What is a clicktag? A click tracking method created by Adobe (formerly Macromedia) for rich media banners designed with Flash. It has evolved into an industry standard over the past several years and is today supported by every major ad server. Experienced Flash designers will find implementing the clicktag method to be fairly simple. In short, you need to insert a transparent button into the top-most layer of your Flash banner and assign it an onrelease action with some special ActionScript code that is designed to accept a click-tracking redirect as a parameter. Copy the ActionScript code below for the minimum version of Flash you intend to publish the SWF file for the banner. Which minimum version of Flash should you choose? You should first check with your ad server vendor as they may only support specific versions. If at all possible, we recommend that you choose Flash 8 or 9. According to surveys conducted by Adobe, 99.6% of users worldwide have the Flash 8 or 9 plugin (See Reference -- Sept. 2009). Do not make any modifications to the code! It requires absolutely no changes to function correctly. It should be copied and pasted into your banner exactly as it appears. Flash 8 and 9 This is ActionScript 2.0 code. Do not export your SWF file for Flash 10 or use ActionScript 3.0 at this time! The current generation of browsers have compatability problems with the new Flash security model, which prevents the clicktag from working properly when utilizing them. Also, you should be aware that Flash 8 and 9 treat the clicktag parameter name case sensitively. Make sure to change them if your ad server requires another variation such as clicktag or ClickTag and also verify that all occurrences of the parameter name are exactly them same. if (_root.clicktag.substr(0,5) == "http:") { geturl(_root.clicktag, "_blank"); Flash 4, 5, 6, and 7 This is ActionScript 2.0 code. It is no longer recommended that you export your SWF file for these older versions of Flash. Should it be required for you to do so, however, it is important not to use _blank for the target frame to open a new browser window. Internet Explorer 7+ when used with the Flash 10 plugin will incorrectly block your clicktag as a popup due to backwards compatability problems with the new Flash security model, so you must use _top as is shown. if (clicktag.substr(0,5) == "http:") { geturl(clicktag, "_top"); If that makes no sense to you, don't worry! We have created the following three part step-by-step tutorial to walk you through the entire process from start to finish. If you follow our instructions exactly, we guarantee that your banner will track clicks with any standards compliant ad server. Page 1 / 7
Part 1: Designing Your Banner Before you get started with designing your banner, follow these steps to make sure that the stage is set up correctly. 1. Click on Create New > Flash File (ActionScript 2.0) as shown in the screenshot below. 2. Click on the Size button as shown in the screenshot below. 3. Click on the Size button as shown in the screenshot below. 4. At this point, you are ready to proceed with designing your banner. When your banner design work is complete, Page 2 / 7
proceed to the next set of steps to implement the clicktag button. Part 2: Implementing the clicktag Now that the design work on your banner is complete, follow these steps to implement the clicktag button. 1. Right click on Layer 1 (or your topmost layer) and then click on Insert Layer as shown in the screenshot below. 2. Select the Rectangle Primitive Tool from the toolbar as shown in the screenshot below. 3. Using the Rectangle Primitive Tool, draw a rectangle of the same size on top of your banner in the New Layer that you just created. Then use the rectangle properties view to change both the Stroke Color and Fill Color to white and set their Opacity to 0%. Doing this will make your rectangle completely transparent as shown in the screenshot below. Page 3 / 7
4. Right click on your transparent rectangle and then click on Arrange > Bring to Front as shown in the screenshot below. 5. Right click on your transparent rectangle again and then click on Convert to Symbol... as shown in the screenshot below. 6. Enter clicktag_button for the name of the button as shown in the screenshot below. Page 4 / 7
7. Double click the button to switch the view to editing mode and follow the following steps: 1 Right click the Hit frame. In the menu, select Insert Keyframe to add a keyframe. 2 Click on the Up frame and hit the Delete key on the keyboard to clear the frame. 3 Convert the Over and Down frames to blank keyframes by right clicking on them and selecting Convert to Blank Keyframe from the menu. 4 When finished, return to the main Timeline. 8. Right click on your rectangle, which is now a button, again and then click on Actions as shown in the screenshot below. 9. Copy the ActionScript code below for the minimum version of Flash you intend to publish the SWF file for the banner. Which minimum version of Flash should you choose? You should first check with your ad server vendor as they may only support specific versions. If at all possible, we recommend that you choose Flash 8 or 9. According to surveys conducted by Adobe, 99.6% of users worldwide have the Flash 8 or 9 plugin Do not make any modifications to the code! It requires absolutely no changes to function correctly. It should be copied exactly as it appears. Flash 8 and 9 This is ActionScript 2.0 code. Do not export your SWF file for Flash 10 or use ActionScript 3.0 at this time! The current generation of browsers have compatability problems with the new Flash security model, which prevents the clicktag from working properly when utilizing them. Also, you should be aware that Flash 8 and 9 treat the clicktag parameter name case sensitively. Make sure to change them if your ad server requires another variation such as clicktag or ClickTag and also verify that all occurrences of the parameter name are exactly them same. if (_root.clicktag.substr(0,5) == "http:") { geturl(_root.clicktag, "_blank"); Flash 4, 5, 6, and 7 This is ActionScript 2.0 code. It is no longer recommended that you export your SWF file for these older versions of Flash. Should it be required for you to do so, however, it is important not to use _blank for the target frame to open a new browser Page 5 / 7
window. Internet Explorer 7+ when used with the Flash 10 plugin will incorrectly block your clicktag as a popup due to backwards compatability problems with the new Flash security model, so you must use _top as is shown. if (clicktag.substr(0,5) == "http:") { geturl(clicktag, "_top"); Close the dialog shown below after you have copy and pasted the ActionScript code from above into it. Part 3: Publishing the Banner 1. Click on the File menu and select Export > Export Movie... as shown in the screenshot below. 2. Make sure your publishing settings appear as shown in the screenshot below. In particular the minimum Version of the Flash player to require should match the one of the ActionScript code you chose to assign to the button. Most of the other settings can be changed at your discretion, but enabling compression is generally recommended. Page 6 / 7
At this point, you are ready to set up your published SWF file as a Flash banner in your ad server. Congratulations! Page 7 / 7