PlayHub Documentation

What PlayHub includes

PlayHub is a self-hosted product for publishing on-demand video, running creator channels and communities, hosting real-time rooms, recording replays, monetizing engagement, and administering the complete service from one dashboard.

Version 0.9.9 operations guide

Version 0.9.9 adds an extension platform, transactional updates, new paid-content workflows, persistent playback, deeper discovery, and expanded administration. Use this section as the operating reference for capabilities introduced in this release.

Plugins and system updates

Install extensions only from a source you trust. Plugin packages and system updates execute server-side code, so review compatibility, dependencies, requested configuration, and the package source before enabling them.

Direct update from 0.7.5

The packaged Update_v0.9.9 manual update upgrades a verified PlayHub 0.7.5 installation directly to 0.9.9; the 0.7.6 and 0.7.7 packages are not required. Do not use this package on an older release. Run the update as the operating-system user that owns PlayHub and stop uploads, streams, queue jobs, and other writes first.

• Verify restorable backups of the complete application, .env, database, uploads/, storage/, media, branding, plugins, and service configuration.
• From the PlayHub root, enable maintenance mode with php artisan down --retry=60.
• Upload the contents of Update_v0.9.9/ into the existing root. Preserve customer environment files, runtime data, uploads, media, plugins, SSL files, and active server configuration.
• Do not run npm install, npm run build, composer install, or composer update. The production build is included and the Composer lock is unchanged.
• Run the guarded database updater below. It verifies the 0.7.5 baseline, approved migration checksums, schema conflicts, and protected table row counts before applying changes.
• Refresh caches, restart long-running application workers, disable maintenance mode, then verify VERSION, /api/health, core pages, existing data, Plugins, queues, and real-time notifications.

php update_database.php

Only after the database updater reports success, remove it from the public root and finish deployment:

rm update_database.php
php artisan optimize:clear
php artisan config:cache
php artisan route:cache
php artisan view:cache
php artisan queue:restart
php artisan reverb:restart
php artisan up

If the Artisan Reverb restart command is unavailable, restart Reverb with the installation's existing supervisor or service manager before leaving maintenance mode. LiveKit does not need a restart for this file and database update unless its service configuration also changed.

Plugin API v1 developer reference

Every plugin ZIP must contain plugin.json at its package root. Use a lowercase unique ID, a semantic version, api: 1, explicit compatibility constraints, and safe relative paths. Providers and lifecycle classes require a PSR-4 autoload map that covers their namespaces.

{
  "id": "vendor.example",
  "name": "Example Plugin",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "api": 1,
  "requires": {
    "playhub": ">=0.9.9",
    "php": ">=8.3.0",
    "extensions": ["json"]
  },
  "autoload": {
    "psr-4": { "Vendor\\Example\\": "src/" }
  },
  "providers": ["Vendor\\Example\\PluginServiceProvider"],
  "lifecycle": "Vendor\\Example\\Lifecycle",
  "migrations": "database/migrations",
  "assets": {
    "styles": ["assets/example.css"],
    "scripts": ["assets/example.js"]
  },
  "settings": [
    {
      "key": "api_token",
      "label": "API token",
      "type": "password",
      "required": true,
      "public": false
    }
  ],
  "capabilities": ["Example integration"]
}

A provider extends App\Plugins\PluginServiceProvider, returns the exact manifest ID from pluginId(), and accesses its isolated PluginContext through $this->plugin(). The context exposes manifest data, decrypted settings, safe plugin-local paths, and action or filter registration. Hook names use lowercase letters, numbers, dots, colons, dashes, or underscores; lower priorities run first.

<?php

namespace Vendor\Example;

use App\Plugins\PluginServiceProvider as BaseProvider;

final class PluginServiceProvider extends BaseProvider
{
    protected function pluginId(): string
    {
        return 'vendor.example';
    }

    public function boot(): void
    {
        $plugin = $this->plugin();
        $plugin->addAction('example.ready', fn () => null);
        $plugin->addFilter('example.title', fn (string $title) => trim($title));
    }
}

An optional lifecycle class extends App\Plugins\PluginLifecycle and may implement enable(), disable(), settingsUpdated(), and uninstall(). Declare Admin or website workspaces through the supported namespaced plugin APIs, keep migrations inside the declared directory, and declare every browser asset in the manifest. Settings support text, password, textarea, boolean, number, and select fields; password settings cannot be public.

Playback, discovery, and video presentation

Monetization and creator revenue

Video advertising now supports VAST pre-roll, timed mid-roll, and post-roll breaks. Creator video payouts use completed VAST impressions with the VAST CPM or administrator fallback CPM, a configurable creator percentage, fractional accrual, self-view exclusion, hourly deduplication, and idempotent wallet crediting. Shorts cannot be sold as paid videos and are excluded from the standard player's Up Next and autoplay sequence.

Community, creator, and publishing workflows

Administration, localization, and delivery

Upgrade behavior and removed controls

• System Settings now uses section navigation and persists changes only when Save is selected.
• Fresh visitors and new accounts start in light theme; existing saved preferences remain unchanged.
• The mobile header and bottom navigator coordinate hide/reveal behavior based on scroll direction.
• The account menu uses full-width rows and displays the selected-currency wallet balance.
• Legacy violet accents now follow the active UI accent color.
• The video-player context menu uses the updated translucent compact design and accent rail.
• Admin Dashboard and Earnings typography is larger for compact interfaces and transaction details.
• Shared previews use a centered white play indicator on a translucent black circle.
• Comment deletion and reporting now require confirmation in viewer, Creator Studio, and moderation workflows.
• New local and imported videos require an explicit category instead of preselecting the first category.
• YouTube imports preserve descriptions, move description hashtags into Tags, and fall back to current first-party player metadata for tags and chapters.
• Temporary S3 links refresh correctly, while iPhone playback prioritizes compatible renditions and supports Safari byte ranges.
• Route loading keeps the current page visible and reaches 100% before replacing it with ready destination content.

Version 0.9.9 removes the unlicensed LightGallery dependency in favor of PlayHub's native responsive image viewer. It also removes the mobile-header theme switcher, duplicate header Go Live action, sidebar user summary card, obsolete System Settings collapse control, and setup's Product license heading and instructional paragraph. License verification remains required.

Server requirements

Use a VPS or dedicated server where you control PHP-FPM, background services, firewall rules, Docker, and process supervision. Shared hosting is suitable only when it exposes every requirement below.

Required software

PHP extensions and functions

bcmath ctype curl dom fileinfo filter gd intl json mbstring openssl
pdo pdo_mysql session tokenizer xml zip zlib

Imagick is recommended for improved image processing. The PHP-FPM user also needs access to exec(), proc_open(), and nohup so the installer can stream process output and start its temporary installation worker.

Capacity and access

• At least 256 MB PHP memory; 512 MB is preferable for installation.
• At least 2 GB free for installation and 10 GB before accepting media.
• Writable storage/, bootstrap/cache/, uploads/, and lang/.
• Temporary root write access for .env, node_modules/, and build/.
• Outbound HTTPS to npm and the PlayHub license verification service.
• Supervisor or systemd access for the queue worker and runtime manager.
• Cron access for the Laravel scheduler.
• Root or sudo access for the LiveKit Docker runtime installation.

Package contents

Upload the complete package and preserve hidden files. The web installer generates environment-specific dependencies and production assets on the destination server.

Generated during installation

Install PlayHub

Prepare the domain and services before opening the installer. The installation process verifies the same critical dependencies again before writing production state.

1. Prepare the domain and database

2. Upload and set ownership

sudo chown -R <web-user>:<web-group> /var/www/playhub
sudo find /var/www/playhub/storage /var/www/playhub/bootstrap/cache /var/www/playhub/uploads -type d -exec chmod 775 {} \;
sudo find /var/www/playhub/storage /var/www/playhub/bootstrap/cache /var/www/playhub/uploads -type f -exec chmod 664 {} \;

3. Configure the web server

Nginx

Use server-configs/nginx-root-install.conf inside the domain's existing server {} block. Keep the root pointed at the package directory, update fastcgi_pass for the installed PHP 8.3 socket, then validate and reload Nginx.

sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl reload nginx

Apache

Enable mod_rewrite, allow .htaccess overrides for the domain, and use server-configs/apache-vhost-example.conf as the virtual host reference. Preserve the root .htaccess file.

4. Complete the four-step installer

Open https://your-domain.com/install.php.

Keep the installation page open during Step 3. The console intentionally hides passwords, tokens, and service secrets.

5. Complete the production checklist

• Open the website and sign in with the owner account.
• Open /admin and review Website Configuration and System Settings.
• Configure SMTP or SendGrid and send a test message.
• Start the persistent queue worker and scheduler.
• Run the LiveKit runtime installer and test browser plus RTMP streaming.
• Configure and test local or cloud media storage.
• Configure Stripe or PayPal before enabling wallet payments.
• Run an upload, thumbnail, playback, live recording, and replay test.
• Configure an automatic backup and test one manual backup.
• Remove install.php after installation if your deployment policy requires it.

Core background services

The web request process must remain short. Video processing, replay finalization, notifications, scheduled publishing, retention, and backups run through queues and the scheduler.

Redis

Use a private Redis service with authentication. The application and LiveKit runtime may share the server but should use the configured database number. The installer default is database 2 for LiveKit coordination.

redis-cli -h 127.0.0.1 -p 6379 -a 'your-password' -n 2 ping

Queue worker

cd /var/www/playhub
php artisan queue:work --queue=videos,default --sleep=3 --tries=3 --timeout=7200

Run this through Supervisor or systemd. Do not leave it in an SSH terminal.

[program:playhub-worker]
process_name=%(program_name)s_%(process_num)02d
command=/usr/bin/php /var/www/playhub/artisan queue:work --queue=videos,default --sleep=3 --tries=3 --timeout=7200
directory=/var/www/playhub
autostart=true
autorestart=true
stopasgroup=true
killasgroup=true
user=www-data
numprocs=1
redirect_stderr=true
stdout_logfile=/var/www/playhub/storage/logs/worker.log
stopwaitsecs=7300

sudo supervisorctl reread
sudo supervisorctl update
sudo supervisorctl start playhub-worker:*

Laravel scheduler

Add exactly one cron entry for the web-server user. Laravel decides which internal tasks run each minute.

* * * * * cd /var/www/playhub && php artisan schedule:run >> /dev/null 2>&1

The schedule handles future video publishing, replay finalization and retention, scheduled live polls, pruning, and configured automatic backups.

FFmpeg and FFprobe

Both binaries must be executable by the queue-worker user. Set explicit paths in .env when they are not discoverable through that user's PATH.

PLAYHUB_FFMPEG_BINARY=/usr/bin/ffmpeg
PLAYHUB_FFPROBE_BINARY=/usr/bin/ffprobe
PLAYHUB_MAX_UPLOAD_MB=51200
PLAYHUB_CHUNK_SIZE_MB=8

After configuration changes

cd /var/www/playhub
php artisan optimize:clear
php artisan config:cache
php artisan queue:restart

LiveKit, RTMP, and replay recording

PlayHub uses a generated Docker runtime for WebRTC rooms, external-encoder ingress, and composite replay egress. The web installer prepares configuration, but the Docker installation must be run by a server administrator.

Install the streaming runtime

sudo /var/www/playhub/livekit/install.sh

If automatic web-user detection is incorrect, pass the PHP-FPM account:

sudo /var/www/playhub/livekit/install.sh www-data

The script creates livekit/runtime/, generates protected keys and service configuration, starts the Compose project, and registers a project-local manager through systemd when available. The generated project contains these services:

Open firewall ports

Configure the public WebSocket URL

In Admin Dashboard > System Settings > Live Streaming > LiveKit, set the public URL to a secure endpoint such as wss://video.example.com/livekit. The reverse proxy must preserve WebSocket upgrades and use a timeout appropriate for long-lived connections.

location /livekit/ {
    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:7880/;
    proxy_http_version 1.1;
    proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
    proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
    proxy_set_header Host $host;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    proxy_read_timeout 86400;
}

If you use a dedicated signaling subdomain, set the admin public URL and proxy host consistently. A mismatch between the browser URL, certificate, proxy path, and admin value causes connection loops.

LiveKit settings reference

Start, inspect, and restart containers

docker compose -f /var/www/playhub/livekit/runtime/docker-compose.yml ps
docker logs playhub-livekit --tail 100
docker logs playhub-livekit-ingress --tail 100
docker logs playhub-livekit-egress --tail 100

docker compose -f /var/www/playhub/livekit/runtime/docker-compose.yml restart

When settings are changed from the admin dashboard, use its save/apply action so generated configuration and service status remain synchronized.

Configure RTMP for OBS

1. Enable RTMP ingress in LiveKit settings and confirm the ingress container is healthy.
2. Open Go Live and choose the external encoder workflow.
3. Copy the generated RTMP server URL and stream key. A typical URL is rtmp://video.example.com:1936/live.
4. In OBS, select Custom service, paste the server and key, and use H.264 video plus AAC audio.
5. Start OBS, then confirm the source appears in the PlayHub control room before going public.

Participants, permissions, and layouts

• The host publishes camera, microphone, and screen tracks.
• Ordinary viewers subscribe only and cannot publish.
• Accepted guests or cohosts receive role-scoped publishing permission.
• Viewers can request audio-only or audio-and-video participation when enabled.
• Moderators can manage chat, bans, requests, and participants within assigned privileges.
• Adaptive grid, host focus, split screen, and screen share update the stage and recording layout.

Recording and replay pipeline

Live diagnostics

The control room diagnostics show actual connection state, source tracks, bitrate, frame rate, latency, network quality, room status, and runtime reachability. Check diagnostics before restarting services. A camera permission issue and a failed egress container require different fixes.

Configure every platform area

Most settings are available under Admin Dashboard > Website Configuration or Admin Dashboard > System Settings. Save each block independently and use its connection test where provided.

General, branding, and design

Registration, login, and account security

For OAuth, copy the exact callback URL displayed in the admin UI into the provider console. Scheme, domain, path, and trailing slash must match.

Email, SMS, analytics, and payments

• SMTP: host, port, encryption, username, password, from address, and from name.
• SendGrid: API key, sender identity, and support notification address.
• SMS OTP: Twilio, Vonage, or MessageBird credentials and a test phone number.
• Google Analytics: enable flag and Measurement ID.
• Stripe: publishable and secret keys for wallet top-ups and paid flows.
• PayPal: sandbox/live environment, client ID, and client secret.
• Payment currency: USD, EUR, GBP, CAD, or AUD in the current admin selector.
• Email templates: localized HTML/plain-text content, per-template placeholders, preview, validation, and update-safe overrides.
• Use each Test action before enabling its public feature.

Uploads and video processing

• Enable or disable public upload workflows.
• Select the allowed output renditions and default playback quality.
• Set server and PHP upload limits that match the maximum accepted file.
• Keep the videos,default worker supervised for probing, thumbnails, and encoding.
• Use moderation defaults to auto-approve, require review, set default visibility, and enable profanity filtering.
• Test with a short H.264/AAC file before accepting large production uploads.

Video import providers

Enable only providers you intend to offer. Direct URL, YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion, and Twitch settings support provider-specific keys or tokens where required. The mass-import tool uses the enabled provider list and can apply category, visibility, tags, kids status, monetization, duplicate handling, and stop-on-error behavior.

Live streaming product settings

Current validation supports up to 365 days for scheduling, 5 MB thumbnails, 6 poll options, 1440 poll minutes, 8 stream labels, and a 512 KB diagnostic probe. Tip defaults are USD 1 minimum and USD 500 maximum unless changed.

Website ads and player ads

The website ad manager supports media or trusted HTML, placement, status, schedule, targeting, display rules, and performance data. Placements include after header, left sidebar, before footer, home feed, video grid, comments, below player, watch sidebar, Shorts, search, channel, live, community, and floating bottom.

Player ads are configured separately for VAST pre-roll, timed mid-roll, and post-roll delivery. Configure tag URLs, break timing, skip timing, wrapper depth, MP4 preference, and tracking. Test the VAST response and media CORS from a browser before enabling it globally.

Monetization

Monetization can be enabled globally with platform fees, paid-video commission, contribution limits, boost limits, purchase taxes, withdrawal review, and a creator share of completed VAST impressions. VAST revenue uses provider CPM metadata or the administrator fallback CPM with fractional earnings, self-view exclusion, hourly impression deduplication, and idempotent credits. Memberships, wallets, tips, paid videos, paid photo sets, boosts, creator earnings, and payouts depend on real transaction data and configured payment providers.

Languages

The Languages page manages the bundled 128 language packs. Select a default language, enable or disable public languages, review metadata and plural rules, edit translated PHP entries, and save. The default language cannot be disabled, and a visitor's saved preference is preserved while available. Back up customized lang/ files before applying an update.

Maintenance mode

Enable maintenance mode with a customer-facing message and optional allowed IP addresses or prefixes. Always include your administration IP before saving, then verify the public state in a private browser window.

Storage, cloud, and media lifecycle

PlayHub supports local uploads and S3-compatible cloud workflows, including Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage interoperability, Backblaze B2, and Azure Blob configuration exposed by the admin storage page.

Storage settings

Use the records prefix to separate PlayHub objects and set a public base URL when a CDN or custom delivery domain fronts the bucket. Configure reported cloud capacity so dashboard usage percentages are meaningful.

Membership storage quotas

Starter, Plus, Premium, Pro, and VIP memberships can have independent storage quotas and monthly prices. VIP can be unlimited. A user-specific quota overrides the membership default when set by an administrator.

Video processing lifecycle

Feature guide

This section explains where each major PlayHub feature appears and what must be configured for it to operate.

Viewer experience

• Home discovery, trending blocks, categories, creators, and personalized content.
• Database-backed search for videos, channels, playlists, live streams, and tags.
• Responsive video player, quality selection, captions, progress, and watch history.
• Likes, comments, replies, mentions, reactions, attachments for signed-in users, and stickers.
• Watch Later, favorites, bookmarks, playlists, liked videos, and history collections.
• Public channel profiles, subscriptions, notifications, playlists, community, and messaging.
• Shorts feed with engagement actions and creator navigation.
• Reports for profiles, videos, comments, and community content.

Creator Studio

• Upload and edit video metadata, thumbnail, category, tags, audience, visibility, and schedule.
• Track processing status and use real channel analytics and content search.
• Moderate recent comments with reply, view, link, pin, and report actions.
• Create and manage playlists, select owned videos, and expose public collections.
• Manage channel profile, social links, description, branding, community, and library.
• Review revenue, memberships, wallet contributions, gifts, tips, and monetized events.

Community and messaging

Authenticated creators can publish community posts with text and media. Users can react, comment, report, and use categorized stickers. Suggested communities and subscription actions use real channel data. Profile Message opens the existing private conversation or creates the correct conversation destination.

Go Live and control room

• Required title and description, category, comma-separated tag tokens, visibility, schedule, and thumbnail.
• Browser camera/microphone, screen share, or external RTMP source.
• Local host preview remains muted while the published audio track stays live.
• Pre-live and in-stream settings with participant acceptance and recording controls.
• Invite guest username suggestions, backstage state, request approval, and removal.
• Adaptive grid, host focus, split screen, screen share, and spotlight behavior.
• Real diagnostics, viewer count, stream health, latency, bitrate, and track status.
• Automatic reconnect and track republishing after a recoverable page reload.

Live engagement and commerce

• Real-time chat, reactions, pinned messages, slow mode, deletion, and viewer chat bans.
• Polls publish to every role; the host can inspect voter identities and selections.
• Goals update live when created or changed during the broadcast.
• Preset tips send immediately; custom tips enforce configured minimum and maximum.
• Gifts and categorized super stickers send immediately when wallet funds are sufficient.
• Wallet recharge opens configured Stripe or PayPal checkout in a separate tab.
• Contribution animations scale for small, medium, and large values on every live side.
• Chat records participant join, leave, removal, gifts, stickers, tips, and system events.

Live roles

Replays

Completed streams become responsive replay pages with adaptive portrait/landscape presentation, chat replay, chapters, top moments, stream events, likes, comments, clips, analytics, contribution history, creator information, and related replays. Multi-participant composites include participant labels; audio-only participants use an intentional identity tile instead of an empty black block.

Admin dashboard reference

The dashboard reads production data and applies real actions. Role and permission scopes determine which pages a team member can access.

Reports and moderation workflow

1. A signed-in user opens a report action on a supported item and submits a reason.
2. The record appears in Admin Reports with the real avatar, thumbnail, or content preview.
3. An administrator sets priority, moderator, and status or applies a bulk action.
4. Content/user actions are performed from the relevant admin page.
5. The report is resolved with an auditable status change.

Roles and notifications

Use the permission matrix to grant the smallest necessary scope. When a user is appointed as a platform or live moderator, PlayHub can send an in-app notification and configured email. Ban events can also send email; delivery requires SMTP or SendGrid.

Maintenance, backups, updates, and security

Production reliability depends on repeatable backups, service supervision, log review, and tested updates.

Backups

The admin backup dialog inventories selectable folders and their sizes, includes the database, supports large-file behavior, compression level, retention count, and automatic frequency. Large media libraries may be better protected by storage-provider versioning plus database/application backups.

• Back up the complete database.
• Back up .env, the signed license receipt, and install lock privately.
• Back up local uploads, replays, branding, gifts, stickers, and customized language files.
• Back up livekit/runtime/, especially keys, generated configuration, and certificates.
• Retain multiple generations and test restoration on a separate domain/server.

Transactional system updates

Logs and health

Security checklist

• Keep APP_ENV=production and APP_DEBUG=false.
• Enforce HTTPS and secure WebSockets on every public page.
• Protect .env, license files, Redis, database, LiveKit keys, and payment secrets.
• Use dedicated database and storage credentials with minimum privileges.
• Restrict Docker and server-management access to trusted administrators.
• Patch PHP, Node.js, FFmpeg, Docker, Composer packages, and the operating system.
• Review admin members, permission groups, reports, failed jobs, and logs regularly.
• Install only trusted plugins and investigate every compatibility, package-hardening, or checksum failure.
• Test backup restoration and account recovery before an incident occurs.

Troubleshooting

Start with the exact error, the service that owns the failing step, and the corresponding log. Avoid changing multiple systems at once.

Commands and important paths

Common commands

Important paths

Prepare a useful support request

Use the support channel on the CodeCanyon item page Or the Direct Support portal. A reproducible report with sanitized logs can be diagnosed much faster than a screenshot without server context.

Include

• PlayHub package version and whether this is a fresh install or update.
• Operating system, web server, PHP-FPM and CLI PHP versions.
• MySQL/MariaDB, Redis, Node.js, npm, FFmpeg, Docker, and Compose versions.
• Exact page, user role, action sequence, expected result, and actual result.
• Browser console/network error when the issue is client-side.
• Relevant Laravel, worker, web-server, PHP-FPM, or container log excerpt.
• Whether the problem reproduces with a short test video or private test stream.

License notice

PlayHub requires a valid CodeCanyon or KNL (Kontackt Direct License) purchase code during installation. Activation is tied to the installation domain and must follow the applicable Envato license. Do not redistribute the source package or share a purchase code.