INDEPENDENT ACTIONSCRIPT ANALYTICS TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES

• US 20070250618A1
• Filed: 04/25/2006
• Published: 10/25/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/25/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Hammond, Stephen
• Granted Patent: US 8,775,919 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/134 Hyperlinking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44526 Plug-ins; Add-ons
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching

Abstract

Tools and techniques are provided to support presentation analytics, such as Flash or Flex analytics, independently of embedded JavaScript web analytics code used in web pages. A presentation analytics engine, which may be implemented in ActionScript, includes code for capturing information about user interaction with a multimedia presentation, code for dynamically generating a string or other data structure reflecting such captured information, and code for sending the data structure to an analytics server without using a getURL( ) call or embedded JavaScript. Functionality is also provided for tracking objects without object-specific code, for dynamically sending such tracking information, and for supporting a visual presentation analytics overlay report illustrating such information. The Flash presentation analytics may use the same visitor ID as standard JavaScript analytics, without synchronizing the two analytics codes.

Claims

1. A presentation analytics engine which is capable of operating independently of web page scripts, comprising:

data-capturing code for capturing presentation analytics data that reflects action(s) of a user within a presentation;

data-structure-generating code for dynamically generating at least a portion of a formatted presentation analytics data structure; and

data-sending code for sending the data structure toward an analytics server;

wherein the presentation analytics engine is further characterized in that it is free of reliance on any getURL( ) or FSCommand invocation to transmit captured presentation analytics data to a script embedded in a web page, and is also free of reliance on any presentation analytics script embedded in a web page.

2. The engine of claim 1, further comprising at least one of:

autotracking code, visual analytics overlay reporting code.

3. The engine of claim 1, in combination with a unique visitor ID that is stored in at least one of:

a browser cookie, a local shared object, transmission header.

4. The engine of claim 1, wherein the data-sending code comprises at least one of:

code to make an image request;

code to make a GET request;

code to make a POST request;

code to make a port 80 request;

code to make an FTP request;

code to write data to a shared file;

code to write data to shared memory.

5. The engine of claim 1, wherein the engine comprises ActionScript code.

6. The engine of claim 1, in combination with a multimedia presentation that comprises an ActionScript object.

7. The engine of claim 1, in combination with:

a web browser;

a web page displayed in the browser; and

script code embedded in the web page to capture web page analytics data that reflects user action within the web page outside the presentation; and

wherein the engine has no code for synchronizing presentation analytics data with the web page'"'"'s embedded script code.

8. The engine combination of claim 7, wherein the web page'"'"'s embedded script code comprises at least one of:

JavaScript code, VBScript code.

9. The engine of claim 1, in combination with the analytics server.

10. The engine of claim 1, in combination with a multimedia presentation which contains code to import the engine.

11. An ActionScript presentation analytics engine, comprising:

data-capturing code for capturing ActionScript presentation analytics data that reflects user activation of at least one ActionScript object in a presentation; and

data-sending code for sending at least a portion of the captured ActionScript presentation analytics data;

wherein the engine is free of reliance on any object-specific user action tracking code within the presentation to capture the ActionScript presentation analytics data.

12. The engine of claim 11, wherein the engine is also free of reliance on any getURL( ) or FSCommand invocation to send the captured ActionScript presentation analytics data.

13. The engine of claim 11, wherein the data-sending code sends analytics data reflecting at least one of:

user page-viewing activity, user link-following activity, user clip-viewing activity, user button-pressing activity, user percentage of playback completion, presentation impressions count.

14. The engine of claim 11, in combination with a presentation player that is compatible with the presentation and that provides user interaction with the at least one ActionScript object.

15. The engine and player combination of claim 14, wherein at least one of the following holds:

the player comprises a Flash presentation player;

the player comprises a Flex presentation player;

the player comprises a plug-in to a web browser;

the presentation is at least partially embedded in a web page;

the presentation is at least partially stored on a nonvolatile removable computer-readable storage medium;

the player runs on a computer;

the player runs on a handheld device.

16. A method for independently tracking ActionScript presentation activity, comprising:

receiving on a device a multimedia presentation containing ActionScript objects;

capturing presentation analytics data that reflects user interaction with ActionScript objects of the multimedia presentation; and

sending presentation analytics data;

wherein the method operates free of reliance on each and all of the following;

getURL( ) or FSCommand invocation, JavaScript code embedded in a web page, VBScript code embedded in a web page.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the sending step comprises at least one of:

making an image request;

making a GET request;

making a POST request;

making a port 80 request;

making an FTP request;

writing data to a shared file;

writing data to shared memory.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the method operates free of reliance on each and all of the following:

getURL( ) or FSCommand invocation, JavaScript code embedded in a web page, VBScript code embedded in a web page, object-specific user action tracking code in the multimedia presentation.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising at least one of:

autotracking user interaction with the multimedia presentation, providing a visual analytics overlay report about user interaction with the multimedia presentation.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

receiving on the device a web page having an embedded web tracking mechanism;

capturing, with the embedded web tracking mechanism, web analytics data that reflects user interaction with the web page; and

sending web analytics data toward an analytics server.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the step of sending web analytics data toward an analytics server sends it in correlation with a corresponding visitor ID, and the step of sending presentation analytics data sends that data toward the analytics server in correlation with the same visitor ID, without requiring communication between code performing the web analytics steps and code performing the presentation analytics steps.

22. The method of claim 16, further comprising dynamically generating at the device a data structure that contains presentation analytics data.