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Presentations

The Presentation APIs allow you to interrogate the folder and presentation structure of your Brainshark site. Use these endpoints to retrieve detailed information about content, search via tags or topics, and upload new media assets.

What you'll learn:

• How to retrieve folder structures
• Get presentation metadata and details
• Upload new content
• Work with tags and topics

TL;DR

Use folder.ashx to list folders, presentation.ashx to get content details, and tags.ashx/topic.ashx for organizational metadata.

Prerequisites

• An authenticated session (sid, sky, uid) — see Authentication

Folder Retrieval

Use this endpoint to determine what folders are present in a site and get a count of the presentations contained within them.

Request

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/brainshark/webservices_mobile/folder.ashx	Retrieves a list of folders and their presentation counts.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
sid, sky, uid	-	Standard session identifiers.
includePresCountZero	boolean	Controls whether to include folders that contain zero presentations. Default: false
mobileonly	boolean	When true, returns only folders containing mobile-optimized presentations.
login_dir	string	The company's unique site directory.
public_only	boolean	When true, returns only public folders.

Example request

cURL

curl -X GET "https://www.brainshark.com/brainshark/webservices_mobile/folder.ashx?sid=987654321&sky=x9y8z7w6v5u4t3s2r1q0&uid=2548390"

JavaScript

const params = new URLSearchParams({
  sid: '987654321',
  sky: 'x9y8z7w6v5u4t3s2r1q0',
  uid: 2548390,
});

const response = await fetch(`https://www.brainshark.com/brainshark/webservices_mobile/folder.ashx?${params}`);
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);

Python

import requests

url = "https://www.brainshark.com/brainshark/webservices_mobile/folder.ashx"
params = {
    "sid": "987654321",
    "sky": "x9y8z7w6v5u4t3s2r1q0",
    "uid": 2548390
}

response = requests.get(url, params=params)
print(response.json())

Example response

The response is hierarchical. Each folder can contain a Children array of nested folders.

[
  {
    "ID": 221385,
    "Description": "Product Training",
    "FullPath": "/Product Training",
    "Parent": null,
    "LongDescription": "",
    "NumberOfPresentations": 21,
    "Children": [
      {
        "ID": 221390,
        "Description": "Onboarding",
        "FullPath": "/Product Training/Onboarding",
        "Parent": 221385,
        "LongDescription": "",
        "NumberOfPresentations": 7,
        "Children": []
      }
    ]
  }
]

Get Presentation Details

Retrieve complete metadata for a specific presentation or a list of presentations. This includes slide data, author information, and viewing URLs.

Request

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/brainshark/webservices_mobile/presentation.ashx	Returns detailed data for the specified content.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
pid	string	A single Presentation ID or a comma-separated list of IDs. If omitted, the API returns all presentations authored by the logged-in user.
folderid	integer	Filters results to only include presentations within a specific folder.
sortby	string	Sets the sort criteria. Values: title, desc, id, author
widgets	integer	Set to 1 to retrieve extended object data, required for some public session queries.
sortdir	string	Sets the sort direction. Values: asc, desc
offset	integer	Number of results to skip. Use with perpage for pagination.
perpage	integer	Maximum number of results to return per page.
authorid	integer	Filters results to presentations by a specific author ID.
tagid	integer	Filters results to presentations with a specific tag ID. See Tags.
topicid	integer	Filters results to presentations in a specific topic ID. See Topics.
mobile	boolean	When true, returns only mobile-optimized presentations.
login_dir	string	The company's unique site directory.
public_only	boolean	When true, returns only public presentations.
Q	string	Search query string to filter presentations by title.

note

Attachments only appear in the response if the "Show link on attachments tab" setting is enabled for that specific asset in the Brainshark Edit Presentation interface.

Example Request

GET https://www.brainshark.com/brainshark/webservices_mobile/presentation.ashx?pid=131724&sid=...

Presentation Password

Use this endpoint to verify the password for a password-protected presentation before attempting to retrieve its content.

Request

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/brainshark/webservices_mobile/password.ashx	Verifies the password for a presentation.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
sid, sky, uid	-	Standard session identifiers.
pid	integer	Required. The ID of the password-protected presentation.
pwd	string	Required. The password to verify.

Example request

GET https://www.brainshark.com/brainshark/webservices_mobile/password.ashx?pid=131724&pwd=secret&sid=...

Upload Presentation

You can programmatically upload PowerPoint files or videos to a specific folder. The upload maps to the author associated with your current session.

Request

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/brainshark/webservices_mobile/presentation.ashx	Uploads a media asset to a specified folder.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
folder_id	integer	Required. The ID of the destination folder.
title	string	Required. The title for the new presentation.
uploadtype	string	Required. Use video for video files or leave blank for PowerPoint.

note

This endpoint requires a multipart/form-data POST with the file attached as form data.

Tags

Use this endpoint to retrieve the list of available tags. Tag IDs can be used as filters in the Presentation API.

Request

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/brainshark/webservices_mobile/tags.ashx	Retrieves site-wide presentation tags.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
sid, sky, uid	-	Standard session identifiers.
tag_type	string	Specifies the type of tags to return. Values: predefined, userdefined, both. Default: predefined (We recommend using both)
sortby	string	Sets the sort criteria. Values: title, desc, id
sortdir	string	Sets the sort direction. Values: asc, desc
login_dir	string	The company's unique site directory.
max	integer	Maximum number of tags to return.
public_only	boolean	When true, returns only public tags.

Topics

Use this endpoint to retrieve the list of available topics. Topic IDs can be used as filters in the Presentation API.

Request

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/brainshark/webservices_mobile/topic.ashx	Retrieves site-wide presentation topics.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
sid, sky, uid	-	Standard session identifiers.
includenetworktopics	boolean	When true, includes topics from network sites.
mobileonly	boolean	When true, returns only topics marked for mobile.
includeprescountzero	boolean	Controls whether to include topics with zero presentations. Default: false
sortby	string	Sets the sort criteria. Values: title, desc, id
sortdir	string	Sets the sort direction. Values: asc, desc
login_dir	string	The company's unique site directory.
public_only	boolean	When true, returns only public topics.
Q	string	Search query string to filter topics by name.