Flowplayer FLV filter HTML5 fallback

Flowplayer FLV filter HTML5 fallback

by Amy Groshek -
Number of replies: 7

I'm finding barebones documentation of the new Flowplayer flv multimedia filter in moodle docs. In my M2 multimedia filter config screen, it also says of this filter: "Uses HTML 5 video fallback if multiple sources specified."

What I'm not finding is any documentation of how to specify those multiple sources... Is it as specified in the documentation for the HTML5 filter on the same screen?

#
)

In that case, I would do something like:

#d=640x480 ?

Also, will these 2 filters (FLV and HTML5) interfere with one another if both enabled at the same time? Thanks for any assistance.

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In reply to Amy Groshek

Re: Flowplayer FLV filter HTML5 fallback

by Matt Bury -
Picture of Plugin developers

#1 The traditional method is:

< div that gets overwritten by SWFObject if Flash Player supported >

< alternative HTML5 video tag>

< HTML5 video source for MP4 / >

< HTML5 video source for OGG / >

< HTML5 video source for WebM / >

< / alternative HTML5 video tag>

< / div that gets overwritten by SWFObject if Flash Player supported >

#2 I guess the method your client is prescribing is:

< HTML5 video tag >

< HTML5 video source for MP4 / >

< HTML5 video source for OGG / >

< HTML5 video source for WebM / >

< alternative content, i.e. Flash embed code / >

< / HTML5 video tag >

I guess you could play around with the filters and keep checking the page source until you find something that works. Who's responsible for Moodle core documentation?

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In reply to Matt Bury

Re: Flowplayer FLV filter HTML5 fallback

by Amy Groshek -
Thanks Matt,

I appreciate your information but I'm not really asking for markup or prescriptions as to what is "traditional". I have asked how the Moodle filters are operating, what rules they employ before deploying Flowplayer, for example, what behavior they default to.

Can anyone tell me what behaviors the Moodle filters are defaulting to when enabled, how to utilize them, and how they interact.

1) If Flowplayer is providing HTML5 fallback, what is the syntax for providing the source for that fallback to the filter?
2) If the FLV filter and the HTML5 filter are both enabled, how does Moodle decide which filter to use, since both source strings could presumably contain HTML5 video sources?

It would take a few sentences to answer these questions, and I would probably take that information straight to Moodle docs. Is anyone able to help?

Thanks,
Amy
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In reply to Amy Groshek

Re: Flowplayer FLV filter HTML5 fallback

by Willy Lee -

I realize it's been a while since you posted, but in case anyone else is looking for this information, I'll post it here.

In lib/medialib.php , there are classes for each player that can get used. You can set which player gets precedence by changing the function get_rank(). So for us, we wanted to prefer the Open University HTML5 player over the Flash mp3 player where appropriate, so we boosted its rank to 100 (greater than the 80 that the flash player was set to.)

Hope that helps. I'm still digging around to Moodle lookingfor ways to make audio embedding a little more useful for our faculty.

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In reply to Willy Lee

Re: Flowplayer FLV filter HTML5 fallback

by Sam Mudle -

Hi Willy,

Thanks for the heads up.  Yes the medialib.php file in Moodle 2.3.x controls which media players get loaded based on the filetype.

In your case, there are two classes that control mp3 embeddding in Moodle:

  1. core_media_player_html5audio - generates HTML5 audio tag. (rank of 10)
  2. core_media_player_mp3 - uses flash tag (rank of 80)

In my case, I don't want quicktime nor HTML5 to be used to display mp4 movie files.  I quite enjoy the Flash Flowplayer.  Very few people have QuickTime properly installed, and it takes administrative permissions to install QuickTime anyway.  Eventually everyone will be using an HTML5 browser, but that's probably still a couple of years away.

So I hack medialib.php get_supported_extensions() function to include mp4's as well as flv.  The flow player has a higher rank.

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In reply to Sam Mudle

Re: Flowplayer FLV filter HTML5 fallback

by Will Taylor -

there is no longer a /ib/medialib.php file in Moodle v. 2.4, and .mp4s in 2.4 continue to be directed to QT for play -
any idea where the setting might reside in Moode 2.4, to hack to direct .mp4s to FlowPlayer ?

I've poked around quite a bit, and fail to find this ...

I know I can rename the .mp4s to .flv, but this is not an entirely satisfactory solution

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In reply to Will Taylor

Re: Flowplayer handling of .mp4s

by Will Taylor -

Apologies here -
(although this is after an upgrade to 2.4+ latest, perhaps the file went missing in my first installation of 2.4 first version? - I swear I was unable to locate it!  Perhaps time for new glasses? ... )

To direct .mp4s to FlowPlayer rather than Quicktime,
hack the file /lib/medialib.php

look for instances of "get supported extensions" -
line # 844 (which lists supported extensions for Quicktime), remove .mp4

line 702 (which lists supported extensions for FlowPlayer), add .mp4

mp4s now play in FlowPlayer, & on devices without Flash (iPods, iPhones), the player falls back (forward?) to HTML5

It would be wonderful to provide a setting in the Media Filter, so that this can be easily toggled without needing to hack a file - see Tracker issue 

http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-36769?focusedCommentId=192793&page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel#comment-192793

& vote this up if it is of interest to you.

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In reply to Matt Bury

Re: Flowplayer FLV filter HTML5 fallback

by Brayton Maine -

I'm interested in using the HTML markup method for sharing my videos as it has been requested that our videos be available over all platforms.

How would I link up my files with scr="xxxxxxxxxx/Video1.xxx" if I've uploaded them into my "moodledata/repository/" directory? Instead of uploading files into the repository are there other locations in the moodle directory that I could upload these files, making them easier to embed with code?

What I'm trying to do is create a quiz. They watch the video, which I will place in a "description" and then learners must answer questions based on the video.

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