YouTube videos can be added to your app in Cogniss using the External Media content type. For more information on this content type, and how to use it, please see this article.
When adding a YouTube video, you can simply use the video's URL, as Cogniss supports direct YouTube URLs. Alternatively, you can use an embedded URL if you require specific playback or embed settings.
Standard YouTube Video Integration
Copy the Video URL from youtube
Open the relevant video on YouTube, then copy the video URL directly from your browser's address bar.
Or, Open the relevant video on YouTube, click Share below the video, then select Copy to copy the video URL.
Insert the URL into Cogniss Creator
Paste the copied video URL into the External Media content block in the Media embed URL field.
Save your changes.
Customised YouTube Video Integration Using Playback Parameters
Another method of using YouTube videos in Cogniss is by embedding YouTube videos with additional playback parameters. These parameters allow you to customise specific video player settings and playback behaviours, creating a more tailored viewing experience for users.
To use playback parameters, you need to extract the URL from the embed version of the URL which can be found within the ‘share’ option on the page of the video.
Open the relevant video on YouTube
Select the ‘share’ option from the navigation beneath the video
Select ‘embed’ option from the top row of the share popup
Extract the ‘embed’ URL from the HTML ( appears with ' ' characters after the src= in the HTML)
How to apply parameters
Parameters generally should be stacked at the end of a video’s URL (unless they are referenced within the base of the URL). The defaults are built into the standard behavior of a YouTube video, but you can overrule them or force specific behavior by specifying different parameters.
Parameters get stacked by including ‘&PARAMETER=NUMBER’ at the end of a URL. Please note that for the first parameter, the URL should end in a ? and no & is inserted as per the below example:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID?
rel=0
&loop=1
&playlist=VIDEO_ID
i.e. the final URL of the above would be:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID?rel=0&loop=1&playlist=VIDEO_ID
Useful parameters in Cogniss:
Parameter | Description | Application |
| Dictates whether the video auto-plays upon loading. Note: The default behavior is for a video not to autoplay. | autoplay=0 <don’t autoplay> autoplay=1 <autoplay> |
| Google made a change in late 2018 blocking the ability to remove the display of related videos from the end of a video after it has finished playing, however, you can (and it is recommended) use this parameter to only show videos from the channel that this video belongs to. | rel=0 <show only vids from current channel> rel=1 <show related videos> |
| In the case of a single video player, a setting of | loop=0 <play once> loop=1 <play on loop> |
| This parameter causes the player to begin playing the video at the given number of seconds from the start of the video. The parameter value is a positive integer. Note that similar to the | start=10 <starts the video at the 10 sec time stamp> |
External Tools:
Here is the full list of parameters that YouTube offers - we at Cogniss have not tested all of them, so we cannot confirm that they all are useful or work within our context
Google also has a tool you can play around with to adjust parameters using a web form. This allows you to see the impact the parameters have on the video and then copy the video URL which includes the defined parameters: