@newrelic/video-hls

v1.0.1

Published

4 days ago

New relic tracker for hls player

Downloads

178

0High
0Medium
0Low

newrelic

New Relic HLS.js Tracker

The New Relic HLS.js Tracker provides comprehensive video analytics for applications using HLS.js. Track video events, monitor playback quality, identify errors, and gain deep insights into user engagement and streaming performance for HLS content.

Features

🎯 Automatic Event Detection - Captures HLS.js player events automatically without manual instrumentation
📊 Comprehensive Bitrate Tracking - Four distinct bitrate metrics for complete quality analysis
🔄 Adaptive Bitrate Monitoring - Tracks rendition changes with old and new bitrate values
📈 QoE Metrics - Quality of Experience tracking for startup time, buffering, and playback quality
🎨 Event Segregation - Organized event types: VideoAction, VideoErrorAction, VideoCustomAction
🚀 Easy Integration - NPM package or direct script include
⚡ Real-Time Performance - Network throughput and per-segment download bitrate monitoring
🎬 HLS Specific - Optimized for adaptive streaming using Media Source Extensions (MSE)

Installation

Option 1: Install via NPM/Yarn

Install the package using your preferred package manager:

NPM:

npm install @newrelic/video-hls

Yarn:

yarn add @newrelic/video-hls

Note: HLS.js is a peer dependency. Make sure it is installed separately:
npm install hls.js

Option 2: Direct Script Include (Without NPM)

For quick integration without a build system, include the tracker directly in your HTML:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <!-- HLS.js Player -->
    <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/hls.js@latest"></script>

    <!-- New Relic HLS.js Tracker -->
    <script src="path/to/newrelic-video-hls.min.js"></script>
  </head>
  <body>
    <video id="myVideo" controls width="640" height="480"></video>

    <script>
      var video = document.getElementById('myVideo');
      var videoSrc = 'https://your-hls-stream.m3u8';

      // Configure New Relic tracker with info from one.newrelic.com
      var options = {
        info: {
          licenseKey: 'YOUR_LICENSE_KEY',
          beacon: 'YOUR_BEACON_URL',
          applicationID: 'YOUR_APP_ID'
        }
      };

      if (Hls.isSupported()) {
        var hls = new Hls();
        hls.loadSource(videoSrc);
        hls.attachMedia(video);

        // Initialize tracker after attaching media
        var tracker = new HLSTracker(hls, options);
      } else if (video.canPlayType('application/vnd.apple.mpegurl')) {
        // Native HLS support (Safari)
        video.src = videoSrc;
      }
    </script>
  </body>
</html>

Setup Steps:

Get Configuration - Visit one.newrelic.com and follow the Streaming Video & Ads onboarding flow to get your licenseKey, beacon, applicationID, and integration code snippet.
Integrate - Include the script in your HTML and initialize with your configuration.

Prerequisites

Before using the tracker, ensure you have:

New Relic Account - Active New Relic account with valid application credentials (beacon, applicationID, licenseKey)
HLS.js - Version 1.x integrated in your application (peer dependency)

Usage

Getting Your Configuration

Before initializing the tracker, obtain your New Relic configuration:

Log in to one.newrelic.com
Navigate to the video agent onboarding flow
Copy your credentials: licenseKey, beacon, and applicationID

Basic Setup

import HLSTracker from '@newrelic/video-hls';

// Configure tracker with credentials from one.newrelic.com
const options = {
  info: {
    licenseKey: 'YOUR_LICENSE_KEY',
    beacon: 'YOUR_BEACON_URL',
    applicationID: 'YOUR_APP_ID'
  }
};

const video = document.getElementById('video');
const videoSrc = 'https://your-hls-stream.m3u8';

if (Hls.isSupported()) {
  const hls = new Hls();
  hls.loadSource(videoSrc);
  hls.attachMedia(video);

  // Initialize tracker after attaching media
  const tracker = new HLSTracker(hls, options);
} else if (video.canPlayType('application/vnd.apple.mpegurl')) {
  // Native HLS support (Safari) — no tracker needed
  video.src = videoSrc;
}

Advanced Configuration

const options = {
  info: {
    licenseKey: 'YOUR_LICENSE_KEY',
    beacon: 'YOUR_BEACON_URL',
    applicationID: 'YOUR_APP_ID'
  },
  customData: {
    contentTitle: 'My Video Title',
    customPlayerName: 'MyCustomPlayer',
    customAttribute: 'customValue'
  }
};

const tracker = new HLSTracker(hls, options);

Best Practices

1. Setting `contentTitle`

The contentTitle attribute will display a value if your video metadata contains title information. For best results, set this attribute explicitly during initialization:

const tracker = new HLSTracker(hls, {
  info: {
    licenseKey: 'YOUR_LICENSE_KEY',
    beacon: 'YOUR_BEACON_URL',
    applicationID: 'YOUR_APP_ID'
  },
  customData: {
    contentTitle: 'My Video Title'
  }
});

If your title changes dynamically (e.g., playlist or queue):

tracker.sendOptions({
  customData: {
    contentTitle: 'New Video Title'
  }
});

2. Setting `userId`

Set a user identifier to track video analytics per user:

const tracker = new HLSTracker(hls, {
  info: {
    licenseKey: 'YOUR_LICENSE_KEY',
    beacon: 'YOUR_BEACON_URL',
    applicationID: 'YOUR_APP_ID'
  },
  customData: {
    contentTitle: 'Video Title',
    userId: 'user-12345'
  }
});

// Or set userId separately using the API method
tracker.setUserId('user-12345');

3. Adding Custom Attributes for Your Deployment

Add custom attributes to improve data aggregation and analysis:

const tracker = new HLSTracker(hls, {
  info: {
    licenseKey: 'YOUR_LICENSE_KEY',
    beacon: 'YOUR_BEACON_URL',
    applicationID: 'YOUR_APP_ID'
  },
  customData: {
    contentTitle: videoMetadata.title,
    userId: currentUser.id,
    subscriptionTier: 'premium',
    contentProvider: 'studio-abc',
    region: 'us-west-2',
    cdnProvider: 'cloudflare',
    deviceType: 'desktop',
    appVersion: '2.1.0',
    campaign: 'spring-promo'
  }
});

Use these attributes in New Relic queries:

-- Analyze by subscription tier
SELECT count(*) FROM VideoAction WHERE actionName = 'CONTENT_START'
FACET subscriptionTier SINCE 1 day ago

-- Monitor network performance by region
SELECT average(contentNetworkDownloadBitrate) FROM VideoAction
FACET region SINCE 1 hour ago

4. Gradual Rollout with Feature Flags

Use feature flags to enable the tracker gradually in production:

const rolloutPercentage = 5; // Start with 5% of users

function shouldEnableTracking(userId) {
  const hash = userId.split('').reduce((acc, char) => acc + char.charCodeAt(0), 0);
  return (hash % 100) < rolloutPercentage;
}

if (Hls.isSupported() && shouldEnableTracking(currentUser.id)) {
  const hls = new Hls();
  hls.loadSource(videoSrc);
  hls.attachMedia(video);

  const tracker = new HLSTracker(hls, {
    info: {
      licenseKey: 'YOUR_LICENSE_KEY',
      beacon: 'YOUR_BEACON_URL',
      applicationID: 'YOUR_APP_ID'
    },
    customData: {
      contentTitle: videoMetadata.title,
      userId: currentUser.id,
      rolloutGroup: `${rolloutPercentage}%`
    }
  });
}

Recommended Rollout Schedule:

| Phase | Percentage | Duration | Validation | |-------|-----------|----------|------------| | Initial | 5% | 2–3 days | Verify data flowing to New Relic | | Early | 15% | 3–5 days | Check data quality and performance | | Expansion | 25% | 5–7 days | Validate across device types | | Majority | 50% | 1–2 weeks | Monitor at scale | | Full | 100% | Ongoing | Complete deployment |

Configuration Options

Custom Data

Add custom attributes to all events:

customData: {
  contentTitle: 'My Video Title',       // Override video title
  customPlayerName: 'MyPlayer',         // Custom player identifier
  customPlayerVersion: '1.0.0',         // Custom player version
  userId: '12345',                      // User identifier
  contentSeries: 'Season 1',            // Series information
  // Add any custom attributes you need
}

Note: There are reserved keywords used for default attributes (see DATAMODEL.md for the complete list). Do not use these reserved keywords as custom attribute names, as they will be dropped.

Limit: The maximum total number of custom attributes per event is 150. Any attributes beyond this limit will be dropped.

API Reference

Core Methods

`tracker.setUserId(userId)`

Set a unique identifier for the current user.

tracker.setUserId('user-12345');

`tracker.setHarvestInterval(milliseconds)`

Configure how frequently data is sent to New Relic. Accepts values between 1000ms (1 second) and 300000ms (5 minutes).

tracker.setHarvestInterval(30000); // Send data every 30 seconds

`tracker.sendCustom(actionName, state, attributes)`

Send custom events with arbitrary attributes.

tracker.sendCustom('VideoBookmarked', 'playing', {
  timestamp: Date.now(),
  position: hls.media.currentTime,
  userId: 'user-12345',
  bookmarkId: 'bookmark-789'
});

`tracker.sendOptions(options)`

Update tracker configuration after initialization.

tracker.sendOptions({
  customData: {
    contentTitle: 'New Video Title',
    season: '1',
    episode: '3'
  }
});

Example: Complete Integration

import HLSTracker from '@newrelic/video-hls';

const video = document.getElementById('video');
const videoSrc = 'https://your-hls-stream.m3u8';

if (Hls.isSupported()) {
  const hls = new Hls();
  hls.loadSource(videoSrc);
  hls.attachMedia(video);

  const tracker = new HLSTracker(hls, {
    info: {
      licenseKey: 'YOUR_LICENSE_KEY',
      beacon: 'YOUR_BEACON_URL',
      applicationID: 'YOUR_APP_ID'
    }
  });

  // Set user context
  tracker.setUserId('user-12345');

  // Configure reporting interval
  tracker.setHarvestInterval(30000);

  // Send custom events
  hls.on(Hls.Events.LEVEL_SWITCHED, () => {
    tracker.sendCustom('QualityChanged', 'playing', {
      newLevel: hls.currentLevel,
      timestamp: Date.now()
    });
  });
}

Bitrate Metrics

The tracker captures four distinct bitrate metrics providing complete quality analysis:

| Attribute | Description | Use Case | |-----------|-------------|----------| | contentBitrate | Bitrate (in bps) of the currently active HLS rendition | Monitor actual video quality being delivered | | contentManifestBitrate | Maximum bitrate (in bps) across all renditions declared in the HLS manifest | Understand the highest quality available | | contentSegmentDownloadBitrate | Per-segment download bandwidth (in bps) measured from the last loaded fragment | Analyze per-segment network conditions | | contentNetworkDownloadBitrate | HLS.js bandwidth estimate (in bps) used by the ABR algorithm | Monitor real-time network performance |

Bitrate Monitoring Example

-- Monitor average network bitrate over time
SELECT average(contentNetworkDownloadBitrate) FROM VideoAction
WHERE actionName = 'CONTENT_HEARTBEAT' TIMESERIES

-- Track rendition changes with before/after bitrates
SELECT contentBitrate FROM VideoAction
WHERE actionName = 'CONTENT_RENDITION_CHANGE' SINCE 1 hour ago

Data Model

The tracker captures comprehensive video analytics across three event types:

VideoAction - Playback events (play, pause, buffer, seek, quality changes, heartbeats)
VideoErrorAction - Error events (HLS.js errors, media pipeline failures)
VideoCustomAction - Custom events defined by your application

Full Documentation: See DATAMODEL.md for complete event and attribute reference.

Support

Should you need assistance with New Relic products, you are in good hands with several support channels.

If the issue has been confirmed as a bug or is a feature request, please file a GitHub issue.

Support Channels

New Relic Documentation: Comprehensive guidance for using our platform
New Relic Community: The best place to engage in troubleshooting questions
New Relic University: A range of online training for New Relic users of every level
New Relic Technical Support: 24/7/365 ticketed support. Read more about our Technical Support Offerings

Contribute

We encourage your contributions to improve the HLS.js Tracker! Keep in mind that when you submit your pull request, you'll need to sign the CLA via the click-through using CLA-Assistant. You only have to sign the CLA one time per project.

If you have any questions, or to execute our corporate CLA (which is required if your contribution is on behalf of a company), drop us an email at [email protected].

For more details on how best to contribute, see CONTRIBUTING.md.

A note about vulnerabilities

As noted in our security policy, New Relic is committed to the privacy and security of our customers and their data. We believe that providing coordinated disclosure by security researchers and engaging with the security community are important means to achieve our security goals.

If you believe you have found a security vulnerability in this project or any of New Relic's products or websites, we welcome and greatly appreciate you reporting it to New Relic through our bug bounty program.

If you would like to contribute to this project, review these guidelines.

To all contributors, we thank you! Without your contribution, this project would not be what it is today.

License

The HLS.js Tracker is licensed under the Apache 2.0 License.

The HLS.js Tracker also uses source code from third-party libraries. Full details on which libraries are used and the terms under which they are licensed can be found in the third-party notices document.