Embed YouTube Videos with JavaScript

This explains how you can embed YouTube videos using the Google+ approach - only the video thumbnail is loaded along with the page and the actual player loads when the user hits the play button.

<!-- You can embed  multiple Youtube videos on a page -->
<div class="youtube" id="LcIytqkbdlo" style="width:560px; height: 315px;"></div>

<div class="youtube" id="_Jmisv1Spck" style="width:560px; height: 315px;"></div>

<!-- Include the JavaScript only once -->

<script>
  // Find all the YouTube video embedded on a page
  var videos = document.getElementsByClassName('youtube');

  for (var i = 0; i < videos.length; i++) {
    var youtube = videos[i];

    // Based on the YouTube ID, we can easily find the thumbnail image
    var img = document.createElement('img');
    img.setAttribute('src', 'http://i.ytimg.com/vi/' + youtube.id + '/hqdefault.jpg');
    img.setAttribute('class', 'thumb');

    // Overlay the Play icon to make it look like a video player
    var circle = document.createElement('div');
    circle.setAttribute('class', 'circle');

    youtube.appendChild(img);
    youtube.appendChild(circle);

    // Attach an onclick event to the YouTube Thumbnail
    youtube.onclick = function () {
      // Create an iFrame with autoplay set to true
      var iframe = document.createElement('iframe');
      iframe.setAttribute(
        'src',
        'https://www.youtube.com/embed/' + this.id + '?autoplay=1&autohide=1&border=0&wmode=opaque&enablejsapi=1'
      );

      // The height and width of the iFrame should be the same as parent
      iframe.style.width = this.style.width;
      iframe.style.height = this.style.height;

      // Replace the YouTube thumbnail with YouTube HTML5 Player
      this.parentNode.replaceChild(iframe, this);
    };
  }
</script>
Amit Agarwal

Amit Agarwal

Google Developer Expert, Google Cloud Champion

Amit Agarwal is a Google Developer Expert in Google Workspace and Google Apps Script. He holds an engineering degree in Computer Science (I.I.T.) and is the first professional blogger in India.

Amit has developed several popular Google add-ons including Mail Merge for Gmail and Document Studio. Read more on Lifehacker and YourStory

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