Brightcove Player Sample: Logo Overlay Plugin

In this topic, you will learn how to create a logo-overlay plugin that uses the standard Overlay plugin to display a logo-overlay for videos, with an optional click-through URL. If you are planning to use the plugin with an iframe implementation of the player, you cannot utilize the click-through URL as the new page will only open in the iframe.

Player example

The plugin can be used to display any web-ready image overlay on top of the player. You can control the display of the message based on:

  • Location - the image can be displayed in different locations over the player
  • Player events - such as play, pause or custom events
  • Time interval - at a specified time during video playback

In the following example you see a logo displayed in the lower-left of the player. At five seconds into the video the logo will slowly fade out.

See the Pen Logo Overlay Plugin by Brightcove Learning Services (@bcls) 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 Brightcove Player Plugins
off() timeupdate Display Overlay
on()    
currentTime()    

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

The Display Overlay Plugin JavaScript file is linked to the page using a <script> tag. Note that the CSS for the Display Overlay Plugin is NOT linked into the page. Custom CSS is used in the page to make for easier changes.

Application flow

The basic logic behind this application is:

  • A function is defined that removes the overlay image at the proper time.
  • A function is defined that displays the overlay image at the proper time.
  • The custom configuration options are merged with the default options. Default options are only used if a custom option is not supplied.
  • The function is called that displays the overlay image.

Remove overlay

Find the code which is labeled:

// ### Remove overlay ###

This function is called when the overlay image is initially displayed. The logic in the function checks for when the overlay image should be removed, including if a expiration time has been set. Also, the timeupdate event listener is removed.

Add overlay

Find the code which is labeled:

// ### Add overlay function ###

The Overlay Plugin is called here using the user configuration settings. The settings determine what should be displayed, where it is displayed, and for how long. The timeupdate event listener is added to check for an expiration time.

Build an overlayOptions object

Find the code which is labeled:

// ### Call function to merge default options with passed in options ###

Both the custom configuration options and default options are passed to a function. The function uses the default options only if a corresponding custom option is not passed in.

Call the showoverlay method

Find the code which is labeled:

// ### Show overlay ###

The function that displays the overlay image is called. Depending on the options, the image may be displayed immediately or at a later time.

Application styling

The lengthy CSS defines how the overlay image should look, as well as where the image is displayed. The default CSS for the Display Overlay Plugin is NOT used to ease CSS customization.

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: logo-overlay.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. In the case of this plugin, options will most likely be passed to the plugin, in the form:

videojs.getPlayer('myPlayerID').ready(function() {
  var myPlayer = this;
  myPlayer.logoOverlay(
    {
      'align': 'bottom-left',
      'imageURL' : 'https://solutions.brightcove.com/bcls/brightcove-player/logo-overlay/bc-logo.png',
      'clickThruURL': 'https://support.brightcove.com/',
      'start': 'loadstart',
      'end': 5
    }
  )
});