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SDAweb Channels for YouTube
SDAweb Channels for YouTube

SDAweb Channels for YouTube

0/5 (0 ratings) 40 active installs Updated May 2, 2026
channelembedLive Streamvideoyoutube
Download v1.5.6
Dashboard with shortcode builder and channel status overview

Dashboard with shortcode builder and channel status overview

SDAweb Channels for YouTube is a lightweight, privacy-friendly way to showcase YouTube content on your WordPress site. Add any number of public YouTube channels and display their videos using shortcodes or a Gutenberg block. Videos are cached locally so visitor page views consume zero API quota.

Layouts & Playback

  • Grid — Responsive multi-column grid (1–4 columns)
  • Tabs — Channel-tabbed interface with 3 navigation modes: scroll, wrapping pills, and avatar strip
  • Slider — Horizontal carousel with arrow navigation
  • Auto player (default) — Adapts to screen size: inline on desktop, lightbox on mobile phones
  • Lightbox player — Fullscreen overlay with keyboard shortcuts (arrow keys, Escape), swipe gestures, and prev/next navigation
  • Inline player — Play directly inside the video card with expand-to-lightbox
  • Link mode — Opens videos on YouTube in a new tab
  • Avatar strip — Compact row of channel avatars with labeled names and smart truncation
  • Mobile bottom sheet — Touch-optimized player with swipe-to-dismiss
  • Landscape mobile — Optimized layouts: horizontal cards for live streams, 2-column grid for regular content

Live & Upcoming Streams

  • Automatic detection of live broadcasts and scheduled upcoming streams
  • Smart sort order: live streams first, then all streams sorted by proximity to the current time — the most relevant broadcasts always appear first
  • Dedicated [sdawchfo_live] shortcode for live and upcoming content
  • Live badge with concurrent viewer count and pulse animation
  • Upcoming badge with scheduled start time countdown
  • Toggleable “Live now” and “Coming up” section headings
  • Stale guard: upcoming streams auto-expire after 6 hours, live after 24 hours — no stuck statuses
  • 5-minute background polling keeps live status current (1-minute with Broadcast Boost)
  • Live Broadcast Boost — configurable day/time window for 1-minute polling during scheduled broadcasts
  • Zero-quota RSS feed discovery catches scheduled broadcasts not in the uploads playlist
  • Live and upcoming streams are automatically excluded from regular shortcodes

Channel Management

  • Add channels by URL, handle (@username), or channel ID
  • Drag-and-drop reordering controls tab and section display order
  • Custom labels per channel for friendly display names
  • Automatic video caching with configurable 1–24 hour refresh intervals (up to 3 channels per cron run)
  • Manual refresh per channel or all channels at once
  • Import and export channels and settings as JSON

Shortcodes

Four shortcodes cover every use case:

  • [sdawchfo_channel] — Videos from a single channel (by id, handle, or label)
  • [sdawchfo_channels] — Multiple channels in grid, tabs, or slider layout
  • [sdawchfo_feed] — Combined feed mixing videos from all channels
  • [sdawchfo_live] — Live and upcoming streams with empty-state message

All shortcodes support these attributes: count, columns, layout, sort, player, pagination, per_page, show_stats, show_duration, show_channel, and live_only.

Additional Features

  • Gutenberg block with live preview and inspector controls
  • Shortcode builder in the admin dashboard — no coding required
  • Customizable frontend labels (26 strings) for full translation support
  • Customizable appearance: badge styles, button styles, tab colors, and time text colors with color pickers
  • Load More pagination with configurable batch size
  • Video stats: views, likes, duration, publish date
  • Detects and labels YouTube Shorts
  • Up to 100 videos per channel with automatic API pagination
  • Import/export for easy migration between sites
  • Tab navigation modes: scroll, wrapping pills, or avatar strip
  • REST API endpoints for custom and headless integrations
  • Server cron setup guidance in the admin settings
  • Channel name truncation setting for the avatar strip
  • Automatic cleanup of private and deleted videos from cache
  • Dark theme support via CSS custom property (–sdawchfo-card-bg)
  • Admin settings: tabbed Plugin Overview with 7 sections, quick-access links, and info tooltips explaining technical terms

Privacy & Performance

  • All video data is cached in your local database
  • Visitor page views make zero external API calls
  • No cookies are set and no visitor data is sent to third parties
  • YouTube embeds use the privacy-enhanced youtube-nocookie.com domain
  • YouTube embeds load only when a visitor clicks play
  • Lazy loading: thumbnail images load only when they scroll into view

Third-Party Services

YouTube Data API v3

This plugin connects to the YouTube Data API v3 to fetch channel information and video data. API calls are made server-side only when:

  • An admin adds or refreshes a channel
  • The scheduled cron refresh runs (configurable interval, default 6 hours)
  • The live status cron runs (every 5 minutes, or every 1 minute during a configured Broadcast Boost window)

No API calls are made during normal visitor page views — all data is served from the local cache.

A YouTube Data API v3 key is required. You can obtain one for free from the Google Cloud Console.

YouTube RSS Feeds

This plugin fetches public YouTube RSS feeds (https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml) to discover recently published and scheduled videos. These requests are read-only, use no API quota, and contain only publicly available video IDs.

YouTube Embeds

When a visitor clicks play on a video, an iframe loads from YouTube’s privacy-enhanced domain (youtube-nocookie.com). No embed loads until the visitor initiates playback. No cookies are set by this domain.