A customizeable HTML5 Video React component with i18n and a11y

by React

react-html5video

A customizeable HoC (Higher Order Component) for HTML5 Video that allows custom and configurable controls with i18n and a11y.

V2 API has changed and is not backwards compatible.

View demo Download Source

Install

npm install react-html5video --save

Peer Dependencies

  • react@>=15.0.x
  • react-dom@>=15.0.x
  • prop-types@>=15.0.x

Usage

Simple Usage

The simplest way to use this component is to use the default player that is provided. It works the same way as a normal HTML5 video by taking all the supported HTML5 video attributes except for controls. This is now "controlled" and can be an array of supported component names in any order as below:

import { DefaultPlayer as Video } from 'react-html5video';
import 'react-html5video/dist/styles.css';
render() {
    return (
        <Video autoPlay loop muted
            controls={['PlayPause', 'Seek', 'Time', 'Volume', 'Fullscreen']}
            poster="http://sourceposter.jpg"
            onCanPlayThrough={() => {
                // Do stuff
            }}>
            <source src="http://sourcefile.webm" type="video/webm" />
            <track label="English" kind="subtitles" srcLang="en" src="http://source.vtt" default />
        </Video>
    );
}

a11y* and i18n

The custom controls provided are built using <button> and <input type="range"> which means basic keyboard controls are available when they are focused. For example, you can and hit the space bar on mute, play and fullscreen buttons as well as seek using the arrow keys when focused on the slider. aria-label attributes for screen readers have been used where user interaction is required. Try tabbing through the demo with Vox enabled.

You can change translate the aria-label values for all controls like so:

<Video copy={{ key: value }}>

The default english copy can be found in here.

*Disclaimer: Unfortuantely I don't much experience with a11y but I have tried to use some of the features from PayPal's accessible HTML5 player. If anyone has further input on this please raise an issue or a pull request.

Advanced Usage

If you want to get creative and create your own video player then you will need to use the higher order component. The HoC connects a React component to all the HTML5 video attributes and the HTMLMediaElement of the first video it finds in the component it is wrapping.

import videoConnect from 'react-html5video';

const MyVideoPlayer = ({ video, videoEl, children, ...restProps }) => (
    <div>
        <video {...restProps}>
            { children }
        </video>
        <p>
            Here are the video properties for the above HTML5 video:
            { JSON.stringify(video) }
        </p>
        <a href="#" onClick={(e) => {
            e.preventDefault();
            // You can do what you like with the HTMLMediaElement DOM element also.
            videoEl.pause();
        }}>
            Pause video
        </a>
    </div>
);

export default videoConnect(MyVideoPlayer)

The above will simply print out the properties of the HTML5 <video> within MyVideoPlayer. Now you have these properties and the HTMLMediaElement itself available in your component, it is up to you to create your new custom controls using them. See the default player as an example.

API

The API behaves much like the React Redux connect HoC but instead of using dispatch to change the state, we have access to the HTMLMediaElement.

videoConnect(ReactComponent, [mapStateToProps], [mapVideoElToProps], [mergeProps])

  • mapStateToProps(videoState, ownProps) - Use this to return the HTML5 video attributes required for your component. The plain object returned here will be merged with what is returned from mapVideoElToProps using the mergeProps function. By Default this returns all video attributes so they are accessible on this.props.video in your wrapped component.

  • mapVideoElToProps(videoEl, videoState, ownProps) - Use this to return a plain object that uses videoEl to update the videos state. videoEl is the raw HTMLMediaElement. The object returned here will be merged with what is returned from mapStateToProps using the mergeProps function. By default the videoEl will be accessible on this.props.videoEl in your wrapped component.

  • mergeProps(stateProps, videoElProps, ownProps) - If specified, it is passed the result of mapStateToProps mapVideoElToProps and the parent props. The plain object you return will be passed to your wrapped component. By default this will do Object.assign({}, stateProps, videoElProps, ownProps).

Components/Helpers

It is also possible to use the individual defaultPlayer components if you desire. The apiHelpers are also available. These are just methods that normalise the HTML5 video player API somewhat:

`import { Time, Seek, Volume, Captions, PlayPause, Fullscreen, Overlay, apiHelpers } from 'react-html5video';

Contributing

Dev Setup

To run a development server with HMR:

    $ npm i
    $ npm run i:demo
    $ npm start

GitHub