HTTPS Video Problem

Beaver Builder
1

Hello

I am having trouble embedding a video into a BB module on a site with https.

I use Wistia for video hosting and they offer a number of embedding options. None of them are working in this case.

I have an exact copy of the site in a staging environment (both are on WPEngine) which is non-https and I can embed the video in a BB module without problem.

Also, I can embed the video on another regular page on the https production site without BB enabled.

But when I try to embed it in a BB module (html, text or video) on the https site I just get a waiting to load gif. For ever.

In case you can test for me, the following test code (my preferred version) works perfectly in the https site without BB as well as in a module in the non-https staging site with BB enabled.

<script charset=“ISO-8859-1” src="//fast.wistia.com/assets/external/E-v1.js" async></script><div class=“wistia_responsive_padding” style=“padding:56.25% 0 0 0;position:relative;”><div class=“wistia_responsive_wrapper” style=“height:100%;left:0;position:absolute;top:0;width:100%;”><div class=“wistia_embed wistia_async_7kglewad6i videoFoam=true” style=“height:100%;width:100%”> </div></div></div>

Thanks very much
Neil

2

Hey Neil,

Do you think it’s fine if you could set us up with an admin account on that https site so we can do the test there instead? :slight_smile:

Ben

3

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4

Hi Neil,

I got one of our developers to look into this and it appears to be related to ModSec on your server. As our developer wasn’t even able to save <script></script> on your site.

You will want to contact your web host provider and ask them to either disable or make an exception.

Thanks,
Danny

5

Thanks very much Danny.
I had to Google ModSec! :slight_smile:
What I don’t understand is how I can save and view the video without BB enabled but not within a BB module.

In that case what would I be asking the host to make an exception for if the video works ok outside BB?

thanks
neil

6

Hi Neil,

I am not entirely sure, ModSec is alien to me. However, you can save the video as I did on your site to a page I created called BBDanny Test via the native WP editor. However, it would appear ModSec is causing an issue with BB and the video module in particular.

The best course of action is to contact your web host provider and inform them of the issue. They will either disable ModSec (unlikely) or create an exception rule.

If they require more information, you can point them to this topic where one of our developers goes into more detail.

Thanks,
Danny

7

Hi Danny
I carried on testing different things today and - this might be useful for anyone else using WPEngine and Wistia - I found that I could embed a video on the staging site and then when I copied from staging to live the video stayed embedded and worked.

As this is what I should be doing anyway (!) instead of playing with the live site, I shall stick with this rather than look for a ModSec exception rule.

A couple of other things I noticed though. The video module seems to be throwing errors in Google Structured Data Testing Tool. It is reporting various meta data as missing.

When I placed the same Wistia embed code in an html module or a text box it doesn’t show these errors.

When I then tried the video module with YouTube videos I got the errors again.

The second thing is for some reason I can’t delete BB modules on my staging site. This is really strange as I can delete them on the live site. You still have access to the site with the earlier password if you would like to check this.

I tried clearing the BB cache but no luck so far.

Many thanks
Neil

8

Sorry Danny.
Update on the delete issue. It works onFirefox so I just need to find out where I’ve blocked popups in Chrome. I had added the staging site as an exception to the pop ups rule but it’s not working at the moment.
My problem not yours.

Thanks
Neil

9

Hi Neil,

Happy to hear your deleting issue has been resolved.

In regards to the Video module and Google Structured Data, is this issue related to Wistia videos or any video you embed?

Can you provide a screenshot of the errors from the Google Structured Data Testing Tool, please?

Thanks,
Danny

10

Hi Danny
It happens with YouTube videos as well.
The error comes not finding expected data in the video object.
Screenshot:
http://5lx.co.uk/images/Screenshot%202016-03-04%2014.29.13.png

However if I have data in my Wistia video (name, description etc), that data is recognised in a separate video object by the structured data tool.
Perhaps the video module is adding an extra empty video object?

Thanks for your help
Neil

11

Hey Neil,

Is it possible for you to whip up a noindex/nofollow page on your site with the 2 videos in place? One via our Video module and another a raw embed via our HTML module? That way we can run the Google test and compare the results? We do have staging/development servers but they have htaccess protection so the Google test won’t be able to see the pages.

Ben

12

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13

Hi Neil,

I’ve spoken to the developers and they’ve informed me that these tags should be added with the video and not the module.

Therefore, you can include the following markup (example) when embedding you video. As, this isn’t something we can pull when using the embed code.

<meta itemprop=“uploadDate" content="2015-12-15">

Thanks,
Danny

14

Hi Danny

When I add the Wistia code to a regular html module all the required meta data goes with it and it validates with the structured data tool.

I think therefore the best bet - for me - is to keep doing that rather than using a video module and having to remember to add the meta data separately in the head every time I change out the video or add another one.

Thanks for your help with this
Neil

15

Hi Neil,

When you’re using the HTML module to embed you videos are you using the same code? Also, how you’re validating this, are you doing so via the page url or the embed code itself?

As it is rather odd how the HTML module isn’t causing an issue when the video module is.

Thanks,
Danny

16

Hi Danny
Yes it’s strange isn’t it?
I have been using the same code for both. In fact a couple of times I took the code out of the video module (which showed errors in the data structure tool) and put it straight into an html module which then didn’t get warnings.

To validate it I enter the page url into the Google tool, not the code.

I wonder if the problem is that the video module outputs http://schema.org/VideoObject via frontend.php but doesn’t then add the required data, which is what Google is flagging up.

Perhaps the video module needs meta boxes for the user to fill in with the necessary description etc. I don’t need it in the html module because the Wistia code outputs it automaticall via JSON-LD.

Many thanks
Neil

17

Hi Neil,

I’ve added this to our bug tracker, where our developers will look into this further. Also, thank you very much for taking the time to debug this as much as you have, we really appreciate it.

Thanks,
Danny

18

Not at all. Thanks for your help Danny.
I look forward to seeing how it is resolved.
Cheers
Neil

19

Hey Neil,

I did some testing and it looks like there is no easy way for us to pull the needed data from video embeds. While adding fields for that is an idea, we do like to keep things simple, so I’m not sure if that’s something we’ll add unless there is a high demand for it.

The markup for video embeds is fairly simple, so to fix those errors, you can add this in addition to your embed code…

<meta itemprop="description" content="YOUR_VIDEO_DESCRIPTION" />
<meta itemprop="name" content="YOUR_VIDEO_NAME" />
<meta itemprop="thumbnailUrl" content="YOUR_VIDEO_THUMB_URL" />
<meta itemprop="uploadDate" content="YOUR_VIDEO_UPLOAD_DATE" />

Let me know if you have any questions about that.

Justin