Nowadays, third-party HTML5 players use javascript to create and modify HTML video elements and controls for advanced looks and features. This javascript is mainly provided as a CDN-hosted JS file with the iframe URL of the video or audio file. This is not only done to add features but majorly to make the appearance and functionality of the player consistent for all browsers. Otherwise, the default looks and functionalities of playback vary across browsers.

Introduction to HTML5 Video Streaming

HTML5 markup language was first introduced to the public on 22 January 2008. It was the fifth and final major HTML version update as per World Wide Web Consortium(W3C) recommendation. This markup is used to structure and define rules for displaying content on the Internet as web pages. It is currently maintained by a consortium of major browser vendors like Apple, Google, Mozilla, and Microsoft called Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG). The main goals of the HTML5 update were to support HTML5 video streaming through HTML video controls and elements, easy readability and backward compatibility.

It lets the web browsers and parsers consistently understand the defined markup, thus allowing better readability for humans and software. HTML5 processing models are more capable of extending the use of markup and also allows the use of APIs for complex web applications. The cross-platform infrastructure allows low-end devices and browsers to perform smoothly for enhanced user experience.

To add support for HTML5 video streaming, many new HTML multimedia elements like < video >, < audio > and < canvas > were introduced. They were introduced with additional features like that of Javascript API to add more interactivity and control over the HTML elements and handle. This makes the HTML5 streaming package more powerful and ubiquitous than flash players. You can make customizations to the video or audio stream, change the playback appearance, and even apply mathematical rules for computation. Apart from streaming, HTML5 also focused on semantics and introduced elements like <section>, <header>, <footer>, <article>, <aside>, <nav>, and <figure> for basic web page structuring and SEO.

What is an HTML Video Element?

< video > element was added to add support for HTML5 video streaming in all browsers supporting HTML in 2008. It was introduced with additional features like that of Javascript API to add more interactivity and control over the HTML elements and handle. The use and classification of the attributes have been discussed later, but here is the basic anatomy of a < video > tag syntactically,

< video src=”video.webm” type=”video/webm” controls >

< /video >

Or

< video controls >

< source src=”movie.mp4″ type=”video/mp4″ >

< source src=”movie.ogg” type=”video/ogg” >

< /video >

Note: < source > tag is an empty tag. There is no need to close it except in the case of XHTML.

Video Element Optional HTML Attributes

An < video > element contains the following attributes that are frequently used. Other event-based and global attributes have also been discussed with their use.

Video Element compatible Global Media Events HTML Attributes

The < video > tag also supports Global HTML Attributes and Events attributes triggered by media like videos, images, and audio. The following Media Events attributes apply to all HTML elements but are most commonly used with media elements, like <audio>, <embed>, <img>, <object>, and <video>. These event-based attributes trigger a javascript attached with the specific attributes, and a javascript’s next styling, calculation, etc steps get performed. That is why the value these attributes require is a script.

What are HTML Video Controls?

We discussed the attributes of < video > element and here we will discuss basic controls as well as controls for customizations we want to place over the defaults of the player.

Basic Controls

Basic controls get initiated by using the controls attributes within the video tag. It is a boolean attribute and specifies the display of video controls like play,pause,seek, etc as symbols over the video player. It displays the following controls as per their availability.

• Play
• Pause
• Seek
• Fullscreen toggle
• Volume
• Alternate Audio Track (when available)
• Captions/Subtitles (when available)

Custom Controls

Custom controls are added via event based or optional attributes with the support of javascript. You can even make complex HTML handlers to initiate a calculated action of play, seek, etc by combining functions of various methods and arrange them in logic to form a complex function. Custom controls are also necessary to provide homogeneity across browsers via javascript. Here is a basic example of creating custom controls via HTML and Javascript API.

// Adding Video Tag with multiple source

<video id = "myVideoObject">

<source src = "1920x1080.mp4">

</video>

 

// Adding the HTML buttons with ID

<button id = "playButton"> Play </button>

<button id = "pauseButton"> Pause </button>

 

// Adding the JavaScript to identify HTML elements

var myVideoObject = document.getElementById ("myVideoObject");

var playBtn = document.getElementById ("playButton");

var pauseBtn = document.getElementById ("pauseButton");

 

playButton.onclick = function () {

myVideoObject.play ();

}

 

pauseButton.onclick = function () {

myVideoObject.pause ();

}

Need of HTML Video Elements and Controls

Earlier, if you were to copy the video playback code of a video from YouTube, it used to be a < object > tag and used to look like this,

<object width="720" height="480">

<param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/8FHI1AUFJKk&hl=en_GB&fs=1&"></param>

<param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param>

<param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param>

<embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/8FHI1AUFJKk&hl=en_GB&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed>

</object>

It was a generic container for foreign objects like Flash movies. Browsers were more compatible with the < embed > tag to handle inconsistencies in the display styling. The object tag within the embed code used to carry various parameters but due to browser compatibility issues, the results were often a disrupted or unreadable player option. The plugins like flash and silverlight also inherited these issues and were not always able to match the browsers specifications due to being different technologies.

The HTML5 < video > element came as a good but not perfect fix for all these issues in 2008. It bought too many attributes and also the support of javascript API to handle dynamic controls over the player.

About Controls:

The basic controls are required for easy navigation across the video playback and custom controls provide homogeneity in styling and features across the devices. Nowadays, all open source and third party HTML5 players provide attached javascript with their embed code so that the player remains constant across devices and browsers.

Role of Javascript API to trigger Video Controls

Before taking about the Javascript API, let us look at the categorization of Media Elements which API provides,

• Methods like play() for reading the media
• Properties like currentTime to obtain or modify some time properties
• Events like timeupdate to trigger specific behavior for specific media events

The role which Javascript API plays can also be divided into two parts, one is writing javascript to control the player through attributes, and another is to instantiate those javascript methods with some added HTML elements. The HTML5 Javascript API has methods, properties, and events for <video> element. These allow you to control and modify default capabilities of <video> element and player using JavaScript. You can use the API to play video, pause it and play again at specific time using play() and pause() API methods.

For example:

var myVideoObject = document.getElementById ("myVideo");

myVideoObject.play()

myVideoObject.pause()

Similarly as objects, video elements also have several properties and events, like,

• currentTime : time at a given time in seconds
• duration : duration of the video file in seconds
• onplay : initiate a script when the media is ready to start playing

Sample styling of HTML Video Controls

You can change the appearance of various controls like play, pause, volume, etc through basic CSS for controls like,

.controls {

visibility: hidden;

opacity: 0.8;

width: 720px;

border-radius: 1px;

position: absolute;

bottom: 10px;

left: 90%;

background-color: blue;

transition: 2s all;

display: flex;

}

.player:hover .controls, player:focus .controls {

opacity: 0.8;

}

This CSS can be placed directly in the HTML document or can be imported via cloud hosted css link.

Need of Security for HTML5 Video Streaming

HTML5 video playback in itself does not have any default security. The basic encryption can be smartly cracked using any hack and softwares. Apart from strong encryption, we need the best key exchange mechanism so that it cannot be retrieved by any unauthorized user. What is now left is screen recording which can be addressed by additional watermarking features.

There are many open source codes available to apply encryption on HTML5 video playback through javascript. For example, the below Javascript code encrypts and decrypts your video files through a third party library.

var key = 'SUPER-SECRET-KEY';

var options = { algorithm: 'aes256' };

encryptor.encryptFile('myVideoObject.mp4', 'encrypted.dat', key, options, function(err) {

});

encryptor.decryptFile('encrypted.dat', 'outputfile.mp4', key, options, function(err) {

});

You can notice the key parameter in the above code, these keys are best secured at the hardware or OS level, which in today’s time is controlled by Google and Apple. This is the reason why normal video protection via javascript often fails. For reliable video security, the best possible way is through Google Widevine and Apple FairPlay license and set up of a DRM server. To help secure your videos, multi-DRM platforms like VdoCipher offer complete infrastructure at affordable pricing, saving coding requirements and capital investment.

FAQs

Do controls like play, pause, volume, etc, appear as default with HTML video element?

No, they do not display as default and can only be visible if you use the controls attribute with the video tag.

Do I need a plugin for HTML5 video playback?

No, after the introduction of video tag for HTML5 video playback, third-party plugins like flash or Silverlight are not required.

Why to use a Javascript file with an HTML5 third-party or open-source video player?

It is not mandatory to use the javascript file accompanied by a player. Still, in that case, you miss out on the added features and styling for different browsers, usually provided for homogeneity. This is why most players include a JS file with their embedded code. This JS file can sometimes be used to add Video SEO to the page or for security purposes.

Vishal Sharma

My expertise focuses on DRM encryption, CDN technologies, and streamlining marketing campaigns to drive engagement and growth. At VdoCipher, I’ve significantly enhanced digital experiences and contributed to in-depth technical discussions in the eLearning, Media, and Security sectors, showcasing a commitment to innovation and excellence in the digital landscape.

The post Using HTML Video Controls and Elements for HTML5 Video Streaming appeared first on VdoCipher Blog.

For most of us, gaining knowledge is about collecting little chunks, snippets in day-to-day life. This knowledge is in the form of watching videos, accessing YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Everything comes to our mind quickly and in small chunks. People now learn in a way that is most natural and comfortable to them. For many people, learning from texts can be pretty challenging. Video and audio dimensions to eLearning content development make the learning more easy and engaging. This is the demand now, so let’s start with different terminologies & checklists to help you set up your own platform.

1. Choosing your Backend, Frontend & other Server-side setups

Even as a beginner you would have known that Web Development is a combination of two dependencies namely, Frontend Development and Backend Development. Both facets have their respective set of mechanisms, tools and technologies.

1.1- No Code or Little Code Methods

Also, there is not a necessity that you need to go through the coding part. You can even do all the course and website creation by choosing a content management system. Different CMS or content management systems are available, having a different set of approaches and scopes.

For example, you can use an application-based LMS like Moodle or CMS like WordPress and Joomla where you require little to no coding. We can also achieve customizations via themes and available plugins. You can even use ready-to-launch teaching sites like Teachable, Thinkific, and Kajabi which we have also discussed here.

On the contrary, if you are looking for specific customizations you can develop your own backend and frontend with a language of your choice. Frameworks like Django gives you access to unlimited customization and even the scope of integrating technologies like machine learning.

Note: As per data of the top 10,000 websites, nearly 10% are built using WordPress CMS and 75% of websites use their custom CMS.

1.2- Backend Development of your eLearning video platform

Backend is your website’s server-side and is the portion that users don’t see. It stores and organizes data and ensures everything on the client-side or front end works fine. The backend connects with the front end and sends/receives information for displaying on the web page. Users access the back-end indirectly through a front end application. The backend includes writing APIs, scientific programming, creating libraries and much more. The prevalent languages which we can use to build backend are PHP, Python, Ruby, Golang (Go), Java, C++, Node.js and Javascript. The common backend frameworks are Django, Spring, Laravel and more. There are a lot of JavaScript development companies, the most popular ones you can find here.

1.3- eLearning video platform Front End Development

The front end or Client-side is the section of your website for eLearning where the user directly interacts with the browser. It includes everything users experience directly such as images, tables, graphs, buttons, navigation menu to text colours. All these features about Frontend Development of a website for eLearning come mainly through 3 key components – HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

In today’s world, the main objectives of front end development are responsiveness and performance. The website for eLearning should appear correctly on all screen sizes and resolutions. Also, it must use all performance improving compatibilities like lazy loading and page speed.

Some popular frameworks and libraries like bootstrap, AngularJS, React JS, jQuery, Flutter, SASS, Semantic-UI support front end development.

1.4- Other Server-side setup while building an eLearning video platform

To manage the users and other course or content information, a website for eLearning needs a database. The database stores the content of a website in a structured format to retrieve, organize, edit and save data. This setup runs on a remote computer known as Server. The most widely used databases are MySQL and PostgreSQL. Other databases like Oracle and Sybase are not preferred unless you have a very big infrastructure and also they are costly.

Other server-side setup includes setting up a server software like Apache or Nginx (preferred). Setting up CDN distribution and even a continuous deployment pipeline.

1.5- Important points to consider when setting up your own eLearning website

• LMS or CMS like Moodle, WordPress and Joomla are built as an application and are not object-oriented.
• Absolute beginners can start with options like Teachable, Thinkific and Kajabi.
• LMS and CMS mostly provide you with a level of customization using basic HTML, CSS and Javascript.

2. Video Hosting & Security

eLearning videos require a considerable investment of time, effort and money. You cannot just limit it to the creation of videos. One must store videos online on a video hosting server that has very high uptime, is secure, encrypted and budget-friendly. It must also enable adaptive bitrate streaming and even stores your content in various locations. This is helpful when trying to reduce time to first byte and latency.

The biggest problem with putting your original or premium eLearning content on the web comes with potential video piracy. Also, we know that websites like YouTube and Torrent have an abundance of pirated videos from premium resources. There are video downloader tools that can easily download videos from a video hosting platform. In general, video content is pirated in multiple ways like password theft, password sharing, unauthorized download, copyright violation, screen recording, and much more.

2.1- Video Protection Methods

The best ways to secure your eLearning video content is through secure login, membership, protecting videos from plugins and downloaders, Domain (URL) whitelisting, Real-Time Messaging Protocol Encrypted (RTMPE), HLS Encryption, IP/GEO Restriction, Video DRM, Dynamic watermarking and Screen capture block.

We can easily address all of these security concerns by choosing secure video hosting providers like Vdocipher. Such providers not only address your security and piracy concerns but also provide you with flawless uptime, adaptive bitrate streaming and even distribute your encrypted content globally via CDN.

3. eLearning Content Development & choosing type of platform

Though we discuss creating your own eLearning video platform, we hope you are also informed about the MOOCs. After the analysis of your target customers, one needs to focus on choosing the type of eLearning video platform, be it LMS/CMS or MOOC.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are open to all which means people from across the globe can access or create courses on your eLearning video platform, making it an eLearning marketplace. In the majority of the cases, these courses are free and available all over the internet. Udemy is one such example. They even provide you with free branding and paid marketing opportunities.

Learning Management System or LMS comes with restricted access, meaning it is available only within an organization. LMS is designed for a specific customer and does not necessarily have a robust architecture like a MOOC eLearning video platform. The basic LMS architecture enables admins to upload learning content, assist and deliver lessons, enable notifications and share content with authorized users. LMS can be free, commercial, cloud-based, pre-written CMS, individual or enterprise.

3.1- Content Development for eLearning Website

Once done with choosing the right type, we should move forward with eLearning content development. For an eLearning video platform content development is crafting relevant course content based on your niche, audience knowledge, business goals, idea and mode of content delivery. Each video content and its accompanying text comes with its own piece of knowledge and information. These contents cumulatively form a course. A course may have video, audio, PDF and more.

The learning path is another term that is gaining popularity. It comprises of digital content formats or virtual classrooms aimed at delivering flexible structured learning. One example is self-paced digital content comprising documents, videos, webinars, and online assessments. This help users meet their learning goals and master the subject. Slide-based courses, training videos, quizzes, webinars, embedded or standalone videos, study material, ebooks, blogs, augmented reality (AR), case studies, interviews are some of the content development formats eLearning video platforms use.

4. eLearning Website or App or Both

Often learning apps provide a better user experience compared to a mobile website. Presentations, courses, videos become more responsive, menus and filters are smooth enough, better UI, there are other customizable options and more. But this does not mean all eLearning video platforms are doing that great with a mobile app. Apps are platform-dependent and nowadays, we need to access our data from any device and any browser, which is not the case with most mobile apps.

Most online learning platforms are designed for the web as it is platform-agnostic, open and ubiquitous. With the website for eLearning, you don’t have to install anything. Visitors will appreciate your app if nothing stands in their way to get the knowledge. The user flow must be smooth and attractive. Also, with every update to the chosen CMS and generic backend/frontend technology, web applications are getting more and more like apps.

Even platforms like Twitter are using PWA or progressive web apps and are experiencing more user influx and engagement. Thus, the choice of study apps or website or both depends on your expectations, requirements and developmental needs. A self-starter, after learning about the video market through YouTube, Moocs and similar giants might want to progress with the website first approach. Make the website responsive, implement basic SEO and video SEO, move forward with application development for enhanced experience to existing users and compliment the high influx with PWA.

5. Search Logic, Categorization & Filters

The easier users find video content and courses on the portal, the faster their user journey will be. This is where search, categorization and filtering can provide a huge boost to an online eLearning video platform.

5.1- Categorization

Start with categorization as it will tell you what might be searched and filtered. Also, categorization requires you to make required headers like ‘tags’ in your database, which will require a migration. Planning for it and implementing it in the initial model setup stage will even help in data collection as well as better filter and search setup.

Website categorization defines the type of content on a specific web page. The use cases of website categorization are content filtering, brand safety, network security and firewall, ad-tech, parental control and more. The SEO of your pages becomes imbalanced without categories and pages start competing for the same search keywords. Category pages are an important area of opportunity for boosting organic traffic.

5.2- Filters

After categorization logic, start with product filtering, use category-specific filters as users prefer them over generic parameters. With respect to a particular course, the placement of an array of tags in your database helps filter more dynamically. Such filter mechanism placement in the initial stage also helps you implement deep learning and machine learning opportunities as more data comes in. Using multiple filters allows users to shortlist down to the smallest details. For the smooth experience of a mobile website, the developer needs to customize the CSS code to fit standard desktop filter displays into mobile-ready formats. Filter placement requires A/B testing to find the perfect spot on the web page.

5.3- Search Logic

Now when you have captured most user-specific choices by categorization and filters, there comes search. Search can be of many types like single word search, linear search, and full-text search, accompanied by different search logic based on various search algorithms with variable output. Different math equations used to calculate the closest and best match for a search term are the main reason for having variable output

If you are using a pre-created platform-specific service or an app-based CMS like WordPress, you will most likely stick with the inbuilt search logic. If you are planning to go with frameworks like Django, you have plenty of options available as python libraries to enhance your search and their respective logic. For advanced usage, do maintain a database of your search terms as they will help you enhance your search in future.

6. Complementary and Supplementary Recommendations

With numerous resources on a portal, users need to decide which courses or content to opt for. Hence, the recommendation system applies in the eLearning video platform to help learners get personalized services by identifying their complementary and supplementary preferences. Basically, there are three recommendation techniques, content-based, collaborative filtering (CF)-based and knowledge-based.

Content-based recommendation profiles users with their past behaviour and recommends content similar to their profile. The CF-based recommendation assumes similar users preferring similar content and generates recommendations with users collaboration.

We can apply the knowledge-based recommendation scenarios where the content is not frequently visited and that is why it relies mostly on the pre-defined knowledge structures like ontology. Ontology is a systematic knowledge representation that contains entities, and their relationships in a particular domain. It is also encoded by language such as web ontology language (OWL). Also, user queries can be further modelled and trained as new concepts if previously unavailable in the pre-defined ontology through enrichment.

7. Integrating Payment Gateway

If a platform’s eLearning model is a subscription or paid courses, there should be a convenient method for students to pay and tutors to collect their earnings. And when dealing with money, the payment gateway transaction must be secure and give users a seamless checkout experience. The most popular payment mediums are Debit/credit cards, PayPal Master/Visa/Maestro/Amex, and UPI. Most payment gateways like Razorpay and Paytm allows all of these mediums after complete verification and even allows you to accept international payments. An LMS will usually have it integrated and we can do the custom integration easily using the payment gateway’s API.

8. Support & Live Chat Features

Online customer support helps in better communication, solving user problems, collecting customer feedback and suggestions to fine-tune the system and solve unexpected issues. Online customer service answers customer questions by digital tools like email, messaging apps, live chat and social media.

Live chat support is now the most dynamic and popular way of communicating with customers. It’s the best way to go beyond customer’s expectations and satisfaction to gain higher traffic and conversions. In an eLearning video platform, text chat helps in maintaining smooth communication between attendants and lecturers. For a platform based on pre-recorded videos, implementing a Q&A section is better.

9. Social Sharing

Social sharing has enormous potential for social media marketing to boost sales and increase the visibility of a business. It is a cost-effective tool for increased brand recognition and promotion and can be used to convert customers. From the perspective of content marketing, social media helps in building links organically. Google uses ranking signals for search results linking by determining how much time the content is shared, liked, tweets or posted to social media. The ideal placement of social media icons is on the top half of the webpage or ‘above the fold’.

10. Business Model

Before starting the development process of your eLearning video platform, you should take into consideration the different ways of monetizing your content. One of the popular monetization methods is that of Udemy which charges as per the specific course. Some courses on such platforms are free, while others are in paid form.

The subscription-based model is one more commonly used monetization way. It is based on monthly payments or a one-year subscription with lower monthly rates. Many eLearning providers even implement a Paid certification model wherein, courses are free but students need to pay to earn certification of the course. Some eLearning business models run on sponsorships and advertising.

11. Login/signup

The login page is the first place to deliver the best user experience to a visitor with a website. For the same, it requires authenticating the user before giving access to a platform’s secured pages. Designing a website login page requires working on tiny details. Be it making the page responsive and not a pain to use, else lose users. Developers need to work on the bounce rate of their login page and make the transition smooth, easy, and error-free.

The login form should be simple, short with a clean design. There should be a clear distinction between login and registration forms and have options of logging through external accounts. There should be clear ‘Forgot password’ and ‘Remember me’ options.

Note: Do include ‘Sign In with Google’ & ‘Sign In with Facebook’ as a medium in sign up and sign in as data shows that they are the most used modes. Also, if making your own CMS then do check for logic on merging mail ids signed up using ‘Register’ input forms and using ‘Google’ or ‘Facebook’.

How VdoCipher Helps In Building Your Own Elearning Video Platform

A major part of setting up your own video platform for education includes the video infrastructure. This includes video storage, encoding for different formats and video quality, embedding, encryption, and more. VdoCipher takes care of all this and more. All you have to do is upload your video to our platform, once the video has been transcoded, you can just copy the embed code and paste it on your website.

On top of the video hosting, you get access to DRM-based security, which ensures that your videos are not downloadable by anyone. This puts a stop to piracy online, ultimately giving you a substantial boost in revenue. As new users would have to sign up and pay for your premium courses in order to access them. Other security features which further safeguard your premium content are Dynamic watermarking to deter screen capture, Screen recoding protection on iOS and Android. You can even block geolocation, IP address and put time restrictions as well.

FAQs:

What are the benefits of using LMS?

Centralized content, up-to-date courses, easy tracking & reporting, cost-saving and more. Other benefits include employee satisfaction, retention, better ROI on training, economical remote learning.

How VdoCipher offers video protection and piracy control?

VdoCipher offers Hollywood grade DRM encryption which prevents illegal downloads using any hacks or plugins. The other video piracy features offered are dynamic watermarking, server to player package, screen capture restriction in mobile apps and customizable online video player.

How does a Progressive Web App (PWA) work?

A PWA is a web application installed on your system. It works offline in times of no internet connection. On Chrome, when you visit a website having PWA, you will be prompted to install the app. The advantages of PWA are mobile-like experience, offline availability, reduce loading time and give a better user experience.

Vishal Sharma

My expertise focuses on DRM encryption, CDN technologies, and streamlining marketing campaigns to drive engagement and growth. At VdoCipher, I’ve significantly enhanced digital experiences and contributed to in-depth technical discussions in the eLearning, Media, and Security sectors, showcasing a commitment to innovation and excellence in the digital landscape.

The post Guide To Building Your Own eLearning Video Platform with Content Development appeared first on VdoCipher Blog.