Release channels

Flowplayer Native is distributed on the Flowplayer CDN through three release channels: stable, canary and immutable semver versions. The channel referenced in the player URL determines whether your player updates automatically or stays locked to one version.

URL structure

From release 3 on, the CDN urls for the files have the following structure: [CDN_BASE]/releases/native/[MAJOR_VERSION]/[RELEASE_CHANNEL]/:asset.

v2

The previous releases v1 and v2 used the flat release channel structure (ie: cdn.flowplayer.com/releases/native/stable).

Stable

https://cdn.flowplayer.com/releases/native/3/stable/:asset

Stable releases are well-tested and battle hardened, and generally have been through at least two rounds of feedback to ensure code quality.

Example:

https://cdn.flowplayer.com/releases/native/3/stable/flowplayer.min.jslinks to the main player script

https://cdn.flowplayer.com/releases/native/3/stable/flowplayer.zip contains the full standalone package

Canary

https://cdn.flowplayer.com/releases/native/3/canary/:asset

We do perform internal testing before deployed, but every once in a while bugs might get through. Ideal for verifying bug fixes before changing production code or trying new features before they are in wide release. This was previously called edge , the old links like https://cdn.flowplayer.com/releases/native/3/edge/:asset will of course continue to work.

Example:

https://cdn.flowplayer.com/releases/native/3/canary/flowplayer.min.js

Immutable Semver

https://cdn.flowplayer.com/releases/native/3/v:semver/:asset

Use immutable semver releases when version locking is required by your development team. These assets are never changed once deployed, hence immutable. Each stable release is tagged with a semver version and deployed here.

Example:

https://cdn.flowplayer.com/releases/native/3/v3.2.6/flowplayer.min.js

OVP embeds

The JavaScript (ESM) embed codes from Flowplayer OVP load the player in the release version set in your player configuration. To override the release channel or version for a single embed, add the major version and the release channel or semver version in front of the player configuration ID in the import URL:

https://embed.flowplayer.com/3/[stable|canary]/[player id]/[media id].js
https://embed.flowplayer.com/3/v[semver]/[player id]/[media id].js

Examples:

// lock the player to release 3.34.1
import flowplayer from "https://embed.flowplayer.com/3/v3.34.1/9cd385cc-dd2b-4e85-9d11-9ab11c2b540f/3afc64ea-fe85-456c-b9d7-6d1de8350ff2.js";

// use the canary channel
import flowplayer from "https://embed.flowplayer.com/3/canary/9cd385cc-dd2b-4e85-9d11-9ab11c2b540f/3afc64ea-fe85-456c-b9d7-6d1de8350ff2.js";

The same applies to all ESM plugin modules you import yourself. Load them from the same release channel or version as the player, for example:

import chromecast from "https://cdn.flowplayer.com/releases/native/3/canary/esm/plugins/chromecast.min.js";

Release Notes

Release notes can be found in the Wowza Developer Portal

Changelogs

All release channels have a changelog auto-generated from our commit history that follows the format:

https://cdn.flowplayer.com/releases/native/3/:channel/changelog.:format

format can be html or xml in this case. The xml formats allow integrations into your SlackOps channels via the Slack RSS plugin.

An example changelog to demonstrate our url format would be https://cdn.flowplayer.com/releases/native/3/stable/changelog.html.

Additionally there is a prettified changelog for the stable channel.

Final IE11 Immutable Release

Although support for IE has been dropped going forward, there is a single, immutable release available as in interim tool as companies deprecate their reliance on IE11. This release exists using this form:

https://cdn.flowplayer.com/releases/native/ie11/:asset

Please be aware this release receives no updates, and is solely there as a temporary tool.

Player version

You can query the player version by either

• right-clicking the player canvas several times quickly

• type flowplayer.version in the browserconsole