This plugin hasn’t been tested with the latest 3 major releases of WordPress. It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have compatibility issues when used with more recent versions of WordPress.

External "Video for Everybody"

Description

Important: This plugin is designed to operate on media files hosted
outside your WordPress site. It does not integrate with the Media library,
and it does not create the media files.

External “Video for Everybody” is a WordPress plugin that you can use to show
videos on your WordPress site. You enter a simple shortcode on your page, and
the plugin generates the HTML to deliver the media. Browsers that understand
the HTML5 tag will display MPEG/H.264 (.mp4) files, VP8/webm (.webm), or Ogg/Theora (.ogv) files. Other browsers can use Flash to play the .mp4. In all cases, the
markup includes links to download the media files. The HTML comes with
only minor variations straight from the Video for
Everybody
model. See that site for fuller details.

Users can optionally use the
VideoJS JavaScript library to outfit their videos
with an attractive set of controls that includes a full screen option.

This plugin is not for everybody, even if the video tries to be. If I were not
writing my own plugin, I would probably be using the Degradable HTML5 audio
and video Plugin
by Pavel Soukenik. My plugin uses and will follow the Video for
Everybody

approach. I also offer an options page where you can define site-wide default paths and dimensions. The defaults can be overridden in any particular shortcode, but if most of your video resides in the same place and has consistent dimensions, site-wide defaults keep the shortcodes simple. Soukenik’s
shortcodes give you more control over playback options.

Important: Most autobuffering problems have been settled, but
preloading (autobuffering) preferences are supported unevenly in some
older browers and versions of browsers. Depending on how many movies you
serve on a single page, and on how large they are, autobuffering can
significantly slow your clients’ browsers, and it can also hit your bandwidth.

For a discussion of autobuffering in html5 see:
http://daringfireball.net/2009/12/html5_video_unusable

Usage

A minimal shortcode takes the form

[external-vfe name="VIDEO"]

where VIDEO stands for the simple name of your video (without any file
extension).

name is the only required attribute. Optional attributes are:

  • width (in pixels)
  • height (in pixels)
  • path (URL to the folder where you host your video files)
  • query (to follow the file name in the URL; should start with “?”)
  • include_poster (set to “true” to include a poster attribute in the video tag)
  • webm_download (include a link to a webm file in the list of downloads)
  • poster_extension (png, jpg, or gif)
  • swf_file (The address to your Flash player)
  • vjs (set to “true” to provide attractive video controls with full screen option)
  • file_detector (try to detect remote files if “true”)
  • access_cookie (if you need a simple cookie to access the remote files)

All of the above can also be set as defaults on the options page under:
Media > External VfE

The options page also includes two parameters that cannot be overridden for
an individual video:

  • the ability to disable VideoJS so that the JavaScript and the style sheet will not load at all
  • the option to disable the built-in style sheet

See the plugin home page for more details:
http://open.pages.kevinwiliarty.com/external-video-for-everybody/

Screenshots

  • External Video for Everybody options page
  • Drop shadow and gradient background for posterless videos in FireFox 4

Installation

You can search for this plugin from your WordPress plugins administration interface and install it automatically.

Or to install it manually:

  1. Download the zipped plugin using the link to the right
  2. Unzip it and put the folder in your wp-contents/plugins folder

After activating the plugin, you should:

  1. Configure the settings at Media > External VfE
  2. Add shortcodes to your posts and pages in order to diplay video

FAQ

Installation Instructions

You can search for this plugin from your WordPress plugins administration interface and install it automatically.

Or to install it manually:

  1. Download the zipped plugin using the link to the right
  2. Unzip it and put the folder in your wp-contents/plugins folder

After activating the plugin, you should:

  1. Configure the settings at Media > External VfE
  2. Add shortcodes to your posts and pages in order to diplay video
Why this plugin?

I have developed this plugin to provide an easy way to implement the “Video for Everybody” approach on a WordPress site.

I also wanted a way to update the delivery for all of my video files. As I update the plugin, existing video will be served using the new code.

Finally, I wanted to have a settings page so that I could spare myself the trouble of adding repetetive details to each video entry.

Who is this plugin for?

Ultimately it’s for myself. I created the External “Video for Everybody”
plugin to suit my own priorities, but I also tried to put it together in a way
that would make it useful for and usable by others, and I am happy to share
it. I host my video outside my WordPress site. I want to use HTML5, Ogg and Webm.
So… External “Video for Everybody”

Are you offering support for this plugin?

No.

How can I create the video files this plugin looks for?

The Theora Cookbook has a lot of information on how to encode .ogv files.

The Miro Video Converter is a handy free and opensource utility for this purpose.

You might also be interested in trying a shell
script
I use to convert videos
for myself. The shell script depends on your having certain command-line
tools installed on your computer: ffmpeg and qtfaststart.py in particular.

Reviews

There are no reviews for this plugin.

Contributors & Developers

“External "Video for Everybody"” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

Changelog

2.3.1

  • Updates VideoJS to 6.7.3

2.1.2

  • Updates VideoJS to 4.12.5

2.1.1

  • Updates VideoJS to 4.7.3

2.1

  • Critical security update to VideoJS 4.0.2

2.0

  • Optional file detection will generate source tags and download links only for remote resources that are actually available.
  • File detection overrides webm_download settings
  • Integrates VideoJS 3.2.0

1.0

  • Brand new installations will include posters by default. Existing installations will retain existing poster preference.
  • An optional built-in style sheet will add a drop-shadow and a background gradient so that videos without posters will have a visual presence in FireFox 4.

0.9.1

  • Updates VideoJS library to 2.0.2
  • Moves the download links outside the main video div so that they will not be hidden by VideoJS

0.9

  • Follows Video for Everybody v0.4.2 adding a floating controlbar for the flash video so that the video itself can play at full size
  • wraps each video element in a div.evfe
  • Adds some additional CSS classes to internal elements
  • Adds a global setting and shortcode option to skin videos with the default flavor of Steve Heffernan’s VideoJS JavaScript library (with minor modification to ease the style integration with a wider variety of WordPress themes)
  • Includes an option to disable VideoJS entirely so as to prevent the loading of unwanted JavaScript and CSS files

0.8

  • Adds support for webm video playback
  • Adds a global option as well as a shortcode attribute to include a .webm file in the automatically generated list of videos for download.

0.7.1

  • Fixes a minor bug in the line that calls the poster image for the embedded Flash object.

0.7

  • drops embedded quicktime fallback. (Simplifies html; simplifies processing overhead; improves playback experience)
  • adds commented attribution to Kroc Camen of Camen Design
  • minor adjustments to video element attributes, including preload=’none’
  • adopted self-closing source elements to validate as html5

0.6

  • adds an option to omit posters (as required for iPad playback)
  • adds experimental support for query elements in URL’s to media assets
  • adds a missing period for embedded flash encoding

0.5

  • .mp4 now listed as first source — critical change for iPad

0.4.7

  • factual corrections to readme.txt

0.4.6

  • bundled with a better readme.txt

0.4.5

  • Added some help tips to the options page

0.4.4

  • Added a class=”external-vfe” attribute to the <video> tag
    to make it available for CSS styling

0.4.3

  • Introduced href and target parameters to the QuickTime object to
    prevent IE from autoloading entire movies.
  • IMPORTANT: It is now necessary to upload a fourth (tiny) file for
    each movie.

0.4.2

  • prefixed evfe_ to settings names make them distinctive
  • IMPORTANT: Old settings need to be re-entered on the Media >
    External-VfE
    settings page

0.4.1

  • updated to Video for Everybody 0.3.2

0.4

  • initial working version