Steps for embedding Zoom Meetings

• Step 1 – Create a WordPress Website
• Step 2 – Download & Install Zoom Meetings for WordPress Plugin
• Step 3 – Create an App with API Key
• Step 4 – Add API keys into WordPress
• Step 5 – Use Shortcode on Webpage (With Zoom Meeting ID)
• Step 6 – Publish Page

Have you ever wanted to embed your Zoom Video Conference meeting into a website? Zoom video conferencing has a lot of features many people do not know about. Embedding a meeting directly into your website may be one feature you have never heard of. This feature is ideal for sharing access to public meetings such as a public town hall or webinar. In this tutorial, you will learn how to easily add a Zoom meeting into a WordPress website. 

Installing the WordPress Plugin

The process of embedding your video conference is easily done with a WordPress plugin. You can embed your zoom meeting into other HTML environments using the code available on Github. Start this process by logging into your wordpress account. In the backend of wordpress there is an area called plugins that you can use to upload the Zoom video conferencing plugin for WordPress. Next navigate to elearningevolve.com where you can download a free Zoom integration plugin for WordPress. 

Integrating Zoom with your WordPress

Once you have downloaded the Zoom Integration for WordPress plugin go ahead and upload the plugin to your WordPress website using the upload button in the plugins area. Next you can activate the plugin and open it up from the sidebar menu in WordPress. In the settings are of the plugin you will need to enter your Zoom API information.

Finding your Zoom API information

You can retrieve your Zoom API information at Marketplace.zoom.us. Start by signing into the marketplace website using your Zoom login. Note: you should enable your account with a Zoom Pro license for full functionality. Next you can log in you and can click the “Develop” dropdown menu and select “Build an App.” You will want to select the “JWT” option and follow the instructions for setup. This app allows you to access your accounts API token and secret key. In the App Credentials area you can copy and paste your API Key and Secret information into the settings area of the Zoom API plugin. 

Embedding your Zoom Meeting on to your website

The WordPress website is now set up and the plugin can connect to your Zoom API, you will notice that the plugin will show recent meetings. The Zoom for WordPress Integration Plugin can now manage various Zoom settings for you including adding meetings, adding users, and assigning a host ID. In the settings area of this plugin you can find the shortcode that is used to embed the Zoom Meeting into your website. 

Type the shortcode into your website and replace the default meeting ID with your unique Meeting ID. Paste the shortcode into the text editor of your WordPress editor and press the Publish button. After publishing the page or post on your website, you can view the Zoom Meeting on the page. 

Customizing your Embed

In the settings are you can customize the appearance of your embedded zoom meeting. There are two dropdown menus that allow you to show or hide default settings. There is an option to hide the alternate join meeting button which launches the zoom application just like the main zoom.us website would. Also you can hide the default links to each version of the zoom applications. By default both of these options are shown, but my advice is to hide them. 

Why we like this new feature

Embedding a zoom meeting into your website is a great idea for multiple reasons. From a branding perspective, many businesses will enjoy the single location option for zoom meetings. If you have a regular public meeting, it could not be easier for your meeting attendees to find the meeting then your website. Scheduling meetings today is generally done via email or a calendar invite. Most people get way too many emails and calendar invites are great, but not everyone uses the same platform for calendar management (Google vs Microsoft). 

Looking at this from a technical standpoint, giving the world access to join your private or public zoom video conference meetings from your website, opens up a lot of doors. Don’t have the zoom app on your Android phone? No problem, just use the website. Using a chromebook that doesn’t have a Zoom app available? No problem, use Google Chrome. Unlike other browser-based video conferencing systems, Zoom is incredibly powerful because it’s hosted in the cloud. Most other browser-based Web-RTC solutions have limited quality and support for larger meetings. By putting the power of Zoom Video Conferencing, which can support up to 300 participants at the pro level, you give web-browser users access to the world’s most powerful video conferencing software without having to install any software. 

Meeting Management

From a meeting management perspective, Zoom has done an amazing job. You can still use a meeting password, enable the waiting room feature, and lock screen sharing down to just the host. As a meeting host, you will likely want to use the full Zoom software client on a Windows or Mac computer. But, the browser-based experience looks surprisingly similar to the regular zoom experience we are all used to by now. Below is a list of limitations you can expect with the browser-based zoom video conference embedded into your website.

Limitations of this plugin:

1. Joining the meeting directly from the WordPress page may not work for IOS devices because Apple doesn’t allow loading of an external iframe, therefore, the plugin provides a Zoom app link on the page for users to join meeting via Zoom App incase it doesn’t work on their specific device.
2. The Zoom webinar module is not supported in this plugin.
3. This addon only supports the features that are supported in the web version of Zoom. The features that are specific to the Zoom App like recording the video conferencing session are not supported via this plugin as they are available only in the Zoom App.
4. The HTML version of Zoom does not support Breakout sessions. Users will need to use the full Zoom client to enter break out sessions.

Summary:

Using wordpress to manage your embedded zoom video conference meetings is by the far the easiest way to get started. Zoom has a GitHub available here, which provides example code, you can use to build your own Zoom enabled websites using HTML5. If you are not familiar with HTML, CSS, Javascript, Java and C++ you should definitely consider the readymade WordPress plugin from Elearning Evolve. This plugin is totally free, and it includes a great dashboard for managing your Zoom website integration. Our team is still looking into further customization options for embedding zoom into your website. So we highly recommend subscribing to our YouTube Channel where new videos will be posted to keep you informed. 

Download our free guide on how to Embed Your Zoom Meeting into your Website here.

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