JW Player Python API Docs | dltHub
Build a JW Player-to-database pipeline in Python using dlt with AI Workbench support for Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex.
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JW Player is a video streaming platform that offers DRM token and geo‑location services via its Studio DRM Standalone API. The REST API base URL is https://geo-location.vudrm.tech and All requests require an API key passed in a specific header (e.g., X‑Auth‑Key or x‑api‑key)..
dlt is an open-source Python library that handles authentication, pagination, and schema evolution automatically. dlthub provides AI context files that enable code assistants to generate production-ready pipelines. Install with uv pip install "dlt[workspace]" and start loading JW Player data in under 10 minutes.
What data can I load from JW Player?
Here are some of the endpoints you can load from JW Player:
| Resource | Endpoint | Method | Data selector | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| geo_location | /ip_lookup/{client}/{ip_address} | GET | Returns geo‑location details for a given IP address. | |
| token_generate | /v2/generate | POST | Generates a DRM token based on a policy payload. | |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| (Additional GET endpoints not documented in the provided sources.) |
How do I authenticate with the JW Player API?
Include the API key in the request header (e.g., x-api-key: <your_key> or X‑Auth‑Key: <your_key>). The same key is also used to generate VUDRM tokens for player integration.
1. Get your credentials
- Log in to the JW Player admin portal at https://admin.vudrm.tech.\n2. Navigate to the API Keys section under Studio DRM Standalone.\n3. Click Create New Key and give it a descriptive name.\n4. Copy the generated key; it will be used as the value for the
x-api-keyorX‑Auth‑Keyheader in all API calls.
2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml
[sources.jw_player_source] api_key = "your_api_key_here"
dlt reads this automatically at runtime — never hardcode tokens in your pipeline script. For production environments, see setting up credentials with dlt for environment variable and vault-based options.
How do I set up and run the pipeline?
Set up a virtual environment and install dlt:
uv venv && source .venv/bin/activate uv pip install "dlt[workspace]"
1. Install the dlt AI Workbench:
dlt ai init --agent <your-agent> # <agent>: claude | cursor | codex
This installs project rules, a secrets management skill, appropriate ignore files, and configures the dlt MCP server for your agent. Learn more →
2. Install the rest-api-pipeline toolkit:
dlt ai toolkit rest-api-pipeline install
This loads the skills and context about dlt the agent uses to build the pipeline iteratively, efficiently, and safely. The agent uses MCP tools to inspect credentials — it never needs to read your secrets.toml directly. Learn more →
3. Start LLM-assisted coding:
Use /find-source to load data from the JW Player API into DuckDB.
The rest-api-pipeline toolkit takes over from here — it reads relevant API documentation, presents you with options for which endpoints to load, and follows a structured workflow to scaffold, debug, and validate the pipeline step by step.
4. Run the pipeline:
python jw_player_pipeline.py
If everything is configured correctly, you'll see output like this:
Pipeline jw_player_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds 1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset jw_player_data The duckdb destination used duckdb:/jw_player.duckdb location to store data Load package 1749667187.541553 is LOADED and contains no failed jobs
Inspect your pipeline and data:
dlt pipeline jw_player_pipeline show
This opens the Pipeline Dashboard where you can verify pipeline state, load metrics, schema (tables, columns, types), and query the loaded data directly.
Python pipeline example
This example loads geo_location and token_generate from the JW Player API into DuckDB. It mirrors the endpoint and data selector configuration from the table above:
import dlt from dlt.sources.rest_api import RESTAPIConfig, rest_api_resources @dlt.source def jw_player_source(api_key=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "https://geo-location.vudrm.tech", "auth": { "type": "api_key", "api_key": api_key, }, }, "resources": [ {"name": "geo_location", "endpoint": {"path": "ip_lookup/{client}/{ip_address}"}}, {"name": "token_generate", "endpoint": {"path": "v2/generate"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="jw_player_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="jw_player_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(jw_player_source()) print(load_info)
To add more endpoints, append entries from the resource table to the "resources" list using the same name, path, and data_selector pattern.
How do I query the loaded data?
Once the pipeline runs, dlt creates one table per resource. You can query with Python or SQL.
Python (pandas DataFrame):
import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("jw_player_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.geo_location.df() print(sessions_df.head())
SQL (DuckDB example):
SELECT * FROM jw_player_data.geo_location LIMIT 10;
In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:
import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("jw_player_pipeline").dataset() data.geo_location.df().head()
See how to explore your data in marimo Notebooks and how to query your data in Python with dataset.
What destinations can I load JW Player data to?
dlt supports loading into any of these destinations — only the destination parameter changes:
| Destination | Example value |
|---|---|
| DuckDB (local, default) | "duckdb" |
| PostgreSQL | "postgres" |
| BigQuery | "bigquery" |
| Snowflake | "snowflake" |
| Redshift | "redshift" |
| Databricks | "databricks" |
| Filesystem (S3, GCS, Azure) | "filesystem" |
Change the destination in dlt.pipeline(destination="snowflake") and add credentials in .dlt/secrets.toml. See the full destinations list.
Troubleshooting
Authentication Errors
- 401 Unauthorized – Occurs when the required API key header (
X‑Auth‑Key,x-api-key, orAPI-KEY) is missing or invalid. Ensure the correct header name and a valid Studio DRM Standalone API key.
Rate Limiting
- 429 Too Many Requests – The service throttles excessive calls. Implement exponential back‑off and respect any
Retry-Afterheader.
Invalid Parameters
- 400 Bad Request – Returned when path parameters such as
{client}or{ip_address}are malformed or when the request payload for token generation does not conform to the expected JSON schema.
Ensure that the API key is valid to avoid 401 Unauthorized errors. Also, verify endpoint paths and parameters to avoid 404 Not Found errors.
Next steps
Continue your data engineering journey with the other toolkits of the dltHub AI Workbench:
data-exploration— Build custom notebooks, charts, and dashboards for deeper analysis with marimo notebooks.dlthub-runtime— Deploy, schedule, and monitor your pipeline in production.
dlt ai toolkit data-exploration install dlt ai toolkit dlthub-runtime install
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