This guide walks through integration with video.js to collect video performance metrics with Mux Data.
Features
Install videojs-mux
videojs-mux
Initialize Mux Data
Make your data actionable
Set or update metadata after initialization
Changing the video
Advanced options
Release Notes
The following data can be collected by the Mux Data SDK when you use the Video.js SDK, as described below.
Supported Features:
renditionchange
eventsRequest metrics and CDN identification are available using videojs-contrib-hls
or Video.js v7+. Preroll Ads metrics & metadata available if using videojs-ima
. Session Data is available with Video.js w/ HLS.js.
videojs-mux
Include the Mux JavaScript SDK on every page of your web app that includes video. You can use the Mux-hosted version of the script or install via npm. videojs-mux
follows semantic versioning and the API will not change between major releases.
npm install --save videojs-mux
Get your ENV_KEY
from the Mux environments dashboard.
Env Key is different than your API token
ENV_KEY
is a client-side key used for Mux Data monitoring. These are not to be confused with API tokens which are created in the admin settings dashboard and meant to access the Mux API from a trusted server.
Call video.js like you normally would and include the Mux plugin options.
import videojs from "video.js";
import "video.js/dist/video-js.css";
import "videojs-mux";
videojs('my-player', {
plugins: {
mux: {
debug: false,
data: {
env_key: 'ENV_KEY', // required
// Metadata
player_name: '', // ex: 'My Main Player'
// ... and other metadata
}
}
}
});
The only required field in the options
that you pass into videojs-mux
is env_key
. But without some metadata the metrics in your dashboard will lack the necessary information to take meaningful actions. Metadata allows you to search and filter on important fields in order to diagnose issues and optimize the playback experience for your end users.
Pass in metadata under the data
on initialization.
videojs('#my-player', {
plugins: {
mux: {
debug: false,
data: {
env_key: 'ENV_KEY', // required
// Site Metadata
viewer_user_id: '', // ex: '12345'
experiment_name: '', // ex: 'player_test_A'
sub_property_id: '', // ex: 'cus-1'
// Player Metadata
player_name: '', // ex: 'My Main Player'
player_version: '', // ex: '1.0.0'
// There is no need to provide player_init_time, tracked automatically
// player_init_time: '', // ex: 1451606400000;
// Video Metadata
video_id: '', // ex: 'abcd123'
video_title: '', // ex: 'My Great Video'
video_series: '', // ex: 'Weekly Great Videos'
video_duration: '', // in milliseconds, ex: 120000
video_stream_type: '', // 'live' or 'on-demand'
video_cdn: '' // ex: 'Fastly', 'Akamai'
}
}
}
});
For more information, view Make your data actionable.
There are some cases where you may not have the full set of metadata until after the video playback has started. In this case, you should omit the values when you first initialize the Mux SDK. Then, once you have the metadata, you can update the metadata with the updateData
method.
// player is the instance returned by the `videojs` function
player.mux.updateData({ video_title: 'My Updated Great Video' });
There are two cases where the underlying tracking of the video view need to be reset:
Note: You do not need to change the video info when changing to a different source of the same video content (e.g. different resolution or video format).
If your application plays multiple videos back-to-back in the same video player, you need to signal when a new video starts to the Mux SDK. Examples of when this is needed are:
In order to signal the Mux SDK that a new view is starting, you will need to emit a videochange
event, along with metadata about the new video. See metadata in Make your data actionable for the full list of video details you can provide. You can include any metadata when changing the video but you should only need to update the values that start with video_
.
It's best to change the video info immediately after telling the player which new source to play.
// player is the instance returned by the `videojs` function
player.mux.emit('videochange', {
video_id: 'abc345',
video_title: 'My Other Great Video',
video_series: 'Weekly Great Videos',
// ...
});
In some cases, you may have the program change within a stream, and you may want to track each program as a view on its own. An example of this is a live stream that streams multiple programs back to back, with no interruptions.
In this case, you emit a programchange
event, including the updated metadata for the new program within the continuous stream. This will remove all previous video data and reset all metrics for the video view, creating a new video view. See Metadata for the list of video details you can provide. You can include any metadata when changing the video but you should only need to update the values that start with video
.
Note: The programchange
event is intended to be used only while the player is currently not paused. If you emit this event while the player is paused, the resulting view will not track video startup time correctly, and may also have incorrect watch time. Do not emit this event while the player is paused.
// player is the instance returned by the `videojs` function
player.mux.emit('programchange', {
video_id: 'abc345',
video_title: 'My Other Great Video',
video_series: 'Weekly Great Videos',
// ...
});
By default, Mux plugins for HTML5-based players use a cookie to track playback across subsequent page views in order to understand viewing sessions. This cookie includes information about the tracking of the viewer, such as an anonymized viewer ID that Mux generates for each user. None of this information is personally-identifiable, but you can disable the use of this cookie if desired. For instance, if your site or application is targeted towards children under 13, you should disable the use of cookies. For information about the specific data tracked in the cookie, please refer to: What information is stored in Mux Data HTML cookies.
This is done by setting disableCookies: true
in the options.
videojs('#my-player', {
plugins: {
mux: {
debug: false,
disableCookies: true,
data: {
env_key: "ENV_KEY",
// ...
}
}
}
});
By default, Mux plugins for HTML5-based players do not respect Do Not Track when set within browsers. This can be enabled in the options passed to Mux, via a setting named respectDoNotTrack
. The default for this is false
. If you would like to change this behavior, pass respectDoNotTrack: true
.
videojs('#my-player', {
plugins: {
mux: {
debug: false,
respectDoNotTrack: true,
data: {
env_key: "ENV_KEY",
// ...
}
}
}
});
Errors are fatal
Errors tracked by mux are considered fatal meaning that they are the result of playback failures. If errors are non-fatal they should not be captured.
By default, videojs-mux
will track errors emitted from the video element as fatal errors. If a fatal error happens outside of the context of the player, you can emit a custom error to the mux monitor.
// player is the instance returned by the `videojs` function
player.mux.emit('error', {
player_error_code: 100,
player_error_message: 'Description of error',
player_error_context: 'Additional context for the error'
});
When triggering an error event, it is important to provide values for player_error_code
and player_error_message
. The player_error_message
should provide a generalized description of the error as it happened. The player_error_code
must be an integer, and should provide a category of the error. If the errors match up with the HTML Media Element Error, you can use the same codes as the corresponding HTML errors. However, for custom errors, you should choose a number greater than or equal to 100
.
In general you should not send a distinct code for each possible error message, but rather group similar errors under the same code. For instance, if your library has two different conditions for network errors, both should have the same player_error_code
but different messages.
The error message and code are combined together and aggregated with all errors that occur in your environment in order to find the most common errors that occur. To make error aggregation as useful as possible, these values should be general enough to provide useful information but not specific to each individual error (such as stack trace).
You can use player_error_context
to provide instance-specific information derived from the error such as stack trace or segment-ids where an error occurred. This value is not aggregated with other errors and can be used to provide detailed information. Note: Please do not include any personally identifiable information from the viewer in this data.
If your player emits error events that are not fatal to playback or the errors are unclear and/or do not have helpful information in the default error message and codes you might find it helpful to use an error translator or disable automatic error tracking all together.
function errorTranslator (error) {
return {
player_error_code: translateCode(error.player_error_code),
player_error_message: translateMessage(error.player_error_message),
player_error_context: translateContext(error.player_error_context)
};
}
videojs('#my-player', {
plugins: {
mux: {
debug: false,
errorTranslator,
data: {
env_key: "ENV_KEY",
// ...
}
}
}
});
If you return false
from your errorTranslator
function then the error will not be tracked. Do this for non-fatal errors that you want to ignore. If your errorTranslator
function itself raises an error, then it will be silenced and the player's original error will be used.
In the case that you want full control over what errors are counted as fatal or not, you may want to consider turning off Mux's automatic error tracking completely. This can be done by passing automaticErrorTracking: false
in the configuration object.
videojs('#my-player', {
plugins: {
mux: {
debug: false,
automaticErrorTracking: false,
data: {
env_key: "ENV_KEY",
// ...
}
}
}
});
videojs-mux
If you are using videojs-ima
, Brightcove's IMA3 FreeWheel or OnceUX plugins with VideoJS then videojs-mux
will track ads automatically. No extra configuration is needed.
If you have integrated a custom domain for Data collection, specify your custom domain by setting beaconCollectionDomain
.
videojs('#my-player', {
plugins: {
mux: {
debug: false,
beaconCollectionDomain: 'CUSTOM_DOMAIN', // ex: 'foo.bar.com'
data: {
env_key: "ENV_KEY",
// ...
}
}
}
});
mux-embed
to v5.4.1Add updateData function that allows Mux Data metadata to be updated mid-view.
Update mux-embed
to v5.4.0
mux-embed
to v5.3.3mux-embed
to v5.3.2mux-embed
to v5.3.1mux-embed
to v5.3.0utilize onRequest rather than beforeSend for videojs 8.x
Update mux-embed
to v5.2.1
mux-embed
to v5.2.0Target ES5 for bundles and validate bundles are ES5
Update mux-embed
to v5.1.0
Refactors for stricter data types (e.g. string vs. number) based on TypeScript types.
Update mux-embed
to v5.0.0
mux-embed
to v4.30.0mux-embed
to v4.29.0mux-embed
to v4.28.1mux-embed
to v4.28.0fix an issue where seek latency could be unexpectedly large
fix an issue where seek latency does not include time at end of a view
Update mux-embed
to v4.27.0
mux-embed
to v4.26.0mux-embed
to v4.25.1mux-embed
to v4.25.0Fix an issue where beacons over a certain size could get hung and not be sent
Update mux-embed
to v4.24.0
Fix an issue where tracking rebuffering can get into an infinite loop
Update mux-embed
to v4.23.0
mux-embed
to v4.22.0mux-embed
to v4.21.0mux-embed
to v4.20.0mux-embed
to v4.19.0Capture ad metadata for Video.js IMA
Update mux-embed
to v4.18.0
Support player_error_context
in errorTranslator
Update mux-embed
to v4.17.0
Adds support for new and updated fields: renditionchange
, error, DRM type, dropped frames, and new custom fields
Update mux-embed
to v4.16.0
videojs-mux
Register beforesetup
hook to track player_init_time
automatically. There is now no need to provide player_init_time
in plugin initialization
Record request_url
and request_id
with network events
Update mux-embed
to v4.15.0
mux-embed
to v4.14.0mux-embed
to v4.13.4mux-embed
to v4.13.3mux-embed
to v4.13.2mux-embed
to v4.13.1Upgraded internal webpack version
Update mux-embed
to v4.13.0
mux-embed
to v4.12.1mux-embed
to v4.12.0mux-embed
to v4.11.0mux-embed
to v4.10.0mux-embed
to v4.9.4videojs.Vhs
instead of videojs.Hls
when availablemux-embed
to v4.9.3mux-embed
to v4.9.2mux-embed
to v4.9.1mux-embed
to v4.9.0player_error_code
and player_error_message
when the error code is 1
.
Also stops emitting MEDIA_ERR_ABORTED
as errors.mux-embed
to v4.8.0mux-embed
to v4.7.0mux-embed
to v4.6.2mux-embed
to v4.6.1register
function that takes a videojs
instance to install the mux plugin onmux-embed
to v4.4.2mux-embed
to v4.3.0mux-embed
to v4.2.0programchange
may not have been tracked correctlydestroy
was called multiple times, it would raise an exceptionmux-embed
to v4.1.1player_remote_played
would not be reported correctlymux-embed
to v4.0.0mux-embed
dependency to 3.4.3
.mux-embed
dependency to 3.4.2
.