XML Playlist Support

Supported XML Formats

The following playlist formats are supported:

• ASX feeds
• ATOM feeds with Media extensions
• RSS feeds with iTunes extensions and Media extensions
• XSPF feeds

Here is an overview of all the tags of each format the player processes, and the property in the JW Player playlist they correspond to. All formats are supported in Flash mode, while only a select number of playlist formats are available in HTML5 mode.

All media: tags can be embedded in a media:group element. A media:content element can also act as a container.

Here is an example playlist (with one video) in the most widely used format: RSS with media: extensions:

<rss version="2.0" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/">
  <channel>
    <title>Example playlist</title>

    <item>
      <title>Big Buck Bunny</title>
      <link>http://www.bigbuckbunny.org/</link>
      <description>Big Buck Bunny is a short animated film by the Blender Institute,
        part of the Blender Foundation.</description>

      <pubDate>Sat, 07 Sep 2002 09:42:31 GMT</pubDate>
      <media:content url="/videos/bbb.mp4" duration="33" />
      <media:thumbnail url="/thumbs/bbb.jpg" />

    </item>

  </channel>
</rss>

In order to load this playlist into the player, save it as an XML file, upload it to your webserver and point the player to it using the playlistfile option.

JW Player Namespace

In order to enable all JW Player playlist properties for all feed formats, the player contains a jwplayer namespace. By inserting this into your feed, properties that are not supported by the feed format itself (such as the streamer) can be amended without breaking validation. Any of the entries listed in the above table can be inserted. Here’s an example, of a video that uses RTMP Streaming:

<rss version="2.0" xmlns:jwplayer="http://developer.longtailvideo.com/">

  <channel>
    <title>Example RSS feed with jwplayer extensions</title>
    <item>
      <title>Big Buck Bunny</title>
      <jwplayer:file>videos/nPripu9l-60830.mp4</jwplayer:file>

      <jwplayer:streamer>rtmp://myserver.com/myApp/</jwplayer:streamer>
      <jwplayer:duration>34</jwplayer:duration>
    </item>
  </channel>
</rss>

Pay attention to the top level tag, which describes the JW Player namespace with the xmlns attribute. This must be available in order to not break validity.

Mixing Namespaces

You can mix jwplayer elements with both the regular elements of a feed and elements from the mRSS and iTunes extensions. If multiple elements match the same playlist entry, the elements will be prioritized:

• Elements that are defined by the feed format (e.g. the enclosure in RSS) get the lowest priority.
• Elements defined by the itunes namespace rank third.
• Element defined by the media namespace (e.g. media:content) rank second.
• Elements defined by the jwplayer extension always gets the highest priority.

This feature allows you to set, for example, a specific video version or HTTP/RTMP streaming for the JW Player, while other feed aggregators will pick the default content. In the above example feed, we could insert a regular enclosure element that points to a download of the video. This would make the feed useful for both the JW Player and text-oriented aggregators such as Feedburner.

Adding Properties

Certain plugins (e.g. captions and hd) and providers (http and rtmp) support item-specific configuration options. These are placed inside jwplayer tags as well, and are inserted like this:

<rss version="2.0" xmlns:jwplayer="http://developer.longtailvideo.com/">
  <channel>
    <title>Example RSS feed with playlistitem extensions</title>
    <item>

      <title>First video</title>
      <enclosure url="/files/bunny.flv" type="video/x-flv" length="1192846" />

      <jwplayer:provider>http</jwplayer:provider>
      <jwplayer:http.startparam>start</jwplayer:http.startparam>
      <jwplayer:captions.file>/files/captions_1.xml</jwplayer:captions.file>
    </item>

    <item>
      <title>Second Video</title>
      <enclosure url="/files/bunny.mp4" type="video/mp4" length="1192846" />

      <jwplayer:provider>http</jwplayer:provider>
      <jwplayer:http.startparam>starttime</jwplayer:http.startparam>
      <jwplayer:captions.file>/files/captions_2.xml</jwplayer:captions.file>
    </item>

  </channel>
</rss>

Notice that the <jwplayer:http.startparam> and <jwplayer:captions.file> properties are set differently for each of the playlist items.