Timeline 2 - User abandons session

VOD, Pre-roll ad, mid-roll ads, user abandons content early

The following diagrams illustrate the playhead timeline and the corresponding timeline of a user’s actions. The details for each action and its accompanying requests are presented below.

Action details

Action 1 - Start session

This call signals the user’s intention to play a video. It returns a Session ID ( {sid} ) to the client that is used to identify all subsequent tracking calls within the session. The player state is not yet “playing”, but is instead “starting”. Mandatory session parameters must be included in the params map in the request body. On the backend, this call generates an Adobe Analytics initiate call. For information about sessions, see the Media Collection API documentation.

{
    "playerTime": {
        "playhead": 0,
        "ts": "<timestamp>"
    },
    "eventType": "sessionStart",
    "params": {
        "media.playerName": "sample-html5-api-player",
        "analytics.trackingServer": "[ _YOUR-TS_ ]",
        "analytics.reportSuite": "[ _YOUR-RSID_ ]",
        "analytics.visitorId": "[ _YOUR-VISITOR-ID_ ]",
        "media.contentType": "VOD",
        "media.length": 60.3333333333333,
        "media.id": "VA API Sample Player",
        "visitor.marketingCloudOrgId": "[YOUR-MCID]",
        "media.name": "ClickMe",
        "media.channel": "sample-channel",
        "media.sdkVersion": "va-api-0.0.0",
        "analytics.enableSSL": false
    }
}

Action 2 - Ping timer start

Start your app’s ping timer. First ping event should then fire 1 second in if there are pre-roll ads, 10 seconds in otherwise.

Action 3 - Ad break start

Pre-roll ads must be tracked. Ads can only be tracked within an ad break.

{
    "playerTime": {
        "playhead": 0,
        "ts": "<timestamp>"
    },
    "eventType": "adBreakStart",
    "params": {
        "media.ad.podFriendlyName": "ad_pod1",
        "media.ad.podIndex": 0,
        "media.ad.podSecond": 0
    }
}

Action 4 - Ad start

A 12 second ad starts.

{
    "playerTime": {
        "playhead": 0,
        "ts": "<timestamp>"
    },
    "eventType": "adStart",
    "params": {
        "media.ad.podFriendlyName": "ad_pod1",
        "media.ad.name": "Ad 1",
        "media.ad.id": "002",
        "media.ad.length": 7,
        "media.ad.podPosition": 1,
        "media.ad.playerName": "Sample Player",
        "media.ad.advertiser": "Ad Guys",
        "media.ad.campaignId": "1",
        "media.ad.creativeId": "42",
        "media.ad.siteId": "XYZ",
        "media.ad.creativeURL": "https://xyz-creative.com",
        "media.ad.placementId": "sample-placement2"
    },
}

Action 5 - Ad pings

Ping the backend every 1 second. (Subsequent ad pings not shown, in the interest of brevity.)

{
    "playerTime": {
        "playhead": 0,
        "ts": "<timestamp>"
    },
    "eventType": "ping"
}

Action 6 - Ad complete

The first pre-roll ad is over.

{
    "playerTime": {
        "playhead": 0,
        "ts": "<timestamp>"
    },
    "eventType": "adComplete"
}

Action 7 - Ad break complete

The ad break is over. Throughout the ad break, the player has remained in the “playing” state.

{
    "playerTime": {
        "playhead": 0,
        "ts": "<timestamp>"
    },
    "eventType": "adBreakComplete"
}

Action 8 - Play content

Move the player to the “playing” state; begin tracking the start of content playback.

{
    "playerTime": {
        "playhead": 0,
        "ts": "<timestamp>"
    },
    "eventType": "play",
    "qoeData": {
        "bitrate": 10000
    }
}

Action 9 - Ping

Ping the backend every 10 seconds.

{
    "playerTime": {
        "playhead": 8,
        "ts": "<timestamp>"
    },
    "eventType": "ping"
}

Action 10 - Ping

Ping the backend every 10 seconds.

{
    "playerTime": {
        "playhead": 18,
        "ts": "<timestamp>"
    },
    "eventType": "ping"
}

Action 11 - Error

{
    "playerTime": {
        "playhead": 20,
        "ts": "<timestamp>"
    },
    "eventType": "error"
}

Action 12 - Play content

{
    "playerTime": {
        "playhead": 18,
        "ts": "<timestamp>"
    },
    "eventType":"play",
    "qoeData": {
        "bitrate": 10000
    }
}

Action 13 - Ping

Ping the backend every 10 seconds.

{
    "playerTime": {
        "playhead": 28,
        "ts": "<timestamp>"
    },
    "eventType": "ping"
}

Action 14 - Ad break start

Mid-roll ad of 8 seconds duration: send adBreakStart .

{
    "playerTime": {
        "playhead": 33,
        "ts": "<timestamp>"
    },
    "eventType":"adBreakStart",
    "params": {
        "media.ad.podFriendlyName": "ad_pod2",
        "media.ad.podIndex": 1,
        "media.ad.podSecond": 33
    }
}

Action 15 - Ad start

Track the mid-roll ad.

{
    "playerTime": { "playhead": 33, "ts": "<timestamp>"
    },
    "eventType": "adStart",
    "params": {
        "media.ad.podFriendlyName": "ad_pod1",
        "media.ad.name": "Ad 1",
        "media.ad.id": "002",
        "media.ad.length": 8,
        "media.ad.podPosition": 1,
        "media.ad.playerName": "Sample Player",
        "media.ad.advertiser": "Ad Guys",
        "media.ad.campaignId": "7",
        "media.ad.creativeId": "40",
        "media.ad.siteId": "XYZ",
        "media.ad.creativeURL": "https://example.com",
        "media.ad.placementId": "sample_placement2"
    },
}

Action 16 - Close app

Send sessionEnd to the VA backend to indicate that the session should be closed immediately, with no further processing.

{
    "playerTime": {
        "playhead": 33,
        "ts": "<timestamp>"
    },
    "eventType": "sessionEnd"
}

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