Info on VPAID integration with HTML5 IMA SDK

[Philip Bulley]

Hi there,

Just wondering if you could point me in the right direction here. I'm a developer building an HTML5 video player that solely uses the IMA SDK to play ads. We're working with a VPAID vendor to develop a custom javascript creative that will only ever be shown via our player's IMA SDK implementation.

The VPAID vendor isn't overly familiar with the HTML5 IMA SDK and isn't sure if it's possible for the VPAID creative to respond to calls made by the player via IMA, such as:

• google.ima.AdsManager.pause()
• google.ima.AdsManager.resume()
  
• google.ima.AdsManager.setVolume()
  
• google.ima.AdsManager.getVolume()
  
• google.ima.AdsManager.getRemainingTime()
  

Do you have any documentation or advice on how this might be achieved on the JS VPAID side of things? Again, this only needs to be compatible with IMA, so we're open to solutions that may be IMA specific/outside of the VPAID spec.

Many thanks,

Philip 

[Tyler Sidell (IMA SDK Team)]

Hi Philip,

The only public documentation that we can provide relating to our VPAID IMA support can be found here. 

If you are looking to see if the VPAID creative can respond to certain calls, you can always test out the tag in our VSI or sample examples. 

In addition to that, you use these VPAID tags for testing. If you use the last example ("Testers Vpaid Ad"), you'll notice that the VPAID ad is responding to the calls that you are looking for.

Thanks,
Tyler Sidell
IMA SDK Team

[Philip Bulley]

Hey Tyler,

That’s been extremely useful, thanks!

Just one question so far, I’m doing the following:

1. Updating the duration within the VPAID (which is successfully returned by the getAdDuration() VPAID method)
2. Calling the AdDurationChange callback from within the VPAID
3. Calling google.ima.Ad.getDuration() but this only ever returns the duration as specified in the VAST <Duration></Duration> tag. Is that expected?

I added a console.log() to the VPAID getAdDuration() method, and I can see that it is begin called and returning the updated duration. I just need to be able to access that updated duration via IMA.

Thanks for your help!

Philip

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[Tyler Sidell (IMA SDK Team)]

Hi Philip,

The steps that you described should return the updated duration from IMA. I will speak with the rest of the team about this and let you know any further updates. In the meantime, if you have a test VPAID that you are using and would like us to take a look you can send that over as well.

Thanks,
Tyler Sidell
IMA SDK Team

[Philip Bulley]

Sure, give this a go in your Video Suite Inspector: https://responsive-tv-shared.s3.amazonaws.com/vpaid-test/vast.xml

• The VAST <Duration> is set at 22secs
• When the VPAID inits, it will change its duration to 60
• The VpaidAd.prototype.startDummyTimer() will simulate time change using setInterval() every second. On the 10th interval (after 10secs), the duration will be updated again to 120.

The Video Suite Inspector player’s duration remains at 22s. Open up the log and you’ll see that VpaidAd.prototype.getAdDuration() is called by IMA and returns the correct value as expected. But IMA doesn’t seem to pass this through to the player as expected.

Thanks again,

Philip

[Tyler Sidell (IMA SDK Team)]

Hi Philip,

Thanks for passing along the additional information.  I was able to reproduce the issue that you described.  I will discuss this with the rest of the team and provide any updates once I have them.

Cheers,

Tyler Sidell

IMA SDK Team

[Tyler Sidell (IMA SDK Team)]

Hi Philip,

Just to provide an update.  This issue has been fixed and should be going out in the next release.  You can follow our release history here.

Thanks,
Tyler Sidell

IMA SDK Team

[Philip Bulley]

Hi Tyler,

Thanks for the update and the speedy fix. I’ll be looking out for it in the next release.

Much appreciated.

Philip