Roku Developer Program

[Romans_I_XVI]

So for the last few days I'm no longer getting any pods from adIface.GetAds() with the default Roku ad url. This used to be the way to test and make sure ads are displaying properly. Note, my published channels are still displaying ads properly so that's not an issue, this is just for the sake of development.

Is anyone else experiencing this issue?

[renojim]

I noticed it yesterday when I was working on one of my channels. I haven't tried today. Maybe it's Roku's way of demonstrating what you're likely to see when you're using them as your ad provider.

-JT

[Romans_I_XVI]

Lol, thanks Jim for making me chuckle 😛 . Also good to know it's not just me.

[Romans_I_XVI]

So I might have stumbled upon a partial solution to this. After rekeying my device to work on another game the test ads started working again, so I rekeyed back to the original game and the test ads were now showing there as well.

That being said, after packaging and uploading the rekeyed version test ads still don't show for the unpublished channel. So at least I can see ad placements while developing but QA can't see them when testing channels for release, so unless I'm missing something something is still wrong.

[renojim]

Interesting. I started getting ads again a while ago, so I thought it was fixed, but I may have switched to a different device. Using my slowest device (a Roku SE/1) which isn't keyed to anything I've been getting test ads. Maybe I'll try a different device, but I'm not sure which one I was using when I wasn't getting the test ads. I wondered if it has something to do with the RAF macros since I'm seeing RAF error messages about the Nielsen ID (I think).

I'm more concerned with the lack of real ads in my games. 😉 The fill rate has again fallen off a cliff. 😞

-JT

[Romans_I_XVI]

Yeah, the fill rates are pretty bad for me too right now. Hopefully will pick back up when Q4 happens here in about a month.

The reason this test ad issue is a problem for me currently is because it was a blocking issue with QA. Since I checked the box that says I monetize with ads but they didn't see any ads while testing it put a hold on the release.

[renojim]

So they're claiming the fact that their test ads aren't being displayed is your problem? What's up with that?!

[Romans_I_XVI]

Yeah, it was weird, however I just heard back that it's going to get published. So it must have just been a miscommunication on their end.

[NB_]

Hi guys - sorry for the confusion that an unannounced change (different department, different city) in ad server configuration has caused. This caused problems internally to engineering and QA too.

The default URL was changed to serve ads only to approved-for-ads, production apps. Not to side-loaded, new apps or unpublished yet versions of existing apps. And indeed that caused initial confusion with certification testing.

This will be addressed in the upcoming version 2.6 of RAF: side-loaded app ("dev") and unpublished versions (those that show id with underscore "_" in `plugins` at telnet 8080 or http://<rokuIP>:8060/query/apps) will receive ads from a test feed (these are test ads, to be used to verify functionality only and they will not be compensated).

Once published, only Roku-approved for ads apps will receive ads - real ads through the default URL; others will get no ads. This will end confusion and misunderstandings about when a channel is serving real, billable ads.

Until next RAF version is out, i can offer you to install the beta version of it via add-code RAFBETA (or https://my.roku.com/add/RAFbeta). It will show up as a purple tile named "RAF Beta" on the home screen - you can always uninstall it with "*" - "Remove channel" and thus return to production version of RAF. Then you can re-install it again at will. And so on.

[Romans_I_XVI]

Thank you very much RokuNB for this detailed explanation. It is very much appreciated.