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AdControl in HTML 5 and JavaScript

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Warning

As of June 1, 2020, the Microsoft Ad Monetization platform for Windows UWP apps will be shut down. Learn more

This walkthrough shows how to use the AdControl class to display banner ads in a Universal Windows Platform (UWP) JavaScript/HTML app for Windows 10 and Windows 11.

For a complete sample project that demonstrates how to add banner ads to a JavaScript/HTML app, see the advertising samples on GitHub.

Prerequisites

Note

If you have installed the Windows 10 SDK version 10.0.14393 (Anniversary Update) or a later version of the Windows SDK, you must also install the WinJS library. This library used to be included in previous versions of the Windows SDK for Windows 10, but starting with the Windows 10 SDK version 10.0.14393 (Anniversary Update) this library must be installed separately.

Integrate a banner ad into your app

  1. In Visual Studio, open your project or create a new project.

    Note

    If you're using an existing project, open the Package.appxmanifest file in your project and ensure that the Internet (Client) capability is selected. Your app needs this capability to receive test ads and live ads.

  2. If your project targets Any CPU, update your project to use an architecture-specific build output (for example, x86). If your project targets Any CPU, you will not be able to successfully add a reference to the Microsoft advertising library in the following steps. For more information, see Reference errors caused by targeting Any CPU in your project.

  3. Add a reference to the Microsoft Advertising SDK in your project:

    1. From the Solution Explorer window, right click References, and select Add Reference…
    2. In Reference Manager, expand Universal Windows, click Extensions, and then select the check box next to Microsoft Advertising SDK for JavaScript (Version 10.0).
    3. In Reference Manager, click OK.

  4. Open the index.html file (or other html file as appropriate for your project).

  5. In the <head> section, after the project’s JavaScript references of default.css and main.js, add the reference to ad.js.

    <!-- Advertising required references -->
<script src="//Microsoft.Advertising.JavaScript/ad.js"></script>

    Note

    This line must be placed in the <head> section after the include of main.js; otherwise, you will encounter an error when you build your project.

  6. Modify the <body> section in the default.html file (or other html file as appropriate for your project) to include the div for the AdControl. Assign the applicationId and adUnitId properties of the AdControl to the test ad unit values. Also adjust the height and width so the control is one of the supported ad sizes for banner ads.

    Note

    Every AdControl has a corresponding ad unit that is used by our services to serve ads to the control, and every ad unit consists of an ad unit ID and application ID. In these steps, you assign test ad unit ID and application ID values to your control. These test values can only be used in a test version of your app. Before you publish your app to the Store, you must replace these test values with live values from Partner Center.

    <div id="myAd" style="position: absolute; top: 50px; left: 0px; width: 300px; height: 250px; z-index: 1"
    data-win-control="MicrosoftNSJS.Advertising.AdControl"
    data-win-options="{applicationId: '3f83fe91-d6be-434d-a0ae-7351c5a997f1', adUnitId: 'test'}">
</div>

  7. Compile and run the app to see it with an ad.

The following example shows the complete index.html for a simple app.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <title>AdControlExampleApp</title>
    <!-- WinJS references -->
    <link href="lib/winjs-4.0.1/css/ui-light.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <script src="lib/winjs-4.0.1/js/base.js"></script>
    <script src="lib/winjs-4.0.1/js/ui.js"></script>
    <!-- AdControlExampleApp references -->
    <link href="css/default.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <script src="js/main.js"></script>
    <!-- Required reference for AdControl -->
    <script src="//Microsoft.Advertising.JavaScript/ad.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
    <div id="myAd" style="position: absolute; top: 50px; left: 0px; width: 300px; height: 250px; z-index: 1"
      data-win-control="MicrosoftNSJS.Advertising.AdControl"
      data-win-options="{applicationId: '3f83fe91-d6be-434d-a0ae-7351c5a997f1', adUnitId: 'test'}">
    </div>
    <p>Content goes here</p>
</body>
</html>

Create an AdControl programmatically in JavaScript

The previous steps show how to declare an AdControl in your HTML markup. Alternatively, you can programmatically create an AdControl using JavaScript. This example assumes that you are using an existing div in your HTML with the ID myAd.

var adDiv = document.getElementById("myAd");
var myAdControl = new MicrosoftNSJS.Advertising.AdControl(adDiv,
{
    applicationId: "3f83fe91-d6be-434d-a0ae-7351c5a997f1",
    adUnitId: "test",
});

myAdControl.isAutoRefreshEnabled = false;
myAdControl.onErrorOccurred = myAdError;
myAdControl.onAdRefreshed = myAdRefreshed;
myAdControl.onEngagedChanged = myAdEngagedChanged;

This example assumes that you have already declared event handler methods named myAdError, myAdRefreshed, and myAdEngagedChanged.

If you use this code and do not see ads, you can try inserting an attribute of position:relative in the div that contains the AdControl. This will override the default setting of the IFrame. Ads will be displayed correctly, unless they are not being shown due to the value of this attribute. Note that new ad units may not be available for up to 30 minutes.

Note

The applicationId and adUnitId values shown in this example are test mode values. You must replace these values with live values from Partner Center before submitting your app for submission.

Release your app with live ads

  1. Make sure your use of banner ads in your app follows our guidelines for banner ads.

  2. In Partner Center, go to the In-app ads page and create an ad unit. For the ad unit type, specify Banner. Make note of both the ad unit ID and the application ID.

    Note

    The application ID values for test ad units and live UWP ad units have different formats. Test application ID values are GUIDs. When you create a live UWP ad unit in Partner Center, the application ID value for the ad unit always matches the Store ID for your app (an example Store ID value looks like 9NBLGGH4R315).

  3. You can optionally enable ad mediation for the AdControl by configuring the settings in the Mediation settings section on the In-app ads page. Ad mediation enables you to maximize your ad revenue and app promotion capabilities by displaying ads from multiple ad networks, including ads from other paid ad networks such as Taboola and Smaato and ads for Microsoft app promotion campaigns.

  4. In your code, replace the test ad unit values (applicationId and adUnitId) with the live values you generated in Partner Center.

  5. Submit your app to the Store using Partner Center.

  6. Review your advertising performance reports in Partner Center.

Manage ad units for multiple ad controls in your app

You can use multiple AdControl objects in a single app (for example, each page in your app might host a different AdControl object). In this scenario, we recommend that you assign a different ad unit to each control. Using different ad units for each control enables you to separately configure the mediation settings and get discrete reporting data for each control. This also enables our services to better optimize the ads we serve to your app.

Important

You can use each ad unit in only one app. If you use an ad unit in more than one app, ads will not be served for that ad unit.