Sunday

Google AdMob Ads Android Fundamentals

Overview

Google AdMob Ads banners use a small portion of the screen to entice users to "click through" to a richer, full-screen experience such as a website or app store page.
To display banners in your Android app, simply incorporate the SDK into your Eclipse project and add a com.google.ads.AdView to your UI.

Requirements

Make sure you have the latest copy of the Android SDK and that you're compiling against at least Android v3.2 (set target in default.properties to android-13).
The Google AdMob Ads SDK for Android requires a run-time of Android 1.5 or later (set android:minSdkVersion to at least 3 in your AndroidManifest.xml). This means you can develop with the latest version of the Android SDK and your app will still run on an earlier Android version (1.5 minimum).

Incorporating the SDK

Incorporating Google AdMob Ads into your app is a three step process:

Add the SDK JAR to your Eclipse project.
Declare com.google.ads.AdActivity in AndroidManifest.xml.
Set up required network permissions in the manifest.

Adding the SDK JAR

The decompressed SDK consists of a JAR, a javadoc folder and a README.

1. Right click on your app project in Eclipse and choose Properties.

2. Select Java Build Path and the Libraries tab. Then click Add External JARs... to add the Google AdMob Ads JAR.

com.google.ads.AdActivity

The AdMob Ads SDK requires that com.google.ads.AdActivity be declared in your app's AndroidManifest.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
          package="com.company"
          android:versionCode="1" android:versionName="1.0">
  <application android:icon="@drawable/icon"

android:label="@string/app_name"
               android:debuggable="true">
    <activity android:label="@string/app_name"

android:name="BannerExample">
      <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN"/>
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER"/>
      </intent-filter>
    </activity>
    <activity android:name="com.google.ads.AdActivity"
              android:configChanges="keyboard|keyboardHidden|

              orientation|screenLayout|uiMode|screenSize|

              smallestScreenSize"/>
  </application>
</manifest>

Permissions

Making ad requests requires the networking permissions INTERNET and ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE, so these must also be declared in the manifest:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
          package="com.company"
          android:versionCode="1" android:versionName="1.0">
  <application android:icon="@drawable/icon"

          android:label="@string/app_name"
               android:debuggable="true">
    <activity android:label="@string/app_name"

           android:name="BannerExample">
      <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN"/>
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER"/>
      </intent-filter>
    </activity>
    <activity android:name="com.google.ads.AdActivity"
              android:configChanges="keyboard|keyboardHidden|orientation|

               screenLayout|uiMode|screenSize|smallestScreenSize"/>
  </application>
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.

         INTERNET"/>
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.

     ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE"/>
</manifest>

You should now be able to rebuild your project without any errors.

Adding a com.google.ads.AdView

Android apps are composed of View objects, Java instances the user sees as text areas, buttons and other controls. AdView is simply another View subclass displaying small HTML5 ads that respond to user touch.
Like any View, an AdView may be created either purely in code or largely in XML.
The five lines of code it takes to add a banner:

Import com.google.ads.*
Declare an AdView instance
Create it, specifying a unit ID—your AdMob publisher ID
Add the view to the UI
Load it with an ad

The easiest place to do all this is in your app’s Activity.

import com.google.ads.*;
public class BannerExample extends Activity {
  private AdView adView;

  @Override
  public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.main);

    // Create the adView
    adView = new AdView(this, AdSize.BANNER, MY_AD_UNIT_ID);

    // Lookup your LinearLayout assuming it’s been given
    // the attribute android:id="@+id/mainLayout"
    LinearLayout layout = (LinearLayout)findViewById(R.id.mainLayout);

    // Add the adView to it
    layout.addView(adView);

    // Initiate a generic request to load it with an ad
    adView.loadAd(new AdRequest());
  }

  @Override
  public void onDestroy() {
    if (adView != null) {
      adView.destroy();
    }
    super.onDestroy();
  }
}

Warning: Make sure you're in test mode during development to avoid being disabled for clicking your own ads. See the Best Practices guide for more details on enabling test ads.

You can download an example project containing this code here and may alternately create your banner in XML.

The Result

When you now run your app you should see a banner at the top of the screen:

Note: The very first time AdMob sees your publisher ID it may take up to two minutes to receive an ad. This initial two minute lag will recur every time the ID goes unused for 24 hours.

Warning: All new Android apps created after October 14, 2011 will require an AdMob SDK that was released on or after March 15, 2011. This corresponds to version 4.0.2+ for Android. If you downloaded the library from our official download site, then you're already set. Otherwise you may have an old version of the AdMob SDK that was released prior to March 15, 2011, and your new app will not receive any ad impressions until you update your SDK.