react-player

What is react-player?

The react-player npm package is a React component for playing various types of media, including YouTube, SoundCloud, Vimeo, and more. It provides a simple interface for embedding media players in React applications.

What are react-player's main functionalities?

Playing YouTube Videos

This feature allows you to embed and play YouTube videos in your React application. The URL of the YouTube video is passed as a prop to the ReactPlayer component.

<ReactPlayer url='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysz5S6PUM-U' />

Playing Vimeo Videos

This feature allows you to embed and play Vimeo videos. Similar to YouTube, you pass the Vimeo video URL as a prop to the ReactPlayer component.

<ReactPlayer url='https://vimeo.com/123456789' />

Playing SoundCloud Tracks

This feature allows you to embed and play SoundCloud tracks. The SoundCloud track URL is passed as a prop to the ReactPlayer component.

<ReactPlayer url='https://soundcloud.com/artist/track' />

Customizing Player Controls

This feature allows you to enable or disable player controls. By setting the 'controls' prop to true, you can display the default player controls.

<ReactPlayer url='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysz5S6PUM-U' controls={true} />

Playing Local Media Files

This feature allows you to play local media files by providing the file path as a prop to the ReactPlayer component.

<ReactPlayer url='path/to/local/file.mp4' />

Other packages similar to react-player

video-react

The video-react package is a web video player built from the ground up for an HTML5 world using React library. It provides a set of React components for building video players with custom controls. Compared to react-player, video-react is more focused on HTML5 video and offers more customization options for the player controls.

react-video-js-player

The react-video-js-player package is a React component for Video.js, a popular HTML5 video player. It provides a simple interface for integrating Video.js into React applications. Compared to react-player, react-video-js-player is specifically designed for Video.js and offers more advanced features for video playback and customization.

react-h5-audio-player

The react-h5-audio-player package is a customizable audio player component for React. It provides a simple interface for embedding audio players with custom controls. Compared to react-player, react-h5-audio-player is focused solely on audio playback and offers more customization options for audio player controls.

README

ReactPlayer

A React component for playing a variety of URLs, including file paths, YouTube, Facebook, Twitch, SoundCloud, Streamable, Vimeo, Wistia, Mixcloud, and DailyMotion. Not using React? No problem.

Migrating to ReactPlayer v2.0

ReactPlayer v2.0 changes single player imports and adds lazy loading players. Support for preload has also been removed, plus some other changes. See MIGRATING.md for information.

Usage

npm install react-player # or yarn add react-player

import React from 'react'
import ReactPlayer from 'react-player'

// Render a YouTube video player
<ReactPlayer url='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysz5S6PUM-U' />

By default, ReactPlayer supports many different types of url. If you only ever use one type, use imports such as react-player/youtube to reduce your bundle size. See config keys for all player keys.

import React from 'react'
import ReactPlayer from 'react-player/youtube'

// Only loads the YouTube player
<ReactPlayer url='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysz5S6PUM-U' />

If your build system supports import() statements, use react-player/lazy to lazy load the appropriate player for the url you pass in. This adds several reactPlayer chunks to your output, but reduces your main bundle size.

import React from 'react'
import ReactPlayer from 'react-player/lazy'

// Lazy load the YouTube player
<ReactPlayer url='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysz5S6PUM-U' />

Demo page: https://cookpete.com/react-player

The component parses a URL and loads in the appropriate markup and external SDKs to play media from various sources. Props can be passed in to control playback and react to events such as buffering or media ending. See the demo source for a full example.

For platforms without direct use of npm modules, a minified version of ReactPlayer is located in dist after installing. To generate this file yourself, checkout the repo and run npm run build:dist.

Polyfills

• If you are using npm and need to support browsers without Promise you will need a Promise polyfill.
• To support IE11 you will need to use babel-polyfill or a similar ES2015+ polyfill.

Autoplay

As of Chrome 66, videos must be muted in order to play automatically. Some players, like Facebook, cannot be unmuted until the user interacts with the video, so you may want to enable controls to allow users to unmute videos themselves. Please set muted={true}.

Props

Prop	Description	Default
url	The url of a video or song to play   ◦  Can be an array or MediaStream object
playing	Set to true or false to pause or play the media	false
loop	Set to true or false to loop the media	false
controls	Set to true or false to display native player controls.   ◦  For Vimeo videos, hiding controls must be enabled by the video owner.	false
light	Set to true to show just the video thumbnail, which loads the full player on click   ◦  Pass in an image URL to override the preview image	false
volume	Set the volume of the player, between 0 and 1   ◦  null uses default volume on all players #357	null
muted	Mutes the player   ◦  Only works if volume is set	false
playbackRate	Set the playback rate of the player   ◦  Only supported by YouTube, Wistia, and file paths	1
width	Set the width of the player	640px
height	Set the height of the player	360px
style	Add inline styles to the root element	{}
progressInterval	The time between onProgress callbacks, in milliseconds	1000
playsinline	Applies the playsinline attribute where supported	false
pip	Set to true or false to enable or disable picture-in-picture mode   ◦  Only available when playing file URLs in certain browsers	false
stopOnUnmount	If you are using pip you may want to use stopOnUnmount={false} to continue playing in picture-in-picture mode even after ReactPlayer unmounts	true
fallback	Element or component to use as a fallback if you are using lazy loading	null
wrapper	Element or component to use as the container element	div
playIcon	Element or component to use as the play icon in light mode
config	Override options for the various players, see config prop

Callback props

Callback props take a function that gets fired on various player events:

Prop	Description
onReady	Called when media is loaded and ready to play. If playing is set to true, media will play immediately
onStart	Called when media starts playing
onPlay	Called when media starts or resumes playing after pausing or buffering
onProgress	Callback containing played and loaded progress as a fraction, and playedSeconds and loadedSeconds in seconds   ◦  eg { played: 0.12, playedSeconds: 11.3, loaded: 0.34, loadedSeconds: 16.7 }
onDuration	Callback containing duration of the media, in seconds
onPause	Called when media is paused
onBuffer	Called when media starts buffering
onBufferEnd	Called when media has finished buffering   ◦  Works for files, YouTube and Facebook
onSeek	Called when media seeks with seconds parameter
onEnded	Called when media finishes playing   ◦  Does not fire when loop is set to true
onError	Called when an error occurs whilst attempting to play media
onClickPreview	Called when user clicks the light mode preview
onEnablePIP	Called when picture-in-picture mode is enabled
onDisablePIP	Called when picture-in-picture mode is disabled

Config prop

There is a single config prop to override settings for each type of player:

<ReactPlayer
  url={url}
  config={{
    youtube: {
      playerVars: { showinfo: 1 }
    },
    facebook: {
      appId: '12345'
    }
  }}
/>

Settings for each player live under different keys:

Key	Options
youtube	playerVars: Override the default player vars embedOptions: Override the default embed options onUnstarted: Called when state changes to unstarted (usually when video fails to autoplay)
facebook	appId: Your own Facebook app ID version: Facebook SDK version playerId: Override player ID for consistent server-side rendering (use with react-uid) attributes: Extra data attributes to pass to the fb-video element
soundcloud	options: Override the default player options
vimeo	playerOptions: Override the default params
wistia	options: Override the default player options playerId: Override player ID for consistent server-side rendering (use with react-uid)
mixcloud	options: Override the default player options
dailymotion	params: Override the default player vars
twitch	options: Override the default player options playerId: Override player ID for consistent server-side rendering (use with react-uid)
file	attributes: Apply element attributes forceVideo: Always render a <video> element forceAudio: Always render an <audio> element forceHLS: Use hls.js for HLS streams forceDASH: Always use dash.js for DASH streams forceFLV: Always use flv.js hlsOptions: Override the default hls.js options hlsVersion: Override the hls.js version loaded from jsdelivr, default: 0.13.1 dashVersion: Override the dash.js version loaded from cdnjs, default: 2.9.2 flvVersion: Override the flv.js version loaded from jsdelivr, default: 1.5.0

Methods

Static Methods

Method	Description
ReactPlayer.canPlay(url)	Determine if a URL can be played. This does not detect media that is unplayable due to privacy settings, streaming permissions, etc. In that case, the onError prop will be invoked after attemping to play. Any URL that does not match any patterns will fall back to a native HTML5 media player.
ReactPlayer.canEnablePiP(url)	Determine if a URL can be played in picture-in-picture mode
ReactPlayer.addCustomPlayer(CustomPlayer)	Add a custom player. See Adding custom players
ReactPlayer.removeCustomPlayers()	Remove any players that have been added using addCustomPlayer()

Instance Methods

Use ref to call instance methods on the player. See the demo app for an example of this.

Method	Description
seekTo(amount, type)	Seek to the given number of seconds, or fraction if amount is between 0 and 1   ◦  type parameter lets you specify 'seconds' or 'fraction' to override default behaviour
getCurrentTime()	Returns the number of seconds that have been played   ◦  Returns null if unavailable
getSecondsLoaded()	Returns the number of seconds that have been loaded   ◦  Returns null if unavailable or unsupported
getDuration()	Returns the duration (in seconds) of the currently playing media   ◦  Returns null if duration is unavailable
getInternalPlayer()	Returns the internal player of whatever is currently playing   ◦  eg the YouTube player instance, or the <video> element when playing a video file   ◦  Use getInternalPlayer('hls') to get the hls.js player   ◦  Use getInternalPlayer('dash') to get the dash.js player   ◦  Returns null if the internal player is unavailable
showPreview()	When using light mode, returns to the preview overlay

Advanced Usage

Light player

The light prop will render a video thumbnail with simple play icon, and only load the full player once a user has interacted with the image. Noembed is used to fetch thumbnails for a video URL. Note that automatic thumbnail fetching for Facebook, Wistia, Mixcloud and file URLs are not supported, and ongoing support for other URLs is not guaranteed.

If you want to pass in your own thumbnail to use, set light to the image URL rather than true.

The styles for the preview image and play icon can be overridden by targeting the CSS classes react-player__preview, react-player__shadow and react-player__play-icon.

Responsive player

Set width and height to 100% and wrap the player in a fixed aspect ratio box to get a responsive player:

class ResponsivePlayer extends Component {
  render () {
    return (
      <div className='player-wrapper'>
        <ReactPlayer
          className='react-player'
          url='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysz5S6PUM-U'
          width='100%'
          height='100%'
        />
      </div>
    )
  }
}

.player-wrapper {
  position: relative;
  padding-top: 56.25% /* Player ratio: 100 / (1280 / 720) */
}

.react-player {
  position: absolute;
  top: 0;
  left: 0;
}

See jsFiddle example

SDK Overrides

You can use your own version of any player SDK, assuming the correct window global is set before the player mounts. For example, to use a local version of hls.js, add <script src='/path/hls.js'></script> to your app. If window.Hls is available when ReactPlayer mounts, it will use that instead of loading hls.js from cdnjs. See #605 for more information.

Standalone player

If you aren’t using React, you can still render a player using the standalone library:

<script src='https://unpkg.com/react-player/dist/ReactPlayer.standalone.js'></script>
<script>
  const container = document.getElementById('container')
  const url = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d46Azg3Pm4c'

  renderReactPlayer(container, { url, playing: true })

  function pausePlayer () {
    renderReactPlayer(container, { url, playing: false })
  }
</script>

See jsFiddle example

Adding custom players

If you have your own player that is compatible with ReactPlayer’s internal architecture, you can add it using addCustomPlayer:

import YourOwnPlayer from './somewhere';
ReactPlayer.addCustomPlayer(YourOwnPlayer);

Use removeCustomPlayers to clear all custom players:

ReactPlayer.removeCustomPlayers();

It is your responsibility to ensure that custom players keep up with any internal changes to ReactPlayer in later versions.

Mobile considerations

Due to various restrictions, ReactPlayer is not guaranteed to function properly on mobile devices. The YouTube player documentation, for example, explains that certain mobile browsers require user interaction before playing:

The HTML5 <video> element, in certain mobile browsers (such as Chrome and Safari), only allows playback to take place if it’s initiated by a user interaction (such as tapping on the player).

Multiple Sources and Tracks

Passing an array of YouTube URLs to the url prop will load them as an untitled playlist.

<ReactPlayer
  url={[
    'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUFJJNQGwhk',
    'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNgP6d9HraI'
  ]}
/>

When playing file paths, an array of sources can be passed to the url prop to render multiple <source> tags.

<ReactPlayer playing url={['foo.webm', 'foo.ogg']} />

You can also specify a type for each source by using objects with src and type properties.

<ReactPlayer
  playing
  url={[
    {src: 'foo.webm', type: 'video/webm'},
    {src: 'foo.ogg', type: 'video/ogg'}
  ]}
/>

<track> elements for subtitles can be added using config.file:

<ReactPlayer
  playing
  url='foo.webm'
  config={{ file: {
    tracks: [
      {kind: 'subtitles', src: 'subs/subtitles.en.vtt', srcLang: 'en', default: true},
      {kind: 'subtitles', src: 'subs/subtitles.ja.vtt', srcLang: 'ja'},
      {kind: 'subtitles', src: 'subs/subtitles.de.vtt', srcLang: 'de'}
    ]
  }}}
/>

Supported media

• YouTube videos use the YouTube iFrame Player API
• Facebook videos use the Facebook Embedded Video Player API
• SoundCloud tracks use the SoundCloud Widget API
• Streamable videos use Player.js
• Vidme videos are no longer supported
• Vimeo videos use the Vimeo Player API
• Wistia videos use the Wistia Player API
• Twitch videos use the Twitch Interactive Frames API
• DailyMotion videos use the DailyMotion Player API
• Vidyard videos use the Vidyard Player API
• Supported file types are playing using <video> or <audio> elements
  • HLS streams are played using hls.js
  • DASH streams are played using dash.js

Contributing

See the contribution guidelines before creating a pull request.

Thanks

• Thanks to anyone who has contributed.
• Huge thanks to my Patreon sponsors:

Joseph Fung