VAST tracking events / NonLinear
acceptInvitation VAST tracking event
Short answer: Fires when the user accepts a NonLinear invitation (expands or engages).
When it fires
The user opted into the overlay. Linear had a parallel name, acceptInvitationLinear, which did not survive cleanly into 4.1. Use this name on NonLinear only.
The viewer opted into the overlay
acceptInvitation fires when the user accepts a NonLinear invitation, which usually means the overlay expands or the click-through engagement starts. It is the engagement event for an overlay. creativeView only says the overlay was drawn.
acceptInvitationLinear was the linear counterpart. VAST 4.1 removed that linear name. The NonLinear name acceptInvitation stayed. A 4.1 linear tag that copies acceptInvitation onto Linear will not get a call. Put the linear engagement on the events 4.1 still has, and keep this name on NonLinear.
Invitation versus click
ClickThrough is an element, not a tracking event. A click can happen without acceptInvitation, and acceptInvitation can happen without a navigation, when the overlay expands in place. Counting clicks as invitations understates expansions that never left the player. Counting invitations as clicks overstates traffic that never hit a landing page.
The URL belongs under NonLinear TrackingEvents. On a linear creative the 4.1 name for a linear invitation was removed. acceptInvitationLinear is that removed name. Putting acceptInvitation on Linear because the linear name disappeared uses the overlay event in the wrong container, and the player still does not call it.
When the column stays empty
acceptInvitation is in the VAST 2.0 set, and the current version still includes it. An empty column on a current player is not a version mismatch.
Each wrapper hop may include its own acceptInvitation URL. The player requests every one of them when the event happens, so a chain of four hops produces four calls for one playback. An http URL on an https page is dropped by the browser before the ad server sees a miss. The event name can be right and the scheme can still zero the column.
Where it is valid
| 2.0 | 3.0 | 4.0 | 4.1+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Legal containers: NonLinear. An event in the wrong container is not a player error. It is a URL nobody calls.
Using it in a tag
Put it in a NonLinear TrackingEvents block. It is not valid on the other creative types, and a player does not fire a tracker in the wrong container.
<NonLinear>
<TrackingEvents>
<Tracking event="acceptInvitation">
<![CDATA[https://track.example.com/acceptInvitation]]>
</Tracking>
</TrackingEvents>
</NonLinear>VAST XML fragment only. This excerpt belongs inside a complete VAST document, so standalone validation will fail until it is wrapped in a full <VAST>response.
Related vastlint rules
- VAST-4.1-tracking-event-value: Tracking event attribute not in the valid set for this VAST version
Related events
- acceptInvitationLinear: Linear invitation accept. Present in 3.0 and 4.0; gone as a 4.1 linear name.
- adExpand: Fires when the creative expands. 4.0+ name replacing expand.
- close: Fires when a NonLinear creative is closed by the user.
Check the XML, then confirm the beacons fire
Validate the event names and containers on the document. Test a live URL when the XML is clean and reporting is still empty.