@thyngster/html-media-elements v0.0.1

HTML Media Elements Tracking Library

Hi! This a JavaScript library to help tracking HTML Media Elements ( video/audio elements ) . It was initially build on 2019 but it was never publicly announced, now I've rewrote it, and build it as a NPM module and Standalone Library.

Features

• GTM DataLayer Support
• Tealium Support
• Automatic new videos/audio detection
• Data elements support to pass back data for the current video
• Progress tracking
• Start, Pause, Mute, Unmute, Seek, Complete and Error events

Build

$ npm install $ npm run build

Configuration

The library will expose a public global variable at "window._htmlMediaElementsTracker" and an "init" method

window._htmlMediaElementsTracker.init({
    tms: 'debug',
    datalayerVariableNames: ['auto'],
    debug: true,
    observe: true,
    data_elements: true,        
    start: true,
    play: true,
    pause: true,
    mute: true,
    unmute: true,
    complete: true,
    seek: true,
    progress: true,
    error: true,
    progress_tracking_method: 'percentages', //thresholds
    progress_percentages: [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10],
    progress_thresholds: [],        
});   

Configuration Values

| key name | value type | description |

|--|--|--|

|tms|string|Tag Management System we are using| |datalayerVariableNames|array|If the TMS is Google Tag Manager, we can push the data to an specific dataLayer , by default the library will search for the current dataLayer variable name| |debug|boolean|Enable debug output to console| |observe|boolean|Automatically track newly added video/audio elements| |data_elements|boolean|data-html-media-element-title attribute will be used for elementTitle if provided| |start|boolean|Track Audio/Video Start Event| |play|boolean|Track Audio/Video Play Event| |pause|boolean|Track Audio/Video Pause Event| |mute|boolean|Track Audio/Video Mute Event| |unmute|boolean|Track Audio/Video Unmute Event| |complete|boolean|Track Audio/Video End Event| |seek|boolean|Track Audio/Video Seek Event| |progress|boolean|Track Audio/Video Progress Events| |progress_tracking_method|boolean|'percentages' or 'thresholds' // thresholds not available yet| |progress_percentages|array|Array of % where we should fire an event| |progress_thresholds|array|TBD|

Supported Events

• start
• pause
• mute
• unmute
• progress ( % of video played )
• seek
• complete ( equals to 100% progress )

• errors

Available Data For Media Events

|Key|Value Example|Description|

|--|--|--|

|event|gtm.audio/gtm.video|Current Media Element Type| |Provider|html5|Fixed value, describes the current media element provider| |Status|start,pause,mute,unmute,progress, seek, completed, error|current media element event name| |Url|http://www.dom.com|Current Video Holding URL ( iframe url reported if it's the case)| |Title|Video Demo|Current video element data-media-element-title value, defaults to current video file name| |Duration|230|Media element duration in seconds| |CurrentTime|230|Media element current time in seconds| |ElapsedTime|230|Elapsed time since last pause/play event| |Percent|15|Media element current played %| |Visible|true|false|Reports if the video is visible within the current browser viewport| |isMuted|true|false|Is the current media element muted?| |PlaybackRate|1|Media Element PlaybackRate, default: 1| |Loop|true|false|Is the video set to loop?| |Volume|0.8|Current Video Volume| |NetworkState||Network State| |Data|Object|List of custom video data coming from data-attributes tagging |elementClasses|""|Element Classes List| |elementId|""|Element Id| |elementTarget|""|Element Target| |elementUrl|""|Element URL|

Using a custom Video Title

When using HTML Media Element, we don't have a way to pass any video details, this library will allow you to customize the current video Title being reported.

<video src="" data-html-media-element-title="Demo Video version 1">

This will make the VideoTitle to be reported as "Demo Video version 1", is there's not data-attribute the library will use the current video file name

Passing more Video Details

It may happen that we want to pass some custom video datails for our tracking. To achieve this we can all the data we want to the videos using data-attributes.

The format will be : data-html-media-element-param-{{PARAM NAME}}="{{PARA VALUE}}"

<video width="400" 
controls 
data-html-media-element-param-band="Neil Zaza"
data-html-media-element-param-song-name="I'm Alright"
data-html-media-element-param-category="music"
data-html-media-element-title="video test">
    <source src="mov_bbb.mp4" type="video/mp4">
    <source src="mov_bbb.ogg" type="video/ogg">
    Your browser does not support HTML video.
</video>

This will turn on have the videoData, audioData holding all our data this way:

 element:  video
 elementClasses:  ""
 elementId:  "vbst4f9ed29"
 elementTarget:  video
 elementUrl:  "https://local.dev/demo/mp3.html"
 event:  "video"
 videoCurrentTime:  2
 videoData:
	 band:  "Neil Zaza"
	 category:  "music"
	 songname:  "I'm Alright"
 videoDuration:  361
 videoElapsedTime:  2
 videoIsMuted:  false
 videoLoop:  false
 videoNetworkState:  1
 videoPercent:  0
 videoPlaybackRate:  1
 videoProvider:  "html5"
 videoStatus:  "pause"
 videoTitle:  "video test"
 videoUrl:  "mov_bbb.mp4"
 videoVisible:  true
 videoVolume:  1

Dynamically added Media Elements / Modals

The library used the Mutation Observer API ( where available ) to detect newly attached videos. The "obverse" config settings needs to be set as true.

This will allow the tracking of dynamically added videos and videos shown on modals.

Tag Manager Systems Support

Despite this library was initially made for GTM it can output the data for some other TMS. It currently supports Google Tag Manager ( dataLayer.push() ) and Tealium ( utag.link() )