Make the videos page community-friendly or deprecate it

background

The contentstore.new_studio_mfe.use_new_video_uploads_page toggles on a page which only works, as far as we can tell, on edX.org.

(TODO add screenshot)

This is part of a greater issue, which is that edX-VAL only works (as far as we know ™️ ) with the private edX.org video pipeline, edX-VEM.

what to do

any of the following:

• Fix edx-val and document it so that other sites can use it.
• Genericize the page so that it doesn't depend on edx-val. Create plugin slots so that 2U could plug the edX Video Pipeline stuff back into the page, and so that other operators could plug their video systems in.
• Remove the page from the platform.

In any case, in my opinion, it seems that the contentstore.new_studio_mfe.use_new_video_uploads_page should be eventually removed. We either should have a video page for everyone (which optionally integrates with a video pipeline) or we shouldn't have one at all.

terminology notes

• edX-VAL (openedx/edx-val, "edx video abstraction layer"): open-source openedx python package. Includes data models and some APIs for uploading and downloading videos, installed into openedx-platform. Needs a backend (e.g. VEM) in order to work. Not deprecated currently.
• Known edX-VAL backends:
  • edX-VEM ("edX videoencode manager"): closed-source video upload/download pipeline, a backend for VAL. developed privately by edX in order to replace VEDA.
  • edX-VEDA (edx/edx-video pipeline): archived open-source video upload/download pipeline, a backend for VAL. developed open source by edX, but we don't believe anyone else ever successfully ran it. fully deprecated since 2020.

Start by tracing the contentstore.new_studio_mfe.use_new_video_uploads_page toggle and its video-page dependencies, then read the edX-VAL terminology and backend links in this issue. Determine whether a community-compatible page, pluggable video backends, or removal is feasible; done requires a decided direction and corresponding documentation or deprecation plan.