The New Relic HTML5 Tracker provides comprehensive video analytics for applications using the native HTML5 <video> element. Track video events, monitor playback quality, identify errors, and gain deep insights into user engagement and performance.
- 🎯 Automatic Event Detection - Captures native HTML5 video events automatically without manual instrumentation
- 📈 QoE Metrics - Quality of Experience aggregation for startup time, buffering, and playback quality
- 🎨 Event Segregation - Organized event types:
VideoAction,VideoErrorAction,VideoCustomAction - 🚀 Easy Integration - NPM package or direct script include
- 📺 IMA Ads Support - Built-in Google IMA SDK ad tracking
- 🔧 Zero Configuration - Works out of the box with any HTML5
<video>element
- Installation
- Prerequisites
- Usage
- Best Practices
- Configuration Options
- API Reference
- Data Model
- Support
- Contribute
- License
Install the package using your preferred package manager:
NPM:
npm install @newrelic/video-html5Yarn:
yarn add @newrelic/video-html5For quick integration without a build system, include the tracker directly in your HTML:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<!-- New Relic HTML5 Tracker -->
<script src="path/to/newrelic-video-html5.min.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<video id="myVideo" controls width="640" height="480">
<source src="https://your-video-url.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
</video>
<script>
// Get a reference to the video element
var player = document.getElementById('myVideo');
// Configure New Relic tracker with info from one.newrelic.com
const options = {
info: {
licenseKey: 'YOUR_LICENSE_KEY',
beacon: 'YOUR_BEACON_URL',
applicationID: 'YOUR_APP_ID'
}
};
// Initialize tracker
const tracker = new Html5Tracker(player, options);
</script>
</body>
</html>Setup Steps:
- Get Configuration - Visit one.newrelic.com and follow the Streaming Video & Ads onboarding flow to get your
licenseKey,beacon,applicationID, and integration code snippet. - Integrate - Include the script in your HTML and initialize with your configuration.
Before using the tracker, ensure you have:
- New Relic Account - Active New Relic account with valid application credentials (
beacon,applicationID,licenseKey) - HTML5 Video Element - A standard
<video>element in your application
Before initializing the tracker, obtain your New Relic configuration:
- Log in to one.newrelic.com
- Navigate to the video agent onboarding flow
- Copy your credentials:
licenseKey,beacon, andapplicationID
import Html5Tracker from '@newrelic/video-html5';
// Get a reference to the video element
const player = document.getElementById('myVideo');
// Configure tracker with credentials from one.newrelic.com
const options = {
info: {
licenseKey: 'YOUR_LICENSE_KEY',
beacon: 'YOUR_BEACON_URL',
applicationID: 'YOUR_APP_ID'
}
};
// Initialize tracker
const tracker = new Html5Tracker(player, options);const options = {
info: {
licenseKey: 'YOUR_LICENSE_KEY',
beacon: 'YOUR_BEACON_URL',
applicationID: 'YOUR_APP_ID'
},
config: {
qoeAggregate: true, // Enable QoE event aggregation
qoeIntervalFactor: 2 // Send QoE events every 2 harvest cycles
},
customData: {
contentTitle: 'My Video Title',
customPlayerName: 'MyCustomPlayer',
customAttribute: 'customValue'
}
};
const tracker = new Html5Tracker(player, options);The contentTitle attribute will display a value if your video metadata contains title information. If the metadata does not include a title, contentTitle will not be populated. For best results, ensure you explicitly set this attribute during initialization:
const tracker = new Html5Tracker(player, {
info: {
licenseKey: 'YOUR_LICENSE_KEY',
beacon: 'YOUR_BEACON_URL',
applicationID: 'YOUR_APP_ID'
},
customData: {
contentTitle: 'My Video Title' // Explicitly set from your metadata
}
});If your title changes dynamically (e.g., playlist or queue):
tracker.sendOptions({
customData: {
contentTitle: 'New Video Title'
}
});Set a user identifier to track video analytics per user:
// Set userId during initialization
const tracker = new Html5Tracker(player, {
info: {
licenseKey: 'YOUR_LICENSE_KEY',
beacon: 'YOUR_BEACON_URL',
applicationID: 'YOUR_APP_ID'
},
customData: {
contentTitle: 'Video Title',
userId: 'user-12345'
}
});
// Or set userId separately using the API method
tracker.setUserId('user-12345');Add custom attributes unique to your deployment to improve data aggregation and analysis:
const tracker = new Html5Tracker(player, {
info: {
licenseKey: 'YOUR_LICENSE_KEY',
beacon: 'YOUR_BEACON_URL',
applicationID: 'YOUR_APP_ID'
},
customData: {
// Required for identification
contentTitle: videoMetadata.title,
userId: currentUser.id,
// Custom attributes for your deployment
subscriptionTier: 'premium', // User subscription level
contentProvider: 'studio-abc', // Content source
region: 'us-west-2', // Geographic region
cdnProvider: 'cloudflare', // CDN being used
deviceType: 'desktop', // Device category
appVersion: '2.1.0', // Your app version
campaign: 'spring-promo' // Marketing campaign
}
});Use these attributes in New Relic queries:
-- Analyze by subscription tier
SELECT count(*) FROM VideoAction WHERE actionName = 'CONTENT_START'
FACET subscriptionTier SINCE 1 day ago
-- Monitor by region
SELECT average(contentPlayhead) FROM VideoAction
FACET region SINCE 1 hour agoWhen deploying to production, use feature flags to enable the tracker gradually. This helps you:
- Validate data collection without impacting all users
- Monitor performance impact at scale
- Catch issues before full deployment
- Control monitoring costs
// Example using a feature flag
const rolloutPercentage = 5; // Start with 5% of users
function shouldEnableTracking(userId) {
// Simple percentage-based rollout
const hash = userId.split('').reduce((acc, char) => acc + char.charCodeAt(0), 0);
return (hash % 100) < rolloutPercentage;
}
const player = document.getElementById('myVideo');
// Only initialize tracker if user is in rollout
if (shouldEnableTracking(currentUser.id)) {
const tracker = new Html5Tracker(player, {
info: {
licenseKey: 'YOUR_LICENSE_KEY',
beacon: 'YOUR_BEACON_URL',
applicationID: 'YOUR_APP_ID'
},
customData: {
contentTitle: videoMetadata.title,
userId: currentUser.id,
rolloutGroup: `${rolloutPercentage}%` // Track which rollout group
}
});
}Recommended Rollout Schedule:
| Phase | Percentage | Duration | Validation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Initial | 5% | 2-3 days | Verify data flowing to New Relic |
| Early | 15% | 3-5 days | Check data quality and performance |
| Expansion | 25% | 5-7 days | Validate across device types |
| Majority | 50% | 1-2 weeks | Monitor at scale |
| Full | 100% | Ongoing | Complete deployment |
| Option | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
qoeAggregate |
boolean | false |
Enable Quality of Experience event aggregation. Set to true to collect QoE metrics like startup time, buffering, and playback quality. |
qoeIntervalFactor |
number | 1 |
Controls QoE event frequency. A value of N sends QoE events once every N harvest cycles. Must be a positive integer. QoE events are always included on first and final harvest cycles. |
Add custom attributes to all events:
customData: {
contentTitle: 'My Video Title', // Override video title
customPlayerName: 'MyPlayer', // Custom player identifier
customPlayerVersion: '1.0.0', // Custom player version
userId: '12345', // User identifier
contentSeries: 'Season 1', // Series information
// Add any custom attributes you need
}Limit: The maximum total number of custom attributes per event is 150. Any attributes beyond this limit will be dropped.
Note: There are special keywords reserved for default attributes (documented in DATAMODEL.md). Please do not use these as custom attribute names, as they will be dropped.
Set a unique identifier for the current user.
tracker.setUserId('user-12345');Configure how frequently data is sent to New Relic. Accepts values between 1000ms (1 second) and 300000ms (5 minutes).
tracker.setHarvestInterval(30000); // Send data every 30 secondsSend custom events with arbitrary attributes.
tracker.sendCustom('VideoBookmarked', 'playing', {
timestamp: Date.now(),
position: player.currentTime,
userId: 'user-12345',
bookmarkId: 'bookmark-789'
});Update tracker configuration after initialization.
tracker.sendOptions({
customData: {
contentTitle: 'New Video Title',
season: '1',
episode: '3'
}
});import Html5Tracker from '@newrelic/video-html5';
// Get a reference to the video element
const player = document.getElementById('myVideo');
// Initialize tracker
const tracker = new Html5Tracker(player, {
info: {
licenseKey: 'YOUR_LICENSE_KEY',
beacon: 'YOUR_BEACON_URL',
applicationID: 'YOUR_APP_ID'
},
config: {
qoeAggregate: true
}
});
// Set user context
tracker.setUserId('user-12345');
// Configure reporting interval
tracker.setHarvestInterval(30000);
// Send custom events
player.addEventListener('volumechange', () => {
tracker.sendCustom('VolumeChanged', 'playing', {
muted: player.muted,
volume: player.volume,
timestamp: Date.now()
});
});The tracker captures comprehensive video analytics across three event types:
- VideoAction - Playback events (play, pause, buffer, seek, rendition changes, heartbeats)
- VideoErrorAction - Error events (playback failures, media errors)
- VideoCustomAction - Custom events defined by your application
Note: The HTML5 Tracker is a base tracker built on the native HTML5
<video>element. Some attributes listed in the data model (e.g.,contentBitrate,contentCdn,contentId,contentLanguage) may not be populated because the native HTML5 API does not expose them. If you need these attributes, you can set them manually viacustomData, or use a higher-level player tracker (such as Dash.js, HLS.js, or Video.js) that provides richer metadata.
Full Documentation: See DATAMODEL.md for complete event and attribute reference.
Should you need assistance with New Relic products, you are in good hands with several support channels.
If the issue has been confirmed as a bug or is a feature request, please file a GitHub issue.
- New Relic Documentation: Comprehensive guidance for using our platform
- New Relic Community: The best place to engage in troubleshooting questions
- New Relic University: A range of online training for New Relic users of every level
- New Relic Technical Support: 24/7/365 ticketed support. Read more about our Technical Support Offerings
We encourage your contributions to improve the HTML5 Tracker! Keep in mind that when you submit your pull request, you'll need to sign the CLA via the click-through using CLA-Assistant. You only have to sign the CLA one time per project.
If you have any questions, or to execute our corporate CLA (which is required if your contribution is on behalf of a company), drop us an email at opensource@newrelic.com.
For more details on how best to contribute, see CONTRIBUTING.md.
As noted in our security policy, New Relic is committed to the privacy and security of our customers and their data. We believe that providing coordinated disclosure by security researchers and engaging with the security community are important means to achieve our security goals.
If you believe you have found a security vulnerability in this project or any of New Relic's products or websites, we welcome and greatly appreciate you reporting it to New Relic through our bug bounty program.
If you would like to contribute to this project, review these guidelines.
To all contributors, we thank you! Without your contribution, this project would not be what it is today.
The HTML5 Tracker is licensed under the Apache 2.0 License.
The HTML5 Tracker also uses source code from third-party libraries. Full details on which libraries are used and the terms under which they are licensed can be found in the third-party notices document.