YouTube embedds not working/ Widget or YouTube changes?

[mtorocsik]

My Youtube videos are no longer playing using the Adobe Captivate widget.  It's adding "Googleapis.com"  after the http// and before the rest of the URL.

[Paul Wilson CTDP]

Not sure which version of Adobe Captivate you are using but I just did a little test with 9.0.2 to see if I was able to get it to work.

Click here to see my results.

[KiwiBazza]

Hi there, we have been experiencing the same issues since yesterday. Our projects have been published in v. 7.0.1237

[Paul Wilson CTDP]

I believe that was the last patch of Captivate 7. I can't say for sure but it's possible that the YouTube API has changed since that time. You could submit a feature request and see if that's something Adobe might patch.

[mtorocsik]

That's interesting that yours is working. it's not resolved on my end.

The strange thing about it is, it's also happening in presentations I built months ago. The YouTube videos are no longer embedded, and instead I see a small white YouTube icon that when I click takes me to the Google APIs page.

Also when I am in my Captivate build files, and using the YouTube widget, I am also being taken to the Google APIs page when I hit "Test"

I've reported the bug to Adobe and their response:

"We are looking into the issue.. It looks like some changes have been done in youtube api’s…

Thank you for reporting the issue to us.."

[mtorocsik]

An update from Adobe:

               Thanks for reporting the issue. It seems the API we use for streaming the YouTube is changed. We are working on it and update you next week.

Thanks,

Sankaram.

[kkey1978]

I have been able to publish the file as HTML5 and the widget works correctly, but it does not work in SWF format with the playbar.  It works in SWF format if the playbar is removed in the widget. Perhaps this will help narrow down the issue and provide workarounds for others that are struggling with this.

[TLCMediaDesign]

The only api still supported by YouTube is the iframe api. The as3 (flash) api is no longer supported.

[Dawn White]

We're in the same boat. I'm looking at 50+ online courses that won't launch videos. We get a blank white box with the YouTube logo at the bottom. Adobe has escalated my ticket.

[dswaddle]

I was having the same problem with Captivate 9. It just started occuring for a client.

My workaround is to add a web object and link this to the embeddable YouTube URL.

To get the embeddable URL for a YouTube video, right-click the video, choose "Copy embed code", paste this into a text editor (notepad) and it will look like this:

<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gAnIBkTbYyU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Use the URL listed here. If you try and open it the you'll see that it gives you a full page version of the video.

In Captivate, drop a web object on the page, set it to use an address and paste in the address from above. Keep the aspect ratio the same as your video's.

When viewing a Flash based file It can take a few seconds for the video to load the first time, so I've put a please wait message behind the web object.

It seems like a good workaround for today. I'm currently testing in IE, Edge, Firefox and Chrome on a few platforms, just to be sure.

[TiaRocks]

We also heavily rely on the YouTube widget for delivering our video content. While the workarounds seem doable, it will take a lot of time to republish well over 50 modules. We are very hopeful Adobe can find a quick fix to this issue.

[TLCMediaDesign]

I would think that if there is a fix from Adobe you will need to republish anyway.

[TiaRocks]

YouTube is back! Checked our live content this morning in our LMS and it's working again!!! Thank you Adobe.

They've made some changes to the player. We publish to multiscreen (HTML5/SWF). With the exception of play, the controls have all disappeared from the desktop (swf) output. All of the controls except for CC are appearing on the mobile (HTML5) output.

[MaryLightfoot]

I am having a problem with YouTube videos being off centered so that the right 1/4 is cut off, and extra space is present on the left side. I need the controls for the closed captioning since part of my audience is deaf.

I do not have access to a web server, thus my reliance on YouTube. Any solutions for this?

The training is housed in our LMS.

Mary

[matthewm86786765]

Hi Mary,

What Captivate version are you using? I noticed this same issue in some older courses with Captivate 7.0.1.237. I found once I added another widget and added the link, the videos played fine. The old widget did not have the "Quality" option, Let me know if that resolved your problem? Also, ensure you are running the latest Captivate update.

[MaryLightfoot]

The modules are used for training under our LMS. They were developed over a period of time so the modules are using Captivate 7 & 8.

Should I put these projects in Captivate 9 and republish? If I move the modules to Captivate 9 will the content or functioning be altered in any ways that I need to look for?

Thanks much,

Mary

[matthewm86786765]

Hi Mary,

I am sorry, I am not using Captivate 9. I have noticed some older course that were originally created in Cap 7 and then changes were made in Cap 7 that the widget had an issue as you experienced. Not sure if there is an issue with different versions used?

[cdomsy]

Hi Mary,

I am having the same problem in my .swf Captivate projects. Mine were produced using Captivate 8 and then I updated Captivate (not to 9, just the latest 8) as well as installing the new YouTube widget, the problem still occurs. I went so far as to test my original published Captivate 8 output and the problem occurs there as well, so I don't think it is an issue with how you published something or the version you have. I think the issue is most likely the manner in which YouTube is interacting with our flash content. If this is true, we can wait for Adobe to try and develop a fix, or we can edit our projects to attempt a workaround.

I am going to try the Web Object approach using the YouTube embed link discussed above and see if I can improve my outcomes. Also to echo the folks above, the HTML5 output works great, but I have to say that any curves in HTML5 are rendered to image quite poorly when Captivate compresses them to images. As a result of this, I am often embarrassed for clients/students to see the HTML5 output.

Let me know if you find a solution to the YouTube issue and/or the poor resolution quality of HTML5.

Caleb

[MaryLightfoot]

Caleb,

I found that changing my YouTube videos which were uploaded via the widget to upload via web object worked! I've had to play with sizing and there is now a black border on top and bottom of the video, but the play bar is there (which I need for closed caption option) and the video plays! I am finding some browser shake with Chrome, but other than that it is a solution.

Thanks much for pointing me in that direction. I now have to go through my modules and convert all the YouTubes to web objects and upgrade all the modules to Captivate 9, but again it's good to have a solution.

Mary

[cdomsy]

Hi Mary,

I did some testing and I agree, it works much better as a Web Object. To keep the video in the right position on screen I now have to link to the .htm file instead of straight to the .swf. But I am so happy to have the videos working again that I don't feel I can complain much.

Happy to know yours are working as well. I do feel like all future output from Captivate should be HTML5, but I think Adobe needs to up the quality of the HTML5 rendering.

Best,

Caleb

[Dawn White]

Agreed. We've messaged out to our users to go directly to YouTube to access the playlists for now. I really hope Adobe can fix this. This is going to be a bear to redo each widget (4-5 in each course) and republish each course.

[BDuckWorks]

As of 8-12-16 I was notified that an earlier course was failing to display video from YouTube, but the YouTube logo displays on the screen. My investigation showed that the URL worked fine when pasted directly to Chrome, but failed when tested within CP via the YouTube widget as published in the CornerStone LMS.

I've been transitioning to using the WebObject in place of the YouTube widget over the last half-dozen projects, and the trouble has appeared in one of the earlier projects.

I have republished and testing using the WebObject, and (for me) the WebObject will function properly from my local server.

The YouTube parameters can be used in the WebObject, but fail in the YouTube widget.

1) My technique:

Replace the old YouTube PREFIX:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

with the 'embed' prefix:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/

with added parameters:

?rel=0&autoplay=1&showsearch=0&modestbranding=1

Parameter Reference:

YouTube Embedded Players and Player Parameters  |  YouTube IFrame Player API  |  Google Developers

2) I've read the some API references and see the details on using the iFrame, vs ActionScript, technique.

Questions for the crowd:

How can we confirm the calls used for the YouTube Widget?

And, how can we confirm the calls used for the 'embed' url above?

[TLCMediaDesign]

There are a host of issues here and they are different for SWF or HTML5. It would help if the type of publishing was referenced in the posts.

SWF and HTML both publish the Web Object to an external folder so you can look inside the wor folder to see all of the code.

This seems to work for both swf and html 5.

HTML5

YouTube Widget works. Published to a wr folder. Uses the youtube iFrame api.

Web Object works and uses the iFrame

SWF

YouTube Widget doesn't work. Self contained inside of swf

Web Object works and uses the iFrame

this is the embed code for both:

iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Oj9FD0ikn3o" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Note that Chrome is documented not to allow the fullscreen if running in an iframe.

In my tests, if you want to enact with the video in Chrome you must set usewidget7 = 0 in the ini file or set it with JS in the index before the page is rendered.

[MaryLightfoot]

I've found that the web object approach works well in Firefox. I am experiencing browser shake when the video first appears on the screen in Chrome.

[matthewm86786765]

I tested some videos today in published courses deployed from an LMS. I noticed that the YouTube widget worked, however, the dimensions were off and not aligned on screen in all courses expect for one. The only course that played fine with a YouTube widget is one using HD 1080 quality. Will the published courses that are non-HD quality have to be recreated in Captivate with new or existing YouTube video URL's or will all current courses with this issue work fine once Adobe resolves this issue with the YouTube widget?