How to subscribe to ad events
When building a custom UI, or when logging events to an analytics service, app developers often need to be able to listen (and react) to ad events. For example, if an ad break starts, they want to draw a countdown on top of their UI. Alternatively, when an ad error occurs, they want to log this to an analytics server.
This article explains how you can programmatically subscribe to ad-related events across different SDKs.
SDKs
Web SDK | Android SDK | iOS SDK | tvOS SDK | Android TV SDK | Chromecast SDK |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Subscribing to an event
This subsection explains how you detect ad-related events. The other subsections zoom in on particular use-cases, such as detecting the beginning and end of an ad.
Client-side ads
If you are scheduling client-side advertisements, then you use the Ads
interface to detect ad events throughout the Web, Android and iOS SDK.
Web SDK
The Player
API exposes an ads
property which belongs to the Ads
interface. Because this Ads
interface inherits from EventDispatcher<AdsEventMap>
,
you can leverage event listeners in this interface.
The ad-related events are documented in AdsEventMap
.
To subscribe to an event, you select an event from this page, use the Ads
interface, call the addEventListener
method, and set the event as the first parameter, and the callback as the second parameter.
For example, if you want to track the start of an ad break, you could use the following snippet:
player.ads.addEventListener("adbreakbegin", function (event) {
console.log(event);
});
The following snippet should log most events to the console.
player.ads.addEventListener(
[
"adbegin",
"adbreakbegin",
"adbreakchange",
"adbreakend",
"adbuffering",
"addad",
"addadbreak",
"adend",
"aderror",
"adfirstquartile",
"adimpression",
"adloaded",
"admetadata",
"admidpoint",
"adskip",
"adthirdquartile",
"removeadbreak",
"updatead",
"updateadbreak"
],
console.log
);
Note that when dealing with client-side advertisements, you have different types of integrations, as explained at How to setup VAST and VMAP. The impact of this is that some events are not available throughout all integrations.
For example, if you schedule https://cdn.theoplayer.com/demos/preroll.xml
, which is a single linear VAST ad, through the "Google IMA integration" on our advertisement tester, the above snippet will trigger the following events:
addad
,updateadbreak
,updatead
,adloaded
,adbreakbegin
,adbegin
,adimpression
,adfirstquartile
,admidpoint
,adthirdquartile
,adend
,adbreakend
,removeadbreak
When you do the same for the csai
ad integration, you get the following events:
adloaded
,adbreakchange
,adbreakbegin
,adbegin
,adend
,adbreakend
Android SDK
The Player
API exposes an getAds()
method which belongs to the Ads
interface. Because this Ads
interface inherits from EventDispatcher<AdEvent>
,you can leverage event listeners in this interface.
The Android SDK currently only allows ad playback through Google IMA. The available events are documented in GoogleImaAdEventType
.
To subscribe to an event, you select an appropriate GoogleImaAdEventType
or AdsEventType
, use the Ads
interface, call the addEventListener
method, and set the event as the first parameter, and the callback as the second parameter.
For example, if you want to track the start of an ad break with the Android SDK, you could use the following snippet:
theoPlayer.ads.addEventListener(GoogleImaAdEventType.AD_BREAK_STARTED) {
Log.d("ADS", "AD_BREAK_STARTED")
}
iOS/tvOS SDK
The Player
API exposes an ads
property which belongs to the Ads
interface. Because this Ads
interface inherits from EventDispatcher
,
you can leverage event listeners in this interface.
The ad-related events are documented in AdsEventTypes.
To subscribe to an event, you select an event from this page, use the Ads
interface, call the addEventListener
method, and set the event as the first parameter, and the callback as the second parameter.
For example, if you want to track the start of an ad break, you could use the following snippet:
player.ads.addEventListener(type: AdsEventTypes.AD_BREAK_BEGIN) { (event) in
print(event)
}
Ad begin and end
Detecting the start and stop of ad breaks and individual ad pods is a common requirement.
The THEOplayer API exposes event listeners which allow applications to hook into these events.
Web SDK
This use-case is an application of Subscribing to an event, and relates to the following events:
adbegin
adbreakbegin
adbreakend
adend
For example, the following snippet would trigger the callback when an ad break begins:
player.ads.addEventListener("adbreakbegin", function (event) {
console.log(event);
});
You can swap adbreakbegin
for the other events, or supply an array instead:
player.ads.addEventListener(
["adbegin", "adbreakbegin", "adbreakend", "adend"],
function (event) {
console.log(event);
}
);
Android SDK
This use-case is an application of Subscribing to an event, and relates to the following events:
STARTED
AD_BREAK_STARTED
AD_PERIOD_STARTED
AD_BREAK_ENDED
AD_PERIOD_ENDED
COMPLETED
ALL_ADS_COMPLETED
theoPlayer.ads.addEventListener(GoogleImaAdEventType.AD_BREAK_STARTED) {
Log.d("ADS", "AD_BREAK_STARTED")
}
iOS/tvOS SDK
This use-case is an application of Subscribing to an event, and relates to the following events:
AD_BEGIN
AD_BREAK_BEGIN
AD_END
AD_BREAK_END
player.ads.addEventListener(type: AdsEventTypes.AD_BREAK_BEGIN) { (event) in
print(event)
}
Ad error
Ad error events might be triggered when an ad blocker is active, or when an "empty" ad is returned. As an app developer, you might want to detect and possibly react to this.
If you are scheduling client-side advertisements then you use the Ads
interface to detect the ad errors.
Web SDK
This use-case is an application of Subscribing to an event, specifically the aderror
event.
The following snippet would trigger the callback when an ad error occurs:
player.ads.addEventListener("aderror", function (event) {
console.log(event);
});
Android SDK
This use-case is an application of Subscribing to an event, specifically the AD_ERROR
event.
The following snippet would trigger the callback when an ad error occurs:
theoPlayer.ads.addEventListener(GoogleImaAdEventType.AD_ERROR) {
Log.d("ADS", "AD_ERROR")
}
iOS/tvOS SDK
This use-case is an application of Subscribing to an event, specifically the AD_ERROR
event.
The following snippet would trigger the callback when an ad error occurs:
player.ads.addEventListener(type: AdsEventTypes.AD_ERROR) { (event) in
print(event)
}
Server-side ads
If you're scheduling server-side ads, you might need to use a different interface than the Ads
interface which you use when scheduling client-side ads.
- Google DAI: if you're using Google DAI, you can use the same API as the one for client-side ads, as described in the sections above.
- Yospace: if you're using Yospace, you must use the Yospace interface. You can read more about detecting ad-related events with Yospace at our Yospace documentation.
- Verizon Media: if you're using Verizon Media, you must use the Verizon interface. You can read more about detecting ad-related events with Verizon Media at our Verizon Media documentation.
If you're building a custom server-side ad insertion solution, you might be interested in using our TextTrack
API to detect id3/emsg/EventStream/EXT-X-DATERANGE
cues, and the timeupdate
event in the Player
interface to determine the current playhead position.
Ad block detection
Refer to the article on ad block detection for more information on detecting (and responding) to ad blockers.
Resources
- More samples are available on our GitHub repository for Web, Android and iOS SDKs.
- THEOplayer advertisement tester