stacks are storage resources that act as containers and provide the foundation for a hierarchical storage model that supports versioned assets. Most users are already familiar with the basic concept of a Folder in Frame.io: it simply serves as unordered container of other storage resources (modeled as its children) and represents a node within the folder tree. Every Project has a unique root folder (identified by the root_folder_id key), which serves as the root of the folder tree in which all of a Project’s assets reside.
A Version Stack is an ordered container of Files. Its ordering is strictly linear and determines a version number for each of its children, but clients may reorder the Files within the version stack as they see fit. A File will always be a child of (contained within) exactly one Folder or Version Stack at any given time. Similarly, a Folder or Version Stack will always be a child of exactly one Folder (excluding the Project's root folder).
See the API Reference Guide for more detail about performing basic CRUD operations on Files and Folders stored within Frame.io. At present the V4 API only supports Version Stacks when listing the contents of a Folder, but endpoints for creating and updating Version Stacks are coming soon.
Start Developing with Postman
Postman is a popular tool used by web developers for testing and interacting with APIs. This section covers the basics of configuring Postman for use with the V4 API and includes a prebuilt Postman collection that developers can use to get started.
Prerequisites
- You have downloaded Postman.
- You have followed the steps in Getting Started with the Adobe Developer Console to create an Adobe Developer Console Project with a Frame.io API subscription that has been configured with an OAuth Web App Credential. This example assumes the use of a OAuth Web App credential, but for real-world use make sure to choose the appropriate credential type for your application.
Importing the Postman Collection
- Download the sample Postman collection and its corresponding default environment.
- Import the downloaded collection and the default environment into Postman by choosing “Import...” from Postman’s File menu and selecting each of JSON files downloaded in Step 1.
The collection, named Frame.io V4 Developer API, contains all of the public endpoints that comprise the V4 API. The environment, named Frame V4 Developer API Default Env, is intended to serve as a template (i.e. may be duplicated or forked within Postman) for setting user-specific environment variables for testing, or, for now, you might also choose to update it directly.
Once the collection and environment are imported, you should be able to view both within Postman. The environment contains default URLs for the BASE_URL and IMS_BASE_URL variables, but other environment variables are empty and will need to be filled in by you.
Authentication Setup
The IMS_CLIENT_ID and IMS_CLIENT_SECRET environment variables should be set to the values retrieved from the Credential page associated with your Project in the Adobe Developer Console.
Once those environment variables have been set (make sure to save these changes in your environment), the next step is to select the root of the Frame.io V4 Developer API collection in Postman’s collection browser and navigate to the Authorization settings. Click the “Get New Access Token” button at the bottom of the dialog and a new browser window/tab should open and prompt you to authenticate with Adobe IMS. Once authenticated, the browser will redirect back to Postman, which will then store the Bearer token that it received. This token may be refreshed by clicking the “Refresh” link directly underneath the token field in the dialog once it has been populated.
account_id property within the response. Copy this value (without the double quotes) to the ACCOUNT_ID environment variable in your Postman environment (reminder: always be sure to save your environment after making changes so that they are visible in your active environment when sending requests). The account_id is used as a path parameter for most of the V4 API requests.
Retrieving Workspaces and Projects
Most of the resources that you’ll interact with using the V4 API are contained within a Project. Projects are organized and managed within a Workspace, so the first step to creating or listing a Project is to determine the Workspace ID that contains it. In order to retrieve a list of existing Workspaces that you have access to in the account you logged into, select the LIST workspaces endpoint in the Postman collection browser and click the Send button. If your ACCOUNT_ID environment variable has been properly set then you should receive a response containing a list of all available Workspaces.
id property to the WORKSPACE_ID environment variable and save your environment. You are now ready to request a list of Projects that you have access to within that Workspace. Select the LIST projects endpoint in Postman and click Send. The response will contain the list of Projects contained within the Workspace. Identify the Project in which you’d like to experiment, and copy its id value to the PROJECT_ID environment variable in your current Postman environment. Also copy the root_folder_id property to the FOLDER_ID property in your environment. When operating on the asset tree within a Project, many requests take the parent Folder ID of a resource as a path parameter. Setting this environment variable to refer to the root folder will allow you to make requests to operate on resources contained at the root level of the Project.
Listing the Contents of a Project
Now that the FOLDER_ID has been set to the root folder of the Project, you will able to list the content stored within it. Select the “list folder children” endpoint and click the Send button to try it out. This is a good opportunity to experiment with some of the optional query parameters that you may include with some GET requests that return lists of resources. In the example below, query parameters have been added to limit the number of returned resources to 5 (page_size=5), include the total count of child resources (include_total_count=true) and to include information about the child resources’ creator (include=creator). More information about the query parameters supported by each endpoint can be found in the API Reference Guide.
links.next value in the response. For paginated responses, this value will be populated if there is more data to return. In this case the requested number of items per “page” was quite small (5) and there are 15 files and folders stored in the Project’s root folder (the total_count property in the response) so the client should use the relative URL contained within the links.next property to retrieve the next page of items. Note that in Postman, clicking on the link will create a new tab containing that request, but you’ll need to manually set the Auth Type (on its Authorization page) to “Bearer” and copy the auth token from the Authorization settings of the Frame.io V4 Developer API collection since the dynamically created request isn’t a child of the collection. Also note that the query parameters from the initial request aren’t propagated to the link, so you’ll need to manually append those query parameters again if you’d like to apply them to the request for the next page of data.
Uploading a New File
Uploading a File to a Frame.io Project requires two or more requests. Select the CREATE file endpoint to demonstrate how to create a File asset in a Frame.io Project. The body of the POST request contains a resource that describes the destination file name, its media type, and its file size. If the request is successful then a placeholder File resource will be created without any content in the destination folder. The status property of the new File resource will be set to “created” to indicate that the file does not yet have any bytes and that uploading has not yet commenced. The response will also include one or more upload_urls which consist of pre-signed URLs to which you can upload the file content in subsequent requests. The number of pre-signed URLs returned in the upload_urls array is determined based on the file size of the original file.
- The HTTP request method must be PUT.
- The
x-amz-aclheader must be included and be set toprivate. - The
Content-Typeheader must match themedia_typespecified in the original “create file” request. This is true even when uploading the file as separate parts. Note that Postman will typically set this header on its own if the file selected (on the Body tab) has a file suffix associated with that media type (e.g. *.mp4).
Once all the parts have been uploaded to their respective upload URLs, the Frame.io media pipeline will automatically stitch together the parts (if there is more than one), process the upload (perform any appropriate transcoding and generate thumbnails, preview renditions, etc.), and update the status of the File to reflect any in-progress or pending operations. Depending on the size of the file, it may take some time before the Frame.io web application is updated to reflect the uploaded state of the File. Note that in a real-world application it is possible, and often faster, to issue the content upload requests concurrently (although operating systems and browsers will frequently throttle the number of simultaneous HTTP/1.1 connections to the same URL host in order to avoid overwhelming the server).
