ApsaraVideo VOD:Advanced features

Playback control

Autoplay

• ApsaraVideo Player SDK for Web supports autoplay.

  Many browsers have introduced stricter policies on autoplay. You cannot set the autoplay attribute or call the play() method to enable autoplay. Autoplay can be achieved through two methods: manual configuration by the user, or playing muted videos. For example, after the player is initialized, you can call the setVolume method to mute the videos.

  Note

  • The autoplay feature is not supported in the following desktop browsers:
    • Safari 11 and later in macOS High Sierra
    • Google Chrome 55 and later
  • Autoplay may be allowed in specific mobile browsers and WebView apps, especially those in Android.

  The following sample code provides an example on how to mute videos when you use an HTML5 player to play video streams based on playback URLs:

  // After the player is initialized, manually mute the video.
  
  var player = new Aliplayer({
  
  "id": "player-con",
  // The playback URL. Example: example.aliyundoc.com/video/****.mp4.
  "source":"<your URL>",
  
  "width": "100%",
  
  "height": "500px",
  
  "autoplay": true,
  
  "preload": true,
  
  "controlBarVisibility": "hover",
  
  "useH5Prism": true
  
  }, function (player) {
  
  player.mute()
  
  // Alternatively, you can call setVolume to set the player volume to 0.
  
  }
  
  );

• The autoplay feature can be enabled in WeChat for iOS. Sample code:

  <script src="http://res.wx.qq.com/open/js/jweixin-1.0.0.js"></script>
  <script>
  function autoPlay() {
              wx.config({
                  // The configuration information. The wx.ready method can be called even if the configuration information is invalid.
                  debug: false,    // false indicates that the debug mode is disabled and true indicates that the debug mode is enabled.
                  appId: '',       //appId
                  timestamp: 1,    // The timestamp when the signature is generated.
                  nonceStr: '', // A random string that is used to generate the signature.
                  signature: '',   // The signature.
                  jsApiList: []    // The required JS APIs.
              });
              wx.ready(function() {
                  if(player) // The ApsaraVideo Player object that is created.
                  {
                    player.play();
                  }
              });
      };
      // The video autoplay feature is enabled for iOS devices.
      autoPlay();
  </script>

Continuous playback

Customize the appearance and components of the player

ApsaraVideo Player SDK for Web allows you to customize the appearance of the player such as the player skin and specify whether to display the components of the player and the display area of each component. These components include the control bar and the error UI.

• Control bar

  You can set the skinLayout attribute to specify whether to display the UI components and the display area of each component. For more information, see Configure the skinLayout attribute.

  • The following code shows the default configurations of the HTML5 player provided by ApsaraVideo Player SDK for Web:

    skinLayout:[
       {name: "bigPlayButton", align: "blabs", x: 30, y: 80},
        {name: "H5Loading", align: "cc"},
        {name: "errorDisplay", align: "tlabs", x: 0, y: 0},
        {name: "infoDisplay"},
        {name:"tooltip", align:"blabs",x: 0, y: 56},
        {name: "thumbnail"},
        {
          name: "controlBar", align: "blabs", x: 0, y: 0,
          children: [
            {name: "progress", align: "blabs", x: 0, y: 44},
            {name: "playButton", align: "tl", x: 15, y: 12},
            {name: "timeDisplay", align: "tl", x: 10, y: 7},
            {name: "fullScreenButton", align: "tr", x: 10, y: 12},
            {name:"subtitle", align:"tr",x:15, y:12},
            {name:"setting", align:"tr",x:15, y:12},
            {name: "volume", align: "tr", x: 5, y: 10}
          ]
        }
      ]

  • The following code shows the default configurations of the Flash player provided by ApsaraVideo Player SDK for Web:

    skinLayout:[
        {name:"bigPlayButton", align:"blabs", x:30, y:80},
        {
          name:"controlBar", align:"blabs", x:0, y:0,
          children: [
            {name:"progress", align:"tlabs", x: 0, y:0},
            {name:"playButton", align:"tl", x:15, y:26},
            {name:"nextButton", align:"tl", x:10, y:26},
            {name:"timeDisplay", align:"tl", x:10, y:24},
            {name:"fullScreenButton", align:"tr", x:10, y:25},
            {name:"streamButton", align:"tr", x:10, y:23},
            {name:"volume", align:"tr", x:10, y:25}
          ]
        },
        {
          name:"fullControlBar", align:"tlabs", x:0, y:0,
          children: [
            {name:"fullTitle", align:"tl", x:25, y:6},
            {name:"fullNormalScreenButton", align:"tr", x:24, y:13},
            {name:"fullTimeDisplay", align:"tr", x:10, y:12},
            {name:"fullZoom", align:"cc"}
          ]
        }
    ]

• Error UI

  ApsaraVideo Player SDK for Web provides a default error UI. You can also customize the error UI by using one of the following two methods. For more information, see Customize the error UI for the HTML5 player.

  • Rewrite the CSS file of the default error UI

    You can customize the error UI based on the default layout of the player. You can rewrite the CSS file to change the background color, font, and position of the UI and specify whether to display the error message.

  • Define a new error UI

    To define a new error UI, you must subscribe to error events.

• Configure the player skin

  If the UI provided by ApsaraVideo Player SDK for Web cannot meet your business requirements, you can rewrite the CSS file to customize the player skin.

  Configure the skin for an HTML5 player

  Note For more information about the configurations, see the CSS file aliplayer-min.css of the player. The following sample code provides an example on how to configure a large play button. For more information, see Configure the player skin.

  .prism-player .prism-big-play-btn {
    width: 90px;
    height: 90px;
    background: url("//gw.alicdn.com/tps/TB1YuE3KFXXXXaAXFXXXXXXXXXX-256-512.png") no-repeat -2px -2px;
  }

  Configure the skin for a Flash player

  Store the skin.png and skin.xml files in the http://[domain]/[path]/ directory. Then, set the skinRes parameter to http://domain/path/skin for the player.

  Note The following sample code provides an example on how to configure a large play button. For more information, see Configure the player skin.

  <SubTexture name="bigPlayDown" x="2" y="94" width="90" height="90"/>
  <SubTexture name="bigPlayOver" x="94" y="2" width="90" height="90"/>
  <SubTexture name="bigPlayUp" x="2" y="2" width="90" height="90"/>

Customize the video thumbnail

Each video that you upload to ApsaraVideo VOD has a thumbnail. ApsaraVideo VOD provides multiple methods for you to change the thumbnail. Before you upload a video, you can specify an image or a video snapshot as the thumbnail. You can also change the thumbnail after the video is uploaded. You can configure the video thumbnail by using one of the following methods:

• Configure the video thumbnail in the ApsaraVideo VOD console. For more information, see Set the video thumbnail.
• Configure the video thumbnail by setting the cover parameter of the player.

  var player = new Aliplayer({
   "id": "player-con",
   "source":"//player.alicdn.com/video/aliyunm****.mp4",
    "cover":"Thumbnail URL",
  },
   function () { } 
  );

Video snapshots

ApsaraVideo Player SDK for Web of a version later than V2.1.0 allows you to capture snapshots during playback. The captured snapshots can be of the image or JPEG type. You must configure settings to enable the snapshot feature. When a snapshot is captured, the player returns Base64-encoded binary image data of the snapshot and the playback position at which the snapshot is captured in the source video.

Enable the snapshot feature

• Enable the snapshot feature for an HTML5 player
  Important You cannot capture snapshots from Flash Video (FLV) videos that are played in Safari. The snapshot button does not appear even if you enable the snapshot feature. Canvas is the element that enables the snapshot feature for an HTML5 player. You must add a header that is used to configure cross-origin resource sharing (CORS) for the playback domain. For more information, see Configure CORS.
  Add the settings of the snapshot UI to the skinLayout attribute. Sample code:

      skinLayout:[
      {name: "bigPlayButton", align: "blabs", x: 30, y: 80},
      {
        name: "H5Loading", align: "cc"
      },
      {name: "errorDisplay", align: "tlabs", x: 0, y: 0},
      {name: "infoDisplay"},
      {name:"tooltip", align:"blabs",x: 0, y: 56},
      {name: "thumbnail"},
      {
        name: "controlBar", align: "blabs", x: 0, y: 0,
        children: [
          {name: "progress", align: "blabs", x: 0, y: 44},
          {name: "playButton", align: "tl", x: 15, y: 12},
          {name: "timeDisplay", align: "tl", x: 10, y: 7},
          {name: "fullScreenButton", align: "tr", x: 10, y: 12},
          {name:"subtitle", align:"tr",x:15, y:12},
          {name:"setting", align:"tr",x:15, y:12},
          {name: "volume", align: "tr", x: 15, y: 10},
          {name: "snapshot", align: "tr", x: 5, y: 12},
        ]
      }
    ]

  To enable the snapshot feature for an HTML5 player, you must configure CORS for videos to allow anonymous requests. The following sample code provides an example:

    extraInfo:{
      crossOrigin:"anonymous"
    }

• Enable the snapshot feature for a Flash player
  Important You cannot capture snapshots during the playback of Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) streams.

  To enable the snapshot feature for a Flash player, you must set the snapshot parameter to true.

Set the snapshot size and quality

// Set the snapshot width to 300, height to 200, and quality to 0.9.
// The snapshot height and width are displayed in pixels. You can set the snapshot quality to a value ranging from 0 to 1. The default value is 1.
player.setSanpshotProperties(300,200,0.9)

Subscribe to the snapshot event

player.on("snapshoted", function(data) {
     console.log(data.paramData.time);
     console.log(data.paramData.base64);
     console.log(data.paramData.binary);
 });

Snapshot watermark

snapshotWatermark:{
    left:"100",
    top:"100",
    text:"test",
    font:"italic bold 48px arial",
    strokeColor:"red",
    fillColor:'green'
  }

Features for long videos

Adaptive bitrate switching for HLS streams

To play videos in multiple bitrates, you must set the source parameter to a multi-bitrate playback URL, which is called a master playlist. In addition, you must set the isVBR parameter to true. The adaptive bitrate switching feature supports automatic definition switching based on the network environment. You can also manually switch the definition as needed.

Obtain the playback URL

Obtain the playback URL of the video in multiple bitrates: player._hls.levels[player._hls.currentLevel].

varplayer = newAliplayer({
 "id":"player-con",
 "source":"Multi-bitrate playback URL",
 "isVBR":true,
 },
 function () { } 
);

The following figure shows the definition switching option after the configuration.

External subtitles

// Change the subtitle language.
var lang = 'zh-Hans/en-US';
player._ccService.switch(lang);
player._ccService.updateUI(lang); // The UI elements are not automatically updated. You can manually call API operations to update the UI elements.

// Turn on subtitles.
var result = player._ccService.open();
player._ccService.updateUI(result.language);

// Turn off subtitles.
player._ccService.close();
player._ccService.updateUI();

Multiple audio tracks

No manual configurations are required for ApsaraVideo Player SDK for Web. The following figure shows the effect of multiple audio tracks in the player.

Multiple languages

By default, ApsaraVideo Player SDK for Web supports Chinese and English and automatically switches between Chinese and English based on the language settings of the browser. ApsaraVideo Player SDK for Web allows you to customize other languages. ApsaraVideo Player SDK for Web allows you to play videos in multiple regions based on ApsaraVideo VOD. You can play videos stored in regions of Southeast Asia and Europe based on video IDs and playback credentials.

Usage notes for the language parameter

var player = new Aliplayer({
    id: "player-con",
    source: "",
    width: "100%",
    height: "500px",
    autoplay: true,
    language: "en-us",
  }, function (player) {
    console.log("The player is created.");
  });

Create a player with UI elements in English

var player = new Aliplayer({
 "id": "player-con",
 "source": "",
 "language": "en-us" // zh-cn indicates the Chinese language. en-us indicates the English language. 
 },
 function (player) {}
);

Customize a language for the player

If you want the player to support UI elements in languages besides Chinese and English, you must specify the languageTexts attribute, which contains a list of key-value pairs. The value of the language attribute indicates the key, and the JSON value indicates the UI elements to be translated into the specified language. Sample code:

var player = new Aliplayer({
 "id": "player-con",
 "source": "",
 "language": "CustomLanguage",// Specify a language in the STRING type.
"languageTexts":{
    "CustomLanguage":{
        "Pause":"Pause"
        // Other parameters. For more information, visit https://player.alicdn.com/lang.json? spm=a2c4g.11186623.0.0.5a746515vnwUSi&file=lang.json
            }
        }
    },
    function (player) {} 
);

ApsaraVideo Player SDK for Web allows you to play videos stored in the China (Shanghai), Germany (Frankfurt), and Singapore (Singapore) regions. You can play videos by using video IDs and playback credentials or by using Security Token Service (STS). The player parses the region information and obtains the playback URL of the video in this region.

• Playback based on video IDs and playback credentials: The player parses the region information from the playback credential to obtain the playback URL of the video. In this case, you do not need to specify the region in the configurations.
• STS-based playback: You can specify the region in which the video you want to play resides by setting the region parameter. Valid values for the region parameter: cn-shanghai, eu-central-1, and ap-southeast-1. Default value: cn-shanghai. The following sample code provides an example:

  var player = new Aliplayer({
      id: "player-con",
      width: "100%",
      height: "500px",
      autoplay: true,
      language: "en-us",
      vid : '1e067a2831b641db90d570b6480f****',
      accessKeyId: '',
      securityToken: '',
      accessKeySecret: ''
      region:'eu-central-1',// The Germany (Frankfurt) region.
    }, function (player) {
      console.log("The player is created.");
    });

Time shifting of live streaming in HTML5 players

• Enable time shifting
  • You must enable the time shifting feature in ApsaraVideo Live. For more information, see Time shifting.
  • The following table describes the attributes that you must set to enable the time shifting feature for a player.

    Attribute	Description
    isLive	Set the value to true.
    liveTimeShiftUrl	The URL that is used to query the time shifting information.
    liveStartTime	The start time of live streaming.
    liveOverTime	The end time of live streaming.
    liveShiftSource	The HLS URL for time shifting. Note This attribute is required only for FLV live streams.
    liveShiftMinOffset	A specific period of time is required for generating TS segments during time shifting. If you seek to a position that is extremely close to the current live streaming time, TS segments fail to be generated and a 404 error is reported. A minimum period of time must be specified between the seek position and the current live streaming time. You can set this parameter to specify a period of time in seconds. Default value: 30. A segment is generated every 10 seconds. This ensures that at least three segments exist.

• Time shifting UI
  The time shifting UI consists of a progress bar, which displays time in the area that supports time shifting.

  Note The time area displays the current playback time, end time of live streaming, and current live streaming time from left to right.
• Change the end time of live streaming
  You can call the liveShiftSerivce.setLiveTimeRange method to change the start and end time of live streaming. The UI changes when the start or end time changes. Sample code:

  player.liveShiftSerivce.setLiveTimeRange("",'2018/01/04 20:00:00')

• Switch between FLV and HLS formats for live streaming and time shifting

  To reduce latency, we recommend that you use the FLV format for live streams and the HLS format for time shifting streams.

  Configurations of ApsaraVideo Player SDK for Web:

  • source: The URL of the live stream in the FLV format.
  • liveShiftSource: The URL of the time shifting stream in the HLS format.

  Sample code:

  {
   source:'http://localhost/live****/example.flv',
   liveShiftSource:'http://localhost/live****/example.m3u8',
  }