I really should pay more attention to improvements in WordPress’s core code, you know. For quite a while, I’ve been using the rather nifty, flexible and generally clever Viper’s Video Quicktags to embed YouTube videos in my posts. Now the plugin is Clever Stuff, and works for all manner of other embeddable videos, but as I never have cause to embed any of those, I only use it for YouTube.
But since WordPress 2.9, there is native code for putting videos into posts. No tags, no buttons, just paste the URL on a line on its own, or use the embed shortcode if you prefer. The feature also works for a load of other video sites, and so it seems I don’t need to use the plugin any more.
Well, I wouldn’t need the plugin if it wasn’t for the little matter of the existing posts that have Viper’s shortcodes in them. So, you guessed it, I’m editing those, too. While I’m fixing up video posts, I’ve found a few where embedding has been disabled, so I’ll be replacing the embeds with links. And if I find any where the video has gone altogether, I’ll fix those, too.
Once I’ve done that, I’ll disable and delete the plugin. Though it’s not a goodbye to Viper’s clever work – I believe the WordPress embedding feature uses his code!