YouTube Video

A single YouTube video in the Video Showcase section — a thumbnail with a play overlay and the video’s title. Clicking it opens the video in a modal rather than leaving the page.

The section uses this block twice over: once as the large featured video at the top, and once per entry in the playlist beside it. Same block, laid out differently by the section.

Settings

Setting	What it does
YouTube Video URL	The video to play. Required — nothing renders without it.
Video Title	The title shown next to the thumbnail. Also what a screen reader announces for the play button.
Custom Thumbnail	An image to use instead of YouTube’s own thumbnail. Leave blank to use YouTube’s.
Block ID	An optional unique ID, so the entry can be linked to directly with an anchor.

Where it’s used

In the Video Showcase section. The featured video at the top of that section is fixed; the playlist entries beneath it are the blocks you add and reorder.

No URL, no entry

The block renders nothing at all when YouTube Video URL is empty. If an entry has disappeared from the playlist, that’s why.

Always give it a Video Title

It’s the only text on the entry and the only thing that tells someone — sighted or not — what they’re about to play. Without it the playlist is a column of unlabelled thumbnails.

Tips

• Use a custom thumbnail for the featured video. YouTube’s default is a low-resolution frame that looks soft at the large size the featured slot renders at. Playlist thumbnails are small enough that YouTube’s own is fine.
• Custom thumbnails are cropped to widescreen. Supply a 16:9 image so nothing important is lost at the edges.
• The video must be public or unlisted on YouTube. A private video shows its thumbnail here but won’t play.