Enable Ad Data Collection by Attaching the Freewheel Context

To enable a Datazoom collector to capture the ad related data points, the required steps for a web application differ depending on how the ad framework (e.g., Freewheel) is integrated with the video player. In general, there are two types of integration method between the video player and ad framework:

1. Leverage ad framework integration supported by the video player

Players such as Akamai AMP player, JW Player, THEOplayer, … etc., support Freewheel ad integration as a part or an optional module of the player. Since the corresponding Datazoom collector for the player is prebuilt with knowledge of the player’s ad related features, for a web application who simply leverages the video player for ads, no additional code is required to enable ad data collection in this scenario.

2. Ad implementation external to the video player

Players that mainly focus on core playback/streaming functionalities, such as HLS.js player, Dash.js player, or the native HTML5 <video> element, often do not come with ad integration features. For a web application who likes to enable ads independent of the video player, it can choose to utilize the ad framework library (e.g., Freewheel MRM AdManager SDK) directly or bring in some third-party components. In either cases, since it is impossible for the corresponding Datazoom collector to gather ad information through the video player, some provisioning steps (see the section below: Attach the Freewheel Context) will be required to enable ad data collection.

Attach the Freewheel Context

For a web application who enables ads by utilizing Freewheel MRM AdManager SDK directly or through some third-party components, it will be interacting with the Freewheel Context object. This object is responsible for creating ad requests, parsing the ad request responses, and managing the presentation of the resulted ads. Besides, the Freewheel Context object also provides events and metadata regarding the resulted ads and the presentation status.

Therefore, for a Datazoom collector to gather ad information in this scenario, the application should give access by attaching the Freewheel Context object to the collector context as soon as it becomes available. The Datazoom collector context interface expose these methods for this purpose:

// share a Freewheel Context object with the collector context
context.attachFwContext(freewheel_context) {}

// unshare the Freewheel Context object as an optional cleanup step
context.detachFwContext() {}

For example, a video page using HTML5 <video> element and managing Freewheel MRM AdManager SDK directly can set everything up and attach the Freewheel Context object (to the collector context) as below:

// Create the video player and the collector context
var media_element = document.getElementById("video");
var datazoom_context = datazoom.createContext(media_element);

// Create the Freewheel AdManager
var fw_admanager = new tv.freewheel.SDK.AdManager();
fw_admanager.setNetwork(1234);
fw_admanager.setServer("ad_server_url");

// Create the Freewheel Context object
var fw_context = fw_admanager.newContext();
fw_context.setProfile("some_profile");
/* other Freewheel Context configurations
 fw_context.setVideoAsset(...);
 fw_context.setSiteSection(...);
 fw_context.addTemporalSlot(...);
 ...
 */

// Share the Freewheel Context object with the collector context
datazoom_context.attachFwContext(fw_context);

// Request ads
fw_context.submitRequest();

/* other code related to ad presentation and player coordination
 ...
 */

That’s it. The Datazoom collector is now provided with the required access to gather ad related information.