Monday, September 29, 2014

Support for VPAID 2 JavaScript creatives in the IMA HTML5 SDK

We're pleased to announce that the IMA HTML5 SDK now supports VPAID 2 JavaScript creatives. Enabling support is as easy as including the following line before initializing your AdDisplayContainer:

    google.ima.settings.setVpaidAllowed(true);
    ...
    var adDisplayContainer = new google.ima.AdDisplayContainer(adContainerElement);
    var adsLoader = new google.ima.AdsLoader(adDisplayContainer);

VPAID 2 Support caveats

There are two differences to be aware of between the VPAID 2 spec and the way the IMA SDK supports VPAID 2. These differences do not impact player or SDK implementation code, but they are important for VPAID 2 JavaScript creative authors, as creatives may throw errors or not work as expected when rendered by the IMA HTML5 SDK.

  • IFrame security: The IMA SDK uses a secure iframe instead of a friendly iframe (same domain) or an in-page script to render VPAID 2 JavaScript creatives. This means that if a creative expects to access the DOM of the parent page, it could potentially cause an error.

  • Video player proxy element: For security and proper mobile functionality, the IMA SDK doesn't provide the actual video element to the ad; instead, it provides a proxy element that mimics much of the functionality of the normal video element. For ad creatives that only access supported video APIs available on the proxy element, there should be no behavior changes in the rendering of the creatives. See our guide to VPAID 2 creatives for a list of supported APIs on the video proxy element.

Learn more

For more information, including a listing of what API methods are supported in the video player proxy element, check out our guide to VPAID 2 creatives.

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact us via the support forum.