HTML5 Player: AdError 403: Linear assets were found in the VAST ad response, but none of them matched the video player's capabilities.

[Bill Corvino]

Good morning,

We have an ima implementation on top of the Clappr player framework.  It successfully shows most ads, but we are getting the above error in certain instances.  Attached is a sample response that provoked the error.

When I paste this response into the Video Suite Inspector, it plays correctly.

The response contains a <VASTAdTagURI> child of the wrapper.

When I switch the tag manually to the tag in the VASTAdTagURI, the ad plays correctly, so I am thinking it is something to do with the redirect?

The creative served by the tag in the VASTAdTagURI is an mp4 and marked "progressive"

Strangely,  the redirect linear and redirect linear fallback IMA SAMPLE TAGS work correctly.

Please advise with any suggestions or further info I can share

Thank you,

Bill Corvino

[Bill Corvino]

Update: I am thinking this is actually a CORS issue.  The resultant ad tag is from amazon and I just surfaced this error (screenshot attached).

Would a CORS error produce the above error message?

Is there anyway around this, be it trafficking or ima configuration/coding?

Bill

[IMA SDK]

Hi Bill,

Thank you for reaching out to us. Given the error message read in the screenshot you shared, the issue is with the https://aax-east-us.amazon-adsystem.com blocking the IMA SDK (https://imasdk.googleapis.com) from loading the ad resources located at vast?b=IliHsoNP1-S1Fu52UZVKg. This is an issue caused by the CORS configuration of the Ad Server itself and has nothing to do with the IMA SDK. We would recommend you to reach out to your Ad Provider so they can allow access to the IMA SDK.

Regards,
Arnaud Casame
IMA SDK Team

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[Bill Corvino]

Hi Arnaud,

Thank you for your response.

I was thinking that too, but I just got the same error on a different response without the CORS error and the VASTAdTagURI coming from doubleclick.net.  Is it safe for me to post a VAST response here for you to take a look at?

Bill

[IMA SDK]

Hi Bill,

I work along with Arnaud and I’ll assist you on this. You can share the VAST ad tag or the VAST response via our support alias: imate...@gmail.com 

Let us know once you’ve sent it.

Regards,

Sherwin Diesta IMA SDK Team

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[Bill Corvino]

Hi Sherwin,

Thank you.  Is there some way I should refer to this thread in my email to imatesting3 that will key back to here?  Or should I just re-iterate the issue?

Bill

[IMA SDK]

Hi Bill,

I work along with Sherwin and Arnaud and will assist you. You can place a link in the email to the forum case and that will be a good enough identifier. Please remember to post on this thread after sending email to notify us that it was sent.

Regards,

Aryeh Baker IMA SDK Team

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[Bill Corvino]

Hi,

I sent the email to imatesting3.  Thank you!

[IMA SDK]

Hi Bill,

Thank you for the VAST's sent privately. I tested them in our HTML5 client side Advanced Example and didn't receive that none matched player's capabilities. I did see the CORS errors and saw that the SDK requested again and was able to get the response.

According to our Resolve VAST and IMA SDK Errors page this 403 error can be caused by a VAST response that declares unsupported MIME types for all available MediaFiles or by the wrong creative type attempting to play. It is recommended that the publisher should ensure that the creative format or technology requested is supported by the video player's device and platform.

You are reporting that this only happens when a redirect occurs - yet when the immediate VAST is placed in your player you don't get this error. Are you able to replicate this error in our Example apps?

[Bill Corvino]

Hi,

Thank you for your attention to this. 

The error is intermittent and obviously the cascade on each request is potentially different. 

So, I’m thinking the best way to get to the heart of it might be to to enrich the error message coming from the ima-sdk to see what the resultant offending creative is.

Then I can either see something obvious wrong with the creative or at least be able to point you to the correct VAST response.

Can you point me to how on a player event I can get the selected creative?  Where does it live in the ima object?

Any info would be great and I will continue to work the problem from my end.

Thanks again for your help,

Bill

[IMA SDK]

Hi Bill,

Thank you for your response. You can use the getCreativeId() method to identify the selected creative during an ad event. Just make sure you register the ad error listener on the ad manager’s event with error handling in the process.
 

Ads.prototype.onAdEvent_ = function(adEvent) {
var creativeId = adEvent.getAd().getCreativeId();
...

Let me know if this works for you.

Sherwin Diesta IMA SDK Team

Regards,

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[Bill Corvino]

Hi Sherwin, 

Thank you for the info.  Unfortunately, I don't think this is going to work as a strategy.  It seems that while AdEvent contains the getAd() method in the HTML5, the AdErrorEvent does not

https://developers.google.com/interactive-media-ads/docs/sdks/html5/client-side/reference/js/google.ima.AdErrorEvent

I can't access the ad creative until the 'loaded' event in my tests, which does not get fired when there is an error loading the ad.

Any other leads on how I can get to the Ad object from the AdErrorEvent or the IMA object?  Am I misunderstanding the difference between AdEvent and AdErrorEvent?

Bill

[IMA SDK]

Hi Bill,

You can use Chrome devtools to check network activity and find the offending creatives - the VAST responses come up and you can trace what happens. I just tried your badcorsvast again and got an ad error 303 for empty VAST as you can see in the screenshot. It says "&label=videoplayfailed303" in the Name that starts with "?ai=CYML....." in the Request URL. Notice in the Name panel the 2 tries at getting a VAST response - the first attempt is red because of the CORS error in console window on bottom. In the response tab for the second try I saw an empty VAST - and you can trace the calls later on in the Name panel if there's another VAST. The <VASTAdTagURI>  section in a returned VAST would have the redirect and you can trace when it's called in the Name panel.

Regards,

Aryeh Baker IMA SDK Team

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