Vimeo API Essential Guide

What type of API does Vimeo provide?

Vimeo primarily offers a REST API for developers to interact with its platform. The API allows developers to access and manipulate Vimeo resources using standard HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc.).

Vimeo currently offers two versions of its API: v3.4 (latest) and v3.0. The v3.4 version is recommended for new integrations.

The API uses OAuth 2.0 for authentication, ensuring secure access to user data and resources.

While Vimeo's primary API is REST-based, they don't offer GraphQL or SOAP APIs as of now.

Does the Vimeo API have webhooks?

Yes, the official Vimeo API offers webhooks. Webhooks allow you to receive real-time notifications about specific events that occur on Vimeo, enabling you to build more responsive and interactive applications.

1. Webhook Availability: Vimeo provides webhooks as part of their API offerings, allowing developers to receive push notifications for various events.

2. Event Types: Vimeo's webhooks support a range of event types that you can subscribe to. Some of the main categories include:

• Video-related events:

  • Video uploaded
  • Video transcoded
  • Video available
  • Video edited
  • Video deleted

• User-related events:

  • User followed
  • User unfollowed

• Comment-related events:

  • Comment added
  • Comment deleted

• Like-related events:

  • Video liked
  • Video unliked

• Album-related events:

  • Video added to album
  • Video removed from album

3. Webhook Setup: To use Vimeo webhooks, you need to:

• Have a Vimeo API application
• Set up an endpoint on your server to receive webhook notifications
• Configure the webhook in your Vimeo API settings, specifying the events you want to subscribe to and the URL of your endpoint

4. Best Practices:

• Implement proper security measures to verify that incoming webhook requests are genuinely from Vimeo.
• Handle webhook events asynchronously to prevent timeouts and ensure smooth processing.
• Set up error handling and logging for your webhook endpoint to troubleshoot any issues.

5. Rate Limiting: Be aware that Vimeo may have rate limits on webhook notifications to prevent overwhelming your server with too many requests in a short period.

By utilizing Vimeo's webhooks, you can create more dynamic and responsive applications that react in real-time to changes and events on the Vimeo platform. This can be particularly useful for applications that need to stay synchronized with Vimeo content or user activities.

Rate Limits and other limitations

Here are the key points about the API rate limits for the Vimeo API:

Rate Limit Overview

• Vimeo uses rate limiting to ensure API stability for all users.
• The API tracks the total number of calls made in a rolling 15-minute window.
• If a user exceeds the rate limit, they receive a 429 error and are temporarily prevented from making requests for up to a minute.

Rate Limit Headers

• The x-ratelimit-limit header shows the maximum number of requests allowed in the 15-minute window.
• The x-ratelimit-remaining header shows how many requests are left in the current window.
• The x-ratelimit-reset header is not very useful, as it always returns a timestamp 15 minutes ahead of the current call.

Rate Limit Tiers

The maximum rate limit varies based on the Vimeo membership plan:

• Basic: 250 requests per 15 minutes
• Plus: 250 requests per 15 minutes
• PRO: 500 requests per 15 minutes
• Business: 1000 requests per 15 minutes

Best Practices

• Use JSON field filters to get higher rate limits. Without filters, the limit may be set to only 100 requests.
• Monitor the x-ratelimit-remaining header to track remaining calls and avoid exceeding the limit.
• If the rate limit is exceeded, the API will return errors for 1 hour.

Key Considerations

• The 15-minute window is rolling, so requests drop off gradually rather than all at once.
• Spacing out API calls does not seem to affect the rate limit - it's based solely on the total number of calls in the window.
• The documentation may not always be up-to-date, so testing and verifying behavior is important.

By understanding and properly managing these rate limits, developers can build robust applications that interact with the Vimeo API without running into throttling issues.

Latest API Version

The most recent version of the Vimeo API is API 3.4. This is the current and most up-to-date version of the Vimeo API as of my knowledge cutoff date.

Key points to consider:

• Vimeo API 3.4 is a RESTful API that allows developers to interact with Vimeo's platform programmatically.
• It provides access to various features and functionalities of Vimeo, including uploading videos, managing user accounts, and retrieving video metadata.
• The API uses OAuth 2.0 for authentication, ensuring secure access to user data and resources.

Code example for making a request to the Vimeo API 3.4:

import requests

# Replace with your actual access token
access_token = 'YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN'

headers = {
    'Authorization': f'Bearer {access_token}',
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    'Accept': 'application/vnd.vimeo.*+json;version=3.4'
}

response = requests.get('https://api.vimeo.com/me', headers=headers)
print(response.json())

Best practices:

1. Always use the latest version of the API to ensure access to the most recent features and improvements.
2. Implement proper error handling and rate limiting in your applications to avoid issues with API usage.
3. Keep your access tokens secure and never expose them in client-side code or public repositories.
4. Familiarize yourself with Vimeo's API documentation and guidelines to ensure compliance with their terms of service.

How to get a Vimeo developer account and API Keys?

To get a developer account for Vimeo and create an API integration, follow these steps:

1. Create a Vimeo Account

• Go to the Vimeo developers website and click "Join".
• Create a new profile using your email address or continue with your Google account.
• You'll be asked to specify how you want to use Vimeo video. You can skip this step if you're unsure.
• You'll then be directed to the Vimeo pricing information page where you can see the plans and features offered.

2. Access the Developers Portal

• After creating an account, go to the developers portal and click the "Get Started" button.

3. Create and Register Your App

• Fill out the form to create your app.
• After registering your app, add some information to it:
  • Press "Edit settings"
  • Add a short description
  • Add a link to an operating website of your project
  • Save the changes

4. Generate Access Token

• After adding the necessary information, you can generate your access tokens for making calls to the Vimeo API.
• Click "Generate Access Token" or scroll down to the Authentication section.
• Choose between Authenticated and Unauthenticated tokens. If you choose Authenticated, you'll need to specify the scopes you want to access.
• Click the "Generate" button. The new token will be shown in the Personal Access Tokens table.
• Copy the token string and keep it in a safe place. A lost token string can't be recovered, but you can always generate a new one.

What can you do with the Vimeo API?

Based on the information provided in the search results, here are the key data models you can interact with using the Vimeo API, along with what is possible for each:

Videos

• Upload new videos to a user's account
• Delete existing videos
• Add videos to albums/showcases
• Search for videos using specific terms
• Retrieve video analytics data (views, engagement metrics, etc.)

Users

• Retrieve user information
• Get a list of videos liked by a user
• Get a list of videos uploaded by a user

Albums/Showcases

• Add videos to albums/showcases
• Manage album/showcase content

Analytics

• Retrieve analytics data for videos
• Filter analytics by dimensions like day, week, month, or year
• Further filter analytics by date range, country, device types, embed domains, content, or streaming type

Comments

• Retrieve comments on videos
• Moderate comments (e.g., delete inappropriate content)

Likes

• Track new video likes by a user

Transcripts

• Generate and retrieve video transcripts

AI-Generated Content

• Generate video titles, tags, and summaries
• Create auto-chapters for videos
• Enable interactive Q&A for video editors and viewers

Other Features

• Manage folders
• Upload videos to other user accounts
• Generate scripts based on text prompts
• Translate videos into other languages

It's important to note that some features, particularly those related to AI capabilities and analytics, may require specific account types or permissions. Additionally, the availability of certain features may depend on the user's location and account settings.