Web technology has developed a lot over the years; Javascript, in particular, has played an enormous role in it. By involving React, the development and use of UI have become better and more efficient. With React, including an audio-video player on any website is easy. A simple React player plugin may assist you in performing the task in a few minutes. In this article, we'll talk about how to build a customizable React video player from scratch.

Introduction

React-Player is a React component that plays audio-visual files from various URLs, including file paths, YouTube links, Facebook links, Twitch links, SoundCloud links, Streamable links, Vimeo links, Wistia links, Mixcloud links, DailyMotion links, Kaltura links, and so on.

In this post, we'll use the React-Player component to build a video player (which you can install with the React Player npm), while focusing more on its functionalities than its appearance. To follow this tutorial, you'll need to have Node.js installed locally on your machine and have some familiarity with Material UI, Javascript, and React.

Features of React-Player

Customizable and easy-to-use
Runs on diffrent URLs, including file paths
Supports video looping and play back rates

Installing Dependencies

Running the following commands in the terminal allows us to start by setting up the project and installing the necessary dependencies:

yarn create react-app react-video-player

cd react-video-player

yarn add @mui/material @emotion/react @emotion/styled @mui/icons-material react-player screenfull

yarn start

Let's start by importing ReactPlayer into our App.js file and updating it.

import ReactPlayer from "react-player";
import "./App.css";
import ReactPlayer from "react-player";
import { Container } from "@mui/material";

function App() {
 return (
   <div className="video_container">
     <div>
       <h2>React player</h2>
     </div>
     <Container maxWidth="md" justify="center">
       <div className="player__wrapper">
       <ReactPlayer
           className="player"
           url="https://bucket-viewer.s3.amazonaws.com/viewer1664370329252.mp4"
           width="100%"
           height="100%"
           playing={true}
           muted={true}
         />
       <Control />
     </div>
   </Container>
 </div>
 );
}

The react-player component is now inside a Container wrapper. Additionally, we supplied the link to the example video as the URL prop's value. Finally, we also provided the player with a set width and height of 100%, so it will be responsive.

Then, add the following code to your App.css file.

.App {
 text-align: center;
}
.video_container {
   display: flex;
   flex-direction: column;
   justify-content: center;
   align-items: center;
   width: 100%;
}

.player__wrapper {
   position: relative;
}

.player {
   border: 2px solid #7b2cbf;
   object-fit: cover;
   padding: 0;
   margin: 0;
}

h2 {
 color: #7b2cbf;
}

To enable playback within our video player React, we added the playing and muted props to the preceding code. In addition, we set a value of true in place of the default value of false for the props. As a result, the playing footage created by the above code is shown in the picture below:

Observe that the video player is not interactive and lacks any controls. The react-player package contains a prop called control that, by default, has a value of false. When the value is modified to true, the React player controls are automatically added.

React Player Functionalities

Let's begin by creating a new folder in the src folder named Components. Then, create the Control.jsx and Control.css files as two new files inside the newly formed folder.

src
    ├── App.css
    ├── App.js
    ├── Components 
             ├── Control.css
             ├──Control.jsx

Let’s Code

First, we’ll import the required packages for our Control.jsx file:

import React from "react";
import { makeStyles, Slider, withStyles, Button,  Tooltip,  Popover,Grid

} from "@material-ui/core";
import {
 FastForward,
 FastRewind,
 Pause,
 PlayArrow,
 SkipNext,
  VolumeUp,
} from "@material-ui/icons";
import "./Control.css";

The control.jsx file is made up of three containers:

The heading container
The middle container (Contains the Play, Rewind and Fast forward buttons)
The bottom container (Contains the Slider, volume and playback rate buttons)

The Heading Container

<div className="top_container">
   <h2>Video PLayer</h2>
 </div>

The Middle Container

<div className="mid__container">
    <div className="icon__btn">
     <FastRewind fontSize="medium" />
    </div>

   <div className="icon__btn">
     <Pause fontSize="medium" />
   </div>

   <div className="icon__btn">
    <FastForward fontSize="medium" />
   </div>
 </div>

The Bottom Container

<div className="bottom__container">
 <div className="slider__container">
   <PrettoSlider />
 </div>
 <div className="control__box">
   <div className="inner__controls">
     <div className="icon__btn">
       <PlayArrow fontSize="medium" />
     </div>
     <div className="icon__btn">
       <SkipNext fontSize="medium" />
     </div>
     <div className="icon__btn">
       <VolumeUp fontSize="medium" />
     </div>

     <Slider
             className={`${classes.volumeSlider}`} />
     <span>5/20</span>
     </div>
   </div>
 </div>

Our control.jsx React player component will be like this:

const Control = () => {
 return(
 <div className="control_Container">
       // <-- The Heading Container --> 
   // <-- The Middle Container --> 
   // <-- The Bottom Container --> 
 </div>
   )
}

Let's discuss the .control_Container class-named div element. It’s a distinct container that, if hovered above the custom video player, appears as an overlay.

The following are the styles for our Control.jsx file:

.control_Container {
   background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6);
   position: absolute;
   top: 0;
   bottom: 0;
   right: 0;
   left: 0;
   flex-direction: column;
   z-index: 1;
   display: flex;
   justify-content: space-between;
}

.top_container {
   display: flex;
   align-items: center;
   justify-content: space-between;
   margin: 5px 20px;
}

.mid__container {
   display: flex;
   justify-content: center;
   align-items: center;
}

.icon__btn {
   padding: 0 10px;
   color: #7b2cbf;
}

.slider__container {
   /* width: 100%; */
   display: flex;
   align-items: center;
   padding: 0 16px;
}

.control__box {
   display: flex;
   align-items: center;
   justify-content: space-between;
}

.inner__controls {
   display: flex;
   padding: 10px 0;
   align-items: center;
   width: 50%;
}

span {
   color: #9556cc;
   font-size: 0.8rem;
   margin-left: 10px;
}

.second__control {
 display: flex;
 align-items: center;
}

Additionally, we style some of the components by adding the Material UI's makeStyles and withStyles to our Control. Jsx

const useStyles = makeStyles({
 volumeSlider: {
   width: "100px",
   color: "#9556CC",
 },

 bottomIcons: {
   color: "#999",
   padding: "12px 8px",


 "&:hover": {
     color: "#fff",
   },
 },
});

const PrettoSlider = withStyles({
 root: {
   height: "20px",
   color: "#9556CC",
   display: "flex",
   justifyContent: "center",
   alignItems: "center",
 },
 thumb: {
   height: 20,
   width: 20,
   backgroundColor: "#9556CC",
   border: "2px solid currentColor",
   marginTop: -3,
   marginLeft: -12,
 "&:focus, &:hover, &$active": {
     boxShadow: "inherit",
   },
 },
 active: {},
 valueLabel: {
   left: "calc(-50% + 4px)",
 },
 track: {
   height: 5,
   borderRadius: 4,
   width: "100%",
 },
 rail: {
   height: 5,
   borderRadius: 4,
 },
})(Slider);

Adding the following code to your App.js file will import React’s Controls component, which we also need to do:

import "./App.css";
import ReactPlayer from "react-player";
import { Container } from "@material-ui/core";
import Control from "./Components/Control";

function App() {
 return (
 <div className="video_container">
 <div>
 <h2>React player</h2>
 </div>
 <Container maxWidth="md" justify="center">
 <div className="player__wrapper">
 <ReactPlayer
           className="player"
           url="https://bucket-viewer.s3.amazonaws.com/viewer1664370329252.mp4"
           width="100%"
           height="100%"
           playing={true}
           muted={true}
         />
 <Control />
 </div>
 </Container>
 </div>
 );
}

export default App;

If you followed closely, our React custom video player ought to appear like this:

Handling Play and Pause

In this section, we'll concentrate on the capabilities and logic of the custom controls for the React player, starting with playing and pausing.

Navigate to the App.js file, where we'll begin by defining a state named videoState. An object with different properties represents this state:

const [videoState, setVideoState] = useState({
   playing: true,
   muted: false,
   volume: 0.5,
   played: 0,
   seeking: false,
Buffer : true
 });

//Destructuring the properties from the videoState
 const {playing, muted, volume, playbackRate, played, seeking, buffer} = videoState

We destructure the videoState using the ES6 syntax to get its properties.

Following that, we need to create a function that toggles the play and pause capabilities. To do this, we'll spread the previous state and toggle the necessary state.

const playPauseHandler = () => {
 //plays and pause the video (toggling)
   setVideoState({ ...videoState, playing: !videoState.playing });
 };

Replace the true values for the playing and muted properties with the appropriate values of playing and mute from the destructured videoState in the ReactPlayer component.

<div className="player__wrapper">
 <ReactPlayer
           className="player"
           url="https://bucket-viewer.s3.amazonaws.com/viewer1664370329252.mp4"
           width="100%"
           height="100%"
           playing={playing}
           muted={muted}
         />
 <Control onPlayPause={playPauseHandler} playing={playing}/>
 </div>

The playing prop in ReactPlayer is used to set the value to true or false, playing or pausing the video.

To allow the play and pause buttons to access this feature, we pass in the function to the Control component as a prop in the example above.

We’d also update our Control.jsx file by passing the onPlayPause into the onClick of our pause button.

<div className="icon__btn" onClick={onPlayPause}>
 <Pause fontSize="medium"  />
 </div>

The playing attribute value provided within the videoState, which we passed as a prop to the Control component, is used to render the icon using the ternary operator conditionally. For example, the play icon should appear when the video is paused, and when it is playing, the pause icon should appear.

<div className="icon__btn" onClick={onPlayPause}>
         {playing ? (
 <Pause fontSize="medium" />
         ) : (
 <PlayArrow fontSize="medium" />
         )}{" "}
 </div>

With the addition of these functionalities, we can easily play and pause our video, like so:

Handling Rewind and Fast Forward

We want to fast-forward the video by 10 seconds and rewind it by 5 seconds, much like with other video players. The ReactPlayer must be referenced using the useRef hook to obtain the video's current time before implementing this feature.

We’ll begin by importing the useRef hook and creating a reference for the React Player.

import ReactPlayer from "react-player";
import { useRef } from "react";

function App() {
 //react player reference
 const videoPlayerRef = useRef(null);
 return (
 <ReactPlayer
           ref={videoPlayerRef} //updating the react player ref
           className="player"
           url="https://bucket-viewer.s3.amazonaws.com/viewer1664370329252.mp4"
           width="100%"
           height="100%"
           playing={playing}
           muted={muted}
         />
 );
}

export default App;

Let's implement a rewindHandler function that we'll call anytime the rewind button is double-tapped. This function will use two methods for the rewind and fast-forward features obtained from the videoPlayerRef.

seekTo: Seek the given number of seconds, or a fraction if the amount is between 0 and 1
getCurrentTime(): Returns the number of seconds that have been played

const rewindHandler = () => {
 //Rewinds the video player reducing 5
   videoPlayerRef.current.seekTo(videoPlayerRef.current.getCurrentTime() - 5);
 };

The rewindHandler subtracts 5 seconds from the current video time, which is what you're thinking about when you think about the fastForwardHandler adding 10 seconds to the current video time.

const fastFowardHandler = () => {
 //FastFowards the video player by adding 10
   videoPlayerRef.current.seekTo(videoPlayerRef.current.getCurrentTime() + 10);
 };

Next, we pass the functions as props to the Control component:

<Control
           onPlayPause={playPauseHandler}
           playing={playing}
           onRewind={rewindHandler}
           onForward ={handleFastFoward }
         />

Then, we receive the props and pass the two functions into their respective buttons.

<div className="icon__btn" onDoubleClick={onRewind}>
 <FastRewind fontSize="medium" />
 </div>


 <div className="icon__btn">
 <FastForward fontSize="medium" onDoubleClick={onForward}/>
 </div>

We can now fast-forward and rewind our video using the code above. However, you'll also notice that the video player's slider doesn't move to the current time when we rewind or fast-forward the video. Let's fix that, since we're problem solvers, right?

Seek Functionality

The ReactPlayer has an onProgress prop callback for this feature, which is a Callback that contains played and loaded progress as a fraction as well as playedSeconds and loaded seconds.

const progressHandler = (state) => {

   if (!seeking) {
 setVideoState({ ...videoState, ...state });
   }
 };

The progressHandler function accepts an argument called state. This state argument indicates an object with contained states. Every time the video player seek bar (the player's timing) updates, some sets of states are altered, and new values are returned. We keep the values of the previously modified States and our videoState properties in this function. We want this to happen, but only when the value of the seeking property in our videoState is negated.

Next, we pass in the progressHandler function to the onProgess prop in the ReactPlayer:

<ReactPlayer
           ref={videoPlayerRef}
           className="player"
           url="https://bucket-viewer.s3.amazonaws.com/viewer1664370329252.mp4"
           width="100%"
           height="100%"
           playing={playing}
           muted={muted}
           onProgress = {progressHandler}
         />

Then, to update our seek slider to the appropriate time of the video, we pass the played state that we've destructured from the videoState to the control component as a prop.

<Control
           onPlayPause={playPauseHandler}
           playing={playing}
           onRewind={rewindHandler}
           onForward ={handleFastFoward }
           played ={played}
/>

The PrettoSlider in our control component then has to be updated. The maximum value for our PrettoSlider must be 100, and the minimum value must be set to 0. The value prop is the slider's current e.target.value, which multiplies the value of the played props by 100.

<PrettoSlider
         min = {0}
         max = {100}
         value = {played * 100}
/>

Furthermore, we need to write functions that will enable us to use the video player slider to look for a specific moment. To do this, we'd create a seekHandler and a seekMouseUpHandler to help us achieve this feature.

const seekHandler = (e, value) => {
   setVideoState({ ...videoState, played: parseFloat(value) / 100 });
 };

 const seekMouseUpHandler = (e, value ) => {
   setVideoState({ ...videoState, seeking: false });
   videoPlayerRef.current.seekTo(value / 100);
 };

We then pass these functions as props to the control component. The parameter given to the function is the value we immediately receive whenever the slider moves. Then, since played only accepts values between 0 and 1, we only updated the played value to the value argument divided by 100 when updating the videoState.

Additionally, we gave the mouseSeekUpHandler function an argument called value. Spreading the previous state and changing only the seeking state value to false, which allows us to update the videoState. Then, we change the video's current time to the desired time.

<Control
           onPlayPause={playPauseHandler}
           playing={playing}
           onRewind={rewindHandler}
           onForward ={handleFastFoward }
           played ={played}
           onSeek ={seekHandler}
           onSeekMouseUp ={seekMouseUpHandler}
         />

To use these two functions, the PrettoSlider has two props which we can use for this functionality: onChange and onChangeCommitted. According to the MUI docs, the onChange prop is a Callback function that fires whenever the slider's value changes, while the onChangeCommitted is a Callback function that fires when the mouse moves up.

This is what our video player should look like now:

Volume Functionality

We should have the option to mute and increase/decrease the video’s volume in our React player. The icon should then change to ‘muted’ or ‘volume-up’, depending on the volume setting in that situation.

Let’s head over to our App.js file.

const volumeChangeHandler = (e, value) => {
 const newVolume = parseFloat(value) / 100;
   setVideoState({
     ...videoState,
     volume: newVolume,
     muted: Number(newVolume) === 0 ? true : false, // volume === 0 then muted
   })

};

const volumeSeekUpHandler = (e, value) => {
 const newVolume = parseFloat(value) / 100;
   setVideoState({
     ...videoState,
     volume: newVolume,
     muted: newVolume === 0 ? true : false,
   })};

There is a volume prop for this functionality in the ReactPlayer where we pass the destructured volume from our videoState.

<ReactPlayer
           ref={videoPlayerRef}
           className="player"
           url="https://bucket-viewer.s3.amazonaws.com/viewer1664370329252.mp4"
           width="100%"
           height="100%"
           playing={playing}
           volume = {volume}
           muted={muted}
           onProgress={progressHandler}
         />

The volume slider needs to define two functions, one for the onChange event and the other for the onChangeCommitted event, just like the PrettoSlider.

Now, we pass them as props to the control component:

<Control
           onPlayPause={playPauseHandler}
           playing={playing}
           onRewind={rewindHandler}
           onForward={handleFastFoward}
           played={played}
           onSeek={seekHandler}
           onSeekMouseUp={seekMouseUpHandler}

Volume={volume}
           onVolumeChangeHandler = {volumeChangeHandler}
           onVolumeSeekUp = {volumeSeekUpHandler}
         />

The volume slider is then updated by including new props, the onChange event, the onChangeCommitted event, and value, and passing the onVolumeChangeHandler, onVolumeSeekUp, and volume props.

<Slider
             className={`${classes.volumeSlider}`}
             onChange={onVolumeChangeHandler}
 value={volume * 100}
             onChangeCommitted={onVolumeSeekUp}
           />

Handling the Muted State

We ought to be able to choose between muted and volume up whenever the mute button is clicked. The symbol should switch to ‘muted’ or ‘volume-up’ depending on the volume level.

We’ll start by writing a function that handles the mute functionality in our App.js file.

const muteHandler = () => {
 //Mutes the video player
   setVideoState({ ...videoState, muted: !videoState.muted });
 };

In the muteHandler, we retained everything in the videoState and changed the muted property to have a value opposite of the current muted state, thereby toggling it and then passing the muted props to the control component.

<Control
           onPlayPause={playPauseHandler}
           playing={playing}
           onRewind={rewindHandler}
           onForward={handleFastFoward}
           played={played}
           onSeek={seekHandler}
           onSeekMouseUp={seekMouseUpHandler}
           volume ={volume}
           onVolumeChangeHandler = {volumeChangeHandler}
           onVolumeSeekUp = {volumeSeekUpHandler}
           mute = {muted}
           onMute = {muteHandler}
         />

<div className="icon__btn" onClick={onMute} >
           {mute ? (
 <VolumeOff fontSize="medium" />
               ) : (
 <VolumeUp fontSize="medium" />
               )}
 </div>

The value of the videoState field's muted state determines how the two icons in the above code would render conditionally. It also passes in a function to the wrapper, which toggles the mute functionality.

This is how our video should function:

Video Time Functionality

Video players, as we all know, typically show the video's current time. To accomplish this, we use some instance methods that React Player offers:

getCurrentTime: Returns the number of seconds that have been played.
getDuration: Returns the currently playing media’s total duration (in seconds).
getSecondsLoaded: Returns the number of seconds that have been loaded.

const currentTime = videoPlayerRef.current? videoPlayerRef.current.getCurrentTime(): "00:00";

const duration = videoPlayerRef.current? videoPlayerRef.current.getDuration(): "00:00";

We still need to format the returned time according to our preferences, even though the currentTime and duration are rendered conditionally using ternary operators.

A function that formats the timing must be created. After accepting an argument, this function will return the time in a specific format.

To use the function in App.js, we create a new file called Format.js inside the component folder.

export const formatTime = (time) => {
 //formarting duration of video
 if (isNaN(time)) {
 return "00:00";
   }

 const date = new Date(time * 1000);
 const hours = date.getUTCHours();
 const minutes = date.getUTCMinutes();
 const seconds = date.getUTCSeconds().toString().padStart(2, "0");
 if (hours) {
 //if video have hours
 return `${hours}:${minutes.toString().padStart(2, "0")} `;
   } else return `${minutes}:${seconds}`;
 };

Following that, import the formatTime method found in the Format.js file. Therefore, in the App.js file, we can use it. Then, two formatTime calls are made, with the currentTime and duration being passed as arguments.

const formatCurrentTime = formatTime(currentTime)

const formatDuration = formatTime(duration)

We then pass the formatCurrentTime and formatDuration as props to the control component.

<Control
           onPlayPause={playPauseHandler}
           playing={playing}
           onRewind={rewindHandler}
           onForward={handleFastFoward}
           played={played}
           onSeek={seekHandler}
           onSeekMouseUp={seekMouseUpHandler}
           volume ={volume}
           onVolumeChangeHandler = {volumeChangeHandler}
           onVolumeSeekUp = {volumeSeekUpHandler}
           mute = {muted}
           onMute = {muteHandler}
           duration = {formatDuration}
           currentTime = {formatCurrentTime}
         />

Finally, modify the default timing value to this:

<span>{ currentTime} : {duration}</span>

Now, you can watch the length of the video as it plays and see how much time has passed. Watch the timing as the seek bar is dragged.

The Control container div is frequently resting on the player, as you can see. Let's make it more interesting by having it resemble other video players— let’s make it visible whenever we hover on the video player.

Creating a Disappearing Seek Bar

To achieve this feature, we also need to create a reference of the div with classname of control_Container in the App.js file:

const controlRef = useRef(null)

And pass it to the control component:

<Control
         controlRef = {controlRef}
           onPlayPause={playPauseHandler}
           playing={playing}
           onRewind={rewindHandler}
           onForward={handleFastFoward}
           played={played}
           onSeek={seekHandler}
           onSeekMouseUp={seekMouseUpHandler}
           volume ={volume}
           onVolumeChangeHandler = {volumeChangeHandler}
           onVolumeSeekUp = {volumeSeekUpHandler}
           mute = {muted}
           onMute = {muteHandler}
           playRate = {playbackRate}
           onPlayRate = {playBackRateHandler}
           duration = {formatDuration}
           currentTime = {formatCurrentTime}
         />

We then pass it to the ref property on the control_Container div in the control component:

const Control = ({controlRef}) => {
 return (
 <div className="control_Container" ref ={controlRef}>
    // <-- body of the control component --->

 </div>
 );
};

export default Control;

Next, we head over to our App.js and declare a new variable called count which will be equal to 0:

Let count = 0

const App = () => {
 return (
 <div>
    // <-- body of the App component --->

 </div>
 );
};

export default App;

We include an if statement inside the progressHandler function to determine whether the count exceeds 3, at which point we use the controlRef and set the visibility to hidden. By doing so, the control component div is hidden.

const progressHandler = (state) => {
   if (count > 3){

     // toggling player control container

     controlRef.current.style.visibility = "hidden";

   } else if (controlRef.current.style.visibility === "visible") {
      count += 1;
   }

   if (!seeking) {
 setVideoState({ ...videoState, ...state });
   }
 };

We must create another function to make the control div visible whenever the player is hovered over.

const mouseMoveHandler = () => {
   controlRef.current.style.visibility = "visible";
 count = 0;
 };

const App = () => {
 return (
 <div>
    // <-- body of the App component --->
 <div onMouseDown = {mouseMoveHandler} > 
 <ReactPlayer/>
 <Control/>
 </div>
 </div>
 );
};

export default App;

Our player now looks like this:

Buffering Functionality in our React Player

When we watch videos online, they frequently stall, primarily because of poor network connections. Let's add a similar feature to our video player.

The ReactPlayer provides two props that accept a callback for this feature: onBuffer and onBufferEnd.

const bufferStartHandler = () => {
 console.log("Bufering.......");
   setVideoState({...videoState , buffer: true})
 };

 const bufferEndHandler = () => {
 console.log("buffering stoped ,,,,,,play");
   setVideoState({...videoState , buffer: false})
 };

These two functions will be passed to the onBuffer and onBufferEnd.

<ReactPlayer
           ref={videoPlayerRef}
           className="player"
           url="https://bucket-viewer.s3.amazonaws.com/viewer1664370329252.mp4"
           width="100%"
           height="100%"
           playing={playing}
           volume={volume}
           muted={muted}
           onProgress={progressHandler}
           playbackRate={playBackRateHandler}
           onBuffer={bufferStartHandler}
           onBufferEnd={bufferEndHandler}
         />

The last step alerts users when a video freezes. The buffer state must be true to render a load effectively.

{buffer && <p>Loading</p>}

Observe the Loading text when the video freezes.

Conclusion

This post taught us how to construct and modify a video player using the react-player package and Material UI to style and import the required icons. Of course, you can always improve the build by including a few special features to make the player entirely custom.

Here is the URL to the GitHub repository.

Developing a React Video Player with Personalized Controls