AdMob and AdWhirl

Do you want to display advertisements on your app in hopes of bringing in some money, displaying cross-productization ads or even just so you can make a Lite vs Pro version?  In this example, we will do that using both AdMob (ad server) and AdWhirl (ad aggregator).

To get started, we are going to need to setup a couple of online accounts.

AdMob

• Create an account at AdMob.
• From your dashboard, click on "Sites & Apps".
• Click on "Add Site/App".
• Click on "Android App"
• Fill in the form (I'd ignore the URL for now but eventually it will look like http://market.android.com/search?q=pname:com.example.ExampleApp)
• Hit "Continue"
• Click on "Download AdMob Android SDK"
• Extract it to the disk somewhere and navigate to it from the command line

 C:\java\admob-sdk-android> mvn install:install-file -Dfile=admob-sdk-android.jar -DgroupId=com.admob.android.ads -DartifactId=AdMobAndroid -Dversion=20100331 -Dpackaging=jar

• Note: I got the version from the top of the Changelog.txt file
• Click on "Go to Sites/Apps"
• Under the row for your new app, click on "Manage Settings" (it uses mouse-hover, so if you don't see it move your mouse)
• Copy the id# from "Publisher ID: a14bfed196e8994"

AdWhirl

• Create an account at AdWhirl.  AdWhirl will act as aggregator, allowing you to mix-n-match ad hosting accounts (like AdMob).
• Under "Apps" click on "Add Application"
• Fill out the form. Make sure to choose 'Android'.  Click "Add App"
• Note: At this point, I have seen an issue where it shows up on the screen twice. If I go into it and come back it resolves itself.  Don't worry about it.
• Click on your new app's name
• Copy your SDK key from: "SDK Key:d34d05761f0544dab08b396807778d23"
• Next to AdMob, click on (mouse-hover again) "Edit Settings"
• Put the id# from above into the "PublisherID" box and apply it
• Under "Ad Serving" make sure AdMob is enabled
• Save Changes
• Download the latest Android zip from here. In this case, it is "AdWhirlSDK_Android_2.0.8.zip".
• Extract it to the disk somewhere and navigate to it from the command line

C:\java\AdWhirlSDK_Android_2.0.8> mvn install:install-file -Dfile=AdWhirlSDK_Android_2.0.8.jar -DgroupId=com.adwhirl -DartifactId=AdWhirlSDKAndroid -Dversion=2.0.8 -Dpackaging=jar

• Note: I took the version from the filename 

Your Code

Whew!  Ok, with your accounts setup, let's create a basic project:

F:\work>  mvn archetype:generate -DarchetypeCatalog=http://kallisti.eoti.org:8081/content/repositories/snapshots/archetype-catalog.xml

choose the galatea-archetype plugin
groupId: org.eoti.android
artifactId: AdWhirlTest
version: 1.0-SNAPSHOT

Assuming you have your emulator running...

F:\work>  cd AdWhirlTest
F:\work\AdWhirlTest>  mvn clean install

Add these dependencies to your pom.xml [change versions to match what you did earlier]:

        <dependency>
          <groupId>com.adwhirl</groupId>
          <artifactId>AdWhirlSDKAndroid</artifactId>
          <version>2.0.8</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
          <groupId>com.admob.android.ads</groupId>
          <artifactId>AdMobAndroid</artifactId>
          <version>20100331</version>
        </dependency>

Add this to your AndroidManifest.xml:  

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

       
Inside your src\main\android\res\layout\main.xml, insert this just above the bottom '</LinearLayout> '

    <LinearLayout
        android:orientation="vertical"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent"
        android:gravity="bottom"
        android:id="@+id/layout_ad"
    />

   
   
Open your activity (src\main\java\org\eoti\android\AdWhirlTestActivity.java in my case)
Add this into the bottom of your onCreate method:

        try{
            AdManager.setTestDevices( new String[] { AdManager.TEST_EMULATOR } );
            LinearLayout layout = (LinearLayout)findViewById(R.id.layout_ad);
            AdWhirlLayout adWhirlLayout = new AdWhirlLayout(this, "d34d05761f0544dab08b396807778d23");
            Display d = this.getWindowManager().getDefaultDisplay();
            RelativeLayout.LayoutParams adWhirlLayoutParams = new RelativeLayout.LayoutParams(d.getWidth(), 72);
            layout.addView(adWhirlLayout, adWhirlLayoutParams);
        }catch(Exception e){
            Log.e(TAG, "Unable to create AdWhirlLayout", e);
        }

Note: Make sure to use the SDK Key from the AdWhirl setup earlier when creating the AdWhirlLayout.

Redeploy (mvn clean install) and launch it.  You should see an ad at the bottom of the screen.  If not, check your logs (you do have 'adb logcat' running, right?)