IBM Video Streaming Web Player API

Enables sites using the IBM Video Streaming embed iframe to build and adapt on the embed live player.

The Player API provides basic methods to control the live stream or recorded video playback, and enables the user to access essential events of the live stream or the played video.

The Player API requires the postMessage DOM API, it won’t work in browsers that does not support the postMessage API.

Download

npm install ibm-video-streaming-web-player-api

Usage

Create an instance of the Embed API by providing the ID of the iframe, or the iframe DOM object itself:

<iframe
    id="iframeId"
    src="//ustream.tv/embed/1524"
    width="640"
    height="480"
    allowfullscreen
    webkitallowfullscreen
></iframe>

global variable

const viewer = window.PlayerAPI('iframeId');

es modules

import PlayerAPI from 'ibm-video-streaming-web-player-api';

const viewer = PlayerAPI('iframeId'); // id or HTMLIFrameElement reference

The IBM Video Streaming Player API provides the following methods:

• callMethod
• getProperty
• addListener
• removeListener

URL parameters

The default behaviour of the player can be modified by extending the src URL with any of the following parameters:

Parameter	Effect	Values	Default
allowfullscreen	Enables full-screen. False value makes the full-screen button inactive.	true/false	true
api-target-origin	Origin of the page where player api is included. Use encodeURIComponent to URL encode origin. This parameter is only required in case of SSO authentication.	URL encoded origin e.g. output of encodeURIComponent('https://video.ibm.com')	N/A
autoplay	Starts video playback automatically. Browser settings are stronger and may override the value of this parameter.	true/false	false
controls	When set to false it hides all UI elements.	true/false	true
forced-quality	Turns off the automatic quality selection and selects the appropriate quality. Low is the smallest available quality, high is the largest and med is the middlemost choice.	low, med, high	N/A
hideCTA	Disables CTA overlays. Use liveCtaUpdate event to build your own.	true/false	false
initial-quality	Sets the initial quality for the automatic quality selection. The quality selection logic is still turned on and can switch to another quality after playback is started.	low, med, high	N/A
showtitle	Shows title and viewer count information inside the player area.	true/false	true
volume	Set volume for playback as a percentage of the max volume. Overrides the default volume (100).	0-100	100

callMethod

Calls a command method of the embed player, passing in any arguments.

Available commands through callMethod:

play

Starts playing the currently loaded channel or video.

Example:

viewer.callMethod('play');

pause

Pauses the live stream, or the playback of a video.

Example:

viewer.callMethod('pause');

stop

Pauses the live stream, or stops the video and jumps back to the start.

Example:

viewer.callMethod('stop');

load

Loads a channel or a video in the player. Requires two additional arguments:

• type - the loaded content type (channel | video)
• id - the loaded content id

Example:

viewer.callMethod('load', 'video', 5903947);
viewer.callMethod('load', 'channel', 1524);

seek

Jumps to given position in played recorded video.

Requires one argument:

• position in seconds

Example:

viewer.callMethod('seek', 180);

volume

Sets the playback sound volume

Requires one argument:

• volume percent between 0-100

Example:

viewer.callMethod('volume', 0); // mute

quality

Sets the stream quality, if available.

Requires one argument:

• a qualityID key from received quality options in quality event

Example:

viewer.callMethod('quality', 0); // set to highest quality

cc (closed caption)

Displays the selected closed caption if available. You can use the ‘None’ option by using -1 as the argumnet. Otherwise it requires this argument:

Requires one argument:

• an index key from the received closed caption object in cc event

Example:

viewer.callMethod('cc', 1); //enables the closed caption with index 1
viewer.callMethod('cc', -1); //disables the closed caption

---

getProperty

Read a property of the embed player.

This method is asynchronous, the data will be passed to a callback function, given as argument.

Accessible properties by getProperty:

duration

Get the video duration in seconds.

Example:

viewer.getProperty('duration', function (duration) {
    // passed value is e.g. 120.345
    ...
});

viewers

Get the current viewer count for the loaded live stream.

Example:

viewer.getProperty('viewers', function (viewerNumber) {
    ...
});

allTimeTotalViewers

Get the accumulated total viewer number for the loaded channel. Doesn’t return anything in case of videos.

Example:

viewer.getProperty('allTimeTotalViewers', function (allTimeTotalViewers) {
    ...
});

progress

Get the current progress for recorded video playback, in seconds.

Example:

viewer.getProperty('progress', function (progress) {
    ...
});

content

Get the loaded content type and id as an array.

Example:

viewer.getProperty('content', function (content) {
    // content == ['channel', 1524]
    // or
    // content == ['recorded', 123456]
    ...
});

playingContent

Get the actual content type and id as an array. This will return the currently played offair video's id if the loaded content is an offair channel or with the channel id if the channel is live.

Example:

viewer.callMethod('load', 'channel', 1524);

// ...

viewer.getProperty('playingContent', function (content) {
    // content == ['channel', 1524]
    //  - if it's live, or
    // content == ['recorded', 123456]
    //  - if it's offair and has offair video content, or
    // content == []
    //  - if it's offair and doesn't have offair video content
});

volume

Get the player volume. This will return the actual value of volume in percents.

Example:

viewer.getProperty('volume', function (volume) {
    // volume == 0 for muted playback
    ...
});

---

addListener & removeListener

The embed player dispatches several events during playback. This method adds or removes event handlers to these events.

The event handler callback receives two arguments:

• type the type of the event
• data optional data sent along the event

Available events for addListener and removeListener:

live

Called when the currently loaded offline channel becomes live.

Example:

viewer.addListener('live', callBack);

offline

Called when the currently loaded live channel goes offline.

Example:

viewer.addListener('offline', callBack);

finished

Called when the currently loaded and played recorded video reaches its end.

Example:

viewer.addListener('finished', callBack);

playing

Called when the currently loaded content playback is started or stopped

Sends data along the event:

• playing (boolean)

Example:

viewer.addListener('playing', callBack);

size

Called when the stream size is available, or changed (changes reported only in flash mode)

Sent data is the size of the calculated embed iframe according to the player width, and the stream aspect ratio. The player bar height is included, if the controls are visible.

Sends data along the event:

• size (array) as [width, height] in pixels

Example:

viewer.addListener('size', callBack);

quality

Fired when the stream quality options are available.

Receives an array of quality objects, in which are the following keys:

• id (number) the id with which the quality method can be called
• codec (string)
• width (number) width of the quality version in pixels
• height (number) height of the quality version in pixels
• bitrate (number) actual bitrate value in kbps
• transcoded (boolean) is this quality one of the transcoded versions or the original ingested quality
• label (object): its text key has the text to show to users on control UI, eg.: “480p”
• selected (boolean) is this quality set to display

Example:

viewer.addListener('quality', callBack);

// example payload
[
    {
        "id": 0,
        "codec": "avc1.4d001f",
        "bitrate": 1406,
        "transcoded": false,
        "width": 1280,
        "height": 720,
        "label": {
            "text": "720p",
            "suffix": " HD",
            "bitrate": " @ 1.4 Mbps"
        },
        "selected": false
    },
]

cc

Fired when there are closed captions available on the stream.

Returns an array containing closed captions as objects.

• index (number) unique index of the closed caption
• label (string) displayed label of the closed caption
• language (string) ISO language code of the closed caption
• country (string) ISO code of country
• active (boolean) height of the quality version in pixels

Example:

viewer.addListener('cc', callBack);

// example payload
[
    {
        "index": 0,
        "label": "Spanish",
        "language": "es",
        "country": "00",
        "active": true
    }
]

content

Called when a the player content changes for some reason. Same data as received in getProperty('content')

Received arguments: data (array)

Example:

viewer.addListener('content', callBack);

liveCtaUpdate

Fired when there is a live cta available on the stream.

Returns an object:

• buttonText (string) text of the button
• buttonUrl (string) URL of CTA
• description (string) description of CTA
• id (integer) id of CTA
• imageUrl (string) URL of the image
• title (string) title of CTA

Example:

viewer.addListener('liveCtaUpdate', callBack);

// example payload
{
    activate: {
        buttonText: "Click here!"
        buttonUrl: "https://video.ibm.com"
        description: "The Future of Video with Watson",
        id: 123,
        imageUrl: "URL of image",
        title: "IBM Video Streaming"
    }
}