vidbg.js

A minimal vanilla JavaScript video background plugin.

Compatibility

All modern web browsers
IE 11+
All mobile web browsers that support autoplaying HTML5 <video>

Working With Wordpress

If you plan on using vidbg.js with WordPress, make your life a little bit easier and download the plugin I made on the Wordpress Repo.

Usage

Install

npm install vidbg.js

Or download the built vidbg.zip from GitHub

Instructions

In the browser:

<!-- <head> -->
<link href="dist/vidbg.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />

<!-- End of <body> -->
<script src="dist/vidbg.js"></script>

Or if you are working with modules:

import vidbg from "vidbg.js";

Initializing the Script

The script accepts three arguments.

var instance = new vidbg(selector, options, attributes);

The selector argument is any JavaScript selector, the options are for configuring vidbg.js, and the attributes argument modifies the actual <video> element.

var instance = new vidbg(
  ".vidbg-box",
  {
    mp4: "http://example.com/video.mp4", // URL or relative path to MP4 video
    webm: "path/to/video.webm", // URL or relative path to webm video
    poster: "path/to/fallback.jpg", // URL or relative path to fallback image
    overlay: false, // Boolean to display the overlay or not
    overlayColor: "#000", // The overlay color as a HEX
    overlayAlpha: 0.3, // The overlay alpha. Think of this as the last integer in RGBA()
  },
  {
    // Attributes
  }
);

Note: Supplying both .mp4 and .webm will increase browser compatibility.

Options

const defaultOptions = {
  mp4: null,
  webm: null,
  poster: null,
  overlay: false,
  overlayColor: "#000",
  overlayAlpha: 0.3,
};

Attributes

const defaultAttributes = {
  autoplay: true,
  controls: false,
  loop: true,
  muted: true,
  playsInline: true,
};

Overlay

Setting the overlay option to true will add an RGBA background over your video. This is helpful when you want to display text or meaningful content over the video background to increase legibility.

Fallback Image Flashing

You may experience the fallback image flash on page load. This is because the fallback image is added through JavaScript. As a result of this, it will load after CSS styles are rendered.

If you'd like to combat this, you can preset the fallback image through CSS. For example, if your selector is .video-box you could do something like:

.video-box .vidbg-container {
  background-image: url(/assets/link-to-fallback.png);
}

Methods

Below are the methods that are available:

// First, create the vidbg.js instance.
var instance = new vidbg(".vidbg-box", {
  mp4: "http://example.com/video.mp4",
  webm: "path/to/video.webm",
  poster: "path/to/fallback.jpg",
});

// Manually resize the video background
instance.resize();

// Manually play the video
instance.playVideo();

// Manually pause the video
instance.pauseVideo();

// Get the video playing state
instance.isVideoPlaying();

// Remove the <video> element
instance.removeVideo();

// Completely remove the video background
instance.destroy();

Media

Video and fallback image provided by Christophe Tauziet at https://vimeo.com/user27974867

License

vidbg.js is licensed under The MIT License. You can view it here.

blakewilson/vidbg