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Simple YouTube Embedding

Lightweight, privacy-friendly YouTube grid, list and live stream embeds for WordPress – no API key required

by Dominik Jakobi · github.com/djakobi/simple-youtube-embedding · website

★ 0stars

Install

Download source zip No release zip yet

This is the repository archive. It installs, but the folder name will carry the branch suffix and updates will not flow.

Install straight from GitHub with WP-CLI:

wp plugin install https://github.com/djakobi/simple-youtube-embedding/archive/refs/heads/main.zip
Updates itself. It ships its own updater, so new versions appear under Dashboard → Updates.
Readme github.com/djakobi/simple-youtube-embedding ↗

Lightweight, privacy-friendly YouTube embeds for WordPress: a video grid or numbered list from a channel or playlist, and a live stream block with countdown.

  • No API key. Videos come from YouTube's public RSS feed.
  • Privacy-friendly. Thumbnails are stored on your own server. The video only loads from youtube-nocookie.com after a click.
  • Light. About 10 KB of CSS and JavaScript, loaded only on pages that use a shortcode.
  • Plays well with others. Starting a video pauses other <audio>/<video> elements on the page and fires a sye:play event that custom players can listen to.

Shortcodes

Use the shortcodes anywhere: in the block editor, in classic content, or in page builders (e.g. Elementor's "Shortcode" widget).

Grid

[sye_grid count="6"]
[sye_grid channel="UCxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" count="9" columns="3"]
[sye_grid playlist="PLxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" count="9"]

List

Same as the grid, but numbered and one video per row.

[sye_list playlist="PLxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" count="10"]
[sye_list playlist="PLxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" order="oldest"]
[sye_list playlist="PLxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" count="15" visible="3"]

Videos from grids and lists open in a large overlay that closes with ✕, Esc or a click on the backdrop.

Attributes for grid and list

Attribute Default Description
channel default channel from the settings Channel ID (UC…)
playlist – Playlist ID (PL…); takes precedence over channel
count 6 Maximum number of videos, 1–15
columns 3 Grid only: 1–4 columns on desktop (2 on tablets, 1 on phones)
order playlist for playlists, newest for channels playlist, newest or oldest
visible all Show only this many at first. A "Show more videos" button reveals the next batch of the same size. Thumbnails of hidden videos are lazy-loaded when revealed.

Live stream

[sye_live video="abc123XYZ_-" start="2026-11-01 10:00" title="Sunday service"]
[sye_live video="abc123XYZ_-"]
Attribute Description
video Video ID of the scheduled stream or any video (required)
start Start time in the site's time zone, YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM (optional)
title Heading below the player (optional)

As soon as you schedule a live stream on YouTube, it gets its own video ID. With a start time the block shows:

  • before the start: an "Upcoming" badge and a countdown,
  • from the start (for 6 hours): a "Live" badge,
  • afterwards: a "Recording" badge. YouTube keeps the same ID for the recording.

Without start, the block is simply a large click-to-play video.

Settings

Settings → Simple YouTube Embedding lets you set a default channel ID. It is used when a shortcode has neither channel nor playlist. You find the ID on YouTube under your channel → About → Share channel → Copy channel ID.

Styling

The look is controlled by CSS variables on .sye. Override them in your theme, for example:

.sye {
    --sye-accent: #1e73be;         /* play button hover, countdown, list numbers */
    --sye-live-color: #d32f2f;     /* "Live" badge */
    --sye-radius: 3px;             /* card corners */
    --sye-shadow: 0 0 6px rgba( 0, 0, 0, 0.15 );
    --sye-shadow-hover: 0 4px 16px rgba( 0, 0, 0, 0.2 );
}

Integrating with other players

Before a video starts, the plugin pauses all playing <audio> and <video> elements and dispatches an event:

document.addEventListener( 'sye:play', function ( event ) {
    console.log( 'Starting video', event.detail.videoId );
    // e.g. pause a custom audio player here
} );

Limitations

  • YouTube's public feed returns at most 15 videos per channel or playlist.
  • Feeds are cached for one hour. If YouTube cannot be reached, the last known result is shown.
  • The live status is based on the given start time, not on the actual stream state on YouTube.
  • Channel handles (@name) are not supported. Please use the channel ID (UC…).

Translations

English is the source language. A German translation is included (languages/). WordPress 6.5+ loads the .l10n.php file; the .po file is its editable source.

Installation and updates

  1. Download simple-youtube-embedding.zip from Releases.
  2. In WordPress: Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin.

New versions then show up under Plugins like any other update. The plugin checks GitHub for the latest release every six hours.

Releasing a new version

  1. Bump the version in three places: Version: in the plugin header, SYE_VERSION in simple-youtube-embedding.php, and Stable tag in readme.txt. Add a changelog entry to readme.txt.
  2. Commit and push.
  3. Create a GitHub release with the tag v1.2.3. A workflow checks the version numbers, builds simple-youtube-embedding.zip and attaches it to the release.

The version number also busts browser caches, because CSS and JavaScript are loaded with ?ver=.

License

GPL-2.0-or-later, see LICENSE.