Creating Custom API Widgets

Our API enables you to retrieve the same ad fill you'd see in our traditional widgets but in a much more customizable format. 

API REQUESTS

• Content type:

application/json or text/xml

• Endpoint:

GET http://trends.revcontent.com/api/v2/

api_key

pub_id

widget_id

domain

https://trends.revcontent.com/api/v2/?api_key={Insert_Your_API_Key}&pub_id={Insert_Your_Account_ID}&widget_id={Insert_Your_Widgets_ID}&domain={Insert_Your_Widgets_Domain}

user_ip

user_agent

referrer

width

img_w

img_h

format

sponsored_count

sponsored_offset 

internal_count

internal_offset

send_view

tracking

✴️ pick_one

✴️ tracking_method

API RESPONSES

headline

url

image

brand

content_type

type

uid

target_url

view

impression

{"content":[{"headline":"Sample Headline","url":"https:\/\/trends.revcontent.com\/click.php?d=FGEvEC23O7thB%2Bc%2FbvyqPZRuPR%2BkEr4UOIDs0NqONIC5NzY13LWWNnbW4XYf%2F2HUblhFr63pVKst6%2F1rBDoNCwDkSkhJcgx3wJgy6AB%2FrugEW6QGB3PMJxBUPxgXWZEXIDfwwbMFbl6BxJc2GDHHtsy3anBb7XKDT3jkC3Ekut8Q5ev5oOovH1WEjCLYRqqV2B7Caqz5rl%2FKuTBCBtkd6qN4Ie2jmU8OmzVoRTpo2Xp09u645olzuzrWIxFeob8my9Qs9CKLCY%2Bt3CeiFJVCq9wP8rHglUEY5G9y%2BnjKHxOcUlcumprWWWDbiqUwYqGLxHWDLlz%2BnooR2RMgvTaoKcV8B9oz0UqxCseZsMdcL6bQyvd0VPHsyuaJlMoanG27EBWry6QYLOHd%2FlQV3aaBvSaR00J2FNBMF8zAdmBEvUs1dejPrT15oynoDZNUYu%2F9%2FIbmKDT5owLdrAPVoXEQKzKT9RAFwJiiOsCPNDwQv4CiKPyg4Uk%2Bv1UKsTD%2FXjJ597exjZr%2FYIs7OqPZlg%2Bl%2Fxm%2FK5qXKYY%2B9UCmKgXv0dScAK4XSi8HK7Zk6Yb7QYbYAtHx%2Bn5FXp3Fa1CAcNH7DHcM4%2FfkMn3zUmT5n08TG5roBsekEHFmB%2FMn%2Fqr9f5lKSYWbKhxTak3Vz%2BGAzpooZv5sH4p65C9ov%2BenOAg0KlXwguJ0RfIEwRtqZkoK5FQ3SUWq1Aeb57sfds5MrvqBMPRDvRuCneybbohbqFpiudL4v59DmgqixQ%2BWdAtANk5yHo2OxsjasZLBBfSzdTuGGaJ3tKvgdOBRCQeTXXim29ihMzIQl6HK9AIr1Ioxa2dlU1hwozTVvN20gxcEPfuoWmuE7ISpJz38uju1Mwys%2BSNMMP1lZ391pGyMgGWFQCK1fhrkqOLsrz5fh%2FVBMBf0EWunHp1PfOLGa5QmlBRevdLCpo1NUWY%2Fnx5CHIiLWqz4BurfDs6daqjv3gsdQVwmIHcUD5d6R9gj2ped7szkXq6ckfYF4LonQRqbNNALF6a8wr3BWaLJfGbEGM89BoTh3IzHiigfRGUjaseLaATtet1Wex8o7FUgsEX1XNBbWlyWtujNJwRCPfN57%2FJT%2FGv97qAj90haJhFhtMvAP%2FypIWCqnu7NH6NX8irQM4exWJta&s2s=1","image":"https:\/\/images.revcontent.com\/revcontent\/image\/fetch\/f_auto,h_315,w_420,c_fill,g_face\/pg_1\/https:\/\/revcontent-p0.s3.amazonaws.com\/content\/images\/12345-67890.jpg","brand":"Revcontent","type":"sponsored","uid":"sponsored_123456","target_url":"https:\/\/example.com\/123?","impression":""}],"impression":""}

Tracking Views

Views should always be tracked. A view occurs when a widget and its creative(s) enter the user's viewport. The "send_view" parameter is used to generate a view hash. By passing "send_view=true" into your request, a view parameter will be returned in your response with a unique hash as the value. To record the view, you'll need to post back the view hash returned in the response to https://trends.revcontent.com/view.php. The "view" parameter also accepts 2 additional parameters:

1. view_type - the type of view event. Either "widget" or "fill"
2. p[] - the creative's panel position index starting from "0"

{"view":"View_Hash_Goes_Here","view_type":"fill","p[]":"0"} 

In order to determine which elements have entered a user's viewport and are considered viewed, we recommend using something like the Intersection Observer API.

The following is an example of the entire view tracking process setup in Javascript:

const settings = {
url: '//trends.revcontent.com/api/v2/',
widgetId: {Your_Widgets_ID},
apiKey: '{Your_API_Key}',
pubId: {Your_Account_ID},
domain: '{Your_Widgets_Domain}',
sponsoredOffset: 0,
sponsoredCount: 4
};

const widgetData = {
items: [],
view: '',
queue: [],
widgetView: false
};

const observerOptions = {
threshold: 0.95
};


const createItem = (item, index) => document.createRange().createContextualFragment(`
<div class="rc-item" data-index="${index}">
<a href="${item.url}">
<div>
<img src="${item.image}" />
<h3>${item.headline}</h3>
</div>
</a>
</div>
`);



const buildWidget = async () => {

const data = await fetch('${settings.url}?api_key=${settings.apiKey}&pub_id=${settings.pubId}&domain=${settings.domain}&widget_id=${settings.widgetId}&sponsored_count=${settings.sponsoredCount}&sponsored_offset=${settings.sponsoredOffset}&send_view=true`, {
credentials: 'include'
}).then(res => res.json());

widgetData.items = data.content;
widgetData.view = data.view;
widgetData.impression = data.impression;

const target = document.getElementById('app');

if (target) {
widgetData.items?.forEach((item, index) => target.appendChild(createItem(item, index)));
}

// Ideally, delay observation for a moment until html is rendered. Intersection Observer will trigger
// as true when the element is first created if in the view port. This delay gives your ad panel a chance
// to generate the markup before observation.
setTimeout(() => {
createObserver();
}, 150);
}

// Call the view event
const trackView = () => {

// Only fire an event if the queue has items. If not, do nothing.
if (widgetData.queue.length > 0) {


// Create a search params and append data to it. The view payload expects the following:
// view: The view hash received from the API. This requires decoding via decodeURIComponent
// p[]: The index to be tracked as viewed. This can be multiple entries of an index such as
// p[]: 0
// p[]: 1
// p[]: 2
const data = new URLSearchParams();
data.append('view', decodeURIComponent(widgetData.view));

if (!widgetData.widgetView) {
widgetData.widgetView = true;
data.append('view_type', 'widget');
}
else {
data.append('view_type', 'fill');
}

widgetData.queue.forEach(entry => {
data.append('p[]', entry);
})

// Once the data is added to the search params, perform a post. This must be
// form encoded as shown here, with the search params being sent as the body
// of the request. This will return 200 for successful calls.
fetch(`https://trends.revcontent.com/view.php`, {
method: 'POST',
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8'
},
body: data
})

// Clear the queue, the items currently in the queue have been tracked and 
// can be removed.
widgetData.queue = [];
}
}

// This is the callback that is ran whenever an element is observed.
const onIntersection = (entries, observer) => {
entries.forEach(entry => {
if (entry.intersectionRatio >= observerOptions.threshold) {
// If this is hit, it means the element meets the intersection ratio value
// The ratio is a percentage between 0 and 1 with 1 being 100% in view. Push 
// the index into the queue in preparation of sending a view event.
widgetData.queue.push(parseInt(entry.target.dataset.index, 10));

// The position has been queue for a view event and we no longer need to observe
// this element. Remove it from observation.
observer.unobserve(entry.target);

// Delay firing the event briefly. This gives your observer a chance to aggregate
// indexes into the queue before firing an event. For example, if the first and 
// second panel are in view at the same time, you can send them as a single event
// with the payload holding the indexes for each. 
setTimeout(() => {
trackView();
}, 50);
}
})
}

// Create a observer and then query the DOM to get the elements to watch.
const createObserver = () => {
const observer = new IntersectionObserver(onIntersection, observerOptions);

// Get the elements to observe via a class name. Set this to whatever is appropriate.
const elements = document.querySelectorAll('.rc-item');

// If any elements are found, iterate and observe them.
if (elements) {
elements.forEach(element => observer.observe(element));
}
}


buildWidget();

If running multiple widget placements, treat them each as independents when it comes to tracking views. For example, if you have two spots on a page where the API is showing ads, each of them should be treated as their own unique widget and will need to be managed as such for the view tracking logic. We track views via an index which represents the position of the ad in regards to where it's displayed for that batch of items. Each ad shown is its own panel with an index of 0 (the very first ad shown in that group of ads) to whatever the amount of items requested is (0/1/2/3 for 4 sponsored items, etc). In other words, you might have 2 places where you want to show results from the API. That would essentially give you the following:

Placement 1 (4 sponsored items requested)

• Panel indexes: 0/1/2/3
• View hash: (unique hash sent back from request)
• Unique queue for this placement: (empty array on initialization, will hold indexes of items queued for view event)

Placement 2 (another 4 sponsored items requested)

• Panel indexes: 0/1/2/3
• View hash: (unique hash sent back from request)
• Unique queue for this placement: (empty array on initialization, will hold indexes of items queued for view event)

Then, in the observer/view tracking logic:

1. determine which placement it is
2. push it to the appropriate queue
3. get the hash for that queue
4. fire the event
5. then clear the appropriate queue for the placement.

You may not require this behavior depending on your needs, but it's something to consider.