External "Video for Everybody"

Important: This plugin is designed to operate on media files hosted
outside your WordPress site. It does not integrate with the Media library,
and it does not create the media files.

External “Video for Everybody” is a WordPress plugin that you can use to show
videos on your WordPress site. You enter a simple shortcode on your page, and
the plugin generates the HTML to deliver the media. Browsers that understand
the HTML5 tag will display MPEG/H.264 (.mp4) files, VP8/webm (.webm), or Ogg/Theora (.ogv) files. Other browsers can use Flash to play the .mp4. In all cases, the
markup includes links to download the media files. The HTML comes with
only minor variations straight from the Video for
Everybody model. See that site for fuller details.

Users can optionally use the
VideoJS JavaScript library to outfit their videos
with an attractive set of controls that includes a full screen option.

This plugin is not for everybody, even if the video tries to be. If I were not
writing my own plugin, I would probably be using the Degradable HTML5 audio
and video Plugin by Pavel Soukenik. My plugin uses and will follow the Video for
Everybody
approach. I also offer an options page where you can define site-wide default paths and dimensions. The defaults can be overridden in any particular shortcode, but if most of your video resides in the same place and has consistent dimensions, site-wide defaults keep the shortcodes simple. Soukenik’s
shortcodes give you more control over playback options.

Important: Most autobuffering problems have been settled, but
preloading (autobuffering) preferences are supported unevenly in some
older browers and versions of browsers. Depending on how many movies you
serve on a single page, and on how large they are, autobuffering can
significantly slow your clients’ browsers, and it can also hit your bandwidth.

For a discussion of autobuffering in html5 see:
http://daringfireball.net/2009/12/html5_video_unusable

Usage

A minimal shortcode takes the form

[external-vfe name="VIDEO"]

where VIDEO stands for the simple name of your video (without any file
extension).

name is the only required attribute. Optional attributes are:

• width (in pixels)
• height (in pixels)
• path (URL to the folder where you host your video files)
• query (to follow the file name in the URL; should start with “?”)
• include_poster (set to “true” to include a poster attribute in the video tag)
• webm_download (include a link to a webm file in the list of downloads)
• poster_extension (png, jpg, or gif)
• swf_file (The address to your Flash player)
• vjs (set to “true” to provide attractive video controls with full screen option)
• file_detector (try to detect remote files if “true”)
• access_cookie (if you need a simple cookie to access the remote files)

All of the above can also be set as defaults on the options page under:
Media > External VfE

The options page also includes two parameters that cannot be overridden for
an individual video:

• the ability to disable VideoJS so that the JavaScript and the style sheet will not load at all
• the option to disable the built-in style sheet

See the plugin home page for more details:
http://open.pages.kevinwiliarty.com/external-video-for-everybody/