Product Reels

A WordPress plugin for displaying shoppable vertical video reels linked to WooCommerce products — similar to Instagram/TikTok reels, but on your own store.

Features

• Upload or source Video — paste a direct video URL or upload a file to the WordPress Media Library
• Thumbnail / poster image — Select and extract a frame from the video via or upload your own image; prevents black screens while the video loads
• Preview clips — generate a short, muted, compressed version of each video that autoplays silently on the card;
• Lightbox — clicking a reel card opens the full video in an overlay (with audio and controls)
• Drag-to-scroll carousel — desktop and touch friendly, with prev/next buttons
• WooCommerce integration — link any product to show its image, name, and price below the reel
• One-click FFmpeg download — downloads a static FFmpeg binary directly to your server from the plugin settings page; no SSH or manual installation required

Requirements

Installation

1. Upload the product-reels folder to /wp-content/plugins/
2. Activate the plugin through Plugins → Installed Plugins
3. Go to Product Reels → Settings and download FFmpeg (recommended) or enter your server's FFmpeg path
4. Go to Product Reels → Add New Reel and add your first reel
5. Call <?php product_reels_render_section(); ?> in your theme where you want the carousel to appear

FFmpeg Setup

FFmpeg is required for thumbnail extraction and preview clip generation. The plugin tries to find it automatically in common locations (/usr/bin/ffmpeg, /usr/local/bin/ffmpeg, etc.). If FFmpeg is unavailable the plugin still works with URL-only videos and manually uploaded thumbnails

Option 1 — One-click download

Go to Product Reels → Settings and click Download FFmpeg to this server. The plugin will:

1. Detect your server architecture (amd64, arm64, armhf)
2. Download a static build (~40 MB) from johnvansickle.com/ffmpeg
3. Extract the binary to wp-content/uploads/product-reels-bin/ffmpeg
4. Make it executable
5. Protect the directory from direct web access via .htaccess

Supported architectures: Linux x86_64, ARM64, ARMv7. Windows is not currently supported for auto-download.

Option 2 — System installation

Install FFmpeg via your package manager and the plugin will auto-detect it:

# Debian / Ubuntu
sudo apt install ffmpeg

# CentOS / RHEL
sudo yum install ffmpeg

# macOS (Homebrew)
brew install ffmpeg

Option 3 — Manual path

Enter the full path to your FFmpeg binary in Product Reels → Settings → Option 2.

Adding Reels

1. Go to Product Reels → Add New Reel
2. Enter a title (admin-only, not shown on the front end)
3. Add a video via URL or file upload
4. Generate or upload a thumbnail to prevent black screens
5. Optionally enable and generate a preview clip
6. Link a WooCommerce product (optional)
7. Use Menu Order (in the right-hand panel) to control display order
8. Publish

Theme Integration

Call this function anywhere in your theme to render the reels section:

<?php product_reels_render_section(); ?>

Or use it in a custom page template:

<?php
get_header();
product_reels_render_section();
get_footer();

The function outputs a <section class="reels-section"> block. You can style it further with your theme's CSS using the .reels-section, .reel-card, .reel-video, and .reel-product selectors.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this work without WooCommerce? Yes. Product linking is optional. Reels without a linked product display the video only.

Can I use YouTube or Vimeo URLs? No. The <video> tag requires a direct file URL (.mp4, .webm, .mov). Use a direct link to your hosted video file.

The download timed out — what do I do? Large file downloads can exceed PHP's default max_execution_time. Either increase it in your php.ini / .htaccess, or install FFmpeg manually via SSH and use the manual path option.

Where is the downloaded binary stored? wp-content/uploads/product-reels-bin/ffmpeg. The directory is protected by an .htaccess file that denies direct HTTP access.

Will the binary survive plugin updates? Yes — it's stored in the uploads directory, not inside the plugin folder.