4/10/2014
Tableau Tip - Embedding YouTude Videos

Note: See blog post here for updated instructions (9/23/2015).

There are a number of options when embedding YouTube videos into Tableau. I will demonstrate some of these options using a YouTube video of my recreation of Hans Rosling's Gapminder in Tableau.

Each video on YouTube has it's own URL. The URL for this video is:
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdoBuNNvVec

Under each video in YouTube there is a "Share" option. This returns a link for the video.
   http://youtu.be/KdoBuNNvVec

There is also an "Embed" option which has a link listed in some HTML code.
   www.youtube.com/embed/KdoBuNNvVec

If you input each one of these as "Webpage" URL in Tableau you will notice that the first two show the entire YouTube page, while the third one embeds the video as a full window. Notice that in each case the video ID is exactly the same,KdoBuNNvVec. The third link, the "embed" link, will be our starting point.

Here is a list of useful parameters when embedding YouTube videos that can be added to the link.

&hd=1	Embeds the video in high definition Note - this won't work embedding iframes
&vq=hd720	Alternate version which should work in Tableau
&start=35	Starts the video at a specific time in seconds (in this case at 35 seconds)
&autoplay=1	Sets autoplay feature so that video starts automatically (default is to not start automatically)
&color=white	Changes the color on the playback bar to white instead of the default red Note - white disables modestbranding
&rel=0	Disables the related videos at the end of the video
&autohide=1	Hides all controls and video title on start
&autohide=2	Shows play controls, but hides all other controls and video title on start
&showsearch=0	Prevents users from searching for other videos
&modestbranding=1	Removes YouTube branding to make videos look more professional
&loop=1&playlist=KdoBuNNvVec	Loops video after playback Note - this will not loop a partial video using &start. It will alternate instead.

Putting some of these together embeds a full screen high definition video that autoplays starting at 50 seconds with auto-hide controls.

   www.youtube.com/embed/KdoBuNNvVec?autoplay=1&rel=0&color=white&autohide=2&start=50&vq=hd720

I hope you find this information useful. If you have any questions feel free to email me at Jeff@DataPlusScience.com


Jeffrey A. Shaffer

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