Deprecated APIs

This documentation lists APIs deprecated in the v3.x.x.

As we guarantee API compatibility in the v3.x.x, those API won’t disappear until we switch to a v4.x.x version.

You will find here which APIs are deprecated, why, and depending on the concerned API, how to replace it.

Fullscreen APIs

All fullscreen APIs have been deprecated, namely:

the isFullscreen method
the setFullscreen method
the exitFullscreen method
the fullscreenChange event

This is because of several things:

fullscreen management has now become a lot more complex with features such as advanced subtitles management, were the text track HTMLElement is controlled by the application.
most application developpers also wants to put their own controls into fullscreen mode. Those APIs only put the media element into fullscreen mode and not any other element. This can be misleading.

The fullscreen logic should now be entirely on the application-side. Replacement code is provided for each of those APIs below.

RxPlayer Methods

The following RxPlayer methods are deprecated.

getNativeTextTrack

getNativeTextTrack returned the first TextTrack element attached to the media element or null if it did not exist.

This API was originally created to allow users to manipulate the TextTrack element themselves. For example, to “catch” cues as they appear and display them differently.

What changed is that we now have two text track modes:

html, which allow advanced subtitle management
native, the old mode, which display subtitles natively through a TextTrack element.

This API will only return an element for the native mode, but none for the html mode because its element is not attached to the media element.

We heavily insist on people wanting advanced usecases to use the html mode, as many formatting options do not work in native mode.

As we considered that getNativeTextTrack API was more confusing than it was helpful in our current API, we decided to deprecate it. Do not hesitate to open an issue if you use this API.

isFullscreen

isFullscreen has been deprecated as it is part of our Fullscreen APIs, see the related chapter for more informations.

isFullscreen just checked that ANY element was fullscreen. As such, it can easily be replace for the majority of browsers with the following code:

function isFullscreen() {
  return !!(
    document.fullscreenElement ||
    document.mozFullScreenElement ||
    document.webkitFullscreenElement ||
    document.msFullscreenElement
  );
}

setFullscreen

setFullscreen has been deprecated as it is part of our Fullscreen APIs, see the related chapter for more informations.

setFullscreen allowed to set the media element in fullscreen mode (or exit fullscreen mode, if false was given as argument).

If you want to just put the media element on fullscreen mode, you can use the following code:

function setFullscreen(goFull) {
  if (goFull === "false") {
    exitFullscreen();
    return;
  }
  if (isFullscreen()) { // see code above
    return;
  }

  const mediaElement = player.getVideoElement();
  if (!mediaElement) {
    throw new Error("No media element");
  }
  if (mediaElement.requestFullscreen) {
    mediaElement.requestFullscreen();
  } else if (mediaElement.msRequestFullscreen) {
    mediaElement.msRequestFullscreen();
  } else if (mediaElement.mozRequestFullScreen) {
    mediaElement.mozRequestFullScreen();
  } else if (mediaElement.webkitRequestFullscreen) {
    mediaElement.webkitRequestFullscreen(Element.ALLOW_KEYBOARD_INPUT);
  }
}

Please consider however that this function will only put the media element in full screen mode, without the eventual controls and HTML text tracks you might also want to set in fullscreen. The code is easily adaptable however to put your own element into fullscreen mode instead.

exitFullscreen

exitFullscreen has been deprecated as it is part of our Fullscreen APIs, see the related chapter for more informations.

exitFullscreen just exited any element put in fullscreen mode. As such, its code can easily be replaced by:

function exitFullscreen() {
  if (isFullscreen()) {
    if (document.exitFullscreen) {
      document.exitFullscreen();
    } else if (document.msExitFullscreen) {
      document.msExitFullscreen();
    } else if (document.mozCancelFullScreen) {
      document.mozCancelFullScreen();
    } else if (document.webkitExitFullscreen) {
      document.webkitExitFullscreen();
    }
  }
}

RxPlayer Events

The following RxPlayer events has been deprecated.

nativeTextTracksChange

nativeTextTracksChange events are deprecated. Which means they probably won’t be sent in a v4.x.x version.

The reasons are basically the same than for the getNativeTextTracks method. It should not be needed anymore as most advanced needs should be better answered by an html text track mode.

fullscreenChange

fullscreenChange events have been deprecated as it is part of our Fullscreen APIs, see the related chapter for more informations.

The fullscreenChange event was sent when the media element got in or out of fullscreen mode, with agg boolean as a payload:

if true, the element entered fullscreen mode
if false, the element exited fullscreen mode

This behavior can easily be recreated through the following code:

const mediaElement = player.getVideoElement();
mediaElement.addEventListener("fullscreenChange", () => {
  if (isFullscreen()) { // see isFullscreen implementation above
    // do things
  } else {
    // do other things
  }
});

loadVideo options

The following loadVideo options are deprecated.

defaultAudioTrack

The preferredAudioTracks loadVideo option is now the preferred (no pun intended) solution to set the default audio track. This new option allows to handle much more complex use cases and can even be updated at any time through the setPreferredAudioTracks method.

How to replace that function

It is very easy to replace defaultAudioTrack by preferredAudioTracks.

For example, if you want to have a default french audio language, you probably previously did:

player.loadVideo({
  url: myURL,
  transport: myTransport,

  defaultAudioTrack: { language: "fra", audioDescription: false },
  // or just `defaultAudioTrack: "fra"`, both are equivalent
})

Now you will have to set it through an array either when creating a new RxPlayer:

const player = new RxPlayer({
  preferredAudioTracks: [{ language: "fra", audioDescription: false }],
})

Or at any time, through the setPreferredAudioTracks method:

player.setPreferredAudioTracks([{ language: "fra", audioDescription: false }]);

defaultTextTrack

defaultTextTrack is replaced by the preferredTextTracks constructor option for the same reason than defaultAudioTrack.

How to replace that function

It is very easy to replace defaultTextTrack by preferredTextTracks.

For example, if you want to have a default swedish subtitle language, you probably previously did:

player.loadVideo({
  url: myURL,
  transport: myTransport,

  defaultTextTrack: { language: "swe", closedCaption: false },
  // or just `defaultTextTrack: "swe"`, both are equivalent
})

Now you will have to set it through an array either when creating a new RxPlayer:

const player = new RxPlayer({
  preferredTextTracks: [{ language: "swe", closedCaption: false }],
})

Or at any time, through the setPreferredTextTracks method:

player.setPreferredTextTracks([{ language: "fra", closedCaption: false }]);

RxPlayer options

The following RxPlayer constructor options are deprecated.

throttleWhenHidden

throttleWhenHiddenhas been deprecated as video visibility relies only on page visibility API and document hiddenness.

A video should be visible if the Picture-In-Picture mode is activated, even if the hidden attribute of document is set to true.

throttleVideoBitrateWhenHidden relies on both and can be used like this :

const rxPlayer = new RxPlayer({
  // ... RxPlayer options
  // throttleWhenHidden: true [deprecated]
  throttleVideoBitrateWhenHidden: true,
});

Other properties

Some very specific properties from various methods are deprecated. You will find them here.

Manifest

The adaptations property returned by the Manifest object you can obtain through the getManifest call is deprecated.

This corresponds to the adaptations property of the first element in the periods object from the same Manifest object, so it’s very easy to replace:

const manifest = player.getManifest();

if (manifest && manifest.periods.length) {
  console.log(manifest.adaptations === manifest.periods[0]); // true
}

Smooth

Setting a *.wsx, a *.ism or a *.isml URL as an url property in loadVideo is now deprecated when we’re talking about a Smooth Streaming content.

We recommend to only set a Manifest URL in that property when the transport is equal to smooth.

NetworkError

The xhr property from a NetworkError is deprecated.

This is to prepare the support of low-latency streaming, with CMAF, where the fetch API has to be used instead of an XMLHttpRequest.

We recommend to not rely on this property anymore. You still should have access to the status and url properties.