requestChangeAdDuration & error handling clarification

[jakraskin]

Hi IAB,

Thank you for providing detailed guidance and documentation on SIMID. Clarification on the following items would be very much appreciated:

• Should quartile length and reporting be dictated by ad video length or creative length? When the player accepts a SIMID:Creative:requestChangeAdDuration message sent by the creative and the duration of the ad is modified, does this mean that quartiles will have to be recalculated?
• In scenarios where errors cause the SIMID creative to fail, but do not cause the ad video to fail, can you please confirm that the player should continue with ad video playback? Are there any SIMID Creative Errors that should stop ad video playback?

Thank you!

[ryanthompson591]

I am not the final authority.

The video player should should report quartiles on video length. The creative can do as it sees fit.

If the spec doesn't specify implementation details about ad duration change (which I think is the case) then it should be at the players discretion.

An ad error should stop video playback if possible.
https://interactiveadvertisingbureau.github.io/SIMID/#workflow-error

other errors are fatal errors and video errors.
https://interactiveadvertisingbureau.github.io/SIMID/#simid-player-fatalError

In the case of a handshake error or creative error, the player should ping the error (with macros replaced) and just play the video.

Edit: if this sounds wrong, or you disagree, please propose a change to the spec so that things are more clear.

[jakraskin]

Hey Ryan,

Thank you for the quick response.

So to clarify my understanding: for example, if the player were to fire Player Error Code 1223, "Session Not Created", the player should in fact stop the ad video? And the same would be true for error codes 1212 and 1213?

Wouldn't it make more sense for the ad video to continue playing if possible even if there is an issue with the creative?

[ryanthompson591]

There was a lot of debate within the group about this exact issue.

A publisher would probably want the ad to play and the impression to happen so they get paid. The advertiser would probably want to error out early and not even show the first frame of the ad since something is breaking their experience.

The spec is purposefully ambiguous about what should happen in this case since the SDK or player will have different constraints about what it can and cannot do. For example ads inserted server side will not be skippable.

You might try to see what IMA does and imitate their behavior (I don't know what it is in this case right now).

[jakraskin]

Thanks Ryan - this is helpful.

Best,
Josh