Add Players with Blocks

The show.fm plugin adds four blocks to the WordPress block editor. They work for any public show.fm show, so you don't need to connect your site to use them.

Block	What it shows
show.fm Player	One episode, or always your latest, with a waveform and an optional transcript.
show.fm Episode list	Your show's episodes, newest first, as cards or a minimal list. Each one plays in place.
show.fm Play button	A button for one episode, to use anywhere on the page. It opens a mini-player along the bottom.
show.fm Transcript	A follow-along transcript that highlights the words as they are spoken.

Every block previews the real player in the editor. On the page, players are drawn from a copy the plugin keeps on your server, so your pages never wait for show.fm.

Add a block

1. In a post or page, add a block and search for show.fm.
2. Choose show.fm Player, show.fm Episode list, show.fm Play button or show.fm Transcript.
3. Choose the show:
   • On a site that isn't connected, type the show's address in Show address or slug, such as the-long-table.show.fm, and click Continue.
   • On a connected site, pick one of your shows under Choose from your shows. To use someone else's public show, click Use the address of another public show.
4. Choose the episode (not needed for an Episode list). Search, or filter by season, then click Use this episode. Pick Latest episode for a player that always plays your newest episode.
5. Change the block's settings in the sidebar, then save the post.

To change the show or episode later, select the block and use Change episode (or Change show) in the sidebar.

Scheduled episodes

On a connected site, people who can publish posts (Authors, Editors and Administrators) also see your scheduled episodes, marked Scheduled. A scheduled episode's block says Goes live on a date and time in the editor.

Visitors see nothing for that episode until it goes live, so you can add it to a post scheduled for the same time. The episode's title is never saved in the post before then.

Contributors can add public shows and episodes by address only.

Player settings

Select a show.fm Player block to see its settings:

• Episode: the episode it plays, with Change episode.
• Appearance:
  • Size: Standard (artwork, waveform and full controls) or Compact (a slim bar).
  • Theme: Auto follows each visitor's light or dark setting, or choose Light or Dark.
  • Accent colour: one of your theme's colours. Until you choose one, the player uses your show's colour.
  • Waveform: turn it off for a plain progress bar.
• Features:
  • Transcript: adds a Transcript button that opens the transcript under the player. It appears only for episodes with a transcript on show.fm.
  • Mini-player: when a visitor scrolls past the player while it plays, a bar at the bottom of the page keeps it playing, with seek, speed and time left. It's off by default.
  • Mini-player corner: Left or Right. Shown while Mini-player is on, it sets where the mini-player sits when a visitor collapses it.
  • Show the title as a heading: makes the episode title a heading. Choose its level (Heading 2 to Heading 6) from the block toolbar, so it fits under the heading above it.

Episode list settings

• Show: the show it lists, with Change show.
• Episodes:
  • Number of episodes: how many show at first. Visitors can load more.
  • Season: All seasons, or one season.
  • Hide trailers and Hide bonus episodes.
• Appearance:
  • Style: Card (artwork and descriptions on a card) or Minimal (a quieter text list).
  • Layout: Auto, List or Grid. Auto uses a grid when the block is wide and most episodes have their own artwork.
  • Show descriptions.
  • Mini-player: keeps an episode playing in a bar at the bottom of the page while visitors scroll. Turn it on to show Mini-player corner.

Episode titles in the list are headings. The plugin picks a level that fits under the heading above the block; change it from the block toolbar.

While an episode with a transcript plays, its row has a Transcript button. There's nothing to switch on.

Play button settings

• Episode: the episode it plays.
• Appearance:
  • Variant: Icon (a round button, good in a table), Label (a button with the length) or Text link (a link inside a sentence).
  • Size: Small or Large.
• Playback:
  • Mini-player: on by default. After the first press, visitors get seek, speed and time left in a bar at the bottom of the page. Turn it off and visitors can only play and pause.
  • Mini-player corner: Left or Right, while the mini-player is on.

Every play button on a page shares one mini-player, so pressing one pauses the others.

Transcript settings

A Transcript block follows a player on the same page and highlights each word as it is spoken.

• Follows: the Player or Episode list block it follows. Use Change player to pick another. Choose Show one episode's transcript instead to show one episode's transcript on its own.
• Size: the Height of the text area, in pixels.

If the player it followed is removed from the page, the block says so and asks you to choose another.

Use the shortcode

If you prefer shortcodes, or you are writing in the classic editor, use [showfm]:

[showfm type="player" episode="11111111-2222-4333-8444-555555555555"]
[showfm type="player" podcast="the-long-table"]
[showfm type="episodes" podcast="the-long-table" count="5" hide="trailer,bonus"]
[showfm type="play" episode="11111111-2222-4333-8444-555555555555" variant="link"]

• type is player (the default), episodes, play or transcript.
• episode takes an episode ID. podcast takes the show's slug or ID, and plays the latest episode in a player.
• The other attributes match the block settings: size, theme, accent, wave, transcript, mini-player, mini-player-position, heading-level, variant, layout, count, season, hide, descriptions and height. Values the plugin doesn't recognise are ignored.
• A transcript follows a player through ids: give the player an id that starts with showfm-, and the transcript for with the same id, for example [showfm type="player" id="showfm-episode" episode="…"] then [showfm type="transcript" for="showfm-episode"]. An episode list takes an id too.

To find an episode ID, see Find your podcast and episode IDs.

Paste a show.fm link

Paste a show.fm link on its own line and WordPress turns it into a player:

• your show's address, such as https://the-long-table.show.fm, plays the latest episode;
• an episode's address plays that episode.

The plugin shows it as a local player, so nothing loads from show.fm's embed servers.

Set site-wide display options

Go to Settings → show.fm and open the Display tab. Under Players on this site, four switches apply to every show.fm block:

Switch	Default	What it does
Show "Powered by show.fm"	Off	Adds a small credit under the first player on each page.
Load players only after a visitor clicks	Off	Nothing loads from show.fm until someone presses play. Turn it on if your cookie consent tool needs it.
Add episode structured data for search engines	On	Adds episode details to pages with a player, so search engines can show them.
Use my theme's colours and fonts	On	Players use your theme's font and accent colour. Turn it off to use show.fm's defaults. Colours set on a block still win.

Click Save changes. You'll see Settings saved.

About the "Powered by show.fm" credit

On WordPress, the plugin's own switch decides the credit, whatever your show.fm plan. With Show "Powered by show.fm" off, no show.fm block on the site shows it.

This is different from embed code you paste on other sites, which follows your show's Hide "Powered by show.fm" setting in show.fm.

Load players only after a visitor clicks

With this on, each block first shows a button: Play podcast episode for a player or play button, Load episodes for a list and Load transcript for a transcript. Nothing is requested from show.fm until the visitor presses it. The player script comes from the plugin itself, never from show.fm's servers.

What visitors see when an episode isn't available

• A scheduled, unpublished or deleted episode shows nothing. The block takes up no space until the episode is public.
• If the show is suspended, the player says "This show isn't available right now."
• If show.fm can't be reached, the page keeps showing the last copy the plugin saved.

For the messages you see in the editor, see Troubleshooting.

Next steps

• Post New Episodes Automatically
• Migrate Your Embeds from another podcast host.
• Embed on Any Site, for sites that don't run WordPress.