Nimbus Sample App

In this article, you will learn about the Nimbus Sample App which can be used as a reference when integrating Nimbus into your app and testing Ads markups.

What is the Nimbus Sample App

The Nimbus Sample App demonstrates how you can integrate Nimbus Ads into your mobile applications and what is the expected behavior once your implementation is done.

Build Setup

Requirements

• Android 12 SDK (API Level 31)

Installation

After cloning this repo, open it in Android Studio wait for the Gradle sync to finish

Required Keys

The sample application is bundled with keys pointing to a development environment defined in the root project gradle.properties file. If you would like to use your production keys, replace the sample_publisher_key and sample_api_key in that file or locate the PUBLISHER_KEY and API_KEY buildConfigFields in sample/build.gradle.kts

Optional IDs

In order to see APS/FAN/GAM/Unity examples you must also supply it's IDs. You can do so by adding the IDs in the predefined fields in the root project gradle.properties file or by replacing the buildConfigFields in sample/build.gradle.kts

How to run

After installing all dependencies and setting up the required keys you're good to go

• Make sure to have an emulator already set up or a physical device connected to Android Studio

• Run the app by clicking the play button Android Studio

What you'll see

You will be able to see several examples categorized by specific sections, such as:

• Examples of different types of Ads

• Ads by mediation platforms (Google)

• Ads with MOAT viewability integration

• Ad Markup Renderer

Testing Ad Markup

The Test Render section of the sample app provides basic functionality for rendering ad markup using the latest version of the Nimbus SDK. The tool provides a text input field that can receive any well formed HTML or VAST markup and will render the ad as a full screen ad.

1. Copy the contents of the markup field, without the any leading or trailing quotes, from a Nimbus response and paste it into the input field.

2. Click the Test button. The markup will be rendered into a full screen container.

Verifying Static Ads

If the container shows a blank white screen (a potential bad ad) or further verification of functionality is required:

1. Ensure the Sample app is running using an Emulator or a physical device with USB Debugging enabled.

2. Open Chrome and navigate to chrome://inspect. A list of active WebViews in com.adsbynimbus.android.sample will be displayed.

3. Click the inspect button on the WebView named about:blank about:blank that matches the size of the screen.

4. In the DevTools window, select the Console tab and inspect the output for any errors.

Any errors that appear in the DevTools console can be ignored if the ad renders properly and there are minimal reporting discrepancies between Nimbus and the network serving the creative.

If the ad markup does not render using the test tool, first ensure that the markup pasted into the input field is valid. For example, if the markup was obtained from a server log it may contain additional formatting characters that must be removed or properly escaped prior to pasting it into the tool.

Verifying Video Ads

Errors rendering a video ad can be identified by a completely black screen with the the close button appearing at the top left of the ad container. Detailed information about the error can be retrieved using logcat.

Companion Ads

If the VAST creative contains a companion ad that does not render, check the size of the Companion Ad in the markup. The Test Render tool is setup with a 320 by 480 end card Companion Ad by default; if another size Companion Ad is defined in the VAST it will not render without rebuilding the Sample app with an additional Companion Ad definition that matches the size defined in the VAST markup.

After reading the steps listed above, you will have an understanding of how to use the Nimbus Sample App to help your team to integrate Nimbus into your app and debug ads.