Brightcove Player Sample: Play Video Before Playlist

Player example

In this sample you will see a video play that is NOT in the playlist, then followed by the videos in the playlist.

See the Pen Play Video Before Playlist 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
catalog.getVideo()
catalog.load()
catalog.getPlaylist()
playlist()
one()
playlist.currentItem()

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 is added, which specifies the location of the playlist.

Application flow

The basic logic behind this application is:

  • Define the video to be played before the playlist, and the desired playlist.
  • Get the video to be played before the playlist, and put it in the player.
  • Get the playlist, but do NOT put the first video from the playlist in the player.
  • Add an event handler so when the video not in the playlist is finished playing, the first video from the playlist is put in the player.

Define video and playlist

Find the code which is labeled:

// +++ Define playlist and video to be played before playlist +++

Simply assign values to variables. Note in the plugin version of this code these values will be passed into the plugin.

Retrieve non-playlist video and put in player

Find the code which is labeled:

    // +++ Retrieve video to play before playlist and load it +++

You use the catalog.getVideo() and catalog.load() methods to perform this task.

Retrieve the playlist, but do NOT put the first video in the player

Find the code which is labeled:

// +++ Retrieve playlist +++

You use the catalog.getPlaylist() method to get the playlist. The neat feature here is that you can pass a second parameter of -1 which prevents the first video from the playlist being loaded into the player.

Play first video in playlist when non-playlist video ends

Find the code which is labeled:

// +++ Set event  handler so after first video plays playlist plays +++

Use the one() method to create an event handler to listen for when the player dispatches the ended event. You then use the playlist.currentItem() to place the first video in the playlist into the player.

Application styling

The CSS sizes the player and playlist, and also places them side-by-side in the page.

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: video-before-playlist.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.