🎬 Rasta Video Carousel (Elementor Widget)

A production-ready WordPress plugin that adds a modern video carousel to Elementor using Swiper.js (built into Elementor).

Supports YouTube videos (all formats) with a smooth coverflow effect, lazy loading, and click-to-play interaction.

🚀 Features

• ✅ Elementor widget integration
• ✅ Uses Elementor’s built-in Swiper (no extra library)
• ✅ Coverflow (3D-style) carousel effect
• ✅ Center-focused active slide
• ✅ Click-to-play (no iframe until needed)
• ✅ Lazy loading for performance
• ✅ Auto YouTube thumbnail extraction
• ✅ Supports all YouTube formats:
  • watch URLs
  • youtu.be links
  • embed links
  • shorts links

📁 Plugin Structure

rasta-video-carousel/ │ ├── rasta-video-carousel.php ├── widget.php └── assets/ ├── js/ │ └── script.js └── css/ └── style.css

⚙️ Installation

1. Download the plugin ZIP
2. Go to WordPress Admin → Plugins → Add New
3. Click Upload Plugin
4. Upload the ZIP file
5. Activate the plugin

🧩 Usage

1. Open a page with Elementor
2. Search for: Rasta Video Carousel
3. Drag and drop the widget
4. Add your video links (YouTube supported)

🔗 Supported Video Formats

The plugin automatically extracts video IDs from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID

https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID

https://www.youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VIDEO_ID

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID

⚡ Performance Optimization

• Videos are not loaded initially
• Only thumbnails are rendered
• Iframe loads on click

This ensures:

• Faster page load
• Better Core Web Vitals
• Improved mobile performance

🎨 Customization

• You can modify styles in: assets/css/style.css
• And behavior in: assets/js/script.js

🛠 Developer Notes

• Built for Elementor frontend lifecycle
• Uses elementorFrontend.hooks
• Swiper is loaded from Elementor core (swiper handle)
• Safe output using esc_url and esc_attr

👤 Author

Adelola Kayode Samson
GitHub: https://github.com/xarmzon

📄 License

This project is open-source and free to use.

⭐ Support

If you like this plugin, consider:

• Starring the repo
• Sharing it
• Contributing improvements