Native Custom Ads not calling delegate

[Neil Foley]

We are encountering an issue where we are requesting a native advert and not getting a response, this appears to be when we request the advert whilst in the background. Requesting in the background is a bug on our end, but we should at least receive a delegate callback to say the request has failed.

We request the advert using:

self.adLoader = [[GADAdLoader alloc]

                         initWithAdUnitID:<OUR SITE ID GOES HERE>

                         rootViewController:self.fetchRequest.rootViewController

                         adTypes:@[kGADAdLoaderAdTypeNativeCustomTemplate]

                         options:nil];

        self.adLoader.delegate = self;

        

        DFPRequest *request = [DFPRequest request];

                

        [self.adLoader loadRequest:request];

We have implemented the following two delegate callbacks

#pragma - mark GADAdLoaderDelegate

- (void)adLoader:(GADAdLoader *)adLoader didFailToReceiveAdWithError:(GADRequestError *)error 

#pragma - mark GADNativeCustomTemplateAdLoaderDelegate

- (void)adLoader:(GADAdLoader *)adLoader didReceiveNativeCustomTemplateAd:(GADNativeCustomTemplateAd *)nativeCustomTemplateAd

Is there a delegate method that we should be implementing or is there an issue where a delegate may not always get called?

Thanks for your help

[Neil Foley]

I should say we are using iOS 10.3.2 and framework version 7.20.0

[Deepika Uragayala- MobileAds SDK team]

Hi Neil,

Those two mentioned callbacks should give you all the relevant details of the AdView lifecycle. It sounds like an implementation issue to me and I would suggest that you first try with this sample app and then let us know.

Regards,

Deepika Uragayala

Mobile Ads SDK Team

[Neil Foley]

Hi Deepika

Thanks for your help, I have attached a sample project to show the issue we are having. Please add an advert id and template id to the project to make it work, I have also not included your sdk to reduce the file size.

The project uses a background task to keep the sample app alive in the background, as the app resigns active an advert request is made and no response is ever received. Removing the background task guarantees a response from the SDK.

Steps to reproduce

1. Launch app

2. Background the app

    -  Notice the app will make an advert request but never get a response

3. Launch the app

    - There is still no response

Please do let me know if I need to clarify anything.

Thanks

Neil

[Deepika Uragayala- MobileAds SDK team]

Hi Neil,

You are not supposed to make an ad request when the app is backgrounded. The one you have is not a valid setup. Make the ad request when the app is active and let us know if you are still facing the issue.

Regards,
Deepika Uragayala
Mobile Ads SDK Team

[Eric Leichtenschlag (Mobile Ads SDK Team)]

Hi Neil,

Thanks for providing a sample. I wasn't able to reproduce the error on my end. That is, I was getting the "Fail" log message inside of the ad failed to load callback. I was testing on a 10.2 simulator since I have Xcode 8.2 installed at the moment. I wouldn't expect there to be much of a difference here on 10.3 though.

Here (https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B26oUFN8YgnQNGRjMWU2dmNGR0U) is a revised version of your app with our demo custom template ad unit/template ID set up, and including the SDK (app should run out of the box). Can you confirm if this is specific to 10.3, or if it happens on any other iOS version as well?

The SDK should always send either a success or failure callback for every request. If we can reproduce this on our end, I'll file a bug to get this fixed.

Thanks,

Eric

[Eric Leichtenschlag]

Hi Neil,

I was testing this again, and I'm not sure what changed, but now I am able to reproduce the problem on 10.2. I will file a bug internally.

In the meantime, the workaround, as you mentioned, don't request the ad in the background.

Thanks,

Eric

[Neil Foley]

Hey Eric

Thanks so much for your help, I was seeing this bug on an iPhone 7 running 10.3.2.

We are guarding against requests in the background but the bug will still happen with a launch then background in quick succession.

Let me know if you need any more information.

Thanks again for looking into this

Neil

[Neil Foley]

One last thing Eric

Do you have an ETA for when this fix should be available?

Thanks

Neil

[Eric Leichtenschlag (Mobile Ads SDK Team)]

Hi Neil,

I'm still lobbying internally to get this prioritized; I'm not comfortable providing an ETA until I know what release this will be targeted to.

Thanks,

Eric

[Eric Leichtenschlag (Mobile Ads SDK Team)]

Hi Neil,

iOS SDK 7.22 has just been released, and includes a fix for the failure callback not being invoked due to the ad being requested on a background thread.

Thanks,

Eric

[Neil Foley]

Hey Eric

Thanks so much for fixing this, we’ll try and get it included as soon as possible. 

Neil

Sent from my iPhone

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