JW Video — Netflix-Style Video App for JW.org

A Netflix-inspired streaming app for watching all videos from JW.org. Built with a Python scraper, FastAPI backend, and React + TypeScript frontend with a dark Netflix-style UI.

🔗 Live deployment: https://jw-video.ashbi.ca/

Note: This project is for personal use and educational purposes. All video content is served directly from JW.org's CDN. Please respect JW.org's Terms of Use.

Features

• 🎬 Netflix-style UI — Dark theme, hero banners, horizontal carousels, smooth animations
• 🔍 Search — Instant search across all video titles and descriptions
• 📂 Category Browsing — Browse by JW.org video categories (Movies, The Bible, Children, etc.)
• ❤️ My List — Save favorite videos locally for quick access
• 🔁 Daily Auto-Scrape — GitHub Actions fetches new videos every day at 6 AM UTC
• 📱 PWA + Mobile — Install as a Progressive Web App; Capacitor-ready for Android/iOS
• 🎥 Video Player — Full-featured player with progress bar, volume, fullscreen, keyboard shortcuts
• 🖼️ MediaSession API — Lock screen and notification controls on mobile
• 📶 Offline Caching — Workbox caches JW.org CDN assets for 7 days
• ⬇️ Quality Selection — Download videos in multiple resolutions (360p, 480p, 720p)

Architecture

┌──────────────────┐     ┌──────────────┐     ┌──────────────────────┐
│  Python Scraper  │────▶│   SQLite DB  │◀────│  FastAPI Backend     │
│  (Mediator API)  │     │  jw_video.db │     │  /api/videos         │
│  Runs daily      │     │              │     │  /api/categories     │
└──────────────────┘     └──────┬───────┘     │  /api/stream/{id}    │
                                │             └──────────┬───────────┘
                                │                        │
                         export_videos.py                │
                                │                        │
                                ▼                        │
                        ┌───────────────┐                │
                        │ videos.json   │                │
                        │ (embedded)    │                │
                        └───────┬───────┘                │
                                │                        │
                                ▼                        ▼
                        ┌────────────────────────────────────┐
                        │       React + TypeScript PWA       │
                        │  ┌──────────┐  ┌───────────────┐  │
                        │  │ Homepage  │  │  Video Player │  │
                        │  │ Browse    │  │  Search       │  │
                        │  │ My List   │  │  Categories   │  │
                        │  └──────────┘  └───────────────┘  │
                        └────────────────────────────────────┘

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Scraper	Python 3.12, httpx (HTTP/2), SQLAlchemy
API	FastAPI, uvicorn, SQLite
Frontend	React 19, TypeScript, Vite 6, React Router 7
PWA	vite-plugin-pwa, Workbox
Mobile	Capacitor 8 (Android/iOS)
Styling	Custom CSS — Netflix-inspired dark theme
Icons	Lucide React
CI/CD	GitHub Actions (daily cron)
Containers	Docker Compose

Quick Start

1. Scrape Videos

cd scraper
pip install -r requirements.txt
python scraper.py

2. Export to JSON (for frontend embedding)

cd scraper
python ../export_videos.py

3. Start the API

cd api
pip install -r requirements.txt
uvicorn main:app --reload

4. Start the Frontend

cd app
npm install
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:5173

Docker Compose (all services)

docker compose up --build

• Frontend: http://localhost:3000
• API: http://localhost:8000
• API Docs: http://localhost:8000/docs

API Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/api/videos	List all videos (paginated)
GET	/api/videos/{key}	Get video with quality options
GET	/api/videos/search?q=	Search videos by title
GET	/api/categories/{key}/videos	Videos in a category
GET	/api/categories	All categories as tree
GET	/api/categories/{key}	Category with subcategories
GET	/api/stream/{key}	Stream proxy (302 → CDN)
GET	/api/health	Health check

Scraping Details

The scraper uses the JW.org Mediator API (data.jw-api.org/mediator/v1):

1. Starts from VideoOnDemand root category
2. Recursively walks all subcategories
3. Extracts video metadata: title, description, duration, thumbnails, poster images
4. Fetches all available quality variants per video (360p, 480p, 720p)
5. Handles paginated media lists automatically
6. Stores everything in SQLite with upsert logic (safe for daily re-runs)
7. Excludes meeting-workbook categories (VODSJJMeetings)

Related Projects

• JW-Newsfeed — RSS feeds from JW.org
• JW-Music — Music streaming app (same architecture)
• JW-Download — Bulk video downloader

License

This project is for personal, non-commercial use only. All video content is the property of Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. Please review JW.org's Terms of Use before using this software.