Media actions are the basis of media tracking. They describe what users do in the player (e.g. start, pause, stop) and provide the context for calculating all media metrics.
There are two types of media actions:
Standard actions – predefined actions such as play, pause, stop, seek, pos, and eof.
Custom actions – freely defined actions for additional interactions (e.g., recommend, ad_start).
Parameters
All actions are transmitted with the following parameters.
The column Browser shows how the parameter is used in the wt_sendinfo_media function, while Server-to-Server shows the equivalent query parameter.
Concept | Browser (argument) | Server-to-Server (param) | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Media ID | media_id | mi | ✔️ | Unique ID of the media file |
Action | player_action | mk | ✔️ | One of: init, play, pos, pause, stop, seek, or custom name |
Current position | clip_position | mt1 | ✔️ | Seconds; must reflect actual position of the event |
Total length | clip_length | mt2 | ✔️ | Seconds; evaluated only on the first play request |
Media categories / custom | media_parameter (e.g. mg1=sports;mg2=en) | mg1, mg2, … | ◯ | Sent only with the first play; categories must be predefined |
Bandwidth | bandwidth | bw | ◯ | Bit/second. Only the last value in a session is stored |
Volume | volume | vol | ◯ | 0–255 supported (0–100 recommended). Only the last value in a session is stored |
Mute | mute | mut | ◯ | 1 = muted, 0 = sound on. Only the last value in a session is stored |
Cache buster | — | x | ◯ | Timestamp (e.g. UNIX time). Prevents browser caching and ensures unique requests |
Notes on Media Sessions
A media session groups the sequence of actions for a single media file. Please note the following rules:
A media session is ended by the actions eof, stop, or a new init.
init both closes the old session (if one exists) and creates a new one.
With a constant media_id and a new play, the existing session continues.
With a different media_id, a new session is started. Multiple sessions can therefore run in parallel.
Technical Limits
A single media session is limited to 500 requests. Additional requests are ignored.
Duplicate requests within 3 seconds are filtered out and not transmitted.