JW Player Module Advanced

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Changelog JW Player Module Advanced 5.4.0 :
^ Upgrade to JW Player 8.4.0

Ad Preloading and Player Error Standardization

It is all too common for viewers to wait several seconds for video advertisements to load—if they load at all—and those that make it through often dont return due to the slow load times.
In JW 8.4, we introduce ad preloading, an optional setting which preloads ad breaks before they play. We are committed to providing publishers and their viewers with a no-buffer video player, no matter what the setup.
This release also introduces new and improved error handling in the player. We have revamped error codes from the ground up to be more comprehensive, descriptive, and consistent.
This will enable faster troubleshooting and programmatic handling of errors by developers. Error codes will now appear in the console with deep links to our new Error Reference documentation organized by category.
Lastly, we are improving error messages shown in the player to be more friendly and informative to the viewer, which we will be rolling out in beta versions over the next few weeks before the release goes into production.

+ Core Player

New player error coding and classification system documented in new Error Reference doc.
Error codes now appear in the developer console with deep links to the Error Reference page.
Error code assignments map to new non-technical, viewer-friendly error messages displayed in the player.
Improved player error display to be responsive to screen width and message length.
Changed structure of error events. Refer to Error Reference.
Added support for entering or exiting full screen on Android devices when a user rotates their device.
Added JW Player custom parameters to links that are shared via the sharing menu, which makes it possible to track plays that result from sharing a video.

Improved media notifications on Android by including poster images and publisher domain names.

Accessibility

Documented our screen reader support in our Accessibility Reference.
Improved menu navigation to conform with accessibility standards; up and down arrows navigate items in a submenu, while tabbing selects different menus.
Added the ability to focus on the time slider (progress bar).
Added screen reader support to read out the current position when focused on the time slider or when seeking.
Added screen reader support to read out the volume when changed.

+ Ads

Created a new configuration property for VAST and IMA, preloadAds, which enables ad preloading for prerolls, midrolls, postrolls in the first playlist item.
Added a viewableImpression event to VAST and IMA based on the IAB definition of viewability, which states that a video must be 50% viewable for at least 2 seconds.
Re-added the fullscreen icon during ad playback at all breakpoints. This was previously removed to conserve controlbar space.
Now passing autoplay/mute status to DFP with VAST.
Improved behavior of the FreeWheel ad plugin with ad blockers by proceeding directly to content rather than waiting for a timeout.

Added a new ad error code (900 / 60007) that gets raised when there is an attempt to load ads on Android 2.3, which is not supported.
Added creativeID from the VAST XML response to the VAST admanager’s adImpression/adError events.
For Video Player Bidding, segmented bidresponsetime by now also reporting the script loading time and the time between adBidRequest and adBidResponse.
Improved Ad loading messaging for the VAST admanager to only show when an actual ad is being loaded.
Improved reporting of Video Player Bidding impression tracking when the DFP mediation layer is used.
Added breakstart and breakend events to Google DAI.
Removed ad countdown and pod count messaging in Google DAI live scenarios to prevent incorrect messaging.

+ Prepare the compatiblity to Joomla 4

Add new Bootstrap modal popup, compatible with Joomla 3 and 4, beta version.
Add title field for Bootstrap modal popup.
Add a max-width of 4096px in jwbox.css this to be compatible with Cassiopeia Template of Joomla 4.
Use JVERSION to compare Joomla version instead deprecated JVersion class constants in Joomla 4.
Removed article Id code.

+ Change url server update to https.

^ Clean embed filename for popup and sharing.
^ set default value for xml parameter notes in backend, this for older version than Joomla 3.1.

- Remove some old deprecated comment lines.

# Add some semi-colons missing in jquery.jwbox.js.

Upgrade !!

Changelog JW Player Module Advanced 5.5.0 :

^ Upgrade to JW Player 8.5.0

Recommendations Widget

Introducing a new user interface for our Recommendations customers: the shelf widget, which dynamically inserts a horizontally-scrolling carousel of thumbnails directly below the player.
In contrast to the in-player shelf, which is only visible on pause and when the viewer manually opens it themselves, the new widget interface is always viewable below the player.
We encourage you to turn on the shelf widget, which will further increase opportunities to display recommendations and drive plays as a result.

Core Player

Added a new recommendations interface, the shelf widget, which will place a recommendations shelf directly below the player, outside of the player’s container by setting related.displayMode to shelfWidget.
Added a new startTime configuration setting for playlist items that will instruct the player to begin playback of the media at the time specified.

Ads

Updated ad preloading functionality in the VAST ad plugin to include preloading the preroll of subsequent playlist items.
Added the configuration property bidOnBreaks for Video Player Bidding to the VAST ad plugin.

For FreeWheel ad plugin, added PVRN, VPRN values to the ad request for forecasting purposes.
For FreeWheel ad plugin, started passing afid, and sfid values to the ad request for fallback purposes if the primary Asset ID and Site Section ID fail.
Expanded the on(adsManager) event, which fires when the ad manager is loaded, to IMA. This event can be used to integrate with third-party vendors.

+ Joomla Update system is now fully support, you will just have to set your download ID in the backend of the extension and save it, once done, you will able to upgrade your extension troug the Joomla admin interface without download it first on joomlarulez.com.

You can retrieve your Download ID on Joomlarulez.com : User menu --> Download IDs ( www.joomlarulez.com/download-ids.html ), Generate Download ID there.
You can generate multiple Download IDs.
Each Download ID can only be used for one website only. So if you use your extension on multiple websites and you have the right license, you will have to generate multiple Download IDs, each Download ID can only be used for one website only.
Each Download ID can be used for multiple extensions on the same website. So if you used multiple of our extensions on your website, you will only need one Download ID

- Remove some old deprecated comment lines.

Upgrade !!

Changelog JW Player Module Advanced 5.6.0 :

^ Upgrade to JW Player 8.6.2

Automated Player Translations

JW Player wants to save you time and improve the viewer experience out of the box with our latest feature, automated player localization.
Did you know that our video player contains over 50 customizable tooltips, labels for menus and overlays, and ARIA labels (for accessibility viewers who use screen readers)?
Previously, you had to customize these fields in order to provide a better viewing experience on non-English language sites. It is time consuming to translate the player, so we have done the work for you so that your viewers can benefit today.
Beginning with 8.6, the player will automatically translate those fields to match the language on your website. We have included support for 14 languages and will add more by request. Enjoy a seamless experience that increases clarity and engagement for all of your viewers.

Core Player

Increased contrast ratio of the quality level label when Auto is selected.
Changed focus behavior so that focus remains on the fullscreen icon when entering and exiting fullscreen.
Improved responsive scaling of the shelf widget when using the selector configuration option to decouple the width of the player from the width of the widget.
Added more granular DASH and HLS playback error codes.
Added specific error codes for cases where an attempt to start playback fails.
Reduced player setup errors by extending the setup timeout from 30 to 60 seconds.
Created a new warning event that displays messages in the developer console, alerting developers of non-fatal errors.. Note: Documentation updates about these changes are coming soon.
Updated the name of the Chromecast button component from button to google-cast-launcher to reflect (changes made by Google)[ developers.google.com/cast/docs/chrome_s...ntegrate#cast_button ] to be compatible with React.
Added a new configuration option, displayPlaybackLabel, which adds click-to-play call to action text below the play icon on the idle screen. Testing has shown a 3-5percent lift in clicks to play with this feature enabled. The default text is Play and it can be customized or translated in the intl block with the playback option.
Rotating an Android device with a control-bar only (audio) player or when controls are disabled will not cause the player to go into fullscreen mode.
dded non-fatal, console-logged warning events and error codes. See our Errors Reference for updates.
Added a new div, which wraps the player s existing DOM structure, in order to make way for upcoming features.

Localization
For more information on the release note below, please see the Configuration Reference and the support article on how to translate player text with automated player localization.

Added support for players to automatically translate tooltips, ARIA labels, and headings into 14 different languages, based on the language attribute declared in the HTML tag on the page. If the lang attribute is not present, the viewer s browser language will be used, and a translation will still be provided if available. For a full list of languages supported and to request support for another language, please see the support article. support.jwplayer.com/articles/translate-video-player-text
Introduced a new object, the intl block, which accepts an array of objects of ISO language codes. Each language object accepts all the localization strings previously used in localization. Going forward, developers are encouraged to use the intl block so that a single player can be used across pages localized in any language.
Added 12 new localizable strings, which includes link, auto, off and more, as well as updated the default values for a few existing strings. All hard-coded strings are now mapped to localizable strings.
Moved the following fields into the intl block so that they can be localized by language: abouttext, advertising.admessage, advertising.cuetext, advertising.loadingAd, advertising.podmessage, advertising.skipmessage, advertising.skiptext, related.autoplaymessage, sharing.heading. These fields will be backward compatible with their original locations, but will not take advantage of the automated player localization features for those fields. All fields should be nested in the intl block as written.
Moved localization.related to related.heading within the intl block. In a localization context, related is now an object nested inside the intl block.

Advertising

Removed the auto-exit fullscreen functionality when using IMA with skippable ads, now that iOS 12 allows the video element (and thus the skip button to) work in fullscreen instead of the native player.
Decluttered the seek slider by removing cue markers for non-linear (banner overlay) ads.
In the VAST plugin, added support for the following attributes in the ad tag wrapper:
fallbackOnNoAd – selects any stand-alone adwhen set to true and the response contains no ad.The default is false.
followAdditionalWrappers – ignores wrappers received in the response when set to false. The default is true.
allowMultipleAds – only allows stand alone adswhen set to false. The default is true.
To make the player more resilient, if IMA erroneously clears the video tag when trying to resume playback from an ad, the player will try to recover by attempting to reload the item source.
Expanded the on(adsManager) event, which fires when the ad manager is loaded, to IMA. This event can be used to integrate with third-party vendors.

^ Change layout backend sub menu, using class alert alert-info.

Upgrade !!

Changelog JW Player Module Advanced 5.7.0 :

^ Upgrade to JW Player 8.7.0, SCTE-35 Support

SCTE-35 is a form of metadata, similar to the ID3 tagging system applied to streaming media, that broadcasters have been using for years for traditional broadcast television, and now, web streams.
Like ID3 metadata tags, SCTE-35 markers can be added to an HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) manifest to provide contextual and temporal metadata.
In JW 8.7, the player exposes SCTE-35 CUE-OUT and CUE-IN points, as well as DATERANGE tags to indicate when there are breaks in your live stream.

Core Player

Added a new property to meta events, metadataType, which indicates the type of metadata available in the event. Possible values are: media, program-date-time, id3, date-range, scte-35, and unknown.
Added a new event metadataCueParsed which is triggered once the metadata cue point is buffered.
Exposed CUE-OUT, CUE-IN, and DATERANGE SCTE-35 metadata tags that are parsed in an HLS manifest. When a metadata tag becomes active, the following SCTE-35 meta events are fired: #EXT-X-DATERANGE, #EXT-X-CUE-OUT, and #EXT-X-CUE-IN.
Improved handling of cross-origin 360/VR videos in Chrome 70 and Safari 12 so that instead of displaying a blank screen, the player errors with a new 307012 code.

Localization

Added automated localization support for Hebrew.
Added new localization options and updated all automated localization files to include translations for Mute, Unmute, and Exit Fullscreen icon tooltip texts and ARIA labels.
Changed the default English localization text for slider from Seek Slider to Seek to reduce screen reader redundancy.
Improved readability, punctuation, and string concatenation for all right-to-left languages, including Arabic and Hebrew.

Accessibility

Added screen reader support to announce the video position changes when using the left and right arrow keyboard shortcuts while not focused on the timeline element.
Added screen reader support to announce volume changes when using the up and down arrow keyboard shortcuts while not focused on the volume slider element.
Improved volume keyboard accessibility by separating the mute icon from the volume slider. Now, when a user tabs to the mute icon, hitting enter will mute or unmute the player. Tabbing out of the mute icon, the volume slider will appear and can be controlled. Tabbing out of the volume slider will hide the slider and move focus to the next focusable icon.
Fixed a bug causing the volume slider to be read as a left-right slider when it is actually an up-down slider.
Added a blue focus ring that appears around any focused element when accessed by keyboard, which improves focus visibility.

Advertising

Improved ad rendition selection in Freewheel by passing the player s bitrate estimate to the AdsManager.
Added a new bidding configuration option, no_vpaid_ads to the optionalParams object, which restricts VPAIDs and only serves mp4 ads with no SpotX VPAID wrapper.
Added pause reasons to the response for on(adPause) in the VAST, IMA, and Freewheel clients.
Ungated VAST 4.1 tags, enabling ad tags marked with the latest VAST version to play. VAST 4.1 features that are not yet supported in JW Player will be ignored.
Added (automated localization)[ support.jwplayer.com/articles/translate-video-player-text ] of all Google IMA text to match the player s language. Developers may also declare a two-letter ISO language in advertising.locale.
JW8 language advertising.SetLocale change to advertising.locale, for JW7 you can still used SetLocale in backend extra plugin parameters.

+ Continued Support Joomla 4 as beta.

Fix addscript loading jwbox.js.

+ Support PHP 7.2 and 7.3.

+ Now compatible with JWPlatform without extra fee.

^ Change layout backend sub menu, HLS, RTMP and HTPP streaming group in one sub-menu.

Upgrade !!

Changelog JW Player Module Advanced 5.8.0 :

^ Upgrade to JW Player 8.8.2, Viewability Features

In the industry, a video player that is at least 50% in view on the screen for greater than two seconds is considered viewable. Viewability is a key signal of engagement, which is why it has become the gold standard for publishers and advertisers alike.
JW 8.8.0 introduces the floating player, which minimizes itself to the bottom right corner of the screen when a viewer scrolls the player out of view. It ensures nearly 100% viewability and can be easily dismissed back to its original position.
Another way to increase average viewability is by automatically pausing the video when the player is out of view. Our auto pause feature can help you do just that. Both of these features are available with as little as one line of code..
Also new in JW 8.8.0 is support for the CMAF standard, as well as using our recommendations interfaces (known as the shelf and shelf widget) on any playlist, and six new languages for automatic localization.

Core Player

Made security improvements to input handling.
Added a tooltip over the play and pause icons to improve accessibility.
Added a new object, floating, which keeps the player visible when the original player location is scrolled out of view by minimizing it to the bottom right corner of the screen (and the top of the page in portrait mode on small screens). Viewers cannot hide the floating player and send it back to its original location when floating.dismissible is set to false. Learn more about floating in our documentation.
Removed a previously undocumented configuration option, floatOnScroll, which was available for a beta version of the floating player. Please use the new floating block above.
Added the ability for the viewer to drag and reposition the floating player anywhere on the screen. Dragging is disabled during ad playback.
Added a new object, autoPause, which automatically pauses the video when less than 50% in view, including when the player is no longer in the active tab. Learn more about autopause in our documentation.
Added support for CMAF format streams across all browsers.
Improved handling of relative protocol urls so that JW Player hosted protocol-relative playlist urls can play when accessing a webview that has js embed with file:// protocol. Only jwplatform playlist urls starting with // are changed to be loaded over https. URLs for other domains or for ad tags must be fully resolved in the setup configuration.
Improved the user experience by retaining the paused state after a viewer seeks while paused. Developers who have worked around this in the past by calling pause() on seek no longer need to use the API, but anyone who wishes to resume playback automatically after a seek event now must call play().
Improved clarity by hiding the settings menu gear icon in the control bar if the only submenu option is also a shortcut icon in the control bar, which applies to sharing and captions.
Added a volume slider to control bar only players, which is used to play audio. Setting a player s height to 42px automatically puts the player into control bar only mode.
Added a reference dialog for keyboard shortcuts within the player, which can be accessed via the right click menu or evoked by pressing SHIFT+?.
Added support for all playlists to use our recommendations user interfaces by setting related.displayMode to shelf or shelfWidget. Read more about this option in the configuration reference. The default interface for playlists that are not generated through our recommendations product remains as overlay.
Removed the localization option, playlist, which localized the tooltip text, overlay heading, and aria-label HTML attribute of a playlist overlay. To customize this text, please use related.heading within the intl block.
Added a shortcut to sharing in the right click menu.
Added automatic localization support for six new languages: Russian, Indonesian, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, and Finnish. Check our support article for a full list of the 21 supported languages and to submit a request for additional languages.

Improved the casting experience by starting a casted DVR stream at the live edge instead of at the beginning of the stream.
Improved ads accessibility by not fading controls when using the keyboard to navigate and ensuring the skip button is in the correct tab order from left to right. Note that due to third-party limitations, ads rendered in iframes and through the Google IMA plugin may not be accessible.
Added a new error code, 102007 (ERROR_XHR_FILE_PROTOCOL), which fires when a player fails to set up on a page that is using the file:// protocol.

Advertising

Added inner error details to Google IMA 901 General VPAID Error errors.
Deprecated the on(adManager) event for Google IMA and Freewheel, which fires when the ad manager is loaded. on(adsManager), with an s, should be used instead.

# Fix default botr variable missing in pop-up mode

Upgrade !!

Changelog JW Player Module Advanced 5.9.0 :

^ Upgrade to JW Player 8.9.2, VAST Ad Pods

If you are one of the 50% of our customers using our VAST plugin to deliver ads, you already know that it is faster and more customizable than the IMA plugin, which relies on Google s SDK.
JW 8.9 introduces an added benefit of using our VAST plugin: ad pods. Ad pods play a sequence of ads in a single ad break.
As of this release, you can configure an ad break with a separate ad tag for each ad in the pod through a custom setup configuration without going through your ad manager.
Error events fire on a per ad basis instead of one per ad break.
8.9 also includes support for the GDPR ad tag macro, as well as some user interface improvements to the control bar and playlist overlays, which are detailed below.

Core Player

Extended all of the playlist user interface configuration options in the related block to work for all playlists (not just those of the JW Player Recommendations product).
Added a displayMode option, none, which removes a playlist interface during playback. This option is ideal if you have created your own playlist widget or interface outside of the player, since having a duplicate inside the player container is redundant. The next video button remains, and the playlist overlay that appears in between videos is configured separately, via related.oncomplete.
Added a new option to related.complete, none, which automatically advances the video to the next item in the playlist without showing an overlay in between. This is also now the default value and was already the behavior for all manual playlists.
Improved responsiveness of player so that it is resized whenever its parent container is resized.
Increased the size of the user interface when a player is larger than 1280px wide (breakpoint 7).
Decreased the number of icons in the user interface when a player is smaller than 320px wide and added a new breakpoint (-1) to support it.
Added support for Program-Date-Time metadata in Safari, making this the preferred method for SSAI and live streaming implementations across all browsers.

Removed Google+ sharing support due to the shutdown of that product.
Added support for sending events to Google Analytics custom trackers.
Added automatic player localization support for Occitan and Slovenian.
Made the tabbing behavior in and out of the volume slider consistent to improve accessibility.
Improved auto pause behavior so that it is consistent across devices.
Added the ability to configure nextupoffset to display the next up overlay at a specified percent of the way through the video, rather than at a fixed number of seconds from the beginning or end of the video.
Improved float-on-scroll responsiveness with more precise player visibility detection.
Added a next up notification to small players.

Advertising

Added support to pass a GDPR macro in an ad tag using either the VAST or IMA plugin.
Added support for ad pods in an ad schedule using our VAST plugin. When an ad schedule is configured with an array of breaks that all contain the same offset, the player will automatically create a pod and play the ads in succession before returning to the content. Each ad in the pod may have a separate ad tag, and events such as errors will fire separately for each ad.

In the VAST plugin, filtered out 3gpp creatives due to lack of codec support in some environments.
Fixed an issue in the IMA plugin where programmatically calling skipAd before an ad becomes skippable would not skip the ad, but cause the media to start playing in the background.
Updated the following Ad Error codes to better reflect the root causes of the error:
60004 is now 10402 (Creative timeout)
60001 is now 10303 (No ads response)
50004 is now 51901 (VPAID general error)
234003 is now 10405 (Request for MP4 creative returns a 404)
242404 is now 10403 (Request for HLS creative returns a 404)