Video Email Wraps - How To

[DrewAment]

Had a few people ask "how" regarding http://forum.dealerrefresh.com/f44/anyone-have-experience-video-response-e-mail-928.html#post16708 , most recently from @rdpatrick on twitter. I normally just send an email, but thought I would post this here.

I do it via PHP, but is can actually be done with almost any scripting language. As all videos on YouTube are assigned a v=XXXXXXX alpha numeric number...

So to do -- Sands Chevrolet - Serving Arizona since 1934

First we have to assign a value to the variable that we have to insert later. The following code just extracts the "v" value from the URL

<?php
$video = $_GET['v'];
?>

Now on the same PHP page we can use that variable in the URL HTML code:

<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/<?=$video?>?rel=0" frameborder="0"></iframe>

Now just make your HTML layout/page any way you want using the iFrame code and variable video URL. You can even change the size of the video in the iframe code if you want. As all videos on YouTube are assigned a v=XXXXXXX alpha numeric number, which you can see/copy from the URL - now just put the ?v= in the URL on the page you create.

Now any link you send to a customer can have ANY video that is on YouTube embedded. So, in addition to doing personal responses, video walk-arounds, etc that you custom make, you can also embed videos from the OEM's channel -- like specials, commercials, etc.

Post questions here and I will be glad to help.

 

[Rdpatrick]

Thanks so much! You just made my day!!

 

[DrewAment]

No problem - would love to see your wrap after you are done. Please post link.

 

[FeelGood]

I think this is a great idea.

This page doesn't appear to do anything to sanitize the variable though, so you could pass in some arbitrary HTML in the URL and it will display on the page. Adding something like

strip_tags()

or a

preg_replace()

would probably be a good idea. Otherwise some mischievous person could make your page look like this:

 

[joe.pistell]

Drew is the man!!

 

[DrewAment]

Drew is the man!!

Can I have your cell phone... I want my wife to be able to call you when she is mad at me. :0