Advalidation Blog

AS3 clicktag

noreply@blogger.com (Advalidation) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 21:15:00 +0000

A common problem with flash creatives developed in ActionScript 3 is getting the clicktag right. After extensive research and rigorous testing we've come up with the following ActionScript code:

function handleClick(mouseEvent:MouseEvent):void {
    var interactiveObject:InteractiveObject = mouseEvent.target as InteractiveObject;
    var li:LoaderInfo = LoaderInfo(interactiveObject.root.loaderInfo);
    var url:String = li.parameters.clickTag;
    if (url) {
        if (ExternalInterface.available) {
            var userAgent:String = ExternalInterface.call('function(){ return navigator.userAgent; }');

            if (userAgent.indexOf("MSIE") >= 0) {
                ExternalInterface.call('window.open', url, '_blank');
            } else {
                navigateToURL(new URLRequest(url), '_blank');
            }
        } else {
            navigateToURL(new URLRequest(url), '_blank');
        }
    }
}
myButton_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP,handleClick);

Please change the clickTag variable name (in bold) to the formatting required by your ad server (clicktag, clickTag or clickTAG).

Requirements

For this clicktag to work in all browsers the following two requirements need to be met:

The html object tag needs an id or Internet Explorer will generate a javascript error of "null is null or not an object".
AllowScriptAccess needs to be true either by setting it to "always" or by setting it to "sameDomain" and loading the flash from the same domain as the hosting page.

HTML to load AS3 flash creative

We suggest loading your flash with something similar to the following HTML (important parts in bold):

<object id="flash_file_1" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,0,0" width="980" height="120">
  <param name="movie" value="yourfile.swf">
  <param name="quality" value="autohigh">
  <param name="wmode" value="opaque">
  <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always">
  <param name="FlashVars" value="clickTag=http%3A%2F%2Fexample.com">
  <embed src="yourfile.swf?clickTag=http%3A%2F%2Fexample.com" quality="autohigh" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="980" height="120"></embed>
</object>

More technical details

navigateToURL() will work in IE as long as wmode is set to window. With opaque or transparent wmode the navigateToURL() function will result in the IE popup blocker blocking your click.
The default AllowScriptAccess setting is "sameDomain"
ExternalInterface will only work if AllowScriptAccess is true
The ExternalInterface call to window.open() is unfortunately slightly slower than calling navigateToURL()

News and changes in the latest release

noreply@blogger.com (Advalidation) — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 19:38:00 +0000

As you might have noticed we have made som updates to Advalidation. If you find any bugs or have any suggestions please send an email to your Advalidation contact or support@advalidation.com

Below are the most important updates in this release.

Improved report
We have made the information that is important to you even more accessible. No more pop-ups. Simply click the toggle list/report button to when the validation is done to see how your creatives performed.

The link to share the report is located at your top right. You’ll be seeing that link on more pages in future releases.

Slide show view of creatives
You can browse through all creatives in a validation job with our new slide show view. Simply click the view creative link. Once the first creative is shown you can use the arrow keys on your keyboard to quickly browse through all creatives in that validation job.

Delete creatives
Right next to the view creative link is the new delete creative link.

Expandable ads
If an ad expands beyond it's initial dimension we'll report that under details.

Other improvements
Experimental support for tags in Excel files.
Support for Doubleclick internal redirects (inred tags).

Tools

We have added a new tab for small helpful tools. Go ahead and try the "tag viewer", a quick way to preview a third party tag without a single click. Simply paste the tag and the creative will appear.

A quick note on our third party tag support

noreply@blogger.com (Advalidation) — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 20:09:00 +0000

From time to time you might hear us say that we’ve added support for new third party vendors. This is not entirely true.

Our philosophy has always been "detect everything you throw at us, no matter the format". Because of this there are really no specific requirements for pasted tags, uploaded files or forwarded e-mails.

Extensive testing with hundreds of different creatives have been performed to ensure accuracy.

In most cases adding support for a new provider simply means that we verify that everything works as expected and figure out how to name the creatives in a good way.

Sometimes we stumble up on more advanced tags though. If that happens you can simply forward them to us and we’ll figure them out and add them to the list.

Updates and bugs

noreply@blogger.com (Advalidation) — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 19:51:00 +0000

We added support for Unicast, Interpolls and generic OpenX third party tags.

We've also made it possible to sort your validation job columns. In combination with the automatic deletion of validation jobs this should make it easy to find the creatives you have submitted if you're a large ad ops team. The default order is still date submitted, descending – like your inbox.

A couple of small bugs were squashed in the process.

A couple of updates

noreply@blogger.com (Advalidation) — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 19:46:00 +0000

We've changed the way creative dimensions are reported for third party tags. Earlier the dimensions of the primary creative (flash or image) were used. From this version we’re instead using the rendered dimensions as reported by the browser.

This fixes the issue where the size of the creative file differs from the element it is served through. It also prepares for the upcoming expandable detection feature.

We also added support for Spongecell, Eyereturn, Adcentric, Adtech/Helios and Pointroll tags.

While we were at it we added support for Doubleclick/DFA internal redirects (inred tags). The “show tag” feature includes the original inred URL as well as the generated tag code.

Happy validating!

Mouse over events and click testing

noreply@blogger.com (Advalidation) — Thu, 20 May 2010 09:50:00 +0000

Hello!

Some major updates this time.

As you know we run all creatives in an environment similar to that of your users and monitor stuff like CPU usage and HTTP connections.

With this update we also perform a mouse over event on the creative. This allows us to tell you about anything that happens when a user moves her mouse over an ad (playing sounds, loading files and who knows what).

We also perform a click on the creative. While detecting clicktags through code analysis is good actually clicking the creative is better. By doing this we can verify that the clicktag actually works and make sure that the click is not blocked by a pop-up blocker.

Support for Action Script 3

noreply@blogger.com (Advalidation) — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 09:47:00 +0000

There is now support for decompiling Action Script 3 in Advalidation. Pretty sweet!

Remove the clutter

noreply@blogger.com (Advalidation) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 10:44:00 +0000

We've added a setting under general settings that allow you to automatically delete old validation jobs. Select between 30, 60 or 90 days.

Support for images and other updates

noreply@blogger.com (Advalidation) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:39:00 +0000

Advalidation now supports jpeg, gif and png images so no matter what type of creative you throw at us you will know if it matches your specs or not.

We also removed validation of clicktag's for third-party tags since you use click macros rather than clicktags to count clicks on third-party tags.

More updates

noreply@blogger.com (Advalidation) — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 13:32:00 +0000

We just released a new version of Advalidation.

Time zones (sorry about not having that earlier)
A progress bar showing the progress of the validation of each creative
A bug when submitting small creatives
Added several third-party tag vendors (Adcentric, Bluestreak, Eyeturn, Eyewonder)

We also made a short video showing how you can use the email functionality we released a couple of weeks ago. Check it out here.

Some minor updates today

noreply@blogger.com (Advalidation) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 17:56:00 +0000

Today we updated the validator to be more robust. Creatives that causes IE to display the "A script is causing Internet Explorer to run slowly" dialog will be marked as corrupt.

We also added support for Atlas third-party tags.

Better third-party tag support

noreply@blogger.com (Advalidation) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:26:00 +0000

We have made some improvements to the way we handle third-party tags.

The new feature is called automatic third-party tag detection. What it does is that it allows you to post multiple tags in a text area and we will automatically find each individual tag and create a separate creative for it.

This is a time saver if you get huge text documents with multiple tags for multiple dimensions and placements. With this new feature you simply copy the content of the document, paste it in to a text area and click submit.

Pretty neat.

The problem with Flash ads and CPU usage

noreply@blogger.com (Advalidation) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:31:00 +0000

In order to keep the file size of Flash ads as low as possible developers are increasingly turning to action script to generate animations. While this keeps the file size down it might increase the CPU usage on the computer displaying the ad.

Running one or several Flash ads that use a lot of processing power on the same page view will degrade the user experience significantly.

To help detect these ads we have added monitoring of CPU usage in Advalidation. To get results that are as realistic as possible all creatives are tested in Internet Explorer 7 on virtual machines running Windows XP.

Below is a screenshot of how we display the CPU usage of Flash ads in Advalidation. This ad clearly uses too much processing power and would slow down the web site significantly.

In your validation settings you can choose from three levels. Tolerant, moderate or strict.

Getting there

noreply@blogger.com (Advalidation) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:39:00 +0000

Almost ready for some beta testing.

15 ways of reducing CPU usage in Flash ads

noreply@blogger.com (Advalidation) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:56:00 +0000

The complexity of images, gradients, slow animations and detailed animated objects in Flash ads increase the number of calculations the users processor must perform for each frame. Here are 15 ways of reducing the CPU usage of your Flash ads.

Use fewer animations based on mathematical calculations in Action Script

Remove unnecessary keyframes from the animation and use the Tween function instead of "frame-for-frame” animation.

Lower the frame rate, i.e. the number of frames per second.

Minimize the use of gradients, transparency, masks and animations.

Images used more than once in the movie should be transformed into symbols. Symbols are stored in the file once and used again later. It can reduce the file size and CPU usage.

Minimize the changes between each key frame.

Minimize the information stored in the first frames. Add complex logic later in the movie if possible.

Features that are activated by the user is preferred. For example: Start a complex animation on mouse over, not on load.

Avoid unnecessary timer functions and loops. This is the biggest problems in terms of CPU usage.

Solid lines require less memory than dotted / dashed lines or the brush tool.

Group objects and make calls to the group.

Minimize the number of fonts.

Use vector graphics instead of pixel graphics.

Optimize vector graphics. Select Modify - Smooth, Straighten or Optimize to reduce the number of vector points.

A clicktag that actually works with ActionScript 3

noreply@blogger.com (Advalidation) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 12:17:00 +0000

if (root.loaderInfo.parameters["clickTAG"]) {
    var clickTAG:String =
    root.loaderInfo.parameters["clickTAG"];
}
click_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP, getUrlfunction);

function getUrlfunction(ev:Event = null): void {
    ExternalInterface.call("window.open", clickTAG, "_blank");
}

click_btn is the name of the link button. You can change it into every name / label you want.
It is possible to embed the clickTAG via external files.

Notes:
The command has been tested with Windows XP and various browsers: Internet Explorer 6 and 7: It works (it overrides the pop-up blocker). Firefox: It works (it overrides the pop-up blocker). Opera: The browser asks the user to open the pop-up window manually.