Hacking the Yahoo! Media Player

Michael Ryvkin
1 1

The Yahoo! Media Player enhances your web site or blog by creating an embedded player for each audio link. All the links can be played with one click, turning the page into a playlist. This is done by adding just one line of code to your page. This article explains how to customize Yahoo! Media Player to match your web site design.

Update
March 14, 2014
Yahoo! Media Player is discontinued and examples shown in this post no longer work. There is jPlayer Jukebox add-on available that can be used as a replacement.

About the player

The Yahoo! Media Player enhances your web site or blog by creating an embedded player for each audio link. All the links can be played with one click, turning the page into a playlist. This is done by adding just one line of code to your page.

Updates

2/15/2011 – Yahoo! Media Player beta version is released
There is beta version available with YouTube/Yahoo! Movie pages support, please see Yahoo! Media Player beta page or this post for more information. Please note that some hacks mentioned here might not work with beta version.

6/30/2013 – Yahoo! Media Player is discontinued
See this announcement for more information.

3/14/2014 – jPlayer Jukebox – Yahoo! Media Player replacement
There is jPlayer Jukebox add-on available that can be used as Yahoo! Media Player replacement.

How to use

Starting June 30, 2013 the player is discontinued and will not load. But there is a temporary workaround, all you need is to replace the code loading the player with the following code:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://webplayer.yahooapis.com/player-beta.js"></script>

How to use a playlist

Please visit the Yahoo! Media Player public wiki (http://yahoomediaplayer.wikia.com/wiki/How_to_link) for more information.

Note that you will not be able to test the functionality on your local computer because Yahoo! Media Player uses external service to retrieve and process XSPF files. It was done to avoid cross-domain access limitation for Flash objects and JavaScript code.

View example

How to change skin

If you want to dramatically change appearance of the player you would need to modify its skin. There are three images that player mostly uses however you will need to download just the skin image to change player’s appearance:

  1. Skin image, links: Yahoo.com, Gyrocode.com
  2. Animated image used when player is minimized and playing a song, links: Yahoo.com, Gyrocode.com
  3. Animated image used to locate audio link on the page, links: Yahoo.com, Gyrocode.com

Once you have downloaded the skin image, use your favorite image editing program to customize it. In order to apply the skin you would have to use the code below.

Instructions: Update path to your image file. Append the following lines to CSS file or include them into HTML page somewhere in between <head> and </head> tags enclosing the block with tags <style type="text/css"> and </style>.

/* Yahoo! Media Player: Change default skin */
#ymp-player .ymp-color-main { 
  background-color:transparent !important; 
}

.ymp-skin {
  background-image:url(/path/to/your/mediaplayer-skin.png) !important;
}

/* Use original animated images */
#ymp-body #ymp-btn-max span.ymp-animarrow {
  background-image:url(http://l.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/mus/ymwp/mediaplayer-animarrow-2.0.31.gif) !important;
}
a.ymp-btn-page-target em.ymp-skin,
a:hover.ymp-btn-page-target em.ymp-skin,
a:active.ymp-btn-page-target em.ymp-skin {
  background-image:url(http://l.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/mus/ymwp/mediaplayer-findlink-2.0.31.gif)  !important;
}

If you want to use reduce loading time and avoid using two additional images, use the following code instead:

/* Yahoo! Media Player: Change default skin */
#ymp-player .ymp-color-main { 
  background-color:transparent !important; 
}

.ymp-skin {
  background-image:url(/path/to/your/mediaplayer-skin.png) !important;
}

/* Avoid using animated images (and reduce loading time) */
#ymp-body #ymp-btn-max span.ymp-animarrow {
  background-position:-119px -80px !important;
}
a.ymp-btn-page-target em.ymp-skin,
a:hover.ymp-btn-page-target em.ymp-skin,
a:active.ymp-btn-page-target em.ymp-skin {
  background-position:-624px -17px !important;
}

View example

How to adjust background color

Adjusting background color

Adjusting background color

Instructions: Update color values. Append the following lines to CSS file or include them into HTML page somewhere in between <head> and </head> tags enclosing the block with tags <style type="text/css"> and </style>.

/* Yahoo! Media Player: Set background color */
#ymp-player .ymp-color-main,
#ymp-tray .ymp-color-tray { 
  background-color:#2F437C !important; 
}

View example

How to adjust text color

Instructions: Update color values. Append the following lines to CSS file or include them into HTML page somewhere in between <head> and </head> tags enclosing the block with tags <style type="text/css"> and </style>.

/* Yahoo! Media Player: Set text color */
#ymp-player .ymp-color-text-main {
  color:#000000 !important;
}

How to update block with relevant information

You may want to display your own message in the relevant information block instead of the default “learn more about this player” link. To do so you will need link to your media like this:

<a href="music.mp3">a song <span class="relevant-info">relevant info for this song</span></a>

Instructions: Append the following lines to CSS file or include them into HTML page somewhere in between <head> and </head> tags enclosing the block with tags <style type="text/css"> and </style>.

/* Yahoo! Media Player: */
/* Modify contents of the block with relevant information */
#ymp-relevant-info {
  display:block;
  position:absolute;
  left:2px;
  top:10px;
  width:116px;
  font-size:12px;
  font-weight:bold;
  line-height:13px;
  text-align:center;
  z-index:2;
} 

#ymp-relevant-info a {
  color:#3D9AD0;
}

.relevant-info { 
  display:none; 
}

Instructions: Insert the code below right after the line that embeds the player into your page.

<script type="text/javascript">
   function apiReadyHandler(){
      YAHOO.ympyui.util.Event.onDOMReady(UpdateRelevantInfo);
      YAHOO.MediaPlayer.onTrackStart.subscribe(UpdateRelevantInfo);  
   }

   /*
      Written by Jonathan Snook, http://www.snook.ca/jonathan
      Add-ons by Robert Nyman, http://www.robertnyman.com
      
The Ultimate getElementsByClassName

   */
   function getElementsByClassName(className, tag, elm){
      var testClass = new RegExp("(^|\\s)" + className + "(\\s|$)");
      var tag = tag || "*";
      var elm = elm || document;
      var elements = (tag == "*" && elm.all)
                        ? elm.all 
                        : elm.getElementsByTagName(tag);
      var returnElements = [];
      var current;
      var length = elements.length;
      for(var i=0; i<length; i++){
         current = elements[i];
         if(testClass.test(current.className)){
            returnElements.push(current);
         }
      }
      return returnElements;
   }

   function UpdateRelevantInfo() {
      // Default text
      var info = '<a href="http://www.gyrocode.com">Visit gyrocode.com for more information</a>';

      // Retrieve information about the track
      var meta = YAHOO.MediaPlayer.getMetaData();

      // If element with class "relevant-info" is available 
      // inside the anchor, use its content instead
      if(meta && meta.anchor){
         var el = meta.anchor;
         var a = (el.getElementsByClassName) 
                    ? el.getElementsByClassName("relevant-info")
                    : getElementsByClassName("relevant-info", null, el);
         if(a.length > 0){ info = a[0].innerHTML; }
      }

      document.getElementById('ymp-relevance').innerHTML = '<div id="ymp-relevant-info">' + info + '</div>';
   }

   YAHOO.MediaPlayer.onAPIReady.subscribe(apiReadyHandler);
</script>

View example

How to remove block with relevant information

Relevant information block is removed

Relevant information block is removed

Player displays “Learn more about this player” link along with lyrics or related videos. If you are trying to minimize size of the player, use the code below.

Instructions: Append the following lines to CSS file or include them into HTML page somewhere in between <head> and </head> tags enclosing the block with tags <style type="text/css"> and </style>.

/* Yahoo! Media Player: */
/* Remove block with relevant information */
#ymp-relevance { display:none !important; }
.ymp-player-max #ymp-body { width:570px !important; }
.ymp-player-max #ymp-body #ymp-body-strip { width:557px !important; }
.ymp-player-max #ymp-body #ymp-body-base  { width:560px !important; }

View example

How to hide various buttons

Instructions: Append the following lines to CSS file or include them into HTML page somewhere in between <head> and </head> tags enclosing the block with tags <style type="text/css"> and </style>.

/* Yahoo! Media Player: Hide 'close window' button */
#ymp-btn-close { display:none !important; }

/* Yahoo! Media Player: Hide 'pop-up window' button */
#ymp-btn-pop { display:none !important; }

View example

How to change playlist colors

Playlist colors

Playlist colors

Instructions: Update color values. Append the following lines to CSS file or include them into HTML page somewhere in between <head> and </head> tags enclosing the block with tags <style type="text/css"> and </style>.

/* Yahoo! Media Player: Playlist colors */
/* Default color for playlist entries */
#ymp-tray .ymp-tray-track {
  color:#FFCE0C !important;
}

/* Highlighted track */
#ymp-tray .ymp-tray-track:hover {
  color:#FFFFFF !important;
  background-color:transparent !important;
}

/* Currently playing track */
#ymp-tray .ymp-tray-track.playing,
#ymp-tray .ymp-tray-track.playing:hover {
  color:#FFFFFF !important;
  background-color:#777777 !important;
}

How to display album art

Album art

Album art

You can set the image which is displayed in the player during a song. To do this, put an img element within the playable link.

For example:

<a href="example.mp3"><img src="example.png" alt="" />my song</a>

The dimensions of the image should be square, not rectangular. If you don’t want the image to show up directly in the main web page, add style="display:none" to your img tag:

<a href="example.mp3"><img src="example.png" alt="" style="display:none" />my song</a>

Source: http://yahoomediaplayer.wikia.com/wiki/How_to_link#Album_Art

View example

How to change default album art image

Insert the code below just before the line that embeds the player into your page.


<script type="text/javascript">
var YMPParams =
{
   defaultalbumart:'http://somedomain.com/path/someimage.gif'
};
</script>

Source: http://mediaplayer.yahoo.com/api/#param_defaultalbumart

How to hide album art

Hidden album art

Hidden album art

/* Yahoo! Media Player: Hide album art */
#ymp-meta-image { display:none !important; }
#ymp-body #ymp-meta-top,
#ymp-body #ymp-meta-bottom {
  left:8px !important;
  width:330px !important;
}

View example

How to change meta (album title/web site URL) information

Instructions: Insert the code below right after the line that embeds the player into your page.

<script type="text/javascript">
   function apiReadyHandler(){
      YAHOO.ympyui.util.Event.onDOMReady(UpdateAlbumTitle);
      YAHOO.MediaPlayer.onTrackStart.subscribe(UpdateAlbumTitle);
   }

   /*
      Written by Jonathan Snook, http://www.snook.ca/jonathan
      Add-ons by Robert Nyman, http://www.robertnyman.com
      
The Ultimate getElementsByClassName

   */
   function getElementsByClassName(className, tag, elm){
      var testClass = new RegExp("(^|\\s)" + className + "(\\s|$)");
      var tag = tag || "*";
      var elm = elm || document;
      var elements = (tag == "*" && elm.all)
                        ? elm.all 
                        : elm.getElementsByTagName(tag);
      var returnElements = [];
      var current;
      var length = elements.length;
      for(var i=0; i<length; i++){
         current = elements[i];
         if(testClass.test(current.className)){
            returnElements.push(current);
         }
      }
      return returnElements;
   }

   function UpdateAlbumTitle() {
      var meta_bottom = document.getElementById('ymp-meta-bottom');
      var el = getElementsByClassName('ymp-meta-box', 'div', meta_bottom);
      if(el.length > 0){
         el[0].innerHTML = 'Visit <a href="http://www.lakeoftears.net" class="ymp-color-text-main">www.lakeoftears.net</a> for more info';
      }
   }

   YAHOO.MediaPlayer.onAPIReady.subscribe(apiReadyHandler);
</script>

View example

How to hide meta (album title/web site URL) information

Instructions: Append the following lines to CSS file or include them into HTML page somewhere in between <head> and </head> tags enclosing the block with tags <style type="text/css"> and </style>.

/* Yahoo! Media Player: Hide album title / web site URL */
#ymp-meta-album-title { display:none !important; }

View example

How to hide the player

Sometimes you may want to display only small play button next to MP3 links. To hide the player use the code below.

Instructions: Append the following lines to CSS file or include them into HTML page somewhere in between <head> and </head> tags enclosing the block with tags <style type="text/css"> and </style>.

/* Yahoo! Media Player: Hide player */
#ymp-player,
#ymp-tray,
#ymp-error-bubble,
#ymp-secret-bubble {
  display:none !important;
}

There is another way to do it using parameter displaystate which is described at http://mediaplayer.yahoo.com/api/#param_displaystate

View example

How to hide MP3 links

Instructions: Append the following lines to CSS file or include them into HTML page somewhere in between <head> and </head> tags enclosing the block with tags <style type="text/css"> and </style>.

/* Yahoo! Media Player: Hide MP3 links */
.ymp-btn-page-play,
.ymp-btn-page-pause {
  display:none;
}

How to hide link play/pause buttons

Instructions: Append the following lines to CSS file or include them into HTML page somewhere in between <head> and </head> tags enclosing the block with tags <style type="text/css"> and </style>.

/* Yahoo! Media Player: Hide play/pause button */
a.ymp-btn-page-play, 
a.ymp-btn-page-pause {
  margin-left:-20px !important;
}

a.ymp-btn-page-play em.ymp-skin, 
a.ymp-btn-page-pause em.ymp-skin {
  display: none !important;
}

View example

How to start player in a new window

The code below tries to launch player in a new window automatically which allows user to navigate your site without interrupting the player. However my code for displaying pop-under window doesn’t work as expected for all browsers which results in pop-up window instead.

Instructions: Insert the code below right after the line that embeds the player into your page.

<script type="text/javascript">
    var ymp_pop_num_tries = 0;
    var ymp_pop_max_num_tries = 20;
    function ympPopPlayer(){
       var ymp = YAHOO.mediaplayer;
       if(ymp_pop_num_tries > ymp_pop_max_num_tries){ return; }
       if(ymp.Controller && ymp.Controller.view){ 
          // Create a pop-under window
          // works in IE, doesn't work in Firefox 3.5.x
          var ymp_pop = window.open("", "ymediaplayer");
          if(ymp_pop){ ymp_pop.blur(); }
          window.focus();

          ymp.Controller.view.popPlayer({});
       } else {
         ymp_pop_num_tries++;
         setTimeout(ympPopPlayer, 1000);
       }
    }

    function apiReadyHandler(){
       ympPopPlayer();
    }

    YAHOO.MediaPlayer.onAPIReady.subscribe(apiReadyHandler);
</script>

View example

How to disable Yahoo! search links

Instructions: Insert the code below right after the line that embeds the player into your page.

<script type="text/javascript">
   // Disable Yahoo! Media Player search links
   function apiReadyHandler(){
      YAHOO.MediaPlayer.onMediaUpdate.subscribe(DisableYahooLinks);
      YAHOO.MediaPlayer.onTrackStart.subscribe(DisableYahooLinks);  
      setTimeout(DisableYahooLinks, 2000);
   }

   function DisableYahooLinks(){
      DisableLink(document.getElementById('ymp-meta-track-title'));
      DisableLink(document.getElementById('ymp-meta-artist-title'));
      DisableLink(document.getElementById('ymp-meta-image'));
      DisableLink(document.getElementById('ymp-meta-album-title')); 
   }

   function DisableLink(el){
      if(el){
         el.href = 'javascript:void(0)';
         el.onclick = function(){ return false; };
      }
   }

   YAHOO.MediaPlayer.onAPIReady.subscribe(apiReadyHandler);
</script>

View example

How to change default settings

See http://mediaplayer.yahoo.com/api for more information.

Links

You May Also Like

jPlayer Jukebox add-on: Yahoo! Media Player replacement
Yahoo Media Player beta version is available
jPlayer Jukebox add-on v.0.5.0
Michael Ryvkin

Freelance web developer based in Perkasie, Bucks County, PA. I design and develop custom websites and web applications, perform website maintenance and provide technical support for small and medium-sized businesses.

Contact me for a free quote or consultation on your project.

Comments

  1. Excellent tips for customizing this player!!!

    I noticed when you hover over the little play button, by default it turns yellow. Is there a way to customize this colour? I'd like to be able to customize it so the rollover colour is more consitent with the rollover links on my website.

    Many thanks!

    Reply

  2. Below the name of the song, the player displays the name of the server the mp3 file is on. Is there a way to remove this text or hide it completely?
    Sorry, I do not see the info. How To Remove Meta Information ?

    Thx in advance.

    Reply

  3. Great stuff here, Michael. Thank you for sharing!!

    Do you know of any way to add fast forward and re-wind capabilities to the player? I'm using this player to "podcast" 30-40 minute sermons for our church. If, for some reason, you are only able to listen to the first half in one sitting and come back later to listen to the rest, I don't see a way of skipping ahead to where you left off. Or if you wanted to re-wind to hear something again, you don't seem to be able to do this. Other than this, YMP seems to working quite well for our needs. Any thoughts?

    Reply

  4. My Yahoo play buttons at jessesmithproductions.com don't display on some mobile devices, such as my iPod Touch. But those of someone I know do: insaneian.com.

    Is there a way to replace the Yahoo play buttons with gif images that will display everywhere?

    Thanks for all your work!

    Reply

  5. What is the best way to shuffle tracks in a playlist with this player. Someone has some code up but took it down. (trackshuffle)

    Is it going to be built in eventually? So strange.

    JFC

    Reply

  6. Thanx alot for the information on this page. It has been very useful.

    If any of you want to hide the playlist and video but still be able to hear the sound, for example if you want to play songs from youtube on your site. Use following code:

    /* Hide video and playlist */
#ymp-tray { height:0px !important; }

    You can see an example of this on my site
    maitek-trance.blogspot.com

    Reply

  10. Hi, I have been using Yahoo Media Player for some years now. I upload two mp3 files about 55 mins long and people can click on and listen to the files from my website [www.smoothjazz905.com/page4/html]. This has worked well until now. Today I uploaded two files as usual. Both stop at 10mins58s even though each file is over 50 mins. I checked the files on the server and they are ok. For some reason these mp3 files stop prematurely. Any ideas?

    Reply

  11. Can you set a start position and play duration? I have tracks that are portions of larger recordings. I need to start at a specific number of seconds into an audio file and stop after a number of seconds has played.

    Reply

  13. Hi- I've just embedded the player on a site, and would REALLY like to know how to change the colour and font of the MP3 titles that appear next to the small buttons – I followed your instructions and managed to change the playlist colour (that I actually want to keep black anyway) but I really dont like the electric blue 'times' font of the MP3 titles. I am an absolute novice to any kind of coding, so every detailed explanation is VERY much appreciated. Your site is brilliantly informative. Thank you very much for sharing.

    Reply

  15. LOVE the article! Appreciate the help you have given me with my project at http://www.spunkfm.com/mobile.html

    I have one request: Can you please privide a link to your 'background png file' for the player?? It would be nice to see how you got your swirly design into the left hand side of the player. I got rid of the yahoo logo, but would like to get my logo on my player to look as clear as your design does.

    Thank you!

    Reply

Leave a Reply

(optional)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.