IMA SDK Sample App : Inconsistent behavior on playing pre-roll ads

[Abhishek Kumar]

Dear IMA Team,

We are working on deploying VAST ads in Live stream. To check the ad functionality of a commercial pre-roll url (Say K) of an Indian content provider, we used IMA sample code.
However it shows unstable behavior.

Reproduction steps:
    1. Open url https://github.com/googleads/googleads-ima-html5
    2. Download "simple" code & open ads.js file
    3. In function setUpIMA(), assign commercial pre-roll url (K) to adsRequest.adTagUrl
    4. Add console.log in methods, save file & run index.html on chrome browser

Expected Result:
    Pre-roll ad should play fine & then video should play.

Actual Result:
    The behavior is inconsistent . Mostly it does not play pre-roll ads before playing video but sometimes it does plays ad (on multiple tries).
    Following are the generic pre-roll failure console logs when we click play button on the screen(Same behavior with IE and edge browsers):
    ads.js: playAds()
    ads.js: playAds() : TRY BLOCK START
    ads.js: playAds() : TRY BLOCK END
    ads.js: onContentResumeRequested() : START
    ads.js: onContentResumeRequested() : END
    ads.js: onAdEvent() adEvent.type =  allAdsCompleted

Problem identified from logs is events of adEvent.type as loaded, start and complete for pre-roll are not called (for the reasons unknown to us). 

We had also tried below scenarios (as per Note 1 & Note 2 below)

Note 1 : Open https://googleads.github.io/googleads-ima-html5/vsi/ =>Select "VAST XML" radio button =>Paste (K) in input field & click "Test Ad" button 

OUTPUT : it plays commercial pre-roll add followed by video play

Note 2 : Open url (K) in web browser => an xml with below format is displayed (Say "SMALL XML")
            <Playlist>
                <Preroll>
                    <Ad>
                        <![CDATA[ ....ANOTHER_URL.... ]]>
                    </Ad>
                </Preroll>
            </Playlist>
         Now open https://googleads.github.io/googleads-ima-html5/vsi/ => Select "VAST XML" radio button => Paste "SMALL XML" in input field (thats is expecting VAST XML) => Click "Test Ad" button 

OUTPUT : it plays commercial pre-roll add followed by video play    

Queries :
    1. As per Note 1, when the commercial url (K) is playing on IMA page, why it doesn't play with sample code ?
    2. As per Note 2, when we open url (K) in browser, it does not give us XML in VAST format (No <Tracking> and <MediaFile> tags present) but when we add this "SMALL XML"  in input field(expecting a VAST XML), why & how does it play pre-roll ads?
    3. Is there any blocking from google side for playing commercial (3rd party) url on sample code? Also do we need any priviledges that are currently missing to play ads consistently?    
   
Please confirm and add let us know if you need anything from our side. 

[IMA SDK]

Hello Abhishek,

 

Michael here from IMA SDK Team. Thank you for reaching out to us.

 

Before we can answer your queries, since all of it relates to VAST behavior, we will need first the exact VAST Ad Tag url or the VAST XML you used to replicate the same behavior so we can test on our end. You may also add a screen recording of the behaviors on your end for better illustration of the issue.

 

If the file(s) you are looking to share are less than 25mb in total you can attach them to this case on your next reply. If you are having trouble attaching your file to this case or if your file(s) are larger than 25mb, you can share your files with me by performing the following steps:

 

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Regards,

Michael Angelo IMA SDK Team

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