Show Thread Enhancements - Automatic Embedded Video (youtube, plus many more)

This hack has been withdrawn. Read on for an explanation. Shortly after the initial release I was contacted by another developer who had some ideas for the mod. This developer basically rewrote a new mod based on my original concept. Unfortunately we couldn't come to an agreement on a way to develop and support the future of this mod. Since he has released his mod separately, and it does pretty much everything my original mod did and is more efficient for those running large systems, I have decided to discontinue the further development of my mod. I took this decision because I don't believe that it makes sense to have two mods out there doing the same thing. I recommend to all users, both present and future, that you switch over to his mod instead (here). I've taken a look at it and I think it's a great mod and you'll all be very happy with it. I understand that he will also provide routines to import and convert tags used by my mod, this should also make your life easier.

Since I will not develop this mod further, I am also withdrawing support for it. Since I don't believe there is such a thing as an unsupported mod (since people will ALWAYS ask for and expect support regardless) I have therefore withdrawn the file from download. I hope some of you can understand my decision.

This mod has had a short but happy life, and I wish you all the best with the replacement mod. Thank you to everyone who has offered encouragement so far, and I hope to see you on my next mod.

I've left the original text below for historical reasons:


What does this mod do?

If a user copies and pastes a URL that links to a video streaming service (such as youtube) the mod will automatically take the URL and convert it into an embedded form directly in the post itself. Users can now play the videos directly from the thread! In other words:

• No template or file edits
• Nothing to configure
• Initial version supports sixteen different video sharing sites
• Pasted URLs are automatically converted to versions that display embedded video - in thread
• Option to include original URL in additional to providing embedded version.
• Forum, group and user permissions allow you to include or exclude who/what is affected by this mod.

How many services will it support?

The initial version contains support for sixteen different video services. If others contribute the required information for other services, this is likely to grow. The initial version (1.0) contains support for the following services:

Youtube, Metacafe, iFilm, Putfile, Bolt, Google Video, Guba, Grouper, Revver, Atom Films, Veoh, Myspace Video, Vimeo, Vmix, Eyespot, Liveleak, Sapo

Which services does it not support?

Many video sites don't provide enough information in the URLs to make automatic embedding possible. The following services were checked and found to be impossible to use with this mod:

Photobucket, Daily Motion, vidiLife, Yahoo Video, AOL Uncut, Yikers, vSocial, ManiaTV, Phanfare, CastPost, Jumpcut, Sharkle, Clipshack, Filecow, Break

Please don't request that these services be included in this mod - it's not possible. If you'd like to try and figure out how to do it yourself - please do!

Why is this different to other mods?

Other mods require you to enter BB Code yourself, but more importantly they require the user to have to add the tags themselves. Users are notoriously lazy and often won't even bother to use BB Code. This mod suits lazy users - it handles everything automatically without the user having to do anything - they just copy and paste the URL!

How do I install it?

Download the enclosed .xml file. In your AdminCP -> Plugins and Products -> Manage Products -> Add/Import Product use the browse button to upload the .xml file you just downloaded and make sure "Allow Overwrite" is set to yes if you are upgrading from a previous version. Click "Import". Installation time - 30 seconds.

How do I configure it?

Go to AdminCP -> vBulletin Options -> Automatic Embedded Video. All settings are pretty much self explanatory and there is nothing that needs to be changed for most forums.

Are there any limitations?

The hack will only work with properly formatted URLs. If the user mangles them, it may not work. Only new messages posted will be affected and this mod will not have any effect on any URLs you may paste in while editing. It will only take effect when you preview or submit new posts!

Is there a downside to this mod?

None that I can think of!

Will new services be added in future?

Possibly. Make sure you click "Installed" so that you'll be notified about new versions.

How can I expand it myself?

See the first post on this thread for details.

User Testimonials

What have people been saying about this mod?

"Anyway, this is be far the best mod of the year! something so simple, yet so effective! My members and myself love it. Thanks again." - hornstar1337

"No way! This Hack is simply a Must!!" - Silvio

"simply the best mod ever." - kushal

"You are my hero. My users are always F'n up the BBcode that should be so simple and now its idiot proof." - MortysTW

"Thanks very much for the mod - very simple to install yet useful as anything." - p0ng0

"Sorry I had to come and re-post how excited this mod has made me lol." - Fleabag

"Working great with vbSEO" - mtlcore

"I have only tested a few videos so far but works like a charm!!! What an awesome mod!!!" - RichieBoy67

Version History

1.0 - Initial release (23.06.2007) (updated a couple of hours after release with some minor fixes 01:31 24.06.2007 GMT)
1.1 - Feature upgrade (26.06.2007). Added ability to include/exclude users, groups or forums. Added feature to replace even when BB Code permissions don't allow it. Added feature to both embed the video AND display the original URL above the video. Loosened logic to include variations in URLs for certain services (different countries, domains, etc). Should cover a wider range of URLs now. More video services coming soon...

27.06.2007 - Mod withdrawn. Details above and here.

[Silvio]

here is a little typo?

Included forums - enter a list of forum IDs, separated by commas, which will be excluded from automatic embedding

[jasculs]

Ok, I understand the issue now. I've added two options which should then resolve this issue for people in your situation. To be honest, it wasn't as straight forward as I thought, and has so far taken me the entire day to test and get right (some of these regular expressions are nasty). But finally it is working. To give you a taste of what is coming, see the attached screenshot of the options.

Is this already implemented in 1.1 or is this going to be in future releases?

[jasculs]

Nevermind...I read the 1.1 features

[dizzy100]

This product is fantastic and i'm very excited. You've done an outstanding Job.

I upgraded to 1.1 and the only issue i have still that is outstanding is with a conflict between this mod and Viper's YouTube & Google Video.

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/misc.php?..._youtubegvideo

If vipers bbcode plugin is enabled, your plugin refuses to parse youtube video. Disabled and your mod works as designed.

If i disable Viper's YouTube & Google Video plugin i can still add the tags with the editor icon for his mod, but nothing gets parsed. He has hooked in to both bbcode_parse_start and bbcode_parse_complete with his plugin and there is a conflict somewhere with names i guess ? But i can't seem to work out what.

As i said before we have many youtube videos already posted using vipers mod so this is a problem not having the option to have them co-exist.

[mfyvie]

Originally Posted by katie hunter

Sorry about the misunderstanding x3 Here was what the issue was. Don't know if I can explain it well or not but when I used the veoh tag, I put this whole url in for example:

www.veoh.com/videos/v448414RTx2kCZp VEOH ]v448414RTx2kCZp[ /VEOH ]

Katie, this mod was never intended to be used that way. The entire point of this mod is that it automatically does these tags for you! You aren't supposed to be using the tags manually (though you could, if you did it correctly).

I strongly suggest that you go back and read the description of what it does, so that you can better understand what this is.

Originally Posted by Silvio

here is a little typo?

Included forums - enter a list of forum IDs, separated by commas, which will be excluded from automatic embedding

Thanks for that - I've corrected it, so the change will be made in the next version. I guess people will figure it out in the meantime.

Originally Posted by dizzy100

I upgraded to 1.1 and the only issue i have still that is outstanding is with a conflict between this mod and Viper's YouTube & Google Video.

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/misc.php?..._youtubegvideo

If vipers bbcode plugin is enabled, your plugin refuses to parse youtube video. Disabled and your mod works as designed.

Thanks for taking the extra time to figure out which situation causes the conflict. I'll add this to the list of known issues and take a look. So far there is just one other mod that is known to conflict and that's the hide hack. However, until someone tells me which BB Code is conflicting, I'm not going to look at it.

[mfyvie]

Originally Posted by FleaBag

When you get around to doing the post update script, please also allow it to update existing embedded videos with the URL above. I don't know if it's working as designed, but I also get page titles retrieved for me. If this isn't design, then I can report it is working beautifully with vBSEO.

Sorry, didn't answer this one before. Yes, this is correct. The original URL it put back into the message, after this my mod doesn't touch it again (it also sniffs the message to see if it has duplicated the bbcode tags and kills the duplicates if they are present). After this vbseo gets it and alters the URL if you have configured it to do so.

Regarding the update script to update all past posts. I've been holding back on this for a couple of reasons, but the main reason is to do it properly. My idea is that the update script will tie into the mod and convert everything according to the settings you have set (whether you want the original URL copied, etc. For this reason I want to have the mod in a final state (as in feature complete) and with more services added to it before I build such a script.

The reason I haven't added any more services to the mod at this point is that I am looking at changing the internal architecture of the way this mod works, so don't want to expand the service offering until I am sure how this is going to work in future.

Thanks to everyone for the interest they have shown in this mod - the response has been amazing and over 120 installs in just a couple of days. I have more ideas in the pipeline for this mod, so I think this mod is going to turn out to be quite popular

[nfn]

Hi,

I don't know if anyone report this, but is not possible to check version under plugins page.

[mfyvie]

Originally Posted by nfn

I don't know if anyone report this, but is not possible to check version under plugins page.

Just saw that last night myself. This will be corrected in the next version. But you clicked install, so you'll be notified by email by vbulletin.org when the mod is updated

[nfn]

Ok,

Nominate for MOTM

[InTeNsE-HuMoR]

Works on 3.6.5. Great mod and much easier to use than BB Codes!

One problem: It seems that if you edit a post and change the url of the video, it doesn't embed but instead just displays the url to the video.

Feel free to use my BB Codes with your mod to add more compatible video services. Links are in my signature. I'm going to nominate this for mod of the month as it is very useful for my forum.