Google Ads Developer Blog

30 days left to migrate to AdWords API v201109

Monday, January 30, 2012

On February 29, 2012, we will be sunsetting the following versions and services:

AdWords API versions v13, v200909, v201003, v201008, v201101

AdWords API version v13 AccountService will only be available on a whitelist basis.

Calls made using these versions will return errors after February 29th. It is therefore critical that you migrate to AdWords API v201109 if you would like your applications to run without interruption.

We encourage you to use the following resources for a successful migration:

Review the resources in the AdWords API client libraries.

Review the “Discover v201109” blog series.

Subscribe to the AdWords API Twitter account, which will share daily migration tips for the next month

Make sure you’ve completed everything on this migration checklist.

Give yourself ample time to migrate from v13 to AdHoc reporting. Resources to help with this migration are available here.

Attend office hours.

Make sure your contact information is up to date in your My Client Center account.

Post questions on the forum.

Posted by Katie Miller, AdWords API Team

Announcing AdCatalog v1 for iOS

Friday, January 27, 2012

We’re very pleased to announce the release of AdCatalog v1 for the iOS platform. AdCatalog is a sample project that demonstrates how to incorporate banner and interstitial ad units into your application. In particular, AdCatalog showcases implementations for two standard banner ad sizes—320x50 and 300x250—and several use cases for interstitial ad units: basic, app launch splash screen, in-between game levels, and before playing a stored video.AdCatalog can be downloaded as a zip from our google-mobile-dev project. Additionally, feel free to clone the repository or examine the source from the checkout page. In version 2, we’ll be looking to add even more advanced layout options to our banner scenario, so be sure to stay tuned. As usual, if you have any questions, comments, concerns, or feature requests, we appreciate hearing the feedback on our developer forum.

- Wes Goodman, AdMob Team

Prepare for the sunset with the AdWords API v201109 migration checklist

Friday, January 27, 2012

As announced in October, we will sunsetting all versions of the AdWords API prior to v201109 on February 29, 2012. To help you prepare to migrate to v201109, we've created a checklist that covers all of the required changes:

Required Changes:

Migrate all API calls to use v201109 services
Migrate all API calls to use clientCustomerId (instead of clientEmail) to identify an account as the target of an operation (Blog post)
Migrate campaign geo target creation and identification to use the new location criterion object (available through the CampaignCriterionService and the LocationCriterionService)
Migrate all other campaign targets (except ad scheduling) from the CampaignTargetService to CampaignCriterionService using the appropriate criterion objects defined within that service*
Migrate cross client reporting to v201109 AdHoc (single account) reports (Blog post)
Provide developerToken as HTTP header in AdHoc report requests
The last few API releases have seen various services migrate to generic selectors, as you update to v201109 you’ll need to migrate from service specific selectors to generic selectors as required. See the Selector Migration Reference for details
Update to the very latest version of the AdWords API client library specific to the programming language(s) that you use for API tool/platform development**
If you generate your own client side stubs from the API Service WSDLs, make sure that your requests strictly adhere to the WSDL definition as we have implemented stricter validation for the SOAP header and envelope (Blog post)

Optional Changes:

You can now use the v201109 CreateAccountService to create AdWords optional-login accounts

Note: If you do not make the required changes, calls made using versions of the AdWords API prior to v201109 will return errors after February 29th 2012

Additional Notes:
*In v201109, most targets become criteria, with each having it’s own ‘type’ of criterion object (see this Blog post for more details)
**This is an important requirement, so do make sure to check the version of the library or libraries that you are using against those available here

- Mandy Waite, AdWords API Team

Getting Started With the PHP Client Library

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Recently, we released our first client library walkthrough video for the DoubleClick for Publishers API. This five-minute video guide shows you how to get up and running with the PHP client library from downloading the code to running one of the examples. All you need to get started is a DFP account (production or sandbox) and a machine with PHP 5.2.x and the SoapClient, OpenSSL, and cURL extensions. For new users to the API, it’s a great way to get acquainted with the documentation pages, project site, and client library features.

The video takes you through an explanation of how the getCreativesByStatement example makes an API call and highlights common usage patterns and best practices for the client library. We also show you what happens when a call returns an error and how you can configure logging to get more information and troubleshoot an issue.

Please let us know about any topics you would like us to cover in a video guide or blog by leaving a comment on our forum. You can also chat with us live at one of our DFP API Office Hours Hangouts.

- Jeffrey Sham, DFP API Team

AdWords SOAP Header validation is being enabled

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Starting with v201109, we enabled stricter validation of the SOAP Body, meaning that XML that did not closely follow the XML Schema defined in the WSDL would be rejected with a SOAP fault. This stricter validation enables developers to detect flaws in their applications, such as sending an unsupported field, at development time rather than later discovering that field was ignored.

In the coming weeks, we will also be enabling stricter validation of the SOAP Headers. Currently, SOAP Headers that don’t validate against the XML Schema are ignored. This includes headers such as clientEmail/applicationToken (both of which do not apply to v201109) or partialFailure, which is case sensitive (will not accept “TRUE” or “True”, only “true”). When clientEmail is ignored, the request will target the authenticating account (often an MCC), which will, for example, return an error message if you attempt to add a Campaign or no results if you make a GET request.

The stricter validation will trigger a SOAP fault for any SOAP Headers that do not match the XML Schema defined in the WSDL. This may cause your application to see more errors such as those referenced in our previous blog post. This validation will enable developers to better detect bugs in their application that were previously silently ignored.

If you have any questions, please post on the forum or attend one of the AdWords API Office Hours Hangouts.

- Kevin Winter, AdWords API Team

Upcoming changes to AdWords Impression Share metrics

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

We recently announced upcoming changes to AdWords Impression Share metrics. If you are using the AdWords API to download BudgetLostImpressionShare, ImpressionShare, QualityLostImpressionShare and ExactMatchImpressionShare metrics in account and campaign performance reports, then the upcoming change will affect you in the following ways:

We will revise campaign-level Impression Share metrics from May 1, 2011 to present. You may notice some adjustments in past campaign-level Impression Share data once this change goes live.
We will remove campaign-level Impression Share metrics prior to May 1, 2011. If you depend on historic impression share data prior to May 1, 2011, then you need to download them before January 30th.
All Impression Share metrics will only be updated once every day, by afternoon PST. In addition, the data will no longer be available for segmentation by hour. If you have a saved report definition that requests hourly aggregation of IS data, then those definitions will stop working once the new changes go live.

If you wish to backup old Impression Share data or make changes to the way you use Impression Share to control your AdWords campaigns, please do so before January 30th. If you have any questions about the AdWords API, check out our developer forum.

- Anash P. Oommen, AdWords API Team.

UPDATED: DeveloperToken in reports rollback

Friday, January 20, 2012

Update: developer token will be required in report downloads starting February 7th, 2012.

Based on recent AdWords API forum posts, many of you are unaware that on January 17th we began requiring a developer token in all post v13 report downloads. As a result, we are temporarily rolling back this change to give you additional time to update your applications and upgrade to the latest version of the client libraries. If you have already made this change, no action is required on your part. We will enforce this requirement starting February 7th, 2012.

Minimum client library versions with support for providing the developerToken header in reports are as follows:

As always, we encourage you to subscribe to the AdWords API blog posts and Twitter account and to follow us on the forum to ensure that you are aware of all critical updates and requirements.

If you have any questions, please post on the forum or attend one of the AdWords API Office Hours Hangouts.