Brightcove Player Sample: All Time Video Views

In this topic, you will learn how to display the all-time views for each video loaded into a player.

Limitations

Player example

The player below includes a playlist to show you that the code used to retrieve all time views will work with playlists. It will also work with a single video player.

You should see the all-time views for the first video displayed below the player. Select other videos in the playlist to see their all-time views displayed. Note that the views report area will be blank for a short period of time when the data is being retrieved.

See the Pen 18154-all-time-video-views by Brightcove Learning Services (@rcrooks1969) on CodePen.

Source code

View the complete solution on GitHub.

Using the CodePen

Here are some tips to effectively use the above CodePen:

  • Toggle the actual display of the player by clicking the Result button.
  • Click the HTML/CSS/JS buttons to display ONE of the code types.
  • Later in this document the logic, flow and styling used in the application will be discussed in the Player/HTML configuration, Application flow and Application styling sections. The best way to follow along with the information in those sections is to:
    1. Click the EDIT ON CODEPEN button in the CodePen and have the code available in one browser/browser tab.
    2. In CodePen, adjust what code you want displayed. You can change the width of different code sections within CodePen.
    3. View the Player/HTML configuration, Application flow and/or Application styling sections in another browser/browser tab. You will now be able to follow the code explanations and at the same time view the code.

Development sequence

Here is the recommended development sequence:

  1. Use the In-Page embed player implementation to test the functionality of your player, plugin and CSS (if CSS is needed)
  2. Put the plugin's JavaScript and CSS into separate files for local testing
  3. Deploy the plugin code and CSS to your server once you have worked out any errors
  4. Use Studio to add the plugin and CSS to your player
  5. Replace the In-Page embed player implementation if you determine that the iframe implementation is a better fit (detailed in next section)

For details about these steps, review the Step-by-Step: Plugin Development guide.

iframe or In-Page embed

When developing enhancements for the Brightcove Player you will need to decide if the code is a best fit for the iframe or In-Page embed implementation. The best practice recommendation is to build a plugin for use with an iframe implementation. The advantages of using the iframe player are:

  • No collisions with existing JavaScript and/or CSS
  • Automatically responsive
  • The iframe eases use in social media apps (or whenever the video will need to "travel" into other apps)

Although integrating the In-Page embed player can be more complex, there are times when you will plan your code around that implementation. To generalize, this approach is best when the containing page needs to communicate to the player. Specifically, here are some examples:

  • Code in the containing page needs to listen for and act on player events
  • The player uses styles from the containing page
  • The iframe will cause app logic to fail, like a redirect from the containing page

Even if your final implementation does not use the iframe code, you can still use the In-Page embed code with a plugin for your JavaScript and a separate file for your CSS. This encapsulates your logic so that you can easily use it in multiple players.

API/Plugin resources used

API Methods API Events API Properties Non-Player APIs Used
play() loadedmetadata player.mediainfo.id Analytics API
one()      
on()      

Player/HTML configuration

This section details any special configuration needed during player creation. In addition, other HTML elements that must be added to the page, beyond the in-page embed player implementation code, are described.

Player configuration

No special configuration is required for the Brightcove Player you create for this sample.

Other HTML

An HTML <div> tag with a class of vjs-playlist and an id of bcls_alltimePlaysPlaylist is added as the location for the playlist.

Application flow

The basic logic behind this application is:

  • Create an HTML element to hold the views information. This is a dynamically created <p> tag, and is dynamically placed in the DOM.
  • Retrieve the ID of the first video placed in the player for use in retrieving its all time views.
  • Setup to retrieve other video's IDs as they play from the playlist
  • Prepare to make the Analytics API request for the desired video.
  • Make the Analytics API request for the desired video.
  • Display the returned views data.

Dynamically create and place an HTML paragraph element

Find the code which is labeled:

// +++ Create the element to hold the video views +++

Here a paragraph element is created, styled and placed. Note that the code accounts for the existence of a playlist when determining placement.

Set listener for future requests

Find the code which is labeled:

// +++ Set listener for future requests +++

Because of some initialization tasks, the first loadedmetadata event is used with the one() method. After that the code uses the on() method to handle all following loadedmetadata event dispatching.

Get the ID of the video initially placed in player.

Find the code which is labeled:

// +++ Get the current video id from mediainfo then start process to get views count +++

The ID is part of the mediainfo object.

Prepare information for request to proxy/Analytics API

Find the code which is labeled:

// +++ Prepare information for request to proxy/Analytics API +++

This is nearly standard code used for all Brightcove REST API calls and detail in the Learning Guide: Using the REST APIs document.

Make actual call to proxy/Analytics API

Find the code which is labeled:

// +++ Prepare information for request to proxy/Analytics API +++

This is nearly standard code used for all Brightcove REST API calls and detail in the Learning Guide: Using the REST APIs document.

Application styling

The CSS used styles the player/playlist size and placement.

Plugin code

Normally when converting the JavaScript into a Brightcove Player plugin nominal changes are needed. One required change is to replace the standard use of the ready() method with the code that defines a plugin.

Here is the very commonly used start to JavaScript code that will work with the player:

videojs.getPlayer('myPlayerID').ready(function() {
	var myPlayer = this;
	...
});

You will change the first line to use the standard syntax to start a Brightcove Player plugin:

videojs.registerPlugin('pluginName', function(options) {
  var myPlayer = this;
  ...
});

As mentioned earlier, you can see the plugin's JavaScript code in this document's corresponding GitHub repo: all-time-views.js.

Using the plugin with a player

Once you have the plugin's CSS and JavaScript files stored in an Internet accessible location, you can use the plugin with a player. In Studio's PLAYERS module you can choose a player, then in the PLUGINS section add the URLs to the CSS and JavaScript files, and also add the Name and Options, if options are needed.

Proxy code

In order to build your own version the sample app on this page, you must create and host your own proxy. (The proxies used by Brightcove Learning Services only accept requests from Brightcove domains.) A sample proxy, very similar to the one we use, but without the checks that block requests from non-Brightcove domains, can be found in this GitHub repository. You will also find basic instructions for using it there, and a more elaborate guide to building apps around the proxy in Using the REST APIs.