VAST tracking events / NonLinear
minimize VAST tracking event
Short answer: Fires when a NonLinear creative is minimized. VAST 4.0+. Introduced in VAST 4.0.
When it fires
The overlay was minimized rather than closed. Distinct from adCollapse and close. Pause ads and other CTV portfolio formats often need this plus creativeView.
Minimized is not closed
minimize fires when a NonLinear creative is minimized. The overlay can return. close means the viewer dismissed it. adCollapse means it left an expanded state. VAST 4.0 added minimize. Earlier versions have no such event, so a 3.0 player will not call it.
Pause ads and other CTV portfolio formats that are NonLinear need a way to record the unit being tucked aside. creativeView says it appeared. minimize says it was put away without the close that ends it. Measure those as separate URLs.
Coming back from minimize
The spec names minimize and does not name a matching restore event. A later creativeView can mean the overlay was shown again, or that the player re-fired the first display. You cannot build a restore count from the VAST event set alone. If the product needs it, that is a vendor extension, and a vendor extension is not one of these names.
minimize on a linear creative does not fire. A linear ad that the viewer sends to a corner is, on the event set, a player state or the end of the linear ad, not this overlay event. Measure the overlay that appears in the corner as its own NonLinear creative.
When the column stays empty
minimize is absent from VAST 2.0 and from 3.0. A player that only implements those versions will not request it. The version table on this page is the set that includes it.
Each wrapper hop may include its own minimize 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+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| No | No | 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="minimize">
<![CDATA[https://track.example.com/minimize]]>
</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
- close: Fires when a NonLinear creative is closed by the user.
- adCollapse: Fires when the creative collapses after expand. 4.0+ name.
- creativeView: Fires when the creative is first displayed. Primary signal for NonLinear and companions.
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.