Google AdMob Ads SDK Android v4.3.1 and iOS v5.0.3 Released!

[wes (google)]

Good news, everyone!

We've just released v4.3.1 of the Android SDK and v5.0.3 of the iOS SDK.  Both releases include new custom search ads integration as well as multiple bug fixes.  On the iOS side, the latest version delivers support for iOS 5.  Please check out the full release notes for additional information.  As always, you can get the new versions fresh from our download page.

Cheers,

Wes

[EB]

Thanks wes!

Are there any changes we need to make to use the new lib (iOS for me) or just drop it in?

Any known bugs/issues you guys are still working on with it?  Always hard to know when to jump over to the new lib and when to wait for a few point releases...

[Eric Leichtenschlag]

Hey guys,

There are some new requirements for the most recent updates that you should be aware of.

For iOS:

v5.0.3 requires that you compile against the iOS 5 SDK and use XCode 4.2.  You can still set your deployment target down to 3.0.

For Android:

To use v4.3.1, you will need to get the Android 3.2 or 4.0 SDK, and set the default.properties to target=android-13 or target=android-14, respectively, to compile against the newer Android SDK.  You can still set the minSdkVersion, targetSdkVersion, and maxSdkVersion in your manifest to define which devices you support (Android 1.5 or higher) and have tested against.  You will also need to add some configChanges to your AdActivity in your manifest.  It should now look like this:

<activity android:name="com.google.ads.AdActivity"

              android:configChanges="keyboard|keyboardHidden|orientation|screenLayout|uiMode|screenSize|smallestScreenSize"/>

Cheers,

Eric

[Dudd]

The iOS SDK link appears to be down for me.

http://dl.google.com/googleadmobadssdk/googleadmobadssdkios.zip

[Eric Leichtenschlag]

Please see https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/google-admob-ads-sdk/xiF6PMdYcpA

Eric

[William Ferguson]

Just a note: this is a massive change for most Android apps. It is
almost certainly not a drop in for 4.1.1
You will need to manually handle screen rotation as well as all the
other config changes listed.

And as the documentation of config changes states:

Note: Using this attribute should be avoided and used only as a last-
resort. Please read Handling Runtime Changes for more information
about how to properly handle a restart due to a configuration change.

http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/activity-element.html#config


William


On Oct 26, 3:24 am, Eric Leichtenschlag <eleichtens...@google.com>
wrote:

[Jim]

Is the activity AdActivity only for interstitials (and maybe PlusOne
events)? If so, I would expect the SDK to handle the config changes
according to the manifest and that would not interfere with our apps.
As PlusOne rolls out, we might see issues if the SDK does not properly
handle config changes, especially in the context of our apps (not
restarting an activity due to a config change, then going back to a
previous activity, for example). PlusOne will be used by all of us
eventually, so it will have broader impact.

If not, and it effects all ads, then it poses a much bigger risk to
our apps and definitely requires extensive testing for config change
events.

Any thoughts or comments? I haven't tested it, so I'll look into it
myself soon...

-Jim

If not, then it poses a much bigger problem.

On Oct 25, 4:41 pm, William Ferguson <william.ferguson...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Just a note: this is a massive change for most Android apps. It is
> almost certainly not a drop in for 4.1.1
> You will need to manually handle screen rotation as well as all the
> other config changes listed.
>
> And as the documentation of config changes states:
>
> Note: Using this attribute should be avoided and used only as a last-
> resort. Please read Handling Runtime Changes for more information
> about how to properly handle a restart due to a configuration change.
>

> http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/activity-element.h...

>
> William
>
> On Oct 26, 3:24 am, Eric Leichtenschlag <eleichtens...@google.com>
> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > Hey guys,
>
> > There are some new requirements for the most recent updates that you should
> > be aware of.
>
> > For iOS:
>
> > v5.0.3 requires that you compile against the iOS 5 SDK and use XCode 4.2.
> >  You can still set your deployment target down to 3.0.
>
> > For Android:
>
> > To use v4.3.1, you will need to get the Android 3.2 or 4.0 SDK, and set the
> > default.properties to target=android-13 or target=android-14, respectively, to
> > compile against the newer Android SDK.  You can still set the
> > minSdkVersion, targetSdkVersion, and maxSdkVersion in your manifest to
> > define which devices you support (Android 1.5 or higher) and have tested
> > against.  You will also need to add some configChanges to your AdActivity
> > in your manifest.  It should now look like this:
>
> > <activity android:name="com.google.ads.AdActivity"
>

> > android:configChanges="keyboard|keyboardHidden|orientation|screenLayout|uiM ode|screenSize|smallestScreenSize"/>
>
> > Cheers,
> > Eric

[Eric Leichtenschlag]

Hey William,

Can you provide some more information on what extra implementation you need to integrate 4.3.1?  I don't think there should be too much overhead migrating.

The additional config changes that the AdActivity includes are only added to prevent the WebView from having to be reloaded, and these config changes only affect the AdActivity.  The only thing that may affect your app is the fact that that a few extra configurations were added to Android, screenSize and smallestScreenSize.  If your activity specifies the orientation config change to not recreate the activity, on orientation change, then you should also add the screenSize config change to your activity as well, per the documentation.

On other scenarios, the flow should be the same.  If your app is already overriding what happens when onConfigurationChanged is called, then when these extra configurations fire, you've already implemented how to handle this.  And if you aren't doing anything when onConfiguration is called, then it shouldn't matter when this gets method gets fired.

Thanks,

Eric, AdMob SDK Support

[William Ferguson]

My bad.

I read it as requiring the addition of a configChanges attribute to
*our* Activities (which has huge ramifications). Since it is just for
the AdActivity it should be an easy and hopefully relatively painless
swap over.

William



On Oct 26, 8:37 am, Eric Leichtenschlag <eleichtens...@google.com>
wrote:

[Eric Leichtenschlag]

Yeah that would be a big problem.  I'm glad it was just a misunderstanding.

Eric, AdMob SDK Support

[William Ferguson]

Eric, does the InstallReferrer work yet?

On Oct 26, 11:28 am, Eric Leichtenschlag <eleichtens...@google.com>
wrote:

[Jim]

William,

I think you know more about the webkit than I do, so I was worried you
saw something I didn't. Good to keep our eyes open for issues, that's
for sure...

Good question about the install referrer. That would be helpful if it
works.

Thanks,
Jim

On Oct 25, 7:58 pm, William Ferguson <william.ferguson...@gmail.com>
wrote:

[Kimmo Björnsson]

Hi!

Tried to update today.

After i changed target it complied fine. But now I can not run my app
on my device since Android Device Chooser in Eclipse does not allow me
to choose my phone since it's on a lower android-level than 13 or 14
depending on what target i set in the properties-file to make it
compile.

And I can not change configChanges to not use the target13/14 values..
Then the code complains and does not show any ads.. I'm kind of
stuck.. I need to be able to test on the phone from Eclipse..

Any ideas?

On Oct 25, 7:24 pm, Eric Leichtenschlag <eleichtens...@google.com>
wrote:

> android:configChanges="keyboard|keyboardHidden|orientation|screenLayout|uiM ode|screenSize|smallestScreenSize"/>
>
> Cheers,
> Eric

[netcat]

To get new iOS Admob SDK work properly, we have to set "MessageUI.framework" as optional link library. Otherwise, the apps will crash on iPad 1 with iOS 3.2.

Hope this information is useful for other people who want to try new iOS Admob SDK.

--
"A captain would never run away from his duty, if he knew the ship was sinking."

[Kimmo Björnsson]

After a while it started to work to choose the phone, but installing
on the phone failed.. I'll try some more.. will get back with the
results..

[Neil]

I waited a while, but I still don't see this in the SDK Manager repository.  How long does it take to get there?

Neil

[William Ferguson]

You might be waiting a while. I'm sure it's got to jump through a heap
of hurdles before it becomes available via the SdkManager.
I just downloaded it directly from Admob.

William

[dm1973]

If you set the compatibility mode to 13 or 14, you lose the options
menu in the system bar. Anyone know how to get it back? And no I don't
want to spend a couple of days for the very few tablet users out
there. Requiring support of an OS version with less than 1% of the
market is not an efficient use of my time.


On Oct 25, 6:37 pm, Eric Leichtenschlag <eleichtens...@google.com>
wrote:

[Eric Leichtenschlag]

Please refer to http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6035210/menu-in-system-bar-of-android-3-0.

It looks like some of these menus have changed from the system bar to the action bar in Honeycomb.  If you don't want this change, then you can change your targetSdkVersion to something lower than 11.

It should be noted that that the requirement to compile against Android 3.2 should not affect your applications, as long as you set your <uses-sdk/> tag properly in your manifest.  You can set the minSdkVersion to 3 if you want to support Android 1.5 devices.  You can set your targetSdkVersion (the highest version you've tested against) so that devices above that target version that run your app will fall into compatibility mode at that target version (relevant to this question).  Finally, you could set the maxSdkVersion if you really don't want to allow your apps to run on newer devices (not recommended, but this option is available).  These three attributes are unrelated to the target version in project.properties, and should cover all combinations of devices you want to support.

Eric, AdMob SDK Support