Looking at a video by Ben Pleysier (2023) about using an extension to display YouTube Video. He’s using Node JS. DO I understand NOde JS is only for dynamic sites? In my projects Server model is on none. I do static sites using html and CSS and your components. If I used NOde JS would it mess everything up??
You can certainly use NodeJS for static sites (although it would be overkill and more complicated). Also keep in mind that not all hosts support NodeJS. You would also need to start from scratch. You can’t successfully switch server models part way through.
Thanks Brad you’re always helpful. OK I guess it means that Ben Pleysier’s YouTubeVideo extension can’t be used by me. He was quite specific about needing NodeJS. What functionality does NodeJS give ?- in broad terms.
For static sites, Node won’t give you anything but a learning curve and possibly higher hosting costs depending on where you host your projects. The only feature of Node that would make me even consider it is. the functionality of sockets real time data updating.
I am sure @ben ’s extension is remarkable like all of his stuff. But what about it do you need? In a static site you should be able to use YouTube videos without having to use an extension.
Yes, YouTube gives a ready copy-paste to insert into the HTML (code view) when you click the share button and select the option to embed
Just to clarify a few points from the discussion:
Wappler uses EJS natively, which makes it a great fit for building dynamic sites with templating logic similar to Dreamweaver’s legacy system. With NodeJS and Express, you can define reusable layout regions—headers, footers, navbars—using EJS, and Wappler handles this seamlessly. It’s a modern, server-side approach that keeps your content modular and maintainable.
I’ve deployed NodeJS-based sites across half a dozen hosts without paying anything extra. Most shared and cloud hosts now support Node environments out of the box, so cost and compatibility are rarely blockers.
That said, for static sites, there’s a clean alternative: Web Components and Custom Elements. These let you define reusable HTML tags—like <site-navbar>—that encapsulate markup, style, and behavior. Once registered, you can drop them into any page like native elements. It’s a declarative, browser-native way to maintain consistency across static pages without server-side logic.
As for the Wappler YouTube extension I created, it does require NodeJS to function—it leverages server-side logic to deliver dynamic embedding and customization. However, the same core functionality—embedding and reusing YouTube videos across pages—can be achieved using Web Components and Custom Elements in a static site. By defining a custom tag like <youtube-video>, you can encapsulate the embed logic and styling once, then reuse it declaratively across your pages.
Please have a look at
Client-Side alternative to Server-Side Includes - Docs / How-to Guides - Wappler Community
Hi Brad- missed getting back to you about Ben‘s extension. I normally use the embed code option for YOuTube videos. Suits me fine. I just happened to see Ben’s extension when I was browsing the Wappler docs about videos and investigated it out of curiosity. That’s when I got curious about nodejs and asked the question about its relevancy to me. I see it’s an option in project options/Server model. For what I do “none” is just what I need! Thanks
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