YouTube Engineering and Developers Blog: as2

Engineering and Developers Blog

What's happening with engineering and developers at YouTube

Upgrading Old Embed Codes

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

We’d like to let the community know about an upcoming change that will affect some developers using Flash-only players in their webpages or applications. Previously, a URL like http://www.youtube.com/v/VIDEO_ID would default to the ActionScript 2 version of the Flash player, and it was necessary to explicitly add in the version=3 URL parameter to request the newer, ActionScript 3-based player. Starting on Wednesday, May 2, we will be changing the default behavior so that the ActionScript 3 player will be loaded in those scenarios.

This change to the default version affects both the Embedded and Chromeless Flash players. Developers who are using the newer <iframe> embedded player will not see any change, as that already defaults to the ActionScript 3 player when Flash playback is needed.

If for some reason you explicitly need the ActionScript 2 version of the player, perhaps because you’re hosting it from within a parent Flash container that was written in ActionScript 2, then you should change your code to explicitly add in the version=2 URL parameter to the player URL. Most developers will not need to do this, though, and they’ll automatically get the benefits of the modern ActionScript 3 playback experience without having to change their code.

As we’ve previously announced, the ActionScript 2 players are all officially deprecated, and have been for several years now. Our plan is to shut them down completely starting in October of this year, so while it is still possible to explicitly request them with version=2 if they’re needed, our recommendation is that you do not continue to rely on the ActionScript 2 player in your code.

Cheers,
—Jeff Posnick, YouTube API Team

Google

Labels: as2 , as3 , embed

The ActionScript 2 Chromeless Player and Monetized Videos

Monday, October 25, 2010

The ActionScript 3 Player APIs, both in the chromeless and embedded variety, have been available for use since last October. When we released the ActionScript 3 APIs, we announced the deprecation of the ActionScript 2 equivalents. As per our deprecation policy, we will keep the ActionScript 2 Player APIs running through October of 2012; however, we wanted to announce a change in the videos available for playback that will affect those still using the ActionScript 2 chromeless player.

As of early January, 2011, some videos that YouTube and our content partners would like to monetize will not be playable using the ActionScript 2 chromeless player because it does not have the ability to show ads. If you attempt to play back such a video, an onError event will be fired, as documented in the ActionScript 2 Player APIs reference guide. As a developer, you can handle this event and play an alternate video, or display an explanatory message to your users.

Please note that this change only affects playback in the ActionScript 2 chromeless player. If you are using the ActionScript 2 embedded player (i.e. the official YouTube player with built-in controls) or if you’ve already upgraded to one of the ActionScript 3 players, you can continue to play the same video content you can play today. Also note that you might be using the the ActionScript 2 chromeless player indirectly if you’re using a third-party custom video player to play back YouTube content. Please reach out to the provider of your custom video player if you’re not sure whether this change will affect you.

Cheers,
-Jeff Posnick, YouTube API Team