YouTube Channel free WordPress plugin

Add YouTube Channel widget to the widget area or shortcode to post/page content, set Channel ID or Playlist ID, chose resource to use and keep defaults for all other options. And voila! You will get the latest video from chosen YouTube channel or playlist.

IMPORTANT YouTube Channel does not support Live Streams and does not have Gutenberg Block. Use Shortcode Block or Classic Block to insert shortcode to page/post content.

If you like our plugin and find it useful, please write a review and rate it.

For a manually picked set of videos from YouTube, check out Easy YouTube Gallery.

Features

• Show latest videos from YouTube Channel (ordered in reverse chronological order related to the creation date), or from Favorited Videos, Liked Videos and Playlist
• Option to get a random video from any of 4 resources
• Responsive (one full-width video per row) or non-responsive
• Preferred aspect ratio relative to width (16:9 and 4:3)
• Custom width for video embeded object (default is 306px)
• Three modes to display video: thumbnail (default), HTML5 (iframe) and HTML5 Asynchronous (iframe2)
• Thumbnail mode opens the video in lightbox
• Enhanced Privacy – please note that display mode HTML5 (IFRAME) Asynchronous (shortcode parameter iframe2) does not support Enhanced Privacy due to YouTube API limitations
• Hide or show video title above/below video wrapped to HTML tag by your choice (h3, h4, h5, span or div)
• Custom feed caching timeout
• Optional video autoplay with optional muted audio
• (Optional) TinyMCE button on post/page edit (can be disabled on General plugin settings page), which open a shortcode GUI generator to help you build a shortcode
• Show link to channel/vanity/legacy username below videos
• Final look is highly customisable thanks to classes for each element of YTC block!

Requirements

For a fully functional plugin, PHP 5.6 or newer has required! If you use older PHP, we highly recommend you request from your developer, server support or hosting company to update PHP to a secure version.

Styling

Use Customizer, style.css from the child theme or Head & Footer Code plugin to custom style and tweak the look and feel of the YouTube Channel blocks. You can utilise the following classes:

• .widget_youtube-channel – class of whole widget (parent for widget title and YTC block)
• .youtube_channel – YTC block wrapper class. Additional classes are available:
  • .default – for non-responsive block
  • .responsive – when you have enabled responsive option
• .ytc_title – class for video title container above thumbnail/video object
  • .ytc_title_above – additional class for video title above video/thumbnail
  • .ytc_title_below – additional class for video title below video/thumbnail
  • .ytc_title_inside – additional class for video title printed inside of the thumbnail
  • .ytc_title_inside_bottom – additional class for bottom aligned video title printed inside of the thumbnail
• .ytc_video_container – class of container for single item, plus:
  • .ytc_video_1, .ytc_video_2, … – class of container for single item with ordering number of item in widget
  • .ytc_video_first – class of first container for single item
  • .ytc_video_mid – class of all other containers for single item
  • .ytc_video_last – class of last container for single item
  • .ar16_9 – class for Aspect Ratio 16:9
  • .ar4_3 – class for Aspect Ration 4:3
• .ytc_thumb – class of anchor for Thumbnail mode
• .fluid-width-video-wrapper – class for parent element of IFRAME for enabled responsive
• .ytc_description – class for video description text below thumbnail/video object
• .ytc_link – class of container for link to channel

Known Issues

• Video title and description for embedded playlist mode do not work.
• Removing the YouTube logo from the playback control bar does not work for all videos.
• Async HTML5 video does not work for 2nd same video on the same page (two YTC blocks set to Async HTML5)

If WordFence or other malware scan tool detect YouTube Channel file youtube-channel.php as a potential risk because base64_encode() and base64_decode() functions, remember that we use this two functions to store and restore JSON feeds to transient cache, so potential detection is false positive.

Credits

• For playing videos in lightbox we use enhanced Magnific Popup.
• Initial textdomain adds done by dimadin.
• Federico Bozo reminded me to fix z-index problem

Shortcode

Along with Widget, you can add YouTube Channel block inline by using shortcode [youtube_channel]. Default plugin parameters will be used for shortcode, but you can customize all parameters per shortcode.

General Settings

• class (string) Set custom class if you wish to target special styling for specific YTC block
• channel (string) ID of preferred YouTube channel. Do not set full URL to channel, but just last part from URL – ID (name)
• vanity (string) part after www.youtube.com/c/ from Custom URL
• username (string) Optional legacy YouTube username.
• playlist (string) ID of preferred YouTube playlist.
• resource (int) Resource to use for feed:
  • 0 Channel (User uploads)
  • 1 Favorites (for defined channel)
  • 2 Playlist
  • 3 Liked Videos
• cache (int) Period in seconds for caching feed. You can disable caching by setting this option to 0, but if you have a lot of visits, consider at least short caching (couple minutes).
• fetch (int) Number of videos that will be used as stack for random pick (min 2, max 50)
• num (int) Number of videos to display per YTC block.
• random (bool) Option to randomize videos on every page load.

Video Settings

• ratio (int) Set preferred aspect ratio for thumbnail and video. You can use:
  • 3 16:9 (widescreen)
  • 1 4:3
• responsive (bool) Distribute one full width video per row.
• width (int) Width of thumbnail and video in pixels.
• display (string) Object that will be used to represent video. We have couple predefined options:
  • thumbnail Thumbnail will be used and video will be loaded in lightbox. (default)
  • iframe HTML5 (iframe)
  • iframe2 HTML5 (iframe) with asynchronous loading – recommended
  • playlist Embedded playlist (same behaviour as old function only_pl)
• thumb_quality (string) Define image quality for thumbnail display mode. Default is hqdefault, available:
  • default Default Quality (120x90px)
  • mqdefault Medium Quality (320x180px)
  • hqdefault High Quality (480x360px)
  • sddefault Standard Definition (640x480px)
  • maxresdefault Maximum Resolution (1280x720px)
• no_thumb_title (bool) By default YouTube thumbnail will have tooltip with info about video title and date of publishing. By setting this option to 1 or true you can hide tooltip
• themelight (bool) By default YouTube have dark play controls theme. By setting this option to 1 or true you can get light theme in player (HTML5 and Flash)
• controls (bool) Set this option to 1 or true to hide playback controls.
• autoplay (bool) Enable autoplay of first video in YTC video stack by setting this option to 1 or true
• mute (bool) Set this option to 1 or true to mute videos set to autoplay on load
• norel (bool) Set this option to 1 or true to hide related videos after finished playbak
• nobrand (bool) Set this option to 1 or true to hide YouTube logo from playback control bar
• NEW nolightbox (bool) Set this option to 1 or true to prevent YTC block with thumbnail to open in lightbox. If you have other plugin that trigger youtube links for lightbox, that one will steal links from this YTC block.
• NEW target (string) If you enable nolightbox for specific YTC block, you can force opening of thumbnail links in new tab/window if you set this shortcode option to _blank like target="_blank".

Content Layout

• showtitle (string):
  • none – Hide title
  • above – Display title above video/thumbnail
  • below – Display title below video/thumbnail
  • inside – Display top aligned title inside thumbnail; if display is not thumbnail then treat as above
  • inside_b – Display bottom aligned title inside thumbnail; if display is not thumbnail then treat as below
• titletag – Video title HTML tag to wrap title (H3, H4, H5, div, span, strong, etc)
• showdesc (bool) Set to 1 or true to show video description.
• desclen (int) Set number of characters to cut down length of video description. Set to 0 to use full length description.
• noinfo (bool) Set to 1 or true to hide overlay video infos (from embedded player)
• noanno (bool) Set to 1 or true to hide overlay video annotations (from embedded player)

Link to Channel

• goto_txt (string)
• popup (int) Control where link to channel will be opened:
  • 0 open link in same window
  • 1 open link in new window with JavaScript
  • 2 open link in new window with target=”_blank” anchor attribute
• link_to (string) URL to link:
  • none Hide link (defult)
  • vanity Vanity custom URL
  • channel Channel page
  • legacy Legacy username page

Please note, to enhance plugin functionality, we can change some shortcode parameters in future.

Filter hooks

You can modify final output of video block by hooking to filter ytc_print_video.

Four parameters are provided:

• video_content – HTML of original video block
• item – YouTube video object which contains:
  • snippet->publishedAt – date of publishing YouTube video
  • shippet->title – YouTube video title
  • shippet->description – YouTube video description
  • snippet->resourceId->videoId -> YouTube video ID
• instance – Current YouTUbe Channel Block parameters, including global settings:
  • vanity
  • channel
  • username
  • playlist
  • resource
  • cache
  • fetch
  • num
  • skip
  • privacy
  • ratio
  • width
  • responsive
  • display
  • fullscreen
  • controls
  • autoplay
  • autoplay_mute
  • norel
  • playsinline
  • showtitle
  • titletag
  • showdesc
  • desclen
  • modestbranding
  • hideanno
  • goto_txt
  • popup_goto
  • link_to
  • tinymce
  • nolightbox
  • apikey
  • thumb_quality
  • timeout
  • random
  • no_thumb_title
  • class
  • target
• y – order number of video (1 for first, 2 for second, etc)

Example:

add_filter( 'ytc_print_video', 'customized_ytc_print_video', 10, 4 );
function customized_ytc_print_video( $video_block, $item, $instance, $y ) {
    // Do whatever you wish to do
    // ...
    return $video_block;
}