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Embed Links

Learn how to use Embed Links to setup playlists, chaptering, “watch another video,” and “choose your own adventure”-style navigation without any JavaScript.

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Embed Links give you a framework to easily replace a video or control its time using specially formatted links. These links will work anywhere on the page, including in Wistia CTAs and Annotations.

📝

Note

The Wistia APIs were specifically built for videos in projects. We do not formally support using our APIs for audio files in projects, or audio or video episodes in Channels at this time. For the most reliable experience, we recommend continuing to use these for videos in projects.

Simple Video Replacement Example

Embed Links are best illustrated by example. Check out the markup below.

<!-- example_embed_link.html -->
<script charset="ISO-8859-1" src="//fast.wistia.com/assets/external/E-v1.js" async></script>
<div class="wistia_embed wistia_async_30q7n48g4f" style="height:360px;width:640px">&nbsp;</div>
<a href="#wistia_30q7n48g4f">Make French Toast</a><br/>
<a href="#wistia_342jss6yh5">Wistia Team Intro</a><br/>

Here we have a standard inline embed code followed by two links. The links have a particular format. They start with a #, which makes them "anchor links" (URI fragment identifiers). The # is followed by a video's 10 character hashed ID. A ? separates the hashed ID from a list of optional embed options in the same format as our iframe embeds.

<!-- embed_link_anatomy.html -->
<a href="#wistia_30q7n48g4f?time=30">Make French Toast</a>
<!-- prefix  hashed ID  embed options -->

Check out a live example!

 

"Make French Toast" is embedded by default by the Standard (or async) embed code. When you click a link below that code, it replaces the video with another and automatically plays it.

Simple Playlist Link Example

The previous example shows you how you can set up links to replace a video. But playlists are, by definition, sequential. That is, when one ends, another begins, in a well-defined order.

We can easily modify the markup of that code to add that functionality. Let's try it!

<!-- example_playlist_link.html -->
<script charset="ISO-8859-1" src="//fast.wistia.com/assets/external/E-v1.js" async></script>
<div class="wistia_embed wistia_async_30q7n48g4f playlistLinks=auto" style="height:360px;width:640px">&nbsp;</div>
<a href="#wistia_30q7n48g4f">Make French Toast</a><br/>
<a href="#wistia_342jss6yh5?time=30">Wistia Team Intro</a><br/>

I've added the embed option "playlistLinks" and set it to "auto". This will find all the embed links on the page and make them part of a playlist. The order of the playlist is the same as the order that the links appear in the markup.

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Note

For playlistLinks=auto to work properly, the first embed link in your playlist needs to have the same hashed_id as the first video on the page. In the example above, note that the embed code has an id of 30q7n48g4f, and so does the first embed link just under it.

If you watch to the end of "Make French Toast", then the "Wistia Team Intro" should start playing immediately.


Simple Chaptering Example

If I only have one video but want to link to various parts of it, I can use the same format as Embed Links. Just make sure the hashed ID is the same as the embedded video. Check it out!

<script charset="ISO-8859-1" src="//fast.wistia.com/assets/external/E-v1.js" async></script>
<div class="wistia_embed wistia_async_30q7n48g4f" style="height:360px;width:640px">&nbsp;</div>
<a href="#wistia_30q7n48g4f?time=0">Make French Toast @ 0</a><br/>
<a href="#wistia_30q7n48g4f?time=10">Make French Toast @ 10</a><br/>
<a href="#wistia_30q7n48g4f?time=20">Make French Toast @ 20</a><br/>
<a href="#wistia_30q7n48g4f?time=30">Make French Toast @ 30</a><br/>

Note that I've just modified the "time" embed option for each link, and the hashed ID 30q7n48g4f is the same as the video I initially embedded.

 

Watch Another Video in CTA/Annotation

You can easily add "Watch Another Video" functionality using embed links. In a CTA or annotation, just make the URL #wistia_{hashedid}, where "{hashedid}" is the video you want to play next.

embed links call to action

embed links annotation

To get the hashed ID for a video, refer to the URL of the page in Wistia. The alphanumeric characters following "/medias/" are what you want. For example, in the example below, the hashed ID is z1fxq584qr.

Embed Links example hashed ID from URL

Here's an example:

Beware: Testing this while the Customize Panel is open confuses things quite a bit. To make sure it works, you'll need to save your customization then reload the page.

Special Embed Link Options

autoPlay

For embed links, this is true by default; that's why they play on click. If you just want to replace the video on click, but not play, set it to false.

<a href="#wistia_30q7n48g4f?autoPlay=false">Make French Toast</a>

container

Set the specific video this embed link should connect to. This overrides all other strategies for connecting embed links to videos.

<a href="#wistia_lkjer09098?container=the_other_video">Other Video</a>
<script charset="ISO-8859-1" src="//fast.wistia.com/assets/external/E-v1.js"></script>
<div id="the_video" class="wistia_async_986fe34j56 wistia_embed" style="width:640px;height:360px;">&nbsp;</div>
<div id="the_other_video" class="wistia_async_30q7n48g4f wistia_embed" style="width:640px;height:360px;">&nbsp;</div>

includeInPlaylist

Default is true. If an embed link is included in a playlist, but you don't want it to be included, use this option.

transition

When switching between videos, you can specify a transition animation. Allowed values are fade, slide, crossfade, and none. The default is fade.

<a href="#wistia_30q7n48g4f?transition=slide">Make French Toast</a>
<a href="#wistia_lkjer09098?transition=crossfade">Another Video</a>

transitionTime

To be used in conjunction with transition, set the total time in milliseconds it takes to perform the animation.

<a href="#wistia_30q7n48g4f?transition=slide&transitionTime=2000">Super Slow Slide</a>
<a href="#wistia_30q7n48g4f?transition=crossfade&transitionTime=150">Quick Crossfade</a>

Special Playlist Options

playlistLinks

This allows you to associate embed links on the page with a video, thereby turning it into a playlist. Accepts any string, but "auto" and "manual" are special values. Refer to the Advanced Embed Links Targeting section below to learn how to use this effectively.

Note: This option is incompatible with our add to playlist Player API.

playlistLoop

When the last video finishes, embed and play the first video again. Default is false.

<script charset="ISO-8859-1" src="//fast.wistia.com/assets/external/E-v1.js" async></script>
<div class="wistia_embed wistia_async_30q7n48g4f playlistLinks=auto playlistLoop=true" style="height:360px;width:640px">&nbsp;</div>

Advanced Embed Links Targeting

WARNING: The information below is technical, and is only relevant if you have multiple videos/playlists on your page.

All this is really cool, but what happens when you have multiple video embeds on a page? How does the Embed Link know which one to replace? Good question.
There are a few different strategies that can be employed: auto, container, manual, and closest.

Generally, we advise switching strategies if you have trouble with "auto". If you don't have trouble with "auto", then you can ignore this.

"auto" Targeting Strategy

When you see "playlistLinks=auto", it is saying that the playlist should use this strategy. With this strategy, we say "for each video on the page, look for
links after the video, until we come to another Wistia video." Usually links appear after the video, so this is a sane default.

<!-- playlist_links_auto_strategy1.html -->
<div id="playlist1" class="wistia_async_30q7n48g4f wistia_embed playlistLinks=auto" style="width:640px;height:360px;">&nbsp;</div>
<script charset="ISO-8859-1" src="//fast.wistia.com/assets/external/E-v1.js"></script>
<!-- these link to playlist1 -->
<a href="#wistia_abcde12345">link 1</a><br/>
<a href="#wistia_ghijk67890">link 2</a><br/>

<div id="playlist2" class="wistia_async_30q7n48g4f wistia_embed playlistLinks=auto" style="width:640px;height:360px;">&nbsp;</div>
<script charset="ISO-8859-1" src="//fast.wistia.com/assets/external/E-v1.js"></script>
<!-- these link to playlist2 -->
<a href="#wistia_sdlkj34985">link 3</a><br/>
<a href="#wistia_lkjer09098">link 4</a><br/>

There is one situation where we flip things around. That is, if embed links exist before any Wistia videos on your page, then we invert the strategy and say "for each video on the page, look for links before the video, until we come to another Wistia video." If you have a playlist where links appear before the video, this logic will handle that.

<!-- playlist_links_auto_strategy2.html -->
<!-- these link to playlist1 -->
<a href="#wistia_abcde12345">link 1</a><br/>
<a href="#wistia_ghijk67890">link 2</a><br/>
<div id="playlist1" class="wistia_async_30q7n48g4f wistia_embed playlistLinks=auto" style="width:640px;height:360px;">&nbsp;</div>
<script charset="ISO-8859-1" src="//fast.wistia.com/assets/external/E-v1.js"></script>

<!-- these link to playlist2 -->
<a href="#wistia_sdlkj34985">link 3</a><br/>
<a href="#wistia_lkjer09098">link 4</a><br/>
<div id="playlist2" class="wistia_async_30q7n48g4f wistia_embed playlistLinks=auto" style="width:640px;height:360px;">&nbsp;</div>
<script charset="ISO-8859-1" src="//fast.wistia.com/assets/external/E-v1.js"></script>

"manual" Targeting Strategy

The "manual" strategy is the most specific of all strategies. It says, "given each link element, look at its 'container' option to determine which video it should connect to."

This strategy allows you to scatter your links across the DOM and still have them target the video you care about. It can be used with either embed links or playlist links.

<!-- playlist_links_manual_strategy.html -->
<div id="playlist1" class="wistia_async_30q7n48g4f wistia_embed playlistLinks=manual" style="width:640px;height:360px;">&nbsp;</div>
<script charset="ISO-8859-1" src="//fast.wistia.com/assets/external/E-v1.js"></script>
<a href="#wistia_abcde12345?container=playlist2">link 1</a><br/>
<a href="#wistia_ghijk67890?container=playlist1">link 2</a><br/>

<div id="playlist2" class="wistia_async_30q7n48g4f wistia_embed playlistLinks=manual" style="width:640px;height:360px;">&nbsp;</div>
<script charset="ISO-8859-1" src="//fast.wistia.com/assets/external/E-v1.js"></script>
<a href="#wistia_sdlkj34985?container=playlist2">link 3</a><br/>
<a href="#wistia_lkjer09098?container=playlist1">link 4</a><br/>

In the above example, link 1 and link 3 would be in playlist2, while link 2 and link 4 would be in playlist 1.

Note that, for this strategy to be employed, each target video container must have a unique ID attribute set.

"container" Targeting Strategy

The "container" strategy is what you'd use if you were building your own playlist and wanted more control than the "auto" strategy provides. It says, "for all embed links in this container, connect them to this specific video."

When you use the "container" strategy, you set playlistLinks equal to the ID of the DOM element that contains your links.

<div id="playlist1" class="wistia_async_30q7n48g4f wistia_embed playlistLinks=links1" style="width:640px;height:360px;">&nbsp;</div>
<script charset="ISO-8859-1" src="//fast.wistia.com/assets/external/E-v1.js"></script>
<div id="links1" class="wistia_playlist_links">
  <!-- these link to playlist1 -->
  <a href="#wistia_abcde12345">link 1</a><br/>
  <a href="#wistia_ghijk67890">link 2</a><br/>
</div>

<div id="playlist2" class="wistia_async_30q7n48g4f wistia_embed playlistLinks=links2" style="width:640px;height:360px;">&nbsp;</div>
<script charset="ISO-8859-1" src="//fast.wistia.com/assets/external/E-v1.js"></script>
<div id="links2" class="wistia_playlist_links">
  <!-- these link to playlist2 -->
  <a href="#wistia_sdlkj34985">link 3</a><br/>
  <a href="#wistia_lkjer09098">link 4</a><br/>
</div>

Note that, for this strategy to work, the ID attribute must be set to a unique value for both the video container and the link container. Also, we advise adding the wistia_playlist_links class to the link container to avoid conflicts with other strategies.

"closest" Targeting Strategy

The "closest" strategy means "link to whichever video is closest by DOM distance." In other words, it counts the number of steps from your video to the link, and the least number of steps wins.

This is the default strategy for all embed links that are not part of a playlist. You cannot choose to use this strategy with playlist links because it conflicts with the "auto" strategy.

<!-- two steps to the link: two forward to the link. -->
<div class="wistia_async_30q7n48g4f wistia_embed" style="width:640px;height:360px;">&nbsp;</div>
<script charset="ISO-8859-1" src="//fast.wistia.com/assets/external/E-v1.js"></script>
<a href="#wistia_abcde12345">the link</a><br/>
<div class="video_wrapper">
  <!-- three steps to the link: up one to video_wrapper, then two backward to the link. -->
  <div class="wistia_async_30q7n48g4f wistia_embed" style="width:640px;height:360px;">&nbsp;</div>
  <script charset="ISO-8859-1" src="//fast.wistia.com/assets/external/E-v1.js"></script>
</div>

The link above is closest to the first video, so that's the one it connects to.

Notes

Standard embed codes only. This does not work with iframes (fallback) or popovers.

Embed Links should exist in the DOM within 5 seconds of the video being embedded. Otherwise, you'll need to run Wistia.EmbedLink.setupAll() right after they're injected so that they work.

Updated 11 months ago