Brightcove Player Sample: Multiple Session Playback

In this topic, you will learn how to use the new Brightcove Player to update a session cookie during playback to maintain the current position.

Player example

When the player initially loads, a cookie will be checked for the last watched position of the video. If the cookie is present, the video will begin playing at that point. When the video finishes playing, the cookie will be set to zero.

Play the video and stop it at some point during playback. When you refresh the page, the video will resume playing where you left off.

See the Pen Multiple Session Playback by Brightcove Learning Services (@bcls1969) 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

Player API Methods Player API Events
ready() loadeddata
on() timeupdate
currentTime() play

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

Remember to add the id attribute to the video-js tag in the player embed code.

<video-js id="myPlayerID"
...

For testing purposes, we've added two HTML elements below the player to display the initial value of the session cookie and the current value of the cookie as the video plays.

<p>video start cookie value = <span id="cookieDisplay1"></span></p>
<p>current cookie value = <span id="cookieDisplay2"></span></p>

Application flow

The basic logic behind this application is:

  • Read the browser cookie.
  • Check the cookie value.
  • Start video playback.
  • Increment the cookie.
  • Reset the cookie.

Read the browser cookie

Find the code which is labeled:

// +++ Read browser cookie +++

Initialize variables and read the browser cookie associated with the Brightcove video position. The cookie is named BC_position.

Check the cookie value

Find the code which is labeled:

// +++ Check the cookie value +++

If the cookie exists, then set the video start position to this value. Otherwise, start from the beginning of the video.

Start video playback

Find the code which is labeled:

// +++ Start video playback +++

If video position is greater than zero, than start playback at that point. Otherwise, let the user start video playback from the beginning.

Increment the cookie

Find the code which is labeled:

// +++ Increment the cookie +++

Listen for when the current playback position has changed. This should be every 15-250 milliseconds. When the integer value for the current playback position changes, then update the cookie.

Reset the cookie

Find the code which is labeled:

// +++ Reset the cookie +++

When video playback reaches the end, then reset the cookie value to zero.

Application styling

There are no additional styles for this sample.

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: multiple-session.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.