How can I change React Player's error message for missing videos to "Please upload a video?"

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1

In the React Player, I accessed via the package at react-player - npm, to display videos hosted on Cloudfront through presigned URLs, there’s a possibility that the video intended for playback might not be available or doesn’t exist. When users attempt to play such a video, they’re currently met with an error message stating, “No video with supported format and MIME type found.”

This technical message might not be immediately clear to all users. I’m exploring if there’s a method or feature within React Player that allows for customization of this error message to something more intuitive and user-friendly, such as “Please upload a video?” This would potentially improve the user experience by providing clearer guidance on how to proceed when encountering missing video content.

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2

Hey @roman!

The drawback is the possibility of sacrificing the viewing pleasure of authorized viewers and modifying the error message displayed by React Player when a video is missing or unavailable to something more user-friendly, like “Please upload a video?”, you should try to implement a workaround, which involves pre-emptively checking the video’s existence and handling any playback errors within your React application.

Direct customization of error messages for video availability or format issues is not a built-in feature of React Player. However, by utilizing React’s state management and React Player’s event callbacks, you can create a tailored solution.

Preliminary Video Availability Check
Before trying video playback with React Player, especially when using pre-signed URLs from Cloudfront, confirm the video’s accessibility. This could involve fetching a request to the video URL to ensure it returns a successful response. Due to potential CORS policy complications with external URLs, this verification might need to be conducted server-side.

Leveraging React Player’s onError Callback
React Player includes an onError event callback that activates when video playback encounters an error. This feature is used to detect a failed video load and then show a custom message to the user.

Here is a example of how you might integrate this into a React component:

import React, { useState } from 'react';
import ReactPlayer from 'react-player';

function CustomVideoPlayer({ videoUrl }) {
  const [hasError, setHasError] = useState(false);

  const onPlaybackError = (error) => {
    console.error('Error playing video:', error);
    setHasError(true); // Activate custom error message display
  };

  return (
    <div>
      {hasError ? (
        <p>Please upload a video?</p> // Display custom error message
      ) : (
        <ReactPlayer url={videoUrl} playing onError={onPlaybackError} />
      )}
    </div>
  );
}

In this code snippet, the onPlaybackError function updates the component’s state to reflect an error when playback fails. This state change dictates whether to show the custom error message or the React Player itself.

To summarize, although React Player does not provide a direct means to alter its default error messages, this method offers a viable strategy for improving user experience by presenting a clear, instructive message when video playback is not possible, this approach shows a level of error handling that can be further adapted for additional functionalities, such as error logging or providing users with alternative instructions.

3

How can the retry mechanism in React Player be tailored based on the user’s internet speed to optimize video playback?

4

Dynamically adapting retry attempts based on network speed could involve leveraging the navigator.connection API. This API offers insights into the user’s network type and estimated bandwidth. Based on this information, the logic for retries can be calibrated to be more aggressive (more frequent retries with shorter intervals) when the network is strong and less aggressive (fewer retries with longer intervals) when the network is weak.

For example,

import React, { useState, useEffect } from 'react';
import ReactPlayer from 'react-player/lazy';

function AdaptiveVideoPlayer({ sourceUrl }) {
  const [errorState, setErrorState] = useState(false);
  const [attempts, setAttempts] = useState(0);
  const [delayBetweenAttempts, setDelayBetweenAttempts] = useState(2000); // Starting delay

  useEffect(() => {
    setDelayBasedOnNetworkConditions();
    setErrorState(false); // Reset error on source change
    setAttempts(0); // Reset attempts
  }, [sourceUrl]);

  const setDelayBasedOnNetworkConditions = () => {
    const network = navigator.connection || navigator.mozConnection || navigator.webkitConnection;
    if (network) {
      switch (network.effectiveType) {
        case '4g': setDelayBetweenAttempts(1000); break; // Good network, decrease delay
        case '3g': setDelayBetweenAttempts(3000); break; // Moderate network, increase delay
        case '2g':
        case 'slow-2g': setDelayBetweenAttempts(5000); break; // Poor network, maximize delay
        default: setDelayBetweenAttempts(2000); // Default for unknown conditions
      }
    }
  };

  const handleError = (error) => {
    console.error('Playback error:', error);
    const maxRetryLimit = 3;
    if (attempts < maxRetryLimit) {
      setTimeout(() => {
        setAttempts(attempts + 1);
        setErrorState(false); // Attempt to clear error and retry
      }, delayBetweenAttempts);
    } else {
      setErrorState(true); // Max attempts reached, show error
    }
  };

  return (
    <div>
      {errorState ? (
        <p>Please upload a video.</p>
      ) : (
        <ReactPlayer url={sourceUrl} playing onError={handleError} />
      )}
    </div>
  );
}

This code introduces a function setDelayBasedOnNetworkConditions that adjusts the delay between retry attempts according to the estimated network speed. It dynamically sets the strategy for handling video playback errors, aiming to optimize user experience by considering the variability of internet speeds.

In a nutshell, adapting retry logic to the user’s network condition is a way to improve the video streaming experience on platforms. It demonstrates an advanced level of user-centric design by minimizing playback interruptions and maximizing the likelihood of successful video playback under diverse internet conditions.