VPAID integration

[mente]

TL;DR - only Javascript VPAID SDKs are supported as for now. Known VPAID SDKs in Javascript - Liverail (via parameter LR_FORMAT, check docs

Hello,

This PR adds basic support for linear VPAID ads. PR is based on squashed branch. I've kept original branch with all commits in if you like.

Generally what has been done:

• use forked version of vast-client to correctly detect VPAID (relies on apiFramework support + setDuration  dailymotion/vast-client-js#52)
• if VPAID is found in VAST response - use it
• small ad time indication (for VPAID only, can be applied to VAST playback as well)
• localization support for text used in plugin (closes Changing "Skip" text #44). Requires video.js version 4.7.3
• tests (though I don't like it's quality)

Tested on Chrome stable latest, IE9, Firefox stable latest, iOS7.1, iOS8.0, Android 4.3 (Chrome).
PR is pretty big, looking forward to comments and ideas for improvement.

Regards,
Alex

[mente]

Also if anyone has examples of non-linear javascript VPAID ad tags I would be happy to check and try to implement in my spare time

[mente]

dailymotion/vast-client-js#52 was merged so I've updated code to use latest vast-client version

[csinchok]

Thanks for the PR! Let me take a look at this, and I'll try to get it merged in the next couple of days.

[mente]

Any luck with checking?

[csinchok]

Hey, @mente, unfortunately, we just moved some tests and implementation code around, which kinda complicates the merge here.

I'm gonna try to merge this one on the command line and take a look. I should know more later this afternoon, thanks for your patience!

[mente]

Any help needed?

[csinchok]

I think I'm OK for right now—it's just that there's a whole lot of code here. This PR almost doubles the size of the videojs.vast.js file, so I want to make sure that I'm fully understanding the changes in here.

[mente]

I was thinking of making it as another plugin but decided to make it in
plugin itself and it heavily relies on this plugin functionality.

2014-11-03 18:49 GMT+02:00 Chris Sinchok notifications@github.com:

I think I'm OK for right now—it's just that there's a whole lot of code
here. This PR almost doubles the size of the videojs.vast.js file, so I
want to make sure that I'm fully understanding the changes in here.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#50 (comment)
.

[csinchok]

I think that fine, but I'm leaning towards doing some refactoring, and separating the VPAID logic into a separate file in this repo. Right now there's a just a whole lot going on in this one file.

[mente]

Maybe I should open another PR against current master? It can speed up process of merging

[thinklinux]

I'm also waiting for that merge to happen : ) I would love a VPAID support!

[sieumeo]

Hey guys, I'm using this plugin in my VAST-only custom player and I'd love to see support for this cool plugin too!

[jonhatalla]

any updates on this pull request? Anything the open-source community can do to help expedite this?

[davidgerth]

Waiting for this one, too. Any ETA?

[Manbearpixel]

So... Has VAST 2.0 and VPAID been integrated into this plugin yet? I see there is a merge conflict so it must not be in there yet... Really enjoy VideoJS but with the new ads my company is trying to roll out with YUME I'm waiting around to integrate it.

[mente]

@Manbearpixel as far as I know YUME is not compatible with javascript SDKs by default. When I was integrating it in our project had to ask them to leave VAST only. Reason is they have only Flash SDK. While Liverail has both.

[Manbearpixel]

@mente But there are plugins out there such as OVA which fully integrate VPAID support. I was originally going to go that route but the plugin provider seems to now be owned by JWPlayer, which closed their developer portal so you can't easily download their source files. Plus on top of that, I believe you have to pay them to have ads on any player that will use that plugin. I had switched to VideoJS for this new site and it's been fine until our need to support YUME flash ads which use VPAID.

[mente]

I receive several questions like "Why this ad tag doesn't work?" 100% of them are based on Flash VPAID SDK. I contact Actionscript developer whether it's possible to painlessly bridge javascript <-> swf SDKs. If yes - will update my PR (or open a new one).

[leomicheloni]

I did a basic bridge between SWF and Javascript (using external interface) if you are interested I can share the code.

[mente]

@leomicheloni would be great!

[ryanschott]

I would also be very interested in seeing that code! We are working on
something similar!

[leomicheloni]

No problem, i'm uploading it to github in a few hours

[leomicheloni]

I couldn't find the code. But
You need to create an action script 3 file (you can use Flash Builder). Then create a class that extends Sprite

public class FlashAdapter extends Sprite{
pubic FlashAdapter(){
};
public LocalMethod(params: Object): void{
//this method is called from javascript
}

}

You can call javascript function from Action Script using

ExternalInterface.call("window.myGlobalFunction", jsonDataToSendToJavascript);

And you can listen to calls from javascript

ExternalInterface.addCallback( "flashMethid", this,LocalMethod );

So, you can simple load the swf object using swfobject lib

Then call the method from javascript

var swf = swfobject.flashMethod(params);

That's all. If you are interested we can build an adapter from scratch.

[jadbox]

Is this ready to be merged for the VPAID js part of the compatibility?

[Manbearpixel]

@Kalail I too am still waiting for any more feedback about VPAID integration into this plugin. VideoJS is a great player but I am now looking for alternative players that, more than likely, will cost a licensing fee to use. I tried my luck with the VideoJS Google IMA plugin which has VPAID support, unfortunately it does not run the VPAID via Flash and failed.

[mente]

Sorry for being long on it, too much events happening in my life. Right now I don't free time for updating it and adding SWF support. If you really need it - contact me in private

[592da]

@mente Is it money issue ? if yes send my PM, I have website and VPAID support is critical for my site.
I will be glad to assist in order to get VPAID support for that player. I prefer this player then JW or other players.

[Manbearpixel]

@mente @592da - I too would like to contribute, if needed, to get this working. As a side note, I'm currently looking into modifying the source of the VideoJS.swf too see if I can make progress into getting VPAID working through Flash or a bridge between the two.

[pcting]

@Manbearpixel: There has been work done by the guardian around flash vpaid that i've tested and got working: https://github.com/guardian/video-js-vpaid

I'm also in the middle of refactoring code around javascript vpaid vast support that I want to contribute back to the community at some point once it's stable.

@mente: i'm refactoring your pull request and refactoring it in such a way that javascript vpaid is just another videojs tech. hopefully it works out reasonably well.

[Manbearpixel]

@pcting Oh, thanks! I had searched all over I thought for any mention of VideoJS + VPAID and did not find that fork... This is the exact thing I was working on, I'll head over and check out the project.

Cheers - mbp

[Manbearpixel]

@pcting I was looking into the video-js-vpaid repo, went through the steps to get the sandbox working and it's not running. Would you be able to provide assistance? My email is: manbearpixel@gmail.com

Thanks in advance.

[eccheung4]

@pcting hi, I also tried the video-js-vpaid repo and I get an error about "Vpaid" tech being undefined in video.dev.js when I was testing the /sandbox/videojs.html. Did you write you own plugin for the vpaid tech or did it work with the current video.dev.js?

Thanks!

[Manbearpixel]

@eccheung4 I just put together a forked repo of the guardians' VPAID attempt. My repo is a compilation of their's and some content @pcting threw my way. At this moment I do have some sort of working demonstration of Flash VPAID support. A LiveRail VPAID ad test is working, but a YuMe one is not for some reason (could be on their end).

Anyways, check it out and run the installation on my repo and it should work fine for you. I haven't touched much since I worked on it a day or so ago since I'm waiting for YuMe to reply back with an issue.

https://github.com/Manbearpixel/video-js-vpaid

[eccheung4]

Cool, thanks @Manbearpixel ! I will check it out

[thekashifmalik]

This is interesting progress. I have a need for Flash VPAID support for Video.js in a timely manner and am willing to offer a monetary reward, pending a requirements review.

[pcting]

@eccheung4 I'm in the process of cleaning up the code to put out a proper release with an actual working example. I am hopeful I can have the code polished and ready within the next two weeks.

I unfortunately have rewritten much of the videojs-vast-plugin where I can't see it being merged back upstream.

[hacfi]

Is this still necessary with line 19 using vast-client from bower components?

[mente]

Nope, just missed it

[eccheung4]

@pcting very cool! Looking forward to it. I forked @Manbearpixel and was able to get LiveRail Flash, Spotx Flash, and Adaptv flash, but I couldn't get YUME working.

[Manbearpixel]

@eccheung4 Good stuff man, I'll check it out. Will be working with YuMe to determine why their integration isn't working as easily as others.

[rhekeen]

@Manbearpixel I managed to run yume vpaid with minor changes to AdContainer.as

https://github.com/rhekeen/video-js-vpaid-flash

[eccheung4]

awesome @rhekeen ! Unfortunately I tried out your repo and I get a vpaid creative ad error for your yume vpaid test. Is all you did was cast the loaded swf object as a Display Object? Is there anything else that maybe you forgot to commit thats needed?

thanks!

[joshmadewell]

Is this PR getting close to being merged? I'm extremely interested in using this feature....

[Danovadia]

any progress made in May? thx

[Manbearpixel]

@Danovadia @joshmadewell - I'm working on a VPAID plugin for VideoJS currently. I do not have a repo on it yet since I'm still finishing it up but will source it when available. I had a working VPAID integration in the VideoJS Flash SWF but am having issues setting the source back once the ad is over, so instead I'm turning it into a plugin that will overlay the video player.

[Manbearpixel]

@Danovadia @joshmadewell - Finally wrapped up my code into a repo, feel free to check it out. Hope this helps! https://github.com/Manbearpixel/videojs-vpaid

[joshmadewell]

@Manbearpixel

This is awesome man! Are you using this because you only use VPAID ads or do you have some kind of implementation on your end where you switch plugins based on the tag?

[Manbearpixel]

@joshmadewell
Thanks Josh, yeah our site needed to support both VAST (HTML5) and VPAID (Flash) ads, the VAST plugin I found for VideoJS works pretty solid, there was just nothing like that for VPAID, so I had a working one but it was a tech, so it was embedded within the Flash tech and I ran into some issues. This route seemed the fastest and easiest. So now based on the ad response from our server I just switch the plugin to use.

[spra85]

@Manbearpixel revisiting this PR, does your videojs-vpaid plugin work alongside this one or meant to replace? Curious if you're using both plugins to support both VAST and VPAID ads for your site

[joshmadewell]

@spra85

I asked a similar question if you look at the comment just above MBP's last one. He said he implemented a way to know whether or not he needed the VAST or VPAID plugin before choosing which ad tech to use.

I needed to be able to know if the ads failed at run-time so i made some modifications to the VPAID code that MBP wrote to handle this which was very simple to do.

[Manbearpixel]

@spra85
As noted by Josh, my plugin does NOT handle VAST. Only VPAID. Maybe down the road I can combine this VAST Plugin with my VPAID Plugin and do some sort of smart decision.