Question

Trying to implement Google Tracking on initial video play right now.

The API gives 6 states,

-1 (unstarted)
0 (ended)
1 (playing)
2 (paused)
3 (buffering)
5 (video cued).

but the state I'm using (1: playing) triggers on every video click. I only want to track the initial play event.

This is what I have so far.

asyncYouTubeApiLoad();
getVideoTrackingValues();


function getVideoTrackingValues() {
    $player = $('#player'),
    $yt_trackValue = $player.data('tracking-value');
}

executeYouTubeReady();

function executeYouTubeReady() {
    // Wait for API
    setTimeout(function() {
        onYouTubeIframeAPIReady();
    }, 200);
}

function onYouTubeIframeAPIReady() {
  player = new YT.Player('player', {
    events: {
      'onStateChange': onPlayerStateChange
    }
  });
}

function onPlayerStateChange(event) {
    // On Play
    if (event.data = 1) {
        fireVideoEventTracking('video_play');
    }
    // On End
    else if (event.data = 0) {
        fireVideoEventTracking('video_complete');
    }
}

function fireVideoEventTracking(eventType) {
    _gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'video', eventType, $yt_trackValue]);                    
}
Was it helpful?

Solution

Ended up adding a boolean to the onReady method and checking against that.

var initialLoad = false;

    function onYouTubeIframeAPIReady() {
      player = new YT.Player('player', {
        events: {
          'onReady': onPlayerReady,
          'onStateChange': onPlayerStateChange
        }
      });
    }

    function onPlayerReady() {
        initialLoad = true;
    }

    function onPlayerStateChange(event) {
        console.log(event.data);
        // On Play
        if (event.data == 1 && initialLoad) {
            fireVideoEventTracking('video_play');
            initialLoad = false;
        } else if (event.data == 0) {
            fireVideoEventTracking('video_complete');
        }
    }
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