@aarsteinmedia/dotlottie-player

AM LottiePlayer

We proudly claim this to be the most versatile, lightweight and efficient Lottie Player Web Component available. It's compatible with server side rendering, and completely framework agnostic.

PS: If you only need to render animations as SVG, and don't need to convert or combine animations on the fly, we've made light version: @aarsteinmedia/dotlottie-player-light.

Demo

Here is a demo, running on Next.js 13 using TypeScript.

Installation

In HTML

• Import from CDN:

<script src="https://unpkg.com/@aarsteinmedia/dotlottie-player@latest/dist/index.js"></script>

• Import from node_modules directory:

<script src="/node_modules/@aarsteinmedia/dotlottie-player/dist/index.js"></script>

In JavaScript or TypeScript

1. Install using npm or yarn:

npm install --save @aarsteinmedia/dotlottie-player

2. Import in your app:

import '@aarsteinmedia/dotlottie-player'

Usage

Add the element dotlottie-player to your markup and point src to a Lottie animation of your choice. If you're working in SSR environments like Next.js or Nuxt.js, it might be a good idea to set reflective booleans (like autoplay, controls and loop) to an empty string instead of true – to mimic how modern browsers treats these values in markup, as opposed to how Node.js treats them. This way you avoid hydration errors.

<dotlottie-player
  autoplay=""
  controls=""
  subframe=""
  loop=""
  src="https://storage.googleapis.com/aarsteinmedia/am.lottie"
  style="width: 320px; margin: auto;"
>
</dotlottie-player>

Load animation

To set animations programmatically, use the load() method.

const lottiePlayer = document.querySelector('dotlottie-player')
lottiePlayer.load('https://storage.googleapis.com/aarsteinmedia/am.lottie')

Convert to dotLottie

If you have a Lottie JSON animation and want to convert it to a dotLottie – to leverage compression, combine multiple animations in one file and keep your file library tidy with a discrete file extension – you can do so with the convert() method. This will trigger a download in the browser. If you have controls set to visible there's a convert button visible for JSON files.

Combine animations

If you want to combine multiple animations in one single dotLottie file you can use the addAnimation method. This will trigger a download in the browser. The source files can be either dotLottie or JSON, and the output file will will always be a dotLottie.

const lottiePlayer = document.querySelector('dotlottie-player')
(async () => {
  await lottiePlayer?.addAnimation([
    { id: 'animation_1', url: '/url/to/animation_1.lottie' },
    { id: 'animation_2', url: '/url/to/animation_2.json', direction: -1, speed: 2 }
  ])
}()) 

You can also use this method independent of any Lottie player on the page, as long as the script is loaded, of course.

(async () => {
  await dotLottiePlayer().addAnimation([
    { id: 'animation_1', url: '/path/to/animation_1.lottie' },
    { id: 'animation_2', url: '/path/to/animation_2.json', direction: -1, speed: 2 }
  ])
}())

The new file wil automatically load the first animation when initialized. You can toggle between animations with the next() and prev() methods, or you can use the navigation buttons in the controls.

If you add multiAnimationSettings to the markup you can control the playback of multiple animations. In the example below the first animation will play once, and then the next animation will loop:

<dotlottie-player
  subframe=""
  src="/path/to/combined-animations.lottie"
  multiAnimationSettings='[{"autplay": true}, {"autoplay": true, "loop": true}]'
>
</dotlottie-player>  

Angular

1. Import the component in app.component.ts.

import { Component } from '@angular/core'
import '@aarsteinmedia/dotlottie-player'

@Component({
  selector: 'app-root',
  templateUrl: './app.component.html',
  styleUrls: ['./app.component.scss']
})
export class AppComponent {
  title = 'your-app-name';
}

2. Add the player to your html template.

React.js / Next.js

If you've already imported the library in a parent component, you don't need to import it again in children of that component. If you want to assign the element a CSS class note that you need to use the class namespace, and not className.

import '@aarsteinmedia/dotlottie-player'

function App() {
  return (
    <dotlottie-player
      class="your-class-name"
      src="https://storage.googleapis.com/aarsteinmedia/am.lottie"
      autoplay=""
      controls=""
      loop=""
      style={{
        width: '320px',
        margin: 'auto'
      }}
    />
  )
}

export default App

If you're using TypeScript and want to assign the component a ref, you can do it like this:

import { useRef } from 'react'
import '@aarsteinmedia/dotlottie-player'
import type { DotLottiePlayer } from '@aarsteinmedia/dotlottie-player'

function App() {
  const animation = useRef<DotLottiePlayer | null>(null)
  return (
    <dotlottie-player
      ref={animation}
      subframe=""
      src="https://storage.googleapis.com/aarsteinmedia/am.lottie"
    />
  )
}

export default App

Vue.js / Nuxt.js (using Vite.js)

Compared to React and Angular there's a couple of extra steps, but surely nothing too daunting.

1. Declare the dotlottie-player tag as a custom element, to prevent Vue from attempting to resolve it.

In Vue.js

vite.config.ts:

import { defineConfig } from 'vite'
import vue from '@vitejs/plugin-vue'

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [
    vue({
      template: {
        compilerOptions: {
          isCustomElement: (tag: string) => ['dotlottie-player'].includes(tag),
        }
      }
    })
  ]
})

In Nuxt.js

nuxt.config.ts:

export default defineNuxtConfig({
  vue: {
    compilerOptions: {
      isCustomElement: (tag: string) => ['dotlottie-player'].includes(tag),
    }
  }
})

2. Import/initiate the component.

In Vue.js

main.ts:

import { createApp } from 'vue'
import { DotLottiePlayer } from '@aarsteinmedia/dotlottie-player'
import App from './App.vue'

const app = createApp(App)
app.component('DotLottiePlayer', DotLottiePlayer)

In Nuxt.js

Create a plugins folder in your root if it doesn't exist already, add a file named dotlottie-player.js:

import { DotLottiePlayer } from '@aarsteinmedia/dotlottie-player'

export default defineNuxtPlugin(({ vueApp }) => {
  vueApp.component('DotLottiePlayer', DotLottiePlayer)
})

3. The component can now be used in your pages or components template tags.

<template>
  <dotlottie-player
    src="https://storage.googleapis.com/aarsteinmedia/am.lottie"
    autoplay=""
    controls=""
    subframe=""
    loop=""
    style="width: 320px; margin: auto;"
  />
</template>

Properties

Property / Attribute	Description	Type	Default
autoplay	Play animation on load	boolean	false
background	Background color	string	undefined
controls	Show controls	boolean	false
count	Number of times to loop animation	number	undefined
direction	Direction of animation	1 | -1	1
hover	Whether to play on mouse hover	boolean	false
loop	Whether to loop animation	boolean	false
mode	Play mode	normal | bounce	normal
multiAnimationSettings	Control playback of multianimation files. Write a valid JSON array (as string) with properties like autoplay, loop, etc.	object[]	undefined
objectfit	Resizing of animation in container	contain | cover | fill | none	contain
renderer	Renderer to use	svg | canvas | html	svg
segment	Play only part of an animation. E. g. from frame 10 to frame 60 would be [10, 60]	[number, number]	undefined
speed	Animation speed	number	1
src (required)	URL to LottieJSON or dotLottie	string	undefined
subframe	When enabled this can help to reduce flicker on some animations, especially on Safari and iOS devices.	boolean	false

Methods

Method	Function
addAnimation(config: Config[]) => void	Add animation. Triggers download of new dotLottie file.
convert() => void	If the current animation is in JSON format – convert it to dotLottie. Triggers a download in the browser.
destroy() => void	Nullify animation and remove element from the DOM.
getLottie() => AnimationItem | null	Returns the lottie-web instance used in the component
load(src: string) => void	Load animation by URL or JSON object
next() => void	Next animation (if several in file)
pause() => void	Pause
prev() => void	Previous animation (if several in file)
play() => void	Play
reload() => void	Reload
seek(value: number | string) => void	Go to frame. Can be a number or a percentage string (e. g. 50%).
setCount(value: number) => void	Dynamically set number of loops
setDirection(value: 1 | -1) => void	Set Direction
setLooping(value: boolean) => void	Set Looping
setSpeed(value?: number) => void	Set Speed
setSubframe(value: boolean) => void	Set subframe
snapshot() => string	Snapshot the current frame as SVG. Triggers a download in the browser.
stop() => void	Stop
toggleBoomerang() => void	Toggle between bounce and normal
toggleLooping() => void	Toggle looping
togglePlay() => void	Toggle play

Events

The following events are exposed and can be listened to via addEventListener calls.

Name	Description
complete	Animation is complete – including all loops
destroyed	Animation is destroyed
error	The source cannot be parsed, fails to load or has format errors
frame	A new frame is entered
freeze	Animation is paused due to player being out of view
load	Animation is loaded
loop	A loop is completed
play	Animation has started playing
pause	Animation has paused
ready	Animation is loaded and player is ready
stop	Animation has stopped

WordPress Plugins

We've made a free WordPress plugin that works with Gutenberg Blocks, Elementor, Divi Builder and Flatsome UX Builder: AM LottiePlayer. It has all the functionality of this package, with a helpful user interface.

It's super lightweight – and only loads on pages where animations are used.

We've also made a premium WordPress plugin for purchase: AM LottiePlayerPRO. It has an easy-to-use GUI for combining and controlling multiple Lottie animations in a single file, converting JSON to dotLottie with drag-and-drop, and many more exclusive features.

License

GPL-2.0-or-later