Player Configuration Guide

account_id

The Video Cloud account ID associated with the player. This value cannot be modified.

ad_config_id

ad_config_id information:

• Data type: string
• Default: undefined
• A Dynamic Delivery SSAI ad configuration ID. In addition to being set on the player configuration, it can be set at runtime via the adConfigId query string parameter for iframe players or the data-ad-config-id attribute for in-page players. Either of these will override any value in the player configuration.

ad_failover

ad_failover information:

• Data type: boolean
• Default: undefined
• Set to true to enable ad failover behavior. This is a multi-part configuration that depends on:
  • Both IMA3 and SSAI plugins must be configured on the player.
  • An ad_config_id should be available, otherwise SSAI ads are not available.

application_id

application_id information:

• Data type: string
• Default: undefined
• The application ID is used to differentiate multiple uses of a single player in metrics. It is invisible to the user.

autoadvance

autoadvance information:

• Data type: string
• Default: Not initially enabled
• Used with playlists and sets the autoadvance behavior of the playlist.

For more information see the Playlists section below, as well as the Playlist API document.

autoplay

autoplay information:

• Data type: boolean or string
• Default: false
• Indicates that the player should start playing immediately, on platforms where this is allowed.

If autoplay is set to a boolean value the browser's native autoplay behavior is used. If it is set to one of the following three valid string values, the following occurs:

• play: The player will manually try to call play.
• muted: The player will manually mute the player and call play.
• any: The player will first try to call play. If that fails, mute the player and call play.

If any of the above fail, the player will display the "Big Play Button" as if autoplay was set to false.

The following shows a curl statement to set the autoplay value:

Example using boolean values

    curl \
      --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
      --user $EMAIL \
      --request PATCH \
      --data '{
        "autoplay": true
        }' \
    https://players.api.brightcove.com/v2/accounts//players//configuration

Example using string values

    curl \
      --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
      --user $EMAIL \
      --request PATCH \
      --data '{
        "autoplay": "muted"
        }' \
    https://players.api.brightcove.com/v2/accounts//players//configuration

Getting a video to autoplay can be a complex situation. See the Autoplay Considerations document for further details.

breakpoints

breakpoints information:

• Data type: Object
• Default: The default breakpoints are:
• When used with the responsive option, sets breakpoints that will configure how class names are toggled on the player to adjust the UI based on the player's dimensions.

  Class Name	Width Range
  vjs-layout-tiny	0-210
  vjs-layout-x-small	211-320
  vjs-layout-small	321-425
  vjs-layout-medium	426-768
  vjs-layout-large	769-1440
  vjs-layout-x-large	1441-2560
  vjs-layout-huge	2561+

While the class names cannot be changed, the width ranges can be configured via an object like this:

    breakpoints: {
      tiny: 300,
      xsmall: 400,
      small: 500,
      medium: 600,
      large: 700,
      xlarge: 800,
      huge: 900
    }

• The keys of the breakpoints object are derived from the associated class names by removing the vjs-layout- prefix and any - characters.
• The values of the breakpoints object define the max width for a range.
• Not all keys need to be defined. You can easily override a single breakpoint by passing an object with one key/value pair. Customized breakpoints will be merged with default breakpoints when the player is created.

When the player's size changes, the merged breakpoints will be inspected in the size order until a matching breakpoint is found. That breakpoint's associated class name will be added as a class to the player. The previous breakpoint's class will be removed.

crossorigin

crossorigin information:

• Data type: boolean
• Default: false
• If true, the underlying <video> element will have crossorigin="anonymous". This means that any videos or text tracks pulled into the player must have CORS headers.

CSS color overrides

There are three properties that can be used to override the colors in the player. They are:

• controlColor: The color of the buttons and text (e.g., the playhead position and video duration)
• controlBarColor: The background color of the control bar and the big Play button
• progressColor: The color of the progress bar

Any valid CSS color (including hex colors, for instance) are acceptable values for these properties.

Here is a curl statement to set all three of the CSS properties to green, followed by a screenshot displaying the results:

    curl \
    --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
    --user $EMAIL \
    --request PATCH \
    --data '{
        "css": {
          "controlColor": "green",
          "controlBarColor": "green",
          "progressColor": "green"
        }
    }' \
    https://players.api.brightcove.com/v2/accounts//players//configuration

debugger

The debugger shows player information in a modal window. See the Player Information Modal document for full information.

dock

dock information:

• Data type: boolean
• Default: true
• If explicitly false, the player will not include the so-called dock where the video title and description can be displayed.

embed_id

embed_id information:

• Data type: string
• Default: undefined
• The Video Cloud embed ID associated with this player. If the value is default it means the player is not a child player. If the value is not default, it is a value representing the parent of the player.

errors

errors information:

• Data type: Object or boolean
• Default: true
• Explicitly setting false will prevent the player from including videojs-errors, which is the error messages plugin. Making this value false will cause the player to not show detailed error messages to viewers when an error occurs. Errors which prevent playback will still appear in the web developer console.

flash

flash information:

• Data type: Object
• Default: undefined
• Can be used to provide custom Flash options to Video.js.

fullscreenControl

fullscreenControl information:

• Data type: boolean
• Default: true
• Indicates whether the fullscreen control should be shown in the control bar

The following shows a curl statement to set the fullscreenControl value:

    curl \
    --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
    --user $EMAIL \
    --request PATCH \
    --data '{
      "autoplay": true,
      "fullscreenControl": false
      }' \
    https://players.api.brightcove.com/v2/accounts//players//configuration

The following two screenshots show the player with and without the fullscreen control:

hls

hls information:

• Data type: Object or boolean
• Default: {}
• If false, the player will not include videojs-http-streaming. Otherwise, an object will be passed as options for videojs-http-streaming.

Inactive player

It is possible to make players inactive. You might want to do this to have a player stop serving content, but not have a 404 error appear if a deleted player is browsed.

To deactivate a player set the player field's inactive property to true, as follows:

    curl \
    --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
    --user $EMAIL \
    --request PATCH \
    --data '{
      "player": {
          "inactive": true
      }
    }' \
    https://players.api.brightcove.com/v2/accounts//players//configuration

Of course, if you wish to activate the player, you can set the inactive property to false.

Once the player is deactivated, if a user browses the player the following message will appear:

language

language information:

• Data type: string
• Default: undefined
• Can be provided to set the lang attribute of the <html> element.

languages

languages information:

• Data type: Array of string
• Default: undefined
• Can be an array of strings that will cause the specified languages to be included in the player. The only languages that are valid are those included in Video.js. See the Localizing Brightcove Player document for more information.

loop

loop information:

• Causes the video to start over as soon as it ends.

media

The media property has child properties as shown in the following table.

In the following JSON, you can see a media property containing:

• A poster.highres property
• A sources property containing two source objects, one for an HLS video and one for a MP4 video

    "media": {
      "poster": {
        "highres": "https://solutions.brightcove.com/bcls/assets/images/Tiger.jpg"
      },
      "sources": [{
        "type": "application/x-mpegURL",
        "src": "https://solutions.brightcove.com/bcls/assets/videos/Tiger.m3u8"
      }, {
        "type": "video/mp4",
        "src": "https://solutions.brightcove.com/bcls/assets/videos/Tiger.mp4"
      }]
    },

The source that is selected for playback is determined by the video order you've configured and the capabilities of the browser and device on which the player is loaded. If you haven't altered the defaults, and HLS is supported natively, the player will check if any of the sources point to HLS videos and select the first one it finds. If HLS is not supported natively or no HLS video sources have been specified, HTML playback will be attempted next. As previously, the first playable source will be selected. If the first two attempts to play the video fail, Flash fallback will be tried.

To summarize, the play order specifies your preferred playback medium and then each configured option tries all of the available sources and uses the first one it knows how to play.

You can see which source is playing using the currentSrc() function. The following screenshot shows using the function in a browser console.

muted

muted information:

• Data type: boolean
• Default: false
• Determines whether sound is muted when the player loads.

picture_in_picture_control

picture_in_picture_control information:

• Data type: boolean
• Default: true
• Indicates whether the built-in picture-in-picture control should be shown in the control bar.

playback_rates

playback_rates information:

• Data type: Array
• Default: None
• Array of playback rates to show in the playback rate control.

The values are read then presented in a playback rate control in the player's controlbar.

You can use either Studio or curl to change the value of the property:

    curl \
      --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
      --user $EMAIL \
      --request PATCH \
      --data '{
          "playback_rates": [0.1,1,2.5,6]
         }' \
      https://players.api.brightcove.com/v2/accounts//players//configuration

player

player information:

• Data type: Object
• Default: Populate with player specific information
• Contains various meta-data about this player, for instance inactive and template.version.

play_button

play_button information:

• Data type: Object
• The following properties are available for modification via player configuration:

  Property	Type	Effect
  hover	string	glow or darken; default is pink / progress color
  shape	string	square or rectangle; default is a circle
  position	string	topLeft or topRight; default is center

player_id

player_id information:

• Data type: string
• The Video Cloud player ID associated with a player

player_name

player_name information:

• Data type: string
• The Video Cloud player name associated with a player - note: the name you enter for the player is returned as player_name when you get the configuration by putting config.json on the end of the player preview URL (it is returned as name when you get the configuration via the Player Management API. But you must use name when you create or update the player.

playsinline

playsinline information:

• Data type: boolean
• Default: false
• Enables the player for inline playback (necessary for playback on some devices).

Playlists

There are now two different playlist implementations, detailed in the Using Playlists document. The default is version 3. Information for configuring both versions is detailed here.

Both configurations will show how to set the following:

• autoadvance: Assigned integer number in seconds to delay before loading the next video in the playlist; value of 0 assigned will cause no wait between videos; value of null assigned will cause no auto advance.
• playOnSelect: Assigned true so when clicking an item from the playlist menu will cause the video to play when loaded, even if the previous video in the player was paused.

Playlist version 3 (Default)

To configure playlists using the version 3 plugin, you use the Plugin Registry. Here is a curl statement to configure the use of the Playlist version 3 plugin:

    curl \
      --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
      --user $EMAIL \
      --request POST \
      --data '{
          "name": "Plugin Registry Test Player",
          "configuration": {
            "video_cloud": {
              "video": "4093372393001"
            },
            "plugins": [
              {
                "registry_id": "@brightcove/videojs-bc-playlist-ui",
                "version": "3.x"
              }
            ]
          }
      }' \
      https://players.api.brightcove.com/v2/accounts//players

See the Plugin Registry document for information on its use and benefits.

To set the playOnSelect and autoadvance options when creating the player use the following:

    curl \
      --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
      --user $EMAIL \
      --request POST \
      --data '{
          "name": "Plugin Registry Test Player",
          "configuration": {
            "video_cloud": {
              "video": "4093372393001"
            },
            "plugins": [
              {
                "registry_id": "@brightcove/videojs-bc-playlist-ui",
                "version": "3.x",
                "options": {
                  "playOnSelect": true
                }
              }
            ],
            "autoadvance": 2
          }
      }' \
      https://players.api.brightcove.com/v2/accounts//players

Playlist Version 1 (Legacy)

In addition to autoadvance and playOnSelect two other properties that are used to configure the use of playlists version 1. They are:

• playlist: Assigned true to have a player use playlists.
• adjusted: Assigned true to have the player adjust player dimensions for playlist.

Here is a curl statement to set three of the playlist related properties:

    curl \
    --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
    --user $EMAIL \
    --request PATCH \
    --data '{
      "playlist": true,
      "autoadvance": 2,
      "studio_configuration": {
        "player": {
          "adjusted": true,
          "height": "",
          "width": ""
        }
      }
    }' \
    https://players.api.brightcove.com/v2/accounts//players//configuration

To set playOnSelect for playlists version 1 use the following curl statement:

    curl \
      --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
      --user $EMAIL \
      --request PATCH \
      --data '{
           {"playOnSelect": true}
      }' \
      https://players.api.brightcove.com/v2/accounts//players//configuration

Programmatically determining if player contains a playlist

If you are using JavaScript in a page that contains a player and wish to check if a playlist plugin is being used you can use the following:

    player.hasPlugin('playlist')

If you are checking for the presence of a playlist plugin, and not in a page with a player (for instance when checking a list of players for use with a connector), you have to use a bit more complicated process. You would read the player's configuration, then check to see if the plugins section of the player's JSON contains "name": "bcPlaylistUi". One solution for that task follows:

    var theJSON = {},
      pluginAra = [],
      ifFound = [],
      theJSONString =
      '{"account_id":"1507807800001","autoadvance":0,"autoplay":false,"embed_id":"default","fullscreenControl":true,"id":"r1fbqySRZ","player":{"inactive":false,"template":{"locked":false,"name":"single-video-template","version":"6.8.3","version_alias":null}},"player_id":"r1fbqySRZ","player_name":"playlist v2 junk","playlist":true,"plugins":[{"injected_version":"2.1.2","name":"bcPlaylistUi","options":{"playOnSelect":true},"registry_id":"@brightcove/videojs-bc-playlist-ui","version":"2.x"}],"preload":"metadata","scripts":["//players.brightcove.net/videojs-bc-playlist-ui/2.1.2/videojs-bc-playlist-ui.min.js"],"studio_configuration":{"player":{"adjusted":true,"height":150,"width":300}},"stylesheets":["//players.brightcove.net/videojs-bc-playlist-ui/2.1.2/videojs-bc-playlist-ui.css"],"updated_at":"2017-10-30T18:06:07.800Z","video_cloud":{"policy_key":"BCpkADawqM2_X3Xxh3xln23EqlR3BETHrfycIPT-a7kqhBi6q8g3XOmTr3tEJiFoi_YmI7vfbJzS4mY0Un5RACc3jC8cLVqyvmfWFLI-tG5oJYGXNUrvOwRJYQEt2eVpMZnBd0FH22i7Mtk3","video":null}}';

    theJSON = JSON.parse(theJSONString);
    pluginAra = theJSON.plugins;
    ifFound = pluginAra.filter(function(pluginAra) {
      return pluginAra.name === "bcPlaylistUi"
    });
    if (ifFound.length === 1) {
      console.log('Contains playlist plugin');
    } else {
      console.log('No playlist');
    }

plugins

The plugins property specifies the order to initialize video.js plugins and any customized settings to apply to them. The plugin must be supported by a corresponding scripts property URL entry, and if needed a supporting stylesheets URL. Each element of the plugins array is an object with a name property, and can also contain an optional options property:

• name: The name of the video.js plugin, taken from the supporting JavaScript code
• options: An object hash of settings overrides to provide to the plugin at initialization time

Options child

In this options child property, you pass data to utilize at initialization time. The following JSON passes in a single object in the options.

    "plugins": [{
      "name": "navigateOnVideoEnd",
      "options" : {"redirectURL": "https://docs.brightcove.com"}
    }]

This gives you the ability to pass data to a plugin via the player configuration. For instance, to use the redirectURL object shown above, you would do the following in the plugin itself:

    videojs.registerPlugin('navigateOnVideoEnd', function (options) {
      var myPlayer = this;
      myPlayer.on("ended", function () {
        window.location.href = options.redirectURL;
      });
    });

Note: you use the standard plugin implementation, but use options as a parameter in the anonymous function. You can then access the value using options.propertyName notation.

Some Brightcove supplied plugins utilize the plugin registry and configuration is different than what shown here. See the Overview: Plugin Registry document for detailed information.

preload

preload information:

• Data type: string
• Default: none
• The preload attribute informs the browser whether or not the video data should begin downloading as soon as the video tag is loaded. The options are auto, metadata, and none.

• auto: Indicates that the whole video file could be downloaded, even if the user does not eventually watch the video. On the positive side, if the viewer plays the video, it can start playing immediately. On the negative side, this option will increase bandwidth consumption as the preload/load happens even if the viewer does not play the video.

• metadata (default): Load the meta data of the video, which includes information like the duration and dimensions of the video. This setting will also load several seconds of video data.

• none: Don't preload any of the video data. This will wait until the user clicks play to begin downloading.

    <video-js preload ...>
    or
    { "preload": "auto" }

query_string_to_window

query_string_to_window information:

1. • Name: query_string_to_window.target
   • Data type: string
   • Description: A destination object to create on the window, which will be populated with the entire parsed query string. For example, a use of query_string_to_window.target given the following in a player configuration:

         {
         "query_string_to_window": {"target": "queryStringParams"}
         }

     and given the following query string:

         ?foo=bar&nums=1&nums=2

     would yield the following window.queryStringParams global object would be available to the player and plugins:

         {
         foo: 'bar',
         nums: ['1', '2']
         }

2. • Name: query_string_to_window.globals
   • Data type: Array
   • Description: An array of property names of the window object, which will be populated from values found in the query string. Any matching properties that already exist on the window object or its prototype chain will not be set. For example, a use of query_string_to_window.globals given the following in a player configuration:

         {
         "query_string_to_window": {
           "globals": [
             "foo",
             "nums",
             "self"
           ]
         }
         }

     and give the following query string:

         ?foo=bar&nums=1&nums=2&self=not-allowed

     would yield the following window global object with the following properties added:

         window.foo; // 'bar'
         window.nums; // ['1', '2']
     
         // Because `self` already exists on the `window` object, it will not be set
         // and a warning will be logged to the browser console.
         window.self; // window

repeat

repeat information:

• Data type is boolean
• Will cause a playlist to repeat playing IF the player is a playlist player. Set at the top level of the player configuration.

responsive

responsive information:

• Data type: boolean
• Default: true
• Setting this option to true will cause the player to customize itself based on responsive breakpoints (see: breakpoints option).

For full details on this feature being enabled see the release notes for Brightcove Player 6.29.2.

scripts

scripts information:

• The data type is an array of strings referencing JavaScript files that are included with the player
• No default value
• At the time the player is built, these files will be downloaded and inlined into the resulting output so that they do not need to be subsequently fetched at runtime
• Scripts are inlined in the order they are specified so you can safely include scripts that depend on one another

skin

skin information:

• Data type: boolean or string
• Default: undefined
• Determines the visual style variant that the player will use. This value is also reflected in the globally-accessible bc.SKIN property in the browser. It recognizes the following values:

  Value	bc.SKIN	Description
  "graphite"	"graphite"	Uses the old Brightcove Player style as well as some compatibility hacks.
  false	"none"	Disables all Brightcove Player styling. This is the option to use for a highly customized UI from the ground up.
  undefined	"luna"	Leaving this undefined will cause the player to use the default skin (a.k.a. Luna).
  "sapphire"	"sapphire"	Default skin when using Video Cloud Studio to create players, but not the default for the player itself.

stylesheets

stylesheets information:

• An array of URL strings referencing CSS files that should be included with the player
• At the time the player is built, the additional stylesheets are downloaded and inlined into the player so that they do not need to be fetched at runtime
• Stylesheets are included in the order you specify them

techOrder

techOrder information:

• Data type: Array
• Default: ['html5','flash']
• By default Brightcove Player performs tech-first ordering when it searches for a source/tech combination to play videos. This means that if you have two sources and two techs, the player will try to play each video with the first tech in the techOrder option property before moving on to try the next playback technology. See the Guide: Playback Technology document for more information.

You can use the following curl statement to change the techOrder from the default of ['html5','flash'] to ['flash','html5']:

    curl \
      --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
      --user $EMAIL \
      --request PATCH \
      --data '{
          "techOrder": "['flash','html']"
         }' \
      https://players.api.brightcove.com/v2/accounts//players//configuration

version

You can manually set the player version using the PLAYERS module JSON Editor.

volume_orientation

volume_orientation information:

• Data type: string
• Default: horizontal
• The volume_orientation property determines if the volume level slider is oriented horizontally or vertically.

  

  

You can use either Studio or curl to change the value of the property:

    curl \
      --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
      --user $EMAIL \
      --request PATCH \
      --data '{
          "volume_orientation": "vertical"
         }' \
      https://players.api.brightcove.com/v2/accounts//players//configuration

vttjs

vttjs information:

• Data type: string
• Default: vjs.zencdn.net CDN
• Sets the URL from which to load vtt.js. This is the same as the standard Video.js option vtt.js. The Brightcove Player uses vttjs instead as a dotted property name is not possible to use in the Player Management API, and may be problematic elsewhere. The option can be set as a data-vttjs attribute, a vttjs iframe query parameter, a vttjs setup option or vttjs in the player configuration.

wait_for_ad_block_detect

wait_for_ad_block_detect information:

• Data type: boolean
• Default: undefined
• When set to true, the player will delay its auto-initialization process until after the ad-block detection has made a decision. This may delay player initialization by up to 100 milliseconds or so. This does not need to be set to true when using ad_failover as the delaying behavior occurs in both cases.