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Embedding Video and External Content

Learnomy turns a pasted link into a clean, responsive player inside your lesson. Use the Embed lesson content type, or the embed tool in the lesson body, and paste a URL -- Learnomy renders the provider's player. When a link cannot be embedded, you get a tidy link-preview card instead of a broken frame.

What you can do

  • Embed video and rich media from the sites WordPress already knows -- YouTube, Vimeo, and the other built-in oEmbed providers -- by pasting the page URL.
  • Embed video from the Fediverse (PeerTube) from any instance, with no per-site setup -- paste a /w/, /videos/watch/, or /videos/embed/ link and it plays inline.
  • Fall back gracefully: a link Learnomy cannot embed becomes a clean card with the site name and an Open button, never a broken iframe.
  • Keep every embed looking the same across the lesson editor, the front-end builder, and the student player -- one renderer handles all three.
  • Add an embed either as a whole lesson (the Embed content type) or inside a text lesson's body (the embed tool).

Embedding video and external content first view

How to use it

Step 1 -- add or edit a lesson

Open a course, add or edit a lesson, and find the Content type dropdown in the lesson editor.

Step 2 -- choose how to embed

  • For a whole-lesson embed, set Content type to Embed and paste the URL in the media URL field.
  • To place an embed inside a text lesson, keep the content type on Text and use the embed tool in the lesson body, then paste the URL.

Step 3 -- paste the link

Paste the page URL (not an iframe snippet). For a PeerTube video, any of these forms work:

  • https://your-instance.example/w/aBcD1234...
  • https://your-instance.example/videos/watch/aBcD1234...
  • https://your-instance.example/videos/embed/aBcD1234...

Step 4 -- save and check the player

Save the lesson and open it in the student player. The video appears in a responsive 16:9 frame. If you see a link card instead of a player, the source does not support embedding (see below).

Settings and options

  • Aspect ratio. Embeds render in a responsive 16:9 frame by default; 4:3 and 1:1 are also supported by the renderer.
  • Fediverse embedding is on by default. Safe hosts only -- any URL that resolves to a private or internal network address is never fetched and falls back to a link card. Nothing to configure per instance.
  • Link-card fallback. Any URL that is not a known provider, not a recognised Fediverse platform, and does not advertise oEmbed shows a link-preview card with the host name and an Open button.

Why some links show a card instead of a player

Learnomy resolves an embed in this order:

  1. WordPress core oEmbed providers (YouTube, Vimeo, and the rest of the built-in list).
  2. Known Fediverse platforms (PeerTube) by URL shape -- no network request, works for every instance.
  3. Safe oEmbed discovery for any other source that advertises oEmbed, after a safety check that blocks private and internal hosts.
  4. A link-preview card, if none of the above produced a player.

So a card means the source did not offer an embeddable player -- or the host failed the safety check.

For developers

The one renderer is \Learnomy\Content\Embed::render( $url, $opts ). Provider HTML is sanitised through the content render floor, and results are cached per URL. Extension points:

  • learnomy_embed_platform_adapters -- register a callable( $url, $host, $path ): ?string that turns a recognised URL shape into sandboxed iframe HTML, so a whole platform works with no per-domain list (PeerTube ships built in).
  • learnomy_embed_fediverse_enabled -- filter (default from the learnomy_embed_fediverse option, on) to turn safe oEmbed discovery on or off.
  • learnomy_embed_blocked_hosts -- a host deny-list for moderation. Not an allow-list.
  • learnomy_embed_oembed_args -- filter the args passed to wp_oembed_get for the core-provider pass.
  • learnomy_embed_html -- filter the final wrapped embed markup.

Safe oEmbed discovery is gated by \Learnomy\Security\Webhook_URL_Validator::is_safe(), the same guard used for outgoing webhook URLs, so an author-supplied link that resolves to a private or reserved address is never fetched server-side.