Vanilla Javascript self-contained HTML5 video player

Use this library to replace the default HTML5 video controls with custom graphics. Default control graphics for play/pause, mute/unmute and progress bars can be styled with different colors and dimensions. Custom images can also be defined through the constructor to replace some or all 4 icons (play,pause,mute,unmute).

Prerequisites

Node 12+
npm 6+

Installation

npm install --save tiny-video-player

Usage

Script tag:

<script src="https://unpkg.com/tiny-video-player/index.js"></script>

ES Module Import:

import TinyVideoPlayer from 'tiny-video-player/index.mjs';

CommonJS Module Import:

const TinyVideoPlayer = require('tiny-video-player');

Constructor:

The first three constructor arguments are required. The 4th arg is optional.

1. source: path to the video file or an array of paths that will be used to generate the video tag
2. width: video width (integer)
3. height: video height (integer)
4. options: object details below

TinyVideoPlayer(source: string | string[], width: number, height: number, options: object)

Minimal Instantiation

After loading TinyVideoPlayer via scrip tag or import

var myPlayer = new TinyVideoPlayer('my-video.mp4', 320, 180);
// this will create a video tag with the default custom controls in document.body

Basic Customization

You can pass several video sources in an array as the first argument. All options are wrapped in an object and passed through the fourth argument in the constructor. Options include container element, theme colors, margins, icon positions (left/right), progress bar thickness and position (above/below icons) etc see full options.

var options = {container: '#my_container', poster:'poster.jpg', autoplay:true, muted:true, barheight:1, left:5, color1:'00b3e3', color2:'ffffff'};
var myPlayer = new TinyVideoPlayer(['my-video.mp4', 'my-video.webm', 'my-video.ogv'], 320, 180, options);
// the options specified above will display poster.jpg until the video loads,
// the video will autoplay muted, the progress bar will be 1px thick and the color #00b3e3
// the play,pause,mute,unmute color will also be #00b3e3
// color2 is a secondary color that is used for the semi-transparent buffer indicator etc

Advanced Customization

The default play, pause, mute, unmute icons can be overridden with custom images. Each icon must be explicitly overridden allowing for mix and match scenarios. You can use individual images or a sprite-sheet to replace some or all of the 4 icons. All custom icon options must be defined within an object named 'icons'. Use the url property to point to your image(s) and use the coordinate properties (w,h,bw,bh,x,y) to define which imagery should be used for each icon. see full options.

var separateImages = {play:{url:'play.png'},pause:{url:'pause.png'}};
var myPlayer = new TinyVideoPlayer('video-one.mp4', 320, 180, {poster:'poster.jpg', color1:'cc00cc', icons:separateImages});
// this is a minimal implementation of custom play and pause icons using individual image files
// only play and pause have been defined so the default mute and unmute buttons will be used
// no coordinates or dimensions have been specified, so the default values will be used based on the default icons
var spriteSheet = {w:15,h:15,bw:30,bh:30,url:'sprite.png',play:{x:0,y:0},pause:{x:-15,y:0},mute:{x:0,y:-15},unmute:{x:-15,-15}}
var myPlayer2 = new TinyVideoPlayer('video-two.mp4', 320, 180, {poster:'poster.jpg', color1:'336699', icons:spriteSheet});
// this is a demonstration of a 30x30px square sprite-sheet containing 4 15x15px icons (play:top-left, pause:top-right, mute:bottom-left, unmute:bottom-right)
// the properies w,h,bw,bh,url specified on the root of the icons object will be inherited by play,pause,mute,unmute unless overridden within those child objects
// w,h define the universal dimension for each icon, bw,bh (background-width/height) define CSS background-size
// x,y supply CSS background-position coordinates (just like any sprite-sheet)
// w,h are only specified on the root while x,y are only specified within play,pause,mute,unmute child objects
// url,bw,bh can all be overridden inside individual child objects

Touch-screen Detection

If touch-screen capability with mobile attributes is detected, the native video controls will be used instead. The TinyVideoPlayer object makes no attempt to style the shadow DOM. If the option posterTouch has been specified it, will be implemented otherwise poster will be used if available. Differentiation between a laptop with touch capability and a tablet cannot be guaranteed. The touch-screen detection can be disabled by passing 'ignoreTouch:true' via the options argument, but disabling touch detection is strongly discouraged. Cuepoint functionality should work for touch-screen devices provided that the video is playing inline (not fullscreen).

Methods

This lib mimics the functionality of the native html5 video element. Most methods are exactly the same as the native player.

play()

myPlayer.play();

pause()

myPlayer.pause();

showControls(Boolean)

myPlayer.showControls(true);

Getters

muted : Boolean

var isMuted = myPlayer.muted;

currentTime : Number

var secondsElapsed = myPlayer.currentTime;

seeking : Boolean

var isSeeking = myPlayer.seeking;

controlsElement : HTMLElement

Returns the the current TinyVideoPlayer object

var controlsElem = myPlayer.controlsElement;

videoElement : HTMLElement

Returns the video element associated with the current TinyVideoPlayer object

var myVideoElem = myPlayer.videoElement;

Setters

muted : Boolean

myPlayer.muted = true;

currentTime : Number

Seeks video to the specified time in seconds

myPlayer.currentTime = 5.25;

Events

Any event listeners added to the TinyVideoPlayer instance will be forwarded on to the video element.

generic events

myPlayer.addEventListener('mouseover', myHandler);
// is equivalent to...
myVideoElem.addEventListener('mouseover', myHandler);

cuepoint events (when present)

myPlayer.addEventListener('cuepoint', function(e){
  window.console.log(e.detail);
  // e.detail.data (optional data defined in constructor)
  // e.detail.time (time defined in constructor)
  // e.detail.actual (actual video.currentTime +-0.02 seconds approx)
});

Options

All options below are passed inside a container object as the second argument in the constructor. All options that take Number values should be unit-less (no px/%/em units)

poster : String (default: undefined)

Path to an image that will display until playback has started

posterTouch : String (default: undefined)

Path to an image that will display until playback has started specifically for touch-screen scenarios. An animated GIF poster may be well suited for a desktop browser, but touch-screen devices often add a play button overlay to video elements, hence the need for this option. If not posterTouch is not specified, the normal poster will be shown if available.

id : String (default: 'vc[number]')

Specifies an id for the video element being created

container : CSS Selector or HTMLElement (default: document.body)

Specifies target element for the video element to be created appended to

playsinline : Boolean (default: true)

For touch-screen devices: specifies whether or not the video should attempt to play without going fullscreen

muted : Boolean (default: false)

Specifies whether video playback should start with the sound muted or unmuted

audio : Boolean (default: true)

Specifies whether or not to display the sound toggle button. Can be set to false for videos with no audio track.

autoplay : Boolean (default: false)

Specifies whether video playback should start immediately without user interaction

cuepoints : Array (default: undefined)

Specifies an array of objects containing times and optional data that will be dispatched via events at pre-determined time codes in the video. Example: [{time: 1.2, data: 'one'}, {time: 3.4, data: 'two'}, {time: 5.67}] See events section for more detail regarding listening for cuepoint events

cuepoints.cuepoint : Object (default: undefined)

Specifies an individual cue point within the cuepoint array. Each cuepoint is an object with the required member (time:[number in seconds]) and an optional member (data:[any type]). Example: {time: 2.45, data: 'whatever'}

left : Number (default: 0)

Defines margin in pixels from both sides of the video with left indicating that the icons should be left-aligned

right : Number (default: 0)

Defines margin in pixels from both sides of the video with right indicating that the icons should be right-aligned. If values for both left and right are passed, left will be ignored.

color1 : String (default: 'cc0000')

Defines the main color that will be used for the default icons and progress bar. Six digit hex color values only. Do not include '#' before the hex number.

color2 : String (default: 'ffffff')

Defines the secondary color that will be used for the progress bar background, buffer indicator and icon hover background color. The secondary color is never fully opaque, so white or black will work best in most cases. Six digit hex color values only. Do not include '#' before the hex number.

barheight : Number (default: 4)

Defines the thickness of the progress bar in pixels

below : Boolean (default: false)

Specifies whether the progress bar should be underneath the icons

propagation : Boolean (default: true)

If set to false, event propagation will be stopped on all videocontrol mouse events. You may need to set this to false when adding mouse listeners to the parentNode containing the video.

icons : Object (default: undefined)

Complex object used to define custom icons. See below.

icons.w : Number (default: 15)

Specifies a universal icon width in pixels

icons.h : Number (default: 15)

Specifies a universal icon height in pixels

icons.url : String (default: undefined)

Specifies a path to a sprite-sheet image. bw,bh must be specified in conjunction with this option. See below.

icons.bw : Number (default: 15)

Specifies a CSS background-size (width) in pixels for the image specified in icons.url

icons.bh : Number (default: 15)

Specifies a CSS background-size (height) in pixels for the image specified in icons.url

icons.[icon] : Object (default: undefined)

icons.[icon] is a convention only used here in the documentation to refer to the 4 individual child icon objects icons.play, icons.pause, icon.mute, icon.unmute

icons.[icon].x : Number (default: 0)

Specifies a CSS background-position (x) in pixels for the image specified in icons.url or icons.[icon].url

icons.[icon].y : Number (default: 0)

Specifies a CSS background-position (y) in pixels for the image specified in icons.url or icons.[icon].url

icons.[icon].url : String (default: icon.url)

Specifies a path to an individual image or sprite-sheet for a specific icon

icons.[icon].bw : Number (default: icon.bw)

Specifies a CSS background-size (width) in pixels for the image specified in icons.url or icons.[icon].url

icons.[icon].bh : Number (default: icon.bh)

Specifies a CSS background-size (height) in pixels for the image specified in icons.url or icons.[icon].url

ignoreTouch : Boolean (default: undefined)

If set to true, will disable touch-screen detection. Use this option with extreme caution. The default size of these controls is small and not touch-friendly. Additionally, many touch environments (like iPhone) will not permit autoplay or inline video.