[tvOS IMA SDK] no STARTED event from AdsManager with specific ad

[David Steinacher]

Hi,

We discovered that the `IMAAdsManager` does not emit the `kIMAAdEvent_STARTED` event for certain VAST tags.

We drilled it down to the existence of a certain VAST extension. When there is a VAST Extension with `type="sodar"`, no more `kIMAAdEvent_STARTED` is received despite the ad starting playback as expected. All other events, and also time updates, are received as expected. The same VAST tag plays fine on iOS as well.

We were testing with:

- GoogleAds-IMA-tvOS-SDK: 4.13.0

I added an adapted version of the Swift BasicExample application from googleads/googleads-ima-ios and added tvOS support as the googleads/googleads-ima-tvos-client-side is not plug-and-play ready.

In this sample application, I added a log output to the `adsManager(_ adsManager: IMAAdsManager, didReceive event: IMAAdEvent)` delegate method, where you can see that the started event is not received. To run the sample application, download it and run `pod install`.

The example tag and an example application can be found in the attachments.

[IMA SDK]

Hey David,

Thanks for contacting IMA SDK Support team.

Could you give access of your shared VAST to us for further investigation? as it's showing 'Access Denied' on my end and timeout error on SDK side.
 

This message is in relation to case "ref:!00D1U01174p.!5004Q02vDhXE:ref" (ADR-00252509)

Thanks,
 

IMA SDK Team

[David Steinacher]

Oh, sorry for that. Please try again, it should work now.

[IMA SDK]

Hey David,

Thanks for providing the access.

Yes, I am able to replicate this issue and raised this to the team.
I will update you once i get any update on this. Meanwhile, your patience is important.

[IMA SDK]

Hi David,

It looks like the Sodar extension is not expected to work on tvOS currently. Are you seeing any production ads on tvOS which include it ?
If yes, kindly provide those details too.

Thanks

[Roberth Siqueira]

Hello there,

I'm facing the same problem.
Do you need the whole VAST file?

[IMA SDK]

Hi Roberth,

Thank you for contacting us.

Are you facing this issue in tvOS or any other platform ? As sodar extension is not supported in tvOS.
Kindly share production VAST details if issue is occurring in web platform.

[Roberth Siqueira]

This issue occurs in tvOS like David but the SDK version is different.

The SDK: GoogleAds-IMA-tvOS-SDK, 4.11.1

The example file VAST.

[IMA SDK]

Hello Roberth,

This is Jackson from the IMA SDK team to help with your issue. I tested the XML you shared in the HTML5 VSI player to get a baseline for the ad's functionality, but got an error:

"Ad error: AdError 400: There was an error playing the video ad. Caused by: Error: Error: There was an error playing the video ad."

Are you also seeing this error on your end when testing in the VSI? If so, there may be an error with the ad itself, and not the tvOS IMA SDK.

Please let me know your findings.
 

This message is in relation to case "ref:!00D1U01174p.!5004Q02vDhXE:ref" (ADR-00252509)

Thanks,
 

Jackson Sui IMA SDK Team

[Roberth Siqueira]

Hi Jackson,

I had the same problem with the last file sent by me but I made a new submission and that worked in VSI.

Request: Link

Response with VAST file

[IMA SDK]

Hello Roberth,

Thank you for the reply. With the new VAST tag, I was able to reproduce the issue where the STARTED event is not being fired on tvOS.

That being said, SODAR is a new extension, and not currently supported on tvOS. Are you seeing SODAR ads in production on tvOS devices, as this could indicate an issue with your Ad Manager or IMA configuration?

Once you reply, I can continue helping to debug the issue.