Question

I’m using the following code to add click-to-play functionality to HTML5 video:

$('video').click(function() {
  if ($(this).get(0).paused) {
    $(this).get(0).play();
  }
  else {
    $(this).get(0).pause();
  }
});

It works okay except that it interferes with the browser’s native controls: that is, it captures when a user clicks on the pause/play button, immediately reversing their selection and rendering the pause/play button ineffective.

Is there a way to select just the video part in the DOM, or failing that, a way to capture clicks to the controls part of the video container, so that I can ignore/reverse the click-to-play functionality when a user presses the pause/play button?

Answer 1

You could add a layer on top of the video that catches the click event. Then hide that layer while the video is playing.

The (simplified) markup:

<div id="container">
    <div id="videocover">&nbsp;</div>
    <video id="myvideo" />
</div>

The script:

$("#videocover").click(function() {
    var video = $("#myvideo").get(0);
    video.play();

    $(this).css("visibility", "hidden");
    return false;
});

$("#myvideo").bind("pause ended", function() {
    $("#videocover").css("visibility", "visible");
});

The CSS:

#container {
    position: relative;
}

/*
    covers the whole container
    the video itself will actually stretch
    the container to the desired size
*/
#videocover {
    position: absolute;
    z-index: 1;
    top: 0;
    right: 0;
    bottom: 0;
    left: 0;
}