Stream schedule and click caps

The schedule and caps are set in the Stream settings («Настройки потока») window on the Schedule («Расписание») tab. To open the window, go to the campaign's Streams («Потоки») tab and click + Stream («+ Поток») or the gear button in the stream card. Changes take effect after you click Save stream («Сохранить поток»).

General rules

• A stream gets traffic only if it is enabled, within its schedule, the click passes its filters and its caps are not exhausted.
• A stream outside its schedule or with an exhausted cap is skipped, and the tracker chooses another matching stream in the usual order.
• The schedule and caps work in streams of any type, including the final one.
• The check happens on entry via the campaign link. The click-through from a landing page to an offer of a visitor who has already entered the stream is not limited by the schedule or caps.
• The schedule and the caps have their own time zones. They are set separately and can differ.

Schedule

The Schedule field takes two values:

• Around the clock («Круглосуточно») — the stream always works. This is the default.
• Custom hours («Своё время») — the stream works on the selected days and hours. The fields from the table appear.

How the window is counted:

• If no day is selected or all seven are selected, the stream works on any day.
• Both boundaries are included in the window: with 09:00–23:00 the stream works from 09:00 until the end of the 23:00 minute.
• If the start is later than the end, the window spans midnight: with 22:00–06:00 the stream works from 22:00 to 06:00 the next morning.
• The day of the week is checked by the current date in the selected time zone. With the 22:00–06:00 window and only Fri selected, the stream works on Friday from 00:00 to 06:00 and from 22:00 to the end of the day. After midnight on the night into Saturday, it does not work unless Sat is selected.
• For the stream to work around the clock on the selected days, set the window to 00:00–23:59.
• With equal From (hours) and To (hours) values, for example 00:00–00:00, the stream works for one minute a day.

To remove the schedule, choose Around the clock and save the stream.

Click caps

The Click caps («Лимиты кликов») block is at the top of the tab. The three caps work independently: the stream is skipped as soon as any of them is reached.

0 means no limit. The hour and the day are calendar ones: the Per hour count starts anew at the beginning of every hour, the Per day count at midnight in the caps time zone.

What counts as an entry

• An entry is a click on the campaign link that the tracker sent to this stream. Repeat visits of the same visitor are counted too.
• A visitor's return after the JS challenge is not counted as a second entry.
• Entries are counted while at least one cap is set. Clicks that came before the caps were enabled are not counted, so the number may differ from the clicks in the stream statistics.
• An entry is counted when the stream is chosen and stays in the count even if serving the page afterwards ended with an error.
• Caps also apply to a returning visitor with binding: if the bound stream's cap is exhausted, another stream is chosen.

The “Counted” counter

In a saved stream, under each cap there is a “Counted: N” («Учтено: N») line — how many entries are counted for the current hour, the current day and in total. The values are read when the window opens. To refresh them, close the window and open the stream settings again.

• Changing the caps and other stream settings does not reset the Total count.
• A stream that has reached its Total cap gets traffic again if you raise this cap above the “Counted” value or set it to 0.
• After you change the zone in the Caps time zone field, the day count starts anew.
• A stream copy and a stream created from a template have their own counters, starting from zero.
• A team member with restricted report fields does not see the “Counted” values: the block shows the line “Counters temporarily unavailable” («Счётчики временно недоступны»).

If the counters are unavailable

While the tracker cannot read the counters, streams with caps are skipped and traffic goes to matching streams without caps. If there are no such streams, the visitor gets a 503 response. After recovery, streams with caps take part in distribution again. In the stream selection check, such a stream is marked with the reason “Cap counter unavailable” («Счётчик лимитов недоступен»).

Stream checkboxes

At the bottom of the Schedule tab there are two checkboxes.

• Stream active («Поток активен») — on for a new stream, off for a stream from a template or a JSON file. A disabled stream takes no part in distribution; in the card its name has the “paused” («пауза») label. The switch on the left of the stream card does the same.
• Hide click counter («Скрывать счётчик кликов») — off by default. When it is on, the stream card shows “—” instead of numbers under the “clicks” («клики») caption, and the counter does not open the stream statistics. Clicks are recorded and visible in reports. The checkbox is meant for the “white” stream.

Error messages

If the window did not close after you clicked Save stream, the stream was not saved. The save error text is shown at the top of the campaign page. JSON import errors are shown in the Stream templates («Шаблоны потоков») window — see Stream templates, export and import.