Connecting to an API, new and lost!

[ravinghatmaker]

Hello, I need to use a company's API in order to try and convert video files into flash files and then play them Youtube style.  There is a set API to use, but the instructions are incredibly vague, and me being new to APIs in general, I have absolutely no idea where to start to get the results.  I can program basic PHP forms and database stuff, but this is all new to me.  Can anyone help me start out???

 

Here's the information I'm given

 

＜Arguments＞

key : authetication key - this part is ok, there was actually enough explanation for this part

 

name : video file name　(please url_encode the file name) - Ok, name of the file, I got that.

 

data : video data (please base64 encode the data) - I know this is the actual video data, but how do you pass this to through an api??  This is what I don't get.

 

md5 : video sum check (md5):optional

 

＜Return value＞

[ERROR]TAB[MOVIE ID]TAB[ ObjectTag]TAB[JavaScriptTag]TAB[ Thumbnail URL]TAB[FLV File Size]TAB[FLV URL]TAB[Play time]

 

The main part I don't understand is how to access the API to get it to covert the video into a flash file so I can get this variables.  I know it's an easy question, but I can't find the answer anywhere else.  Thanks for your help!  If this question is too vague, I can give more specifics!  Thanks!

[ravinghatmaker]

Oh, and it gives me an API access URL, which would be like http://api.programname.net/api.net.

 

All I need is a basic example to work from, there is no API documentation for this other than what I posted above.  I can't seem to find any similiar API access codes to use as an examples either.  I know it's stupid question but can anyone just guide me down how I'm supposed to send this data to the API?  Thank you!