[Android] Ad with relative clickthrough URL throws fatal error

[Joe Milham]

Hello,

I've seen that loading an ad that uses relative URLs for clickthrough with the IMA SDK for Android causes a fatal crash when `Learn More` is clicked. Ads formatted this way work with the HTML5 and iOS SDK. This seems to have always been an issue on the Android SDK and most recently confirmed in `3.33.0` using the https://github.com/googleads/googleads-ima-android/tree/main/basicexample. 

Ad tag used for testing: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Jmilham21/VAST_Samples/master/VAST%204.2%20Samples/Inline_Simple.xml

I'm reaching out for clarification or to raise an issue, as it's unclear if this is expected behavior. The ad used for testing is not a production ad tag but demonstrates the possibility of this issue/crash. See the attached stack trace snippet. 

Thanks,

Joe Milham

[IMA SDK]

Hi Joe,

I am checking your issue, I will get back to you shortly.

Thanks
 

This message is in relation to case "ref:!00D1U01174p.!5004Q02tJ7TQ:ref" (ADR-00236947)

Thanks,
 

IMA SDK Team

[IMA SDK]

Hi Joe,

I m able to recreate this issue in the Sample Project and observed in your shared VAST that the clickthrough URL is written as //iabtechlab.com, which is the actual cause of the crash.
I recommend that you update your URL from //iabtechlab.com  to https://iabtechlab.com/  to prevent the crash from occurring.

Updated like this
<ClickThrough id="blog">
<![CDATA[https://iabtechlab.com/]]>
</ClickThrough>

In parallel, I will elevate this to a formal issue for implementation, to add a valid URL check prior to executing navigation.

[IMA SDK]

Hi Joe,

As i said in previous thread that I have elevated this to a formal issue for implementation, to add a valid URL check prior to executing navigation. And team is looking into this. 

As of now the recommendation is to remove this clickthroughUrl or include http or https in your ClickThrough URL like below.

<ClickThrough id="blog">
<![CDATA[https://iabtechlab.com/]]>
</ClickThrough>

I think this update will resolve your issue and app will stop crashing.
I don't have any time for this fix. But will update you once got any info for this issue.

Contact again if you have any other concern related to IMA SDK.

[IMA SDK]

Hi Joe,

This issue is resolved now and changes will come in latest release.

Thanks