I’m happy to announce the release of version 2.1 of my WordPress plugin Artiss YouTube Embed.

There are a number of new features, some of them cleaning up changes made recently to work around some issues that users were having. For example, you can now turn on and off options to use HTTPS instead of HTTP. I’ve also taken the opportunity to improve the error reporting as well.

Away from that, new features include more specific options for thumbnails – you now have 5 thumbnail types to choose from – and, most importantly, support for the latest API changes.

Recently, you may have noticed that the default YouTube player has changed from a light grey to a much darker scheme. At the same time YouTube updated their player API to allow users to switch between light and dark themes. They also took the opportunity to add a feature where you can change the colour of the progress bar from red to white. Both of these are now supported by my plugin, so if you want the old light colour back you can do.

However, whilst testing this I can across what looked like a bug with YouTube’s API. I couldn’t get the light theme to work with the white progress bar – the progress bar would always appear in red. I double checked my own code to ensure it wasn’t my issue but I don’t believe it is.

YouTube’s own blog entry suggest that this entry is valid…

I opened this up in their forum where another user of the API confirmed my find. However, over 24 hours later, I have yet to receive a response from YouTube.

I’m therefore releasing the plugin as-is but with mention of this issue in the instructions.

Update (19/8/11 @ 19:36): Google have provided an update on the bug…

This is a bug, and it is scheduled to be fixed next Wednesday
evening.

Cheers,
-Jeff Posnick, YouTube API Team

I’m very, very proud to announce the release of version of YouTube Embed, now named Artiss YouTube Embed.

Months in the making, it’s been totally re-written with a host of new features. It’s also compatible with a wide range of existing plugins, in case you wish to migrate! Changes include…

• XHTML and HTML5 compliant – works with all the latest browsers
• Multiple embedding methods available – OBJECT, IFRAME and EmbedPlus
• Allow users to add videos to comments
• Build your own playlists and play them back however you want
• Create multiple profiles – use them for different videos to get the exact style that you want
• Google compatible metadata is added to the video output – great for SEO!
• Code is cached for maximum performance
• Using a different YouTube plugin? Documentation and tools are provided to help you migrate to Artiss YouTube Embed
• And much, much more!

For more details please visit the official page on this site OR visit the WordPress page. If you have any question, why not visit the forum?

You can also learn more about some of the features…

1. Embedding Options
2. Profiles & Lists
3. Why this plugin?

That list link is especially good, as I compare this plugin against the competition (I hope fairly) – see why you should switch!

Join the Forum discussion on this post

Over the last 2 posts I’ve mentioned some of the great new features of version 2 of YouTube Embed. And I haven’t even mentioned them all.

When updating this plugin I took the opportunity to look at the top 10 most popular rival plugins. I documented the features of each, ensuring that mine also had them (with only a few exceptions, where I felt they weren’t appropriate). I then added on the extra features that YouTube Embed has. The resulting spreadsheet is below and I believe it to be a fair representation. As I say at the beginning, if I’ve missed anything off or anything is incorrect, feel free to let me know.

So, let’s look at what this tell us.

First of all, one third of the plugins don’t work with all video IDs (I’ve, in the past, identified some YouTube IDs which WordPress has a habit of converting when used within shortcodes)

Secondly, one half of the plugins haven’t been updated this year. This may not be a problem, but the fact that most of the alternative plugins use the now defunct AS2 YouTube player would suggest that an update is due!

Lastly, YouTube Embed has over 6 times more features than the next “feature packed” YouTube embedding plugin. Yet, it remains simple to use.

Still using an alternative? It’s time to swap.