Daiko’s YouTube Widget
Finally Daiko’s YouTube Widget is ready for you YouTube bloggers. It displays a pre-defined number of YouTube videos as thumbnail images and plays them in a pop-up ThickBox window or my very own VideoPlayer Widget (included and integrated). This gives you the power and flexibility to play your favourite YouTube videos on your site in the format you desire.
The widget also supports RSS-feeds from tag(s) and user(s). NEW from version 1.1.
Download
Download Daiko’s YouTube Widget v. 1.2.4 here.
Install
1. Download Daiko’s YouTube Widget and unzip.
2. Drag the daikos-video-widget folder to your /wp-content/plugins/ directory
3. Activate Daiko’s YouTube Widget on your Plugins page
4. Activate Daiko’s ThickBox plugin on your Plugins page (Optional for playing videos and show images. If you don’t like it use Daiko’s VideoPlayer Widget instead)
5. Drag your new Daiko’s YouTube Widget to your sidebar and start adding content (or add more than one)
6. Optionally drag your Daiko’s VideoPlayer to the sidebar you want your videos to be played
Instructions
Most of the Widget is self-explanatory. I’ll get back to you with a more detailed run through of the functionallity. The only thing you should be aware of is that you either need ThickBox activated or the VideoPlayer widget active to play the videos. When activating the VideoPlayer, it will override the ThickBox. You can mix them and specify what pages/posts the VideoPlayer is active and the ThickBox will be used on other pages/posts.
There is good support for Conditional Tags, meaning that you can specify where to show the widget. NEW in version 1.2.4 is support for “Post in Category(-ies)” where the point is to display the widget only if a post is in a specific category (or categories). It will also show in the category archive page(s). Specify the list of categories with comma separated category ID(WP<2.5) or name (WP>=2.5).
To make your video-list just open the widget-control-panel and add
your videos with the following syntax:
{YouTubeID}@{Title}(Line Brake)
Without the brackets.
Like this:
FBSvtnCr8Wc@Transjoik - Gievrie
dF0kMBTwDrM@Transjoik - Mustai Amaia
vkG7psgdl1o@Sámigiella - an Arctic nature language - The Sami language
5OJPwCXsKFI@Radio and TV give vitality to the language - Electronic media
6AwZrJfyW5M@Master in our own house - The Finnmark Act
NzupjHuvACk@Yoik'n Roll - Yoik/music
yCz-7Gnp1_M@Mun ja mun
zbeEEU_X_B0@Slincraze and Aimen with saami rap
t_xQN6s_COw@Sofia ja Anna - Du Čalmmit (your eyes)
5eveNk3o1ME@VAJAS - Sparrow of the wind
Add comma separated tag(s) and/or user(s) to add rss feeds to your selection of videos from where the displayed videos will be selected.
Daiko’s VideoPlayer selects its random display video from the specified videos in the 1st Daiko’s YouTube Widget (Daiko’s YouTube Widget 1).
Play with it and enjoy!
Be patient on the full description of the widget.
Known issues
The ThickBox (jQuery) tend to conflict with prototype.js and scriptaculous.jsSolved with WPs script loading function for jquery.js and a noConflict version of ThickBox.Some themes with a wide sidebar column on top of two columns underneath can break.Solved since I realized that I’d forgot to close a div.
If you have any sollutions for those issues, please report back…
Sorry for the frequent update to this widget (7 updates in one day). Most of them has been bug-fixes and - surprise surprise - IE fixes in positioning the play button correctly. Thank you Microsoft again for not being standards compliant. I’m since two years back a Mac user and will not return partly due to such idiotic problems that flows into most other windows based programs too.
Now most small fixes should be done. Latest version is now 1.0.7 and reports of other tweaks/bugs and feature requests are welcomed.
Hi. Can I add Your widget to my site manually? How?
Hi hon24,
The answer is no. The widget is totally dependent on Wordpress’ built in widget engine. Sorry!
Daiko
Is there anyway to use this widget outside wordpress (in my homepage) after being installed in wordpress?
How can I get rid of the white border around the video? I want the video widget on top of a gray sidebar, and the white around the video is most annoying.
Hi,Daiku:
Your widget is there but, being a noncoder,I don’t know how/where to put in my own videos.
ONLY one video at a time will be fine.Does this mean I only need the video player?
Thanks a lot
Ernie
Hi Justin,
The borders (and colors) are totally css driven and can be adjusted in the dytw.css file.
Note that there are 3 sizes in the css file so change the .DYTWWrapperOuter[small, medium or large] and .DYTWWrapperInner[small, medium or large] classes accordingly.
Good Luck!
Hi Ernie,
To add your videos, go to presentation/widgets page and place your widget. Then add the videos in the widget control panel once it is placed.
If you only want to display one video and you want it to be placed as a player. Try the Daiko’s Video Widget instead. You find it here on my site.
Daiko
Daiko,
Really love the widget but something happened where the thickbox effect is broken. I’ve tried uninstalling and reinstalling, changing the theme, nothing works. I can click on the videos, but the thickbox does not render in either Firefox or IE. This is pasted into the address bar…(http://www.forcedshaving.com/#TB_inline?height=385&width
=500&inlineId=flashcontent)but nothing renders.
Do you have any suggestions for troubleshooting this problem?
Slick
Hi Slick Willie,
I think you have some script conflict on your site. A peak on your source indicates that you load jquery.js twice in addition to loading prototype.js (known to conflict with jquery).
Try disabling both the live-search-popup and the ajax-comment-posting plugin. Check if the YouTube widget works after that.
To get rid of the conflict problem, decide on what plugin to keep. I’m hesitant to make a general fix because I haven’t found a solution that covers all variations. Keep me posted on what you choose and I’ll try to help you. I’ve managed to avoid the prototype.js conflict on my site (meaning that I might be able to help you with the live-search-plugin conflict).
Daiko
I’ve just installed this plugin on my website, it seem working but it has stop to work when I tried to change the number of videos to displat. Now I can’t do it working again.. I’ve tried to uninstall and re-install it but it doesn’t work.
On my test blog, similar to the real one, this plugin works perfectly.
What should I do to make it work again?
here my site (where don’t work): faro.x10hosting.com
here my test site (incredibly working on this!): phargon.netsons.org/blog
did anyone try this with sidebar modules?
I use a plugi nto disable widgets and use sidebar modules instead…
Hi ovidiu,
I don’t know if it works with sidebar modules. On the other hand sidebar modules does not work in WP 2.3. At least not the version available on http://nybblelabs.org.uk/
Keep me posted on this.
Hey daiko,
great plugin, thanx….nice design and functionality…still I’ve been trying for days now to get the popup to work…it pops up but is always empty….probably just my own blindness? any idea?
http://www.teelanovela.de/kab/
grokker
Hi Grokker,
The problem you have is in the theme. Most themes have a footer section with the following code:
<?php do_action(’wp_footer’); ?>
that allows widgets and plugins to write additional stuff in the footer. It is good that you identified that. I can check if I can come up with a solution for that.
One very simple solution to your problem is to add a simple text widget below the Daiko’s YouTube Widget with no title and the following text:
<!-- This is a container for the ThickBox pop-up player in Daiko's YouTube Widget -->
<div id="BigPlayer" style="display: none;">
<div id="flashcontent">
Loading....
</div>
</div>
<!-- End of container for the ThickBox pop-up player in Daiko's YouTube Widget -->
If you want to change your theme you can add
<?php do_action('wp_footer'); ?>
just before the /body tag in footer.php.
I hope this helps.
Rune
Is the new google video widget going to completely replace this? I look forward to seeing it. Also, I’m wondering if there’s a way to show a random video in the sidebar without having the second widget having to show up? thanks for the plugin - it rocks!
Hi Mike,
Well I think the new widget to some extent will replace this one but they might also live well as separate projects.
To your second question I wonder if you have missed Daiko’s Video Widget. It seems like it would serve your need…
Daiko
Help!!
I have been working on this all day now and am at a total loss. I have the YouTube Widget and the Thickbox Plugin installed and activated. I thought all had gone right. It showed the videos in the four boxes. Then I clicked on one and the pop up loaded as a blank screen. So I put the video widget in my sidebar. Well that was not much of an improvement. I know have the sidebar widget working somewhat. It know at least shows one of the videos but that is all it shows.
Thanks in advanced for the help
~Jeff C.
Hey Daiko,
Wouldn’t you know I find the problem not even 5 minutes after asking for help. It seems that it was conflicting with another Plugin I had activated. It seems that YouTube Widget and Viper’s Video Quicktags plugin don’t play nice
If anyone knows of a work-a-round for this I would love to know it.
~Jeff C.
Hi Jeff C,
I’ve indicated that the ThickBox player might have some problems with plugins or themes that use the prototype.js library. Usually that is the problem. I’ve tested the use of Viper’s excellent Video Plugin and that runs just fine together with the YouTube widget.
Keep me posted if you encounter more problems….
Daiko
Daiko,
Thank you for your reply. It is odd that you have been able to run it with Viper’s. I have tried twice now and it wouldn’t load the ThickBox either time. Unfortunately I ran into another problem that I am hopping you might be able to fix. It seems that YouTube Widget does not want to load the ThickBox on pages that have the new AdSense/YouTube video player on it.
Thanks again,
~Jeff C.
Hi Jeff C,
I’ve developed a noConflict version of the ThickBox plugin. Go grab latest version of the YouTube Widget here Daiko’s YouTube Widget. The noConflict fix is in place from version 1.1.10.
The ThickBox plugin should display version 1.2 and the YouTube Widget version 1.1.10.
Hope that helps….
Thank you for the fixes. It works fine now with both Viper’s widget and SearchEverything. It still, however, is loading an empty ThickBox when I have my AdSense/YouTube video active. So far that has not made me any AdSense clicks so I am going to test it through the end of the month and if I don’t make any money from it I’ll be tossing it and using your YouTube widget and Viper’s Widget for video.
Thanks again for all the help
~Jeff C.
Hi Daiko, great widget!
Just a couple of probs:
- when the Thickbox is activated, all the in the posts dissappear (ie no blank lines between sentences). Disable Thickbox and the paragraphs come back in the posts.
- Whatever is activated (your video or thickbox), the section the random video thumbnails are in, is a) VERY long (is there a way to shorten it so the thumbnails are in a box, like the other elements?), and b) is there any way to fix the rounded corner on the left of the title area for “random video’s”?
Cheers,
Gary
Hi Jeff,
I have a hard time checking the Adsense/YouTube issue since I’m in Europe and that feature in Adsense is only available in North America. When it is released in Europe I’ll be able to test it and see what can be done. Maybe some of the other users have an answer to this?
Hi Gary,
You are experiencing two conflicts, one with javascripts (a fix for that can be found in Version 1.1.10 of Daiko’s YouTube Widget. as described to Jeff C) the other is a css problem in your theme. A fix for the css problem has been sent to you by e-mail.
Hi Rune,
downloaded (and uploaded) the new version. Wrote over the older version.
No change I`m afraid. Even with your video widget de-activated, and the Thickbox activated, the paragraph breaks are lost.
With the video widget activated, still have the super-tall column, and the corrupted header (header for section I don’t mind so much…. ).
Didn’t get an email as yet, sorry.
Cheers
Great work with the plugin. I installed it and it works great but a friend told me that it doesn’t show in Internet Explorer (I’m a Firefox user), so I checked it on IE and he was right it isn’t showing. Did I do anything wrong?
Thanks!
Hi Kabalyero,
I’m not sure what it is you’re experiencing but I’ve checked it in IE and it works fine. Maybe you haven’t activated javascript support in IE, that might be a problem….
Daiko.
Hi Daiko, I strongly agree with you. I rarely use IE myself. I greatly appreciates your immediate response and to those using IE, get Firefox.
ive been trying for the last 2 days to get this working and haven’t yet been successful
http://www.popcop.co.uk/blog
please help
Hello,
I installed the You Tube Widget and I can’t get the videos to play, or pop up. I activated the thick box and deactivated it. Either way, the videos won’t play and their is an X next to the play button. Can you help me with what I’m doing wrong?
I installed the You Tube widget and I can see the videos, but they will not play or pop up. There is an X ext to the play button, and an error message at the bottom of the page. I activated Thick box, and it still is not working. I have Wordpress 2.3.1. Can you tell me what I might be doing wrong?
Hi Angela,
It seems like you have a problem in loading the scripts and css files. Did you copy the whole folder named “daikos-youtube-widget” to your plugins folder?
I think that is your problem…..
Daiko
Hello,
I reloaded the file and all of the fles are copied to my plugins. I am having the same problem as before.
I am geting this error messasge at the bottom of my web page.
Line: 191
Char: 1
Error: ‘SWFObject’ is undefined
Code: 0
Hi,
What puzzles me is that if I check your site’s code, everything seems to be OK. Several of my plugin files are supposed to load in your <head> section.
The problem comes when I check a couple of files, for example wp-content/plugins/daikos-youtube-widget/thickbox/thickbox.css (try clicking that link) and it says “Error 404: NOT FOUND!” whereas if I try to look at another plugin you have, for example the contact form plugin’s css file: wp-content/plugins/contactforms/styling/wide_open_nb_blue.css it shows up directly.
This tells me that you haven’t got a directory called “daikos-youtube-widget” in your plugins directory. If you downloaded it several times and unpacked it, it might have gotten another name automatically on your computer, like “daikos-youtube-widget-1″.
Rename the folder with all the plugins files or make sure you have the exact file structure I indicated in the last mail and try again.
Hope this helps.
Rune
Please W3 valid code :/
Hi antis3ptic,
Good point, comin’ up……
That’s when you get too function-centric….
Daiko
yes it would be great im waiting your valid code release. thanks daiko. great helper good bless you
Hi All and especially antis3ptic,
The new version 1.2 will now validate so have fun!
Daiko
hey i liked your widget very much i am building a similar widget myself
hello i found one bug but its not with your code. its about IE(worst net browser) it wasnt showed play icons. anybody how got this error?
Hi again antis3ptic,
I’m still strugling with the IE quirks on positioning. Any suggestions from you experts on CSS and IE are welcomed. I’m a bit handicaped as I’m developing on a Mac (resent convert after being a dedicated Windows user… and I just love it…)
Now I’ve posted a development version on Wordpress that uses a different method of displaying the overlay play-button simply by putting the Video jpgs as background images. This method should be almost fool proof and will work the same way in IE 4 as on other browsers. The only disadvantage with this method is that it is not possible to resize the background image (until CSS3 is in play). Please give me some feedback on this before I launch it as a stable version. Download the development version and give it a try.
Thanks bro for this great plugin
Hi Daiko,
Just a quick question.
Widget works great, but i would like to center
the video thumbs on my site. They are now on the
left on the sidebar, and thats plain ugly
Thanks for the great work !
Paul
Hi Daiko,
Used your widget and it works perfectly. But now
the thumbs are on the left of the sidebar, and
thats ugly. Is there a way to center them?
Thanks for this great plugin,
Paul
i already install and it is work but after i add my own video it did not change to my video why?
Hi tey,
It seems like you only put the “Video Player” in the sidebar. You have to place the “Daiko’s YouTube Widget” in your sidebar and configure it. The Video Player defaults to some preconfigured videos if nothing else exist. The point of the widget is to show Thumbnails (multiple) of your favourite videos and the player is merely a place to show them as an alternative to the ThickBox player. Check out the difference between the videos shown on this page, versus clicking a video on the front page.
If you just want a functionality with playing random videos in a player like the one you have now on your page, I suggest to use the Daiko’s Video Player instead.
Good Luck!
hi,
is it possible to add to the list with a PHP script? I’ve tried to do this, but don’t really understand how the s:number changes with adding a new video.. could you pls help?
thanks
Hi Peter,
No it is not possible to add a PHP script to the list of videos. I’m not sure what you are trying to do, but you are of course welcome to edit the code of the widget to serve your purpose!
Good Luck!
is it possible to display the widget in a main content area, rather than a sidebar? for example, i would like to create a static wp ” videos page” that contains the player.. can i activate it and NOT add it to a sidebar and add some (what?) code in a page to call the widget there?
Thanks
ps - great widget - thank you!
Hi,
I really like this widget. The only thing is how do i get the boxes to show the color scene and not the regular green that is on my site?
Hi,
I really like this widget. The only thing is how do i get the boxes to show the color scene and not the regular green that is on my site?
hi there .thanks for plugin:
Does anybody know if tis script is compatible with Wordpress 2.5.1 ?
Thanks in advance for any help on this!
best regards
baron