Web technology has developed a lot over the years; Javascript, in particular, has played an enormous role in it. By involving React, the development and use of UI have become better and more efficient. With React, including an audio-video player on any website is easy. A simple React player plugin may assist you in performing the task in a few minutes. In this article, we'll talk about how to build a customizable React video player from scratch.
Introduction
React-Player is a React component that plays audio-visual files from various URLs, including file paths, YouTube links, Facebook links, Twitch links, SoundCloud links, Streamable links, Vimeo links, Wistia links, Mixcloud links, DailyMotion links, Kaltura links, and so on.
In this post, we'll use the React-Player component to build a video player (which you can install with the React Player npm), while focusing more on its functionalities than its appearance. To follow this tutorial, you'll need to have Node.js installed locally on your machine and have some familiarity with Material UI, Javascript, and React.
Features of React-Player
- Customizable and easy-to-use
- Runs on diffrent URLs, including file paths
- Supports video looping and play back rates
Installing Dependencies
Running the following commands in the terminal allows us to start by setting up the project and installing the necessary dependencies:
yarn create react-app react-video-player
cd react-video-player
yarn add @mui/material @emotion/react @emotion/styled @mui/icons-material react-player screenfull
yarn start
Let's start by importing ReactPlayer
into our App.js file and updating it.
import ReactPlayer from "react-player";
import "./App.css";
import ReactPlayer from "react-player";
import { Container } from "@mui/material";
function App() {
return (
<div className="video_container">
<div>
<h2>React player</h2>
</div>
<Container maxWidth="md" justify="center">
<div className="player__wrapper">
<ReactPlayer
className="player"
url="https://bucket-viewer.s3.amazonaws.com/viewer1664370329252.mp4"
width="100%"
height="100%"
playing={true}
muted={true}
/>
<Control />
</div>
</Container>
</div>
);
}
The react-player
component is now inside a Container
wrapper. Additionally, we supplied the link to the example video as the URL prop's value. Finally, we also provided the player with a set width
and height
of 100%, so it will be responsive.
Then, add the following code to your App.css file.
.App {
text-align: center;
}
.video_container {
display: flex;
flex-direction: column;
justify-content: center;
align-items: center;
width: 100%;
}
.player__wrapper {
position: relative;
}
.player {
border: 2px solid #7b2cbf;
object-fit: cover;
padding: 0;
margin: 0;
}
h2 {
color: #7b2cbf;
}
To enable playback within our video player React, we added the playing
and muted
props to the preceding code. In addition, we set a value of true
in place of the default value of false
for the props. As a result, the playing
footage created by the above code is shown in the picture below:
Observe that the video player is not interactive and lacks any controls. The react-player
package contains a prop called control
that, by default, has a value of false
. When the value is modified to true
, the React player controls are automatically added.
React Player Functionalities
Let's begin by creating a new folder in the src
folder named Components
. Then, create the Control.jsx and Control.css files as two new files inside the newly formed folder.
src
├── App.css
├── App.js
├── Components
├── Control.css
├──Control.jsx
Let’s Code
First, we’ll import the required packages for our Control.jsx file:
import React from "react";
import { makeStyles, Slider, withStyles, Button, Tooltip, Popover,Grid
} from "@material-ui/core";
import {
FastForward,
FastRewind,
Pause,
PlayArrow,
SkipNext,
VolumeUp,
} from "@material-ui/icons";
import "./Control.css";
The control.jsx file is made up of three containers:
- The heading container
- The middle container (Contains the Play, Rewind and Fast forward buttons)
- The bottom container (Contains the Slider, volume and playback rate buttons)
The Heading Container
<div className="top_container">
<h2>Video PLayer</h2>
</div>
The Middle Container
<div className="mid__container">
<div className="icon__btn">
<FastRewind fontSize="medium" />
</div>
<div className="icon__btn">
<Pause fontSize="medium" />
</div>
<div className="icon__btn">
<FastForward fontSize="medium" />
</div>
</div>
The Bottom Container
<div className="bottom__container">
<div className="slider__container">
<PrettoSlider />
</div>
<div className="control__box">
<div className="inner__controls">
<div className="icon__btn">
<PlayArrow fontSize="medium" />
</div>
<div className="icon__btn">
<SkipNext fontSize="medium" />
</div>
<div className="icon__btn">
<VolumeUp fontSize="medium" />
</div>
<Slider
className={`${classes.volumeSlider}`} />
<span>5/20</span>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Our control.jsx React player component will be like this:
const Control = () => {
return(
<div className="control_Container">
// <-- The Heading Container -->
// <-- The Middle Container -->
// <-- The Bottom Container -->
</div>
)
}
Let's discuss the .control_Container
class-named div
element. It’s a distinct container that, if hovered above the custom video player, appears as an overlay.
The following are the styles for our Control.jsx file:
.control_Container {
background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6);
position: absolute;
top: 0;
bottom: 0;
right: 0;
left: 0;
flex-direction: column;
z-index: 1;
display: flex;
justify-content: space-between;
}
.top_container {
display: flex;
align-items: center;
justify-content: space-between;
margin: 5px 20px;
}
.mid__container {
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
align-items: center;
}
.icon__btn {
padding: 0 10px;
color: #7b2cbf;
}
.slider__container {
/* width: 100%; */
display: flex;
align-items: center;
padding: 0 16px;
}
.control__box {
display: flex;
align-items: center;
justify-content: space-between;
}
.inner__controls {
display: flex;
padding: 10px 0;
align-items: center;
width: 50%;
}
span {
color: #9556cc;
font-size: 0.8rem;
margin-left: 10px;
}
.second__control {
display: flex;
align-items: center;
}
Additionally, we style some of the components by adding the Material UI's makeStyles
and withStyles
to our Control. Jsx
const useStyles = makeStyles({
volumeSlider: {
width: "100px",
color: "#9556CC",
},
bottomIcons: {
color: "#999",
padding: "12px 8px",
"&:hover": {
color: "#fff",
},
},
});
const PrettoSlider = withStyles({
root: {
height: "20px",
color: "#9556CC",
display: "flex",
justifyContent: "center",
alignItems: "center",
},
thumb: {
height: 20,
width: 20,
backgroundColor: "#9556CC",
border: "2px solid currentColor",
marginTop: -3,
marginLeft: -12,
"&:focus, &:hover, &$active": {
boxShadow: "inherit",
},
},
active: {},
valueLabel: {
left: "calc(-50% + 4px)",
},
track: {
height: 5,
borderRadius: 4,
width: "100%",
},
rail: {
height: 5,
borderRadius: 4,
},
})(Slider);
Adding the following code to your App.js file will import React’s Controls
component, which we also need to do:
import "./App.css";
import ReactPlayer from "react-player";
import { Container } from "@material-ui/core";
import Control from "./Components/Control";
function App() {
return (
<div className="video_container">
<div>
<h2>React player</h2>
</div>
<Container maxWidth="md" justify="center">
<div className="player__wrapper">
<ReactPlayer
className="player"
url="https://bucket-viewer.s3.amazonaws.com/viewer1664370329252.mp4"
width="100%"
height="100%"
playing={true}
muted={true}
/>
<Control />
</div>
</Container>
</div>
);
}
export default App;
If you followed closely, our React custom video player ought to appear like this:
Handling Play and Pause
In this section, we'll concentrate on the capabilities and logic of the custom controls for the React player, starting with playing and pausing.
Navigate to the App.js file, where we'll begin by defining a state named videoState
. An object with different properties represents this state:
const [videoState, setVideoState] = useState({
playing: true,
muted: false,
volume: 0.5,
played: 0,
seeking: false,
Buffer : true
});
//Destructuring the properties from the videoState
const {playing, muted, volume, playbackRate, played, seeking, buffer} = videoState
We destructure the videoState
using the ES6 syntax to get its properties.
Following that, we need to create a function that toggles the play and pause capabilities. To do this, we'll spread the previous state and toggle the necessary state.
const playPauseHandler = () => {
//plays and pause the video (toggling)
setVideoState({ ...videoState, playing: !videoState.playing });
};
Replace the true
values for the playing
and muted
properties with the appropriate values of playing
and mute
from the destructured videoState
in the ReactPlayer
component.
<div className="player__wrapper">
<ReactPlayer
className="player"
url="https://bucket-viewer.s3.amazonaws.com/viewer1664370329252.mp4"
width="100%"
height="100%"
playing={playing}
muted={muted}
/>
<Control onPlayPause={playPauseHandler} playing={playing}/>
</div>
The playing
prop in ReactPlayer
is used to set the value to true
or false
, playing or pausing the video.
To allow the play and pause buttons to access this feature, we pass in the function to the Control
component as a prop in the example above.
We’d also update our Control.jsx file by passing the onPlayPause
into the onClick
of our pause button.
<div className="icon__btn" onClick={onPlayPause}>
<Pause fontSize="medium" />
</div>
The playing attribute value provided within the videoState
, which we passed as a prop to the Control
component, is used to render the icon using the ternary operator conditionally. For example, the play icon should appear when the video is paused, and when it is playing, the pause icon should appear.
<div className="icon__btn" onClick={onPlayPause}>
{playing ? (
<Pause fontSize="medium" />
) : (
<PlayArrow fontSize="medium" />
)}{" "}
</div>
With the addition of these functionalities, we can easily play and pause our video, like so:
Handling Rewind and Fast Forward
We want to fast-forward the video by 10 seconds and rewind it by 5 seconds, much like with other video players. The ReactPlayer
must be referenced using the useRef
hook to obtain the video's current time before implementing this feature.
We’ll begin by importing the useRef
hook and creating a reference for the React Player
.
import ReactPlayer from "react-player";
import { useRef } from "react";
function App() {
//react player reference
const videoPlayerRef = useRef(null);
return (
<ReactPlayer
ref={videoPlayerRef} //updating the react player ref
className="player"
url="https://bucket-viewer.s3.amazonaws.com/viewer1664370329252.mp4"
width="100%"
height="100%"
playing={playing}
muted={muted}
/>
);
}
export default App;
Let's implement a rewindHandler
function that we'll call anytime the rewind button is double-tapped. This function will use two methods for the rewind and fast-forward features obtained from the videoPlayerRef
.
-
seekTo
: Seek the given number of seconds, or a fraction if the amount is between 0 and 1 -
getCurrentTime()
: Returns the number of seconds that have been played
const rewindHandler = () => {
//Rewinds the video player reducing 5
videoPlayerRef.current.seekTo(videoPlayerRef.current.getCurrentTime() - 5);
};
The rewindHandler
subtracts 5 seconds from the current video time, which is what you're thinking about when you think about the fastForwardHandler
adding 10 seconds to the current video time.
const fastFowardHandler = () => {
//FastFowards the video player by adding 10
videoPlayerRef.current.seekTo(videoPlayerRef.current.getCurrentTime() + 10);
};
Next, we pass the functions as props to the Control
component:
<Control
onPlayPause={playPauseHandler}
playing={playing}
onRewind={rewindHandler}
onForward ={handleFastFoward }
/>
Then, we receive the props and pass the two functions into their respective buttons.
<div className="icon__btn" onDoubleClick={onRewind}>
<FastRewind fontSize="medium" />
</div>
<div className="icon__btn">
<FastForward fontSize="medium" onDoubleClick={onForward}/>
</div>
We can now fast-forward and rewind our video using the code above. However, you'll also notice that the video player's slider doesn't move to the current time when we rewind or fast-forward the video. Let's fix that, since we're problem solvers, right?
Seek Functionality
The ReactPlayer
has an onProgress
prop callback for this feature, which is a Callback
that contains played and loaded progress as a fraction as well as playedSeconds
and loaded seconds.
const progressHandler = (state) => {
if (!seeking) {
setVideoState({ ...videoState, ...state });
}
};
The progressHandler
function accepts an argument called state
. This state
argument indicates an object with contained states. Every time the video player seek bar (the player's timing) updates, some sets of states are altered, and new values are returned. We keep the values of the previously modified States and our videoState
properties in this function. We want this to happen, but only when the value of the seeking property in our videoState
is negated.
Next, we pass in the progressHandler
function to the onProgess
prop in the ReactPlayer
:
<ReactPlayer
ref={videoPlayerRef}
className="player"
url="https://bucket-viewer.s3.amazonaws.com/viewer1664370329252.mp4"
width="100%"
height="100%"
playing={playing}
muted={muted}
onProgress = {progressHandler}
/>
Then, to update our seek slider to the appropriate time of the video, we pass the played
state that we've destructured from the videoState
to the control component as a prop.
<Control
onPlayPause={playPauseHandler}
playing={playing}
onRewind={rewindHandler}
onForward ={handleFastFoward }
played ={played}
/>
The PrettoSlider
in our control
component then has to be updated. The maximum value for our PrettoSlider
must be 100, and the minimum value must be set to 0. The value prop is the slider's current e.target.value
, which multiplies the value of the played
props by 100.
<PrettoSlider
min = {0}
max = {100}
value = {played * 100}
/>
Furthermore, we need to write functions that will enable us to use the video player slider to look for a specific moment. To do this, we'd create a seekHandler
and a seekMouseUpHandler
to help us achieve this feature.
const seekHandler = (e, value) => {
setVideoState({ ...videoState, played: parseFloat(value) / 100 });
};
const seekMouseUpHandler = (e, value ) => {
setVideoState({ ...videoState, seeking: false });
videoPlayerRef.current.seekTo(value / 100);
};
We then pass these functions as props to the control
component. The parameter given to the function is the value we immediately receive whenever the slider moves. Then, since played
only accepts values between 0 and 1, we only updated the played
value to the value argument divided by 100 when updating the videoState
.
Additionally, we gave the mouseSeekUpHandler
function an argument called value
. Spreading the previous state and changing only the seeking
state value to false
, which allows us to update the videoState
. Then, we change the video's current time to the desired time.
<Control
onPlayPause={playPauseHandler}
playing={playing}
onRewind={rewindHandler}
onForward ={handleFastFoward }
played ={played}
onSeek ={seekHandler}
onSeekMouseUp ={seekMouseUpHandler}
/>
To use these two functions, the PrettoSlider
has two props which we can use for this functionality: onChange
and onChangeCommitted
. According to the MUI docs, the onChange
prop is a Callback function that fires whenever the slider's value changes, while the onChangeCommitted
is a Callback function that fires when the mouse moves up.
This is what our video player should look like now:
Volume Functionality
We should have the option to mute and increase/decrease the video’s volume in our React player. The icon should then change to ‘muted’ or ‘volume-up’, depending on the volume setting in that situation.
Let’s head over to our App.js file.
const volumeChangeHandler = (e, value) => {
const newVolume = parseFloat(value) / 100;
setVideoState({
...videoState,
volume: newVolume,
muted: Number(newVolume) === 0 ? true : false, // volume === 0 then muted
})
};
const volumeSeekUpHandler = (e, value) => {
const newVolume = parseFloat(value) / 100;
setVideoState({
...videoState,
volume: newVolume,
muted: newVolume === 0 ? true : false,
})};
There is a volume prop for this functionality in the ReactPlayer
where we pass the destructured volume
from our videoState
.
<ReactPlayer
ref={videoPlayerRef}
className="player"
url="https://bucket-viewer.s3.amazonaws.com/viewer1664370329252.mp4"
width="100%"
height="100%"
playing={playing}
volume = {volume}
muted={muted}
onProgress={progressHandler}
/>
The volume slider needs to define two functions, one for the onChange
event and the other for the onChangeCommitted
event, just like the PrettoSlider
.
Now, we pass them as props to the control
component:
<Control
onPlayPause={playPauseHandler}
playing={playing}
onRewind={rewindHandler}
onForward={handleFastFoward}
played={played}
onSeek={seekHandler}
onSeekMouseUp={seekMouseUpHandler}
Volume={volume}
onVolumeChangeHandler = {volumeChangeHandler}
onVolumeSeekUp = {volumeSeekUpHandler}
/>
The volume slider is then updated by including new props, the onChange
event, the onChangeCommitted
event, and value
, and passing the onVolumeChangeHandler
, onVolumeSeekUp
, and volume
props.
<Slider
className={`${classes.volumeSlider}`}
onChange={onVolumeChangeHandler}
value={volume * 100}
onChangeCommitted={onVolumeSeekUp}
/>
Handling the Muted State
We ought to be able to choose between muted
and volume up
whenever the mute button is clicked. The symbol should switch to ‘muted’ or ‘volume-up’ depending on the volume level.
We’ll start by writing a function that handles the mute functionality in our App.js file.
const muteHandler = () => {
//Mutes the video player
setVideoState({ ...videoState, muted: !videoState.muted });
};
In the muteHandler
, we retained everything in the videoState
and changed the muted
property to have a value opposite of the current muted
state, thereby toggling it and then passing the muted
props to the control
component.
<Control
onPlayPause={playPauseHandler}
playing={playing}
onRewind={rewindHandler}
onForward={handleFastFoward}
played={played}
onSeek={seekHandler}
onSeekMouseUp={seekMouseUpHandler}
volume ={volume}
onVolumeChangeHandler = {volumeChangeHandler}
onVolumeSeekUp = {volumeSeekUpHandler}
mute = {muted}
onMute = {muteHandler}
/>
<div className="icon__btn" onClick={onMute} >
{mute ? (
<VolumeOff fontSize="medium" />
) : (
<VolumeUp fontSize="medium" />
)}
</div>
The value of the videoState
field's muted
state determines how the two icons in the above code would render conditionally. It also passes in a function to the wrapper, which toggles the mute functionality.
This is how our video should function:
Video Time Functionality
Video players, as we all know, typically show the video's current time. To accomplish this, we use some instance methods that React Player offers:
-
getCurrentTime
: Returns the number of seconds that have been played. -
getDuration
: Returns the currently playing media’s total duration (in seconds). -
getSecondsLoaded
: Returns the number of seconds that have been loaded.
const currentTime = videoPlayerRef.current? videoPlayerRef.current.getCurrentTime(): "00:00";
const duration = videoPlayerRef.current? videoPlayerRef.current.getDuration(): "00:00";
We still need to format the returned time according to our preferences, even though the currentTime
and duration
are rendered conditionally using ternary operators.
A function that formats the timing must be created. After accepting an argument, this function will return the time in a specific format.
To use the function in App.js, we create a new file called Format.js inside the component folder.
export const formatTime = (time) => {
//formarting duration of video
if (isNaN(time)) {
return "00:00";
}
const date = new Date(time * 1000);
const hours = date.getUTCHours();
const minutes = date.getUTCMinutes();
const seconds = date.getUTCSeconds().toString().padStart(2, "0");
if (hours) {
//if video have hours
return `${hours}:${minutes.toString().padStart(2, "0")} `;
} else return `${minutes}:${seconds}`;
};
Following that, import the formatTime
method found in the Format.js file. Therefore, in the App.js file, we can use it. Then, two formatTime
calls are made, with the currentTime
and duration
being passed as arguments.
const formatCurrentTime = formatTime(currentTime)
const formatDuration = formatTime(duration)
We then pass the formatCurrentTime
and formatDuration
as props to the control
component.
<Control
onPlayPause={playPauseHandler}
playing={playing}
onRewind={rewindHandler}
onForward={handleFastFoward}
played={played}
onSeek={seekHandler}
onSeekMouseUp={seekMouseUpHandler}
volume ={volume}
onVolumeChangeHandler = {volumeChangeHandler}
onVolumeSeekUp = {volumeSeekUpHandler}
mute = {muted}
onMute = {muteHandler}
duration = {formatDuration}
currentTime = {formatCurrentTime}
/>
Finally, modify the default timing value to this:
<span>{ currentTime} : {duration}</span>
Now, you can watch the length of the video as it plays and see how much time has passed. Watch the timing as the seek bar is dragged.
The Control
container div is frequently resting on the player, as you can see. Let's make it more interesting by having it resemble other video players— let’s make it visible whenever we hover on the video player.
Creating a Disappearing Seek Bar
To achieve this feature, we also need to create a reference of the div
with classname of control_Container
in the App.js file:
const controlRef = useRef(null)
And pass it to the control
component:
<Control
controlRef = {controlRef}
onPlayPause={playPauseHandler}
playing={playing}
onRewind={rewindHandler}
onForward={handleFastFoward}
played={played}
onSeek={seekHandler}
onSeekMouseUp={seekMouseUpHandler}
volume ={volume}
onVolumeChangeHandler = {volumeChangeHandler}
onVolumeSeekUp = {volumeSeekUpHandler}
mute = {muted}
onMute = {muteHandler}
playRate = {playbackRate}
onPlayRate = {playBackRateHandler}
duration = {formatDuration}
currentTime = {formatCurrentTime}
/>
We then pass it to the ref
property on the control_Container
div in the control
component:
const Control = ({controlRef}) => {
return (
<div className="control_Container" ref ={controlRef}>
// <-- body of the control component --->
</div>
);
};
export default Control;
Next, we head over to our App.js and declare a new variable called count
which will be equal to 0:
Let count = 0
const App = () => {
return (
<div>
// <-- body of the App component --->
</div>
);
};
export default App;
We include an if
statement inside the progressHandler
function to determine whether the count
exceeds 3, at which point we use the controlRef
and set the visibility to hidden
. By doing so, the control
component div is hidden.
const progressHandler = (state) => {
if (count > 3){
// toggling player control container
controlRef.current.style.visibility = "hidden";
} else if (controlRef.current.style.visibility === "visible") {
count += 1;
}
if (!seeking) {
setVideoState({ ...videoState, ...state });
}
};
We must create another function to make the control div visible whenever the player is hovered over.
const mouseMoveHandler = () => {
controlRef.current.style.visibility = "visible";
count = 0;
};
const App = () => {
return (
<div>
// <-- body of the App component --->
<div onMouseDown = {mouseMoveHandler} >
<ReactPlayer/>
<Control/>
</div>
</div>
);
};
export default App;
Our player now looks like this:
Buffering Functionality in our React Player
When we watch videos online, they frequently stall, primarily because of poor network connections. Let's add a similar feature to our video player.
The ReactPlayer provides two props that accept a callback for this feature: onBuffer
and onBufferEnd
.
const bufferStartHandler = () => {
console.log("Bufering.......");
setVideoState({...videoState , buffer: true})
};
const bufferEndHandler = () => {
console.log("buffering stoped ,,,,,,play");
setVideoState({...videoState , buffer: false})
};
These two functions will be passed to the onBuffer
and onBufferEnd
.
<ReactPlayer
ref={videoPlayerRef}
className="player"
url="https://bucket-viewer.s3.amazonaws.com/viewer1664370329252.mp4"
width="100%"
height="100%"
playing={playing}
volume={volume}
muted={muted}
onProgress={progressHandler}
playbackRate={playBackRateHandler}
onBuffer={bufferStartHandler}
onBufferEnd={bufferEndHandler}
/>
The last step alerts users when a video freezes. The buffer state must be true
to render a load effectively.
{buffer && <p>Loading</p>}
Observe the Loading
text when the video freezes.
Conclusion
This post taught us how to construct and modify a video player using the react-player
package and Material UI
to style and import the required icons. Of course, you can always improve the build by including a few special features to make the player entirely custom.
Here is the URL to the GitHub repository.
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