WordPress.tv should support Twitter Player Cards

[Otto42]

Documentation here:
​https://dev.twitter.com/cards/types/player

As of last week, this is the only type of twitter card that still needs manual whitelisting.

Mostly, it seems like a relatively simple matter to provide the MP4 as twitter:player:stream meta to allow for inline playback on mobile Twitter clients. A URL to a static preview image would also need to be available for the twitter:image value.

The only hard part would be to provide a page that shows the player all-by-itself, to fit with the requirements for the twitter:player parameter. But the existing player seems to fit within their guidelines, for the most part.

I don't see any real impediments to adding this to the theme, and getting it whitelisted by Twitter should not be hard afterwards. I just think it would be pretty cool to have all the WordCamp videos show up inline whenever anybody links to them on Twitter.

[BrashRebel]

This would be amazing, however I think this requirement is a barrier:

"Ensure all paths are specified as secure (​https://)".

Can we get SSL on WordPress.tv? I don't think it would work but maybe we could try serving from wptv.wordpress.com.

[Otto42]

WordPress.tv already supports SSL.

​https://wordpress.tv/

[JerrySarcastic]

Adding to this, we now have hooked up the WPTV twitter account to auto-publicize all videos that are published to the site, so it would also be nice to have player cards enabled to improve the "shiny awesomeness" of those tweets too.

[iandunn]

The only hard part would be to provide a page that shows the player all-by-itself, to fit with the requirements for the twitter:player parameter.

The new VideoPress player has ​a permalink feature (e.g., ​https://videopress.com/v/kUJmAcSf), and earlier today Mo and Nick added meta tags to it for Twitter and OG, in case that helps here.

The new player still needs subtitle support before it can be used on WPTV, but the plan is to ​have that ready in time for the 4.3 release video.

[Otto42]

FYI, while wordpress.tv is not using the new VideoPress player yet, the permalinks to the videos there still work if you create them manually.

Matt's Europe Q&A: ​https://videopress.com/v/4qvny630

So, that's not necessarily an immediate barrier.

[Otto42]

Issue that will be a blocker: The permalink as given above autoplays on load. This won't be acceptable to Twitter, they need the video to load without autoplaying.

Edit: ​https://videopress.com/v/4qvny630?autoplay=0 works

[nathanshubert]

I've uploaded a patch adding the twitter:player meta tag. The twitter:player:stream meta value should be the mp4 value from VideoPress, which I can't do locally.

[iandunn]

In 1899:

WordPress.tv: Add meta tags required for Twitter Player Cards.

See #976
Props nathanshubert

[iandunn]

Hey Nathan, thanks for the patch, and sorry for the delay.

The new tags are deployed, and I've submitted a request to Twitter to whitelist the domain for the player card. I'll close out the ticket once they approve the request.

[iandunn]

Twitter whitelisted us for player embeds. e.g., ​https://twitter.com/wordcamp/status/576443040933359616

[JerrySarcastic]

Does that also apply to video tweets on ​https://twitter.com/WordPressTV as well? or do we need to get that whitelisted separately? Sorry I did not mention it sooner, but we recovered that account somewhere in the middle of this ticket.

[iandunn]

I think it Twitter chooses to only show them in certain places, maybe to prevent having a ton of embeds on the page?

It is showing up on individual tweets and in search results, so I think it's just what they're doing on their end, but if anyone sees an example of any video embeds working on an account page, please post it.

[JerrySarcastic]

Ah, gotcha. I do see now that when you expand the tweet, the player card format is displayed as expected. ​https://cloudup.com/cu1Itc_LQg1

I guess I expected the entire Twitter feed to show video players all the sudden, but this ain't Facebook, so makes sense. Thanks!