Brightcove Player Sample: Simple Lightbox

In this topic, you will learn how to create a lightbox with the Brightcove Player. This sample uses a single video and player.

Player example

This example displays an interactive video poster image that opens a lightbox with the Brightcove Player. Select the poster image to play the video in a lightbox container. With the lightbox displayed, select the Close button to hide the lightbox container.

See the Pen 18163-simple-lightbox 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

API Methods API Events API Properties
play() loadstart mediainfo.posterSources[0].src
pause()   mediainfo.name

Player/HTML configuration

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

Other HTML

This sample uses HTML around the Brightcove Player embed code to create a container for the video poster image, a container for the lightbox player and a container to wrap everything.

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

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

Application flow

The basic logic behind this application is:

  • Get a reference to the Brightcove Player, the video poster image and the lightbox.
  • Wait for the video to begin loading to retrieve the video metadata. Load the video poster image.
  • Listen for a user click event on the poster image. If clicked, display the lightbox and start video playback.
  • When the user selects the Close button, then pause video playback and hide the lightbox.

Get DOM references

Get a reference to the Brightcove Player, the video poster image and the lightbox.

Wait for loadstart

Find the code which is labeled:

	// +++ Wait for loadstart +++

Wait for the video to begin loading by listening for the loadstart event. This ensures that the video metadata, like the poster source and video name, will be available in the mediainfo object. Load the video poster image.

Listen for poster click

Find the code which is labeled:

	// +++ Listen for poster click +++

Add a listener for the onclick event. When a user clicks on the poster image, then display the lightbox and start video playback.

Close the lightbox

Find the code which is labeled:

	// +++ Close the lightbox +++

When the user selects the Close button, then pause video playback and hide the lightbox.

Application styling

The CSS styles the video poster image, the lightbox, the player and the Close button. It also provides selectors for showing and hiding the lightbox.

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: simple-lightbox.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.