Saturday 13 August 2016

OpenLP - How to embed YouTube clips


Goal: To add/play a YouTube clip in an OpenLP service


Secondary goal: To view any website in an OpenLP service


So, your preacher or youth leader wants you to play a youtube clip in one of your services. 

Problem is, it's illegal to download or "rip" a clip from YT, and play that copied .mp4 file from your computer. To stay within the law you MUST stream it from the YouTube site.

In OpenLP there isn't a nifty "Play a YT clip" button, but, with a little effort, you can stream YouTube clips.

You need to configure OpenLP to make this work. Here goes...


Configuring OpenLP


1) Start OpenLP

2) From the Settings menu, choose Configure Formatting Tags... You should see something like this...


3) Click the New button in the bottom left corner...

4) Complete the fields as follows:
  • Description YouTube
  • Tag tube
  • Start HTML <iframe height=100% width=100% src=http://www.youtube.com/embed/
  • End HTML ?autoplay=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0></iframe>


5) Once you've created the custom tag, double check there are no spaces at the end of the Start HTML field, and no spaces at the beginning of the End HTML field.

6) Don't forget to Save your changes.


Adding YouTube clips to a service


1) Find your required clip on the YouTube site. Here, I've already performed my search and have the clip loaded in my web browser...


2) Use your mouse to select the CLIP REFERENCE from the address bar, as shown below, and copy it to your clipboard...


3) Back to OpenLP, choose Custom Slides from the Library area, then hit New to create a new slide...


4) Complete your new slide form:


  • Add your title - prefix "YouTube" just to make things easier to remember.
  • Add your slide. It's USEFUL to make sure your 1st line is a blank line, as shown.
  • Use the format you see below - adding curly braces around the 1st {tube}, then NO SPACES, paste the YouTube CLIP REFERENCE you copied to your clipboard, NO SPACES, then finish off with curly braces and IMPORTANTLY A SLASH tube -  {/tube}


5) Once you've saved, add the custom slide to your service. It'll look something similar to this..


6) Then load your item / run your service. Initially you'll be showing a black (or whatever theme you have) page. When you then click to page 2 (or page down etc), your YouTube clip should start to play automatically.


When it doesn't work...


The most basic thing to check is that you have a working internet connection at your presentation computer.

Double check everything.

Secondary goal: I want to load any website I like...


Simply create a generic formatting tag as shown below, and use it in a custom slide...