I know that we all love movies, whether on your home system or on websites. Online videos in particular have an additional use, not only to entertain, but also to fulfill marketing functions – informing your customers about your product or service. They can increase the value of the website and make it more attractive for users. You should take advantage of these potential benefits by adding videos (from youtube, vimeo etc…) to your Joomla! 2.5 or Joomla 3.2 website. In this guide we will show you how to insert a simple video player into an article or module.
How to add Video code / short-code
Unfortunately, even the latest version of Joomla!; 3.2, does not allow you to add video by default easily, like in WordPress. It always requests that you disable WYSIWYG mode or that you install additional extensions. But once this step is completed, the rest is very easy. First, you have to ask yourself, “Where do I need my videos to be taken from; YouTube, Vimeo or Dailymotion?”.
You have three main options:
- If you are using JCE or JCK Editor then you can install commercial plug-ins which will add functionality such as audio and video capabilities to your toolbar.
- You can also disable the TinyMCE editor in the User Manager to switch to the HTML Editor View, then use the embed code generated by YouTube etc…
- One of our GK modules – News Show Pro GK5 have the Video Gallery portal mode which allows you to use video from K2 items.
- Or you can use an additional plugin or module. Most of them are free and can be downloaded via the video channels category of the JED: …/social-media/video-channels
Some of these Joomla! video plug-ins use video shortcode {youtube}…{/youtube} tags – which allow you to use a shortcode directly in the WYSIWYG editor with a set of attributes for even more control over how the extension renders the player. Some others makes it even more simple to embed YouTube videos into your site. And all you have to do is copy and paste the URL of a video (not the embed code) that you want to embed from YouTube into your articles and the YouTube player will show in its place when you publish. As you may soon see, the plugin can takes care of the rest!
Remember that only a few of the solutions (Joomla! modules and plug-ins) available on the JED can integrate into Joomla! websites that have a responsive layout, that offers a flexible layout to tablet/mobile users.
More advanced modules are able to turn a list of YouTube links into a playlist. Also get ready to impress your clients and users with the YouTube Background video player – also available on the JED. Such a module can enhance your homepage with a stunning video-based landing page.
Hosting your own Video
If you want to show video without the YouTube logo and host it yourself, then the process is not so simple, but it is still relatively easy compared to some other integrations, with the right additions (modules, plugins or components) for Joomla. We recommend to use only Video Players which support HTML5 and help you showcase your remote , local or server videos directly on your website.