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JW Lens overview

👍

This is a beta offering. By using this documentation, you are agreeing to abide by the terms of the JW Player Beta Program Agreement.

If you would like to try this Beta product, install the browser extension


After reading our documentation, reviewing our code samples, and examining our demos, you may still be unable to resolve an implementation issue. JW Lens is a browser extension that can help simplify how you troubleshoot your player implementation.

Once installed, JW Lens captures information emitted by the player and groups similar information together. This helps you to explore and troubleshoot your HTML5 player implementation:

  • Troubleshoot player errors
  • Validate the player configuration
  • Understand the player event lifecycle

🚧

JW Lens does not support AMP or players in iframes.


Install JW Lens

  1. From your Chrome browser, go the the JW Lens chrome web store page.
  2. Click Add to Chrome. A pop-up window appears.
  3. Click Add extension. The extension is added to your browser.

Configure JW Lens

You can select the location where the extension window appears. You can always change the location from any tab of JW Lens.

  1. Open JW Lens.
  2. Select a location from the Position drop-down menu.

JW Lens tabs

Player information is grouped into multiple tabs. The following sections explain the layout and information that can be obtained from each tab.

Overview | Config | Errors | PB | Events | Analytics | QoE | Report

Overview

On the Overview tab, you can view general information about a JW Player instance and its implementation.

  1. Click the Overview tab.
  2. Select a PLAYER ELEMENT ID from the drop-down menu. This focuses JW Lens on this unique player instance.
  3. Click the magnifying glass icon next to the drop-down menu. The page scrolls to the location of the player on the page.

Config

On the Config tab, the configuration used to instantiate the player is displayed. You can copy the configuration to your clipboard or edit the configuration and re-initialize the player with a modified configuration.

Copy the player configuration

  1. Click the Config tab.
  2. Click COPY CONFIGURATION. The player configuration JSON is copied to your clipboard.

Modify the player configuration

  1. Click the Config tab.
  2. Edit the player configuration.
  3. Click SETUP NEW PLAYER.

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NOTE

Modifying the player configuration in JW Lens does not change the player configuration used to initiate the player when a viewer visits your page.

Errors

On the Errors tab, a summary of critical media, ads, and player configuration errors is displayed.

  1. Click the Errors tab.
  2. To view detected errors, click the boxed number that appears next an error type. An error screen appears.
  3. Review the errors and linked JW Player error documentation. Errors are listed based on JW Player best practices. If you have a unique use case, some of the listed errors may not be applicable.
  4. Click Return to Troubleshooting to view the Errors tab main screen.

PB

On the VPB (Video Player Bidding) tab, a summary of bidding partner performance is displayed. Only the bidder partners who been defined in the advertising.bids.bidder property of the player or set in the JW Player dashboard are displayed.

  1. Click the VPB tab.
  2. (Optional) Select a play session from the Results for drop-down menu. The bidder partner information updates.

Events

On the Events tab, you can view a real-time, filterable feed of the events and accompanying data of the player.

  1. Click the Events tab.
  2. In the Filter by Play Session drop-down menu, choose an option to filter the listed events.
  3. In the Filter By Event list, click an event. The details of the event appear.

After clicking an event, you can perform several tasks:

  • Click API Documentation to read about a specific event.
  • Click Copy to copy the event JSON to your clipboard.
  • Click Export All to download a .json file of all player events.

Analytics

On the Analytics tab, you can view a real-time, filterable feed of Google Analytics pings.

  1. Click the Analytics tab.
  2. In the Filter By Type list, click a Google Analytics item. The details of the item appear.

After clicking an item, you can perform several tasks:

  • Click Human Readable or Raw Ping to toggle between views of the specific item.
  • Click Copy to copy the event JSON to your clipboard.
  • Click Export All to download a .json file of all player events.

QoE

On the QoE (Quality of Experience) tab, you can view the performance of both the player instance and the page in which the player instance is embedded. This tab is populated after the player fires the initial on('firstFrame') event.

You can also click VIEW GOOGLE PAGE SPEED ANALYSIS to view additional page speed information.

The following tables list and define the measurements that are displayed on this tab.

Player QoE

MeasurementDescription
Total Setup TimeTime required to instantiate the player, as defined in the on(‘ready’) event

This value is the duration between the start of setup() to ready.
Player Resource Fetch RangeTime range in which JW Player resources are requested

This range begins with the request of jwplayer.js and ends with the last module required for setting up the player.

NOTE: In some cases, this measure will not be available. In particular, if the player scripts are bundled or renamed, this range will not be detected.
Page Request to ReadyTime (starting from 0) after which the JW Player ready event is fired
Time to First FrameTime between the playAttempt to firstFrame events
Ad Loading (Ad Request to Ad Impression)Time between the adRequest and adImpression events.

Page QoE

MeasurementDescription
DOM Content LoadedTime between navigationStart and domContentLoadedEventEnd window events
DOM LoadTime between navigationStart and loadEventEnd window events
Time to InteractiveTime between navigationStart and domInteractive window events
Total Resources LoadedTotal number of resources requested by the time the on('firstFrame') event fires

Report

Use the Report tab to create a .json file to include with your submission when you submit a support ticket for the JW Player Support team to troubleshoot your player issues.

  1. Click the Report tab.
  2. If an issue occurs in more than one browser, add the additional browsers in the What browsers does this issue appear in? text box.
  • NOTE: JW Lens automatically populates the Chrome browser information of the open active tab.
  1. In the Please enter a short description of the issue and/or reproduction steps text box, provide a description of the issue that is occurring.
  2. Click DOWNLOAD.
  3. Upload the .json file to an online location like Dropbox, Google Drive, or your own server.
  4. Submit a support case.
  5. In the Reproduction page field, add the URL of the .json file.

Upload Report and Open Test Page

The Upload Report and Open Test Page features allow you to review the player on a page that does not have external CSS or JavaScript. This can help you determine if a player issue is caused due to a player configuration setting or a conflict with an element on your page.

Upload Report

You can upload a .json file generated from the Report tab. The .json file is used to load a player in a new browser tab. This can be useful if your JW Player Support team member sends you a revised .json file to review or test.

  1. From any tab, click UPLOAD REPORT.
  2. Select the .json file from your computer. A new browser tab opens with the player and relevant information displayed.
  3. (Optional) Click Test Latest Production Channel Player to see if an issue persists in another player version.

Open Test Page

You can view the player you are troubleshooting on a new browser tab.

  1. From any tab, click OPEN TEST PAGE.
  2. (Optional) Click Test Latest Production Channel Player to see how the player renders in another player version.

Updated 6 months ago

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