Question

I have a video that is 60 seconds long. I am working on adding some JavaScript to send data from my video player to Google Analytics. What I am looking to do is to launch an event no more than once every 60 seconds for a range of time.

So for example, a user watches 21 to 40 seconds into a video, I want only one event launched (rather then 19 times for the 19 seconds of time). Then the user watches 41 to 60 seconds into the video, I want only one event launched. I actually have figured this part out already.

The problem is when it comes to time. So if a user watches the 21 to 40 seconds it launches an event. They watch the rest of the video and mentally process it and decide “hey I want to watch the video again”. If they watch the video again, that one event at 21 to 40 seconds won’t launch again unless they refresh the page.

How can I edit my script so an event is launched only once every 60 seconds for a specific range?

<script type="text/javascript">
function Follow( minimum, maximum )
{
this.min = minimum;
this.max = maximum;
this.done = false;
}
var following = [
new Follow( 1, 20 ),
new Follow( 21, 40 ),
new Follow( 41, 60 )
]; 

player().Time(
function(event) 
{
    var gone = Number(event.secondspassed);
    for ( var t = 0; t < following.length; ++t )
    {
        var Follow = following[t];
        if ( gone >= Follow.min && gone < Follow.max )
        {
             if ( ! Follow.done )
             {
                 var range = Follow.min + " Seconds Watched ";
                 _gaq.push(['_trackEvent', range, 'Play', 'Title']);
                 Follow.done = true; 
             }
             break;
        }
    }
}
);
</script>

Answer 1

You can add this.last to your Follow objects and record the time that that Follow was last fired.

function Follow( minimum, maximum ){
    this.min = minimum;
    this.max = maximum;
    this.done = false;
    this.last = 0;
}

Then in your function you can check if it’s been over a minute since it last fired:

var Follow = following[t];
if((new Date).getTime() > Follow.last + 60000)
    Follow.done = false;

And finally when you set Follow.done to true, also set the last time it fired to the current time:

Follow.done = true; 
Follow.last = (new Date).getTime();

The code above does what you asked for, but I’m not sure how well this will deal with pausing and continuing the video over a minute later. It will probably also fire the event twice in that situation.