In this article:

• Before You Begin
  • Requirements
  • Sample App
• Step 1. Include the Vungle SDK in Your Project
  • Option 1. Gradle Integration
  • Option 2. JAR/AAR Integration
• Step 2. Import the Vungle SDK
• Step 3. Initialize the Vungle SDK
• Step 4. Event Listener
• Step 5. Load an Ad
• Step 6. Check Ad Availability
• Step 7. Play an Ad
• Native Flex Ads
  • Flex-View Ads
  • Flex-Feed Ads
• Advanced Settings
  • Google Play Services
  • Method Count Reduction
  • Proguard
  • UI Thread Note
  • Ad Configuration Options
  • Customizing Rewarded Ads
  • List of Valid Placements
  • GDPR Recommended Implementation Instructions
  • Hardware Acceleration
  • Retrieving the SDK Version Number
• Configuring Auto Backup for JAR Integration
  • Vungle Exclusion Rules
  • Gradle Integration with Developer Backup Rules
  • JAR Integration
  • Disabling Auto Backup

Before You Begin

Requirements

• Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich - API version 14 and above
• Amazon OS 5.4 and above
• Flex-Feed ads requires API version 16 and above

Sample App

• https://github.com/Vungle/Android-SDK/tree/v6 

Step 1. Include the Vungle SDK in Your Project 

The Vungle SDK is available in two ways: as an AAR via Maven, or JAR integration. 

Option 1. Gradle Integration

Open the project-level build.gradle, and add maven URL in the all projects section. 

allprojects {
    repositories {
        maven {
            url 'https://jitpack.io'
        }
    }
}

Open the app-level build.gradle file for your app, and add compile dependencies in the dependencies section.

dependencies {  
  // Vungle SDK
  compile 'com.github.vungle:vungle-android-sdk:6.3.24'

  // Recommended Google Play Services
  compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-basement:16.0.0'

  // Optional Google Play Services
  compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads-identifier:16.0.0'
  compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-location:16.0.0'
}

If you include the Vungle SDK via Maven, you can skip to "Step 2. Import the Vungle SDK."

Option 2. JAR/AAR Integration

1. Download Vungle SDK v. 6 , unzip it, go to the libs folder, copy all the jars and add them to your project libs folder.
   
   
2. Open the project-level build.gradle, and update the repositories section: 
   
   

   allprojects {
        repositories {
           jcenter()
       }
   }

3. Open the app-level build.gradle file for your app, and add other dependencies in the dependencies section. If you are using .aar instead of .jar, you do not need to include VNG-moat-mobile-app-kit-2.2.0.jar since .aar is already packaged with this library.
   
   

   dependencies {
       // Vungle SDK
       compile files('libs/vungle-android-sdk-6.3.24.jar')
   
       // Required Third-party Dependencies
       compile files('libs/converter-gson-2.2.0.jar')
       compile files('libs/fetch-1.1.5.jar')
       compile files('libs/gson-2.7.jar')
       compile files('libs/logging-interceptor-3.7.0.jar')
       compile files('libs/okhttp-3.7.0.jar')
       compile files('libs/okio-1.12.0.jar')
       compile files('libs/retrofit-2.2.0.jar')
       compile files('libs/VNG-moat-mobile-app-kit-2.2.0.jar') // JAR Integration only
   
       // Support library
       compile 'com.android.support:support-v4:27.1.1'
   
       // Recommended Google Play Services
       compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-basement:16.0.0'
   
       // Optional Google Play Services
       compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads-identifier:16.0.0'
       compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-location:16.0.0'
   }
   

4. Update AndroidManifest.xml by adding the following lines to your AndroidManifest.xml and assigning the application item name to your application class name for multidex:
   

   
   <!--Required Permissions-->
   <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
   <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" android:maxSdkVersion="18" />
   <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />
   
   <!--Optional Permissions-->
   <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION" />
   <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION" />
   
   <!--Vungle Activities-->
   <activity
    android:name="com.vungle.warren.ui.VungleActivity"
    android:configChanges="keyboardHidden|orientation|screenSize|screenLayout|smallestScreenSize"
    android:launchMode="singleTop"
    android:theme="@android:style/Theme.NoTitleBar.Fullscreen" />
   <activity
    android:name="com.vungle.warren.ui.VungleFlexViewActivity"
    android:configChanges="keyboardHidden|orientation|screenSize|screenLayout|smallestScreenSize"
    android:hardwareAccelerated="true"
    android:launchMode="singleTop"
    android:theme="@android:style/Theme.Translucent.NoTitleBar" />

Step 2. Import the Vungle SDK

import com.vungle.warren.Vungle;
import com.vungle.warren.AdConfig;              // Custom ad configurations
import com.vungle.warren.InitCallback;          // Initialization callback
import com.vungle.warren.LoadAdCallback;        // Load ad callback
import com.vungle.warren.PlayAdCallback;        // Play ad callback
import com.vungle.warren.VungleNativeAd;        // Flex-Feed ad
import com.vungle.warren.Vungle.Consent;        // GDPR consent
import com.vungle.warren.error.VungleException; // onError message

Step 3. Initialize the Vungle SDK 

Starting with v6.3.12, we have removed the requirement for passing all placement reference ID to be used in the session during the initialization. SDK initialization can now be done without passing Collection of placement reference ID and all active placements for the application ID will be usable to play and load ad. You can still use the legacy API, but it is planned to be deprecated in the future.

// New v6 API
public static void init(@NonNull String appId, @NonNull Context context, @NonNull InitCallback callback)

// Legacy v6 API
@Deprecated
public static void init(@NonNull final Collection placements, @NonNull String appId, @NonNull Context context, @NonNull InitCallback callback)

The initialization method takes the following parameters:

• Vungle Application ID
• Application context
• InitCallback
  • onSuccess: notifies when SDK has successfully initialized
  • onError: notifies when the initialization has failed
    • throws IllegalArgumentException if InitCallback is null
    • throws VungleException if required arguments are missing or invalid
  • onAutoCacheAdAvailable: notifies when the auto-cached placement has an ad available to play

The onAutoCacheAdAvailablecallback is available as part of the initialization callback because the SDK will continuously attempt to cache an ad for the auto-cached placement whenever an ad is not pre-cached. This includes when the SDK is started for the first time or when the pre-cached ad for the placement has been played. This will remain true until the process dies or the Vungle instance is reclaimed by garbage collection. For all other placements that are not auto-cached placements, loadAd must be explicitly issued as described in “Step 5. Load an Ad.” 

Vungle.init(appId, getApplicationContext(), new InitCallback() {
    @Override
    public void onSuccess() {
        // Initialization has succeeded and SDK is ready to load an ad or play one if there
        // is one pre-cached already
    }

    @Override
    public void onError(Throwable throwable) {
        // Initialization error occurred - throwable.getLocalizedMessage() contains error message
    }

    @Override
    public void onAutoCacheAdAvailable(String placementId) {
        // Callback to notify when an ad becomes available for the auto-cached placement
        // NOTE: This callback works only for the auto-cached placement. Otherwise, please use
        // LoadAdCallback with loadAd API for loading placements.
    }
};

You can check whether Vungle SDK is initialized anytime by calling the isInitialized method:

public static boolean isInitialized()

Step 4. Event Listener

Implement LoadAdCallback for ad load events and PlayAdCallback for ad play events now if you want to use generic callback for all events. Otherwise, skip to “Step 5. Load an Ad” to implement inline callbacks. 

// Implement LoadAdCallback
private final LoadAdCallback vungleLoadAdCallback = new LoadAdCallback() {
    @Override
    public void onAdLoad(String placementReferenceId) {
        // Placement reference ID for the placement to load ad assets
    }

    @Override
    public void onError(String placementReferenceId, Throwable throwable) {
        // Placement reference ID for the placement that failed to download ad assets
        // Throwable contains error message
    }
}; 

// Implement PlayAdCallback
private final PlayAdCallback vunglePlayAdCallback = new PlayAdCallback() {
    @Override
    public void onAdStart(String placementReferenceId) {
        // Placement reference ID for the placement to be played
    }

    @Override
    public void onAdEnd (String placementReferenceId, boolean completed, boolean isCTAClicked) {
        // Placement reference ID for the placement that has completed ad experience
        // completed has value of true or false to notify whether video was
        // watched for 80% or more
        // isCTAClkcked has value of true or false to indicate whether download button
        // of an ad has been clicked by the user
    }
 
    @Override
    public void onError(String placementReferenceId, Throwable throwable) {
        // Placement reference ID for the placement that failed to play an ad
        // Throwable contains error message
    }
};

Step 5. Load an Ad

The LoadAdCallback will be notified about the load state for the call to which it was assigned. The SDK only references this callback and does not store it anywhere; it is the responsibility of the caller to ensure that the callback is managed properly. 

public static void loadAd(@NonNull final String id, @Nullable LoadAdCallback callback) 

The SDK manages the ad asset download for the auto-cached placement, so there is no need to invoke this method for the auto-cached placement. For all other placements, the loadAd method must be invoked and completed successfully before the SDK can play an ad for the placement. The onAdLoad callback will be triggered when this happens. 

// Load Ad Implementation
if (Vungle.isInitialized()) {
    Vungle.loadAd("PLACEMENT_ID", new LoadAdCallback() {
        @Override
        public void onAdLoad(String placementReferenceId) { }

        @Override
        public void onError(String placementReferenceId, Throwable throwable) {
            // Load ad error occurred - throwable.getLocalizedMessage() contains error message
        }
    };
}

Step 6. Check Ad Availability

Use static method canPlayAdmethod to check if there is an ad available to play for the placement before invoking the playAd method 

public static boolean canPlayAd(@NonNull String id)

Step 7. Play an Ad

To play an ad, invoke the playAd method, with the placement reference ID, optional AdConfig (null if not being used), and a PlayAdCallback event listener, which will be notified of success or errors during ad playback.

public static void playAd(@NonNull final String id, final AdConfig settings, @Nullable final PlayAdCallback listener) 

You should always check ad availability by calling the canPlayAd method before invoking the playAd method. You must also make sure that an additional playAd is not issued before your receive an onAdEnd or an onError callback from the initial playAd call, because the ad will not render properly if playAd is repeatedly called in quick succession. 

if (Vungle.canPlayAd("PLACEMENT_ID")) {
    Vungle.playAd("PLACEMENT_ID", null, new PlayAdCallback() {
        @Override
        public void onAdStart(String placementReferenceId) { }

        @Override
        public void onAdEnd(String placementReferenceId, boolean completed, boolean isCTAClicked) { }

        @Override
        public void onError(String placementReferenceId, Throwable throwable) {
            // Play ad error occurred - throwable.getLocalizedMessage() contains error message
        }
    });
}

Re-initialize SDK when onError occurs

On rare occurrences, resources can become limited, causing the system to deallocate either part of the Vungle SDK, or some of the third-party dependencies our SDK requires. In such cases, LoadAdCallback and PlayAdCallback fire an onError callback with a Throwable object with a code of ‘VungleException.VUNGLE_NOT_INTIALIZED’. This indicates that the Vungle SDK is an inoperable state and must be re-initialized. 

@Override
public void onError(String placementReferenceID, Throwable throwable) { 
    try {
        VungleException ex = (VungleException) throwable;

        if (ex.getExceptionCode() == VungleException.VUNGLE_NOT_INTIALIZED) {
            initializeVungleSDK();
        }
    } catch (ClassCastException cex) {
        Log.d(LOG_TAG, cex.getMessage());
    }
}

Native Flex Ads

Flex-View Ads

Flex-View ads are loaded and played like regular full-screen ads. Simply call the placement reference ID configured with the placement type 'Flex-View' from the dashboard.

Flex-View can be programmatically closed by issuing the closeFlexViewAd method with the Placement Reference ID that is currently playing the Flex-View ad.

public static boolean closeFlexViewAd(@NonNull final String placementReferenceId)

There is another option to automatically close Flex-View ads after displaying for specified time interval; refer to the Ad Configuration Options section. 

Flex-Feed Ads

The Flex-Feed ad format does not require a full screen to display; instead, the Publisher determines the exact dimensions and location of the ad container within their app. These ad containers can be in collection views or table/list views.

Loading a Flex-Feed Ad

The Publisher must load an ad for the Flex-Feed container. Loading a Flex-Feed ad is same as loading a full-screen or interstitial ad; however, the placement must be configured to support Flex-Feed. Contact your Vungle account manager to enable your placements for Flex-Feed.

Displaying a Flex-Feed Ad

Displaying Flex-Feed ads differs from displaying full-screen ads. With Flex-Feed ads, you must first create a container for the ad. This container is a Layout. You can place said RelativeLayout anywhere on the screen. The ad will scale to any size of container, but keep in mind that very low resolution will make ads less visible. You must then call the Vungle.getNativeAd to get the Flex-Feed ad object and call the addView function to associate the container with the Flex-Feed ad.

private RelativeLayout flexfeed_container = findViewById(...);

VungleNativeAd vungleNativeAd = Vungle.getNativeAd("FLEXFEED_ID", vunglePlayAdCallback);
View nativeAdView = vungleNativeAd.renderNativeView();
flexfeed_container.addView(nativeAdView);

Closing a Flex-Feed Ad

Because the Flex-Feed Ad view has been added to your container view, it must also be removed in case the ad view disappears from the screen, the activity or fragment is destroyed, or the parent view container is recycled or destroyed. Without closing the ad, attempting to play another Flex-Feed ad will cause unexpected behaviour in your app.

private VungleNativeAd vungleNativeAd;

// Calling finishDisplayingAd when you want to finish displaying Flex-Feed Ad
// will trigger onAdEnd and will tell you when you can remove the child
// Flex-Feed view container vungleNativeAd.finishDisplayingAd();

// And removing empty ad view from container
@Override 
public void onAdEnd(String id, boolean completed) {
    …
    parentView.removeView(nativeAdView);
    vungleNativeAd = null;
    …
}

Attaching and Detaching the State of a Flex-Feed Ad

If the user scrolls to a point where the video ad is no longer visible on the screen, the Publisher must pause the video, and resume it when it is again visible. To control the pause and resume states, call setAdVisibility from the VungleNativeAd instance, and set it to ‘true’ when the video is visible and to ‘false’ when the video goes off screen. The setAdVisibility is not to be confused with View visibility: this setter informs Vungle SDK whether the Native ad view is visible or not, and depending on it, the SDK pauses/resumes video playback.

To pause a Flex-Feed ad:

vungleNativeAd.setAdVisibility(false);

To resume a Flex-Feed ad:

vungleNativeAd.setAdVisibility(true);

Advanced Settings 

Google Play Services (Optional)

Including Google Play Services with your project allows Vungle to provide a more customized ad experience to the end user. Google Cloud Messaging is required API, while Google Location and Activity Recognition and Google Location and Basement API’s are optional. We recommend using version 11.0.1 or higher. 

To include Google Play Services, we recommend Google's setup guide. In your app, ensure that the device has a sufficiently updated version of Google Play Services. Vungle SDK optionally utilizes the location and ads API from Google Play Services. 

• google.android.gms:play-services-basement:16.0.0  // Recommended
• google.android.gms:play-services-ads-identifier:16.0.0  // Required for AAID
• google.android.gms:play-services-location:16.0.0  // Optional for GPS based geo targeting

Method Count Reduction

Adding Vungle Android SDK v6 to your project will add approximately 700 core Vungle methods, excluding any transitive dependencies. A full integration including third-party libraries is expected to add less than 4000 methods in average. Consider the following suggestions to reduce the total number of methods added to your project. 

• ProGuard: You can enable ProGuard to shrink your project code. It will discard any unused classes at the time of compilation to make the total method count as small as possible. You can enable it by specifying minifyEnabled true in build.gradle for appropriate build type and by providing the rules to keep the classes that is required by your project.
  
  
• Multidex: If you are still above a 65K method count, enabling multiDex may be the only solution provided by Google. You need to configure your project to multiDex only one time, but it will have an impact on build and app startup time. 

Proguard

If you are using Proguard, add the following rules to your ProGuard configuration file:

# Vungle
-keep class com.vungle.warren.** { *; }
-dontwarn com.vungle.warren.error.VungleError$ErrorCode

# Moat SDK
-keep class com.moat.** { *; }
-dontwarn com.moat.**

# Okio
-dontwarn org.codehaus.mojo.animal_sniffer.IgnoreJRERequirement

# Retrofit
-dontwarn okio.**
-dontwarn retrofit2.Platform$Java8

# Gson
-keepattributes Signature
-keepattributes *Annotation*
-dontwarn sun.misc.**
-keep class com.google.gson.examples.android.model.** { *; }
-keep class * implements com.google.gson.TypeAdapterFactory
-keep class * implements com.google.gson.JsonSerializer
-keep class * implements com.google.gson.JsonDeserializer

# Google Android Advertising ID
-keep class com.google.android.gms.internal.** { *; }
-dontwarn com.google.android.gms.ads.identifier.**

UI Thread Note

Callbacks are executed on a background thread, so any UI interaction or updates resulting from an event callback must be passed to the main UI thread before executing. Two common ways to run your code on the UI thread are:

• Handler
• runOnUiThread(Runnable)

Ad Configuration Options

Ad Configuration

You have the option to customize individual ads you play by providing a new adConfig object to playAd. AdConfig is an object and can be null, in which case the ad will play with default configurations; or it can be a non-null with overrides to the AdConfig setter. The following is an example of how to use AdConfig:

Vungle.playAd(placementReferenceID, adConfig, vunglePlayAdCallback);

The above uses adConfig object that has customization option configuration and you set the AdConfig object as shown here:

AdConfig adConfig = new AdConfig();
adConfig.setAutoRotate(true);
adConfig.setMuted(true);
Vungle.playAd(placementReferenceID, adConfig, vunglePlayAdCallback);

The following table shows all the available AdConfig options.

Option	Description
setBackButtonImmediatelyEnabled	true if back button should be enabled before ad close button appears, false otherwise
setFlexViewCloseTime	takes an Integer value that is greater or equal to 0 that specifies time in seconds for Flex-View ad to automatically close itself
setAutoRotate	true if the video ad is supposed to auto-rotate, false to follow video ad orientation
setMuted	true if the video should start with its audio settings matching those of your enclosing application, false if it should start muted regardless
setOrdinal	Takes an Integer value of ordinal count to track the number of ads that has been played in same session

Note: You may use the same AdConfig object for multiple ads Placement Reference IDs you play.

Customizing Rewarded Ads

The pop-up message dialog for rewarded ads is configurable with setIncentivizedFields method.

public static void setIncentivizedFields(@Nullable String userID, @Nullable String title, @Nullable String body, @Nullable String keepWatching, @Nullable String close)

List of Valid Placements

A helper method that returns Collection of String containing all valid Placement Reference IDs for the current session.

public static Collection getValidPlacements()

GDPR Recommended Implementation Instructions

As of May 25th, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will be enforced in the European Union. To comply with GDPR, developers have two options.

• Option 1 (recommended): Publisher controls the GDPR consent process at the user level, then communicates the user’s choice to Vungle. To do this, developers can collect the user’s consent using their own mechanism, and then use Vungle APIs to update or query the user’s consent status. Refer to the GDPR Recommended Implementation Instruction section for details.
• Option 2: Allow Vungle to handle the requirements. Vungle will display a consent dialog before playing an ad for a European user, and will remember the user’s consent or rejection for subsequent ads.

The updateConsentStatus method (as recommended in Option 1) takes user consent status and consent message version as its parameters.

public static void updateConsentStatus(@NonNull Consent status, @NonNull String consentMessageVersion)

The consent status will specify whether the user has OPTED_IN or OPTED_OUT for the message being displayed by the publisher. The consentMessageVersion indicates publisher controlled consent policy version to allow publisher getting consent again when GDPR policy changes by pooling users by the message version.

// Usage example of GDPR API
// To set the user's consent status to opted in:
Vungle.updateConsentStatus(Vungle.Consent.OPTED_IN, “1.0.0”);

// To set the user's consent status to opted out:
Vungle.updateConsentStatus(Vungle.Consent.OPTED_OUT, “1.0.0”);

// To find out what the user's current consent status is:
// This will return null if the GDPR Consent status has not been set
// Otherwise, it will return Vungle.Consent.OPTED_IN or Vungle.Consent.OPTED_OUT
Vungle.Consent currentStatus = Vungle.getConsentStatus();
String consentMessageVersion = Vungle.getConsentMessageVersion();

Hardware Acceleration

Hardware acceleration Hardware acceleration is enabled by default for your application if your target API level is set to 14 or above. This option must be enabled for the SDK to properly show Dynamic Template and Native Flex ads. Make sure this option is set to 'true' at application level of your project.

<application android:hardwareAccelerated="true" ...>

Retrieving the SDK Version Number

To programmatically retrieve the SDK version number at runtime (this useful in internal mediation), Vungle provides the following String:

com.vungle.warren.BuildConfig.VERSION_NAME

Configuring Auto Backup for JAR Integration

The ‘Allow backup’ setting is enabled by default for your application for API 23 or above. If you have not disabled the allow backup setting or specified your own backup rules, you must provide additional .xml rules to define which files in our SDK file system should be excluded from automatic backup.

Vungle Exclusion Rules

<full-backup-content>
 <!--Mandatory -->
 <exclude domain="file" path="vungle" />
 <exclude domain="file" path="_fetchData" />
 <!--Optional -->
 <exclude domain="database" path="com_tonyodev_fetch.db" />
 <exclude domain="sharedpref" path="com.vungle.sdk.xml" />
 <exclude domain="sharedpref" path="com.tonyodev.fetch.shared_preferences.xml" />
</full-backup-content>

Gradle Integration with Developer Backup Rules

1. Add fullBackupContent in the application tag of AndroidManifest.xml.
   
   <application android:hardwareAccelerated="true" ...>
   
   
2. Add Vungle SDK exclusion rules to the existing .xml file that has your app’s own exclusion rules.
   
   
3. Configure fullBackupContent to be replaced on the application level and add the Vungle SDK exclusion rule to the existing .xml.

JAR Integration

1. Create a new XML file with Vungle exclusion rules, or copy and paste this:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
   <full-backup-content>
       <exclude domain="file" path="vungle" />
       <exclude domain="file" path="_fetchData" />
       <exclude domain="database" path="com_tonyodev_fetch.db" />
       <exclude domain="sharedpref" path="com.vungle.sdk.xml" />
       <exclude domain="sharedpref" path="com.tonyodev.fetch.shared_preferences.xml" />
   </full-backup-content>
   

2. Place the .xml file under the res/xml directory.
   
   
3. Add fullBackupContent in the application tag of AndroidManifest.xml with the file name of the .xml file you created above.
   
   <application tools:replace="android:fullBackupContent”
   android:fullBackupContent="@xml/file_name">

Disabling Auto Backup

If backup is not required for your app, you can simply disable it on the application tag:

<application tools:replace="android:allowBackup"
 android:allowBackup="false" ...>