Videos not embedding

[Viktor09]

I’m struggling to understand why some videos embed in our forum and some do not.

For example, if someone posts a YouTube URL it embeds as a playable video. Great.

URLs from other sites don’t render as an embedded playable video, even though I can see the same URLs as embedded playable videos on other (non-Discourse) forums.

So, are there restrictions somewhere? I don’t find anything in the settings.

[Arkshine]

Hello,

Not all video providers are supported by default. You can see a list here.
What are the sites you’re referring to? You can request it in Contribute > Feature if not available!

[Viktor09]

Thanks for the helpful response @Arkshine

So, supporting video embeds is literally done on a website-by-website basis? Discourse/Onebox has to choose to provide support for a specific website’s videos in order for this to work? Have I understood that correctly?

[Arkshine]

If you’re talking about generating a nice preview after pasting a link, yes, you’re right.

Every website has specificities, such as different formats, modes, URL structure, etc.
It’s not always as straightforward as wrapping the URL inside an <iframe> directly.

If Onebox doesn’t work with your site, this means no one requested it before, feel free to do so.

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Alternatively, you can still insert an <iframe> of any site directly into a post if you whitelist the source.

See allowed iframes setting:

[Arkshine]

@DNWebsite

I’m a little confused as to why a site hosting a video has to be ‘supported’. If I’m running Discourse on my own server, why do I not get to decide what I allow my users to embed?

I think you are confusing Creating rich link previews with Onebox with embedding an <iframe> directly.
Creating a onebox requires the website to be supported internally by Discourse.

You still can post manually any <iframe> as long the source is whitelisted (see my answer above).
In both ways, you have full control over what to allow.

I hope that helps!

[Viktor09]

Thanks for you help. I am a complete non-techy so I am finding this hard

@Arkshine

See allowed iframes setting:

When I try to add something to that list I get this:

[Arkshine]

No worry! This setting is for onebox, to control what onebox is allowed to be rendered (among the supported provider I listed in my first message).

You want to use allowed iframe setting instead!

[Viktor09]

Okay, I’m starting to get somewhere

Thanks again @Arkshine