App Binary RC 1.25.20200819 - Child Directed Flag for Admob

adent42

To get these benefits use "Build RC". It doesn't matter which version of GameSalad you publish with as long as it's a version 1.25.x.

The goal of this RC line is to upgrade Android to Target API 29 (with a minimum of 21) and to upgrade Ad network libraries as well accompanying Android / Google libraries.

For people used to the old RC thread, I will be repeating features that are not present in the regular "Generate" build, so you know in total what you are getting with this RC. New fixes since the last RC will be in bold.

Android:

• Upgrade to Google Play Service Base & Basement 17.3.0.
• Target API 29
• Min API 21
• IronSrc 6.16.1 and all mediated networks.
• Admob 19.1.0
• Chartboost 8.0.2
• Support configuration that sets the Child Directed & Maximum Content rating settings.

iOS (No change since )

• Deployment target of iOS 12.0 with SDK 13.x
• IronSrc 6.17.0
• IronSrc now includes all mediated networks.
• Publishing with IronSrc disabled will now exclude IronSrc libraries, making the binary smaller.
• Chartboost 8.1.0
• Admob 7.59.0 to match IronSrc
• Updated code to avoid potential crashes from background updates from IAP and GameCenter
• Support configuration that sets the Child Directed & Maximum Content rating settings.

Both:

• Updated Freestick to 0.3.2 allowing for more controller support.
• Removed loading of TIFF, EXR, and RAW images from freeimage.
• Consolidated XML parsing to libxml2 (changing the table loader from expat).

We've also updated publishing to match. You can set the new flags in the Admob configuration tab under Services.

The publishing system also remove some classes that weren't removed before so you shouldn't get dinged if you are getting dinged for chartboost and kid directed apps.

Finally we found that pangle is using a library that showed up in a malware site. From what I can tell it's not actually a problem, but if amazon dings you on this, just uncheck Pangle (TikTok) on IronSrc (or if you didn't publish with IronSrc, just republish, as this is one of the libraries we missed in cleaning things up).

Last update: https://forums.gamesalad.com/discussion/98026/app-binary-rc-1-25-20200706-ios-update/p1

pinkio75

"We've also updated publishing to match. You can set the new flags in the Admob configuration tab under Services."

Hi @adent42

i've not find the new flag about children in the service area...

I mean where is the new option flag?

adent42

Huh... looks like i need to tweak the permissions on it

adent42

Okay, it's updated. Embarrassingly I didn't even notice that I didn't push the updated publishing UI, just the backend changes. You should be good to go now.

pinkio75

Don't worry ;) yes now the child option is present but it's locked at least for me... i can't do anything... :(

FireCroc

I can see the "Child directed" tick box as well for Admob but mine is greyed out as well

DigiChain

https://forums.gamesalad.com/discussion/comment/614746#Comment_614746

Yes, I noticed it was locked too (though I don't need to use it).

adent42

Ugh. okay... also , the iOS build is broken, so we'll have a fix for this later today (compiling now).

adent42

(builds without the child flag are fine, hence, we're leaving the flag disabled until the fixed build goes out)

adent42

Fix released. I'm not gonna update the release notes since it's a minor fix. Just hit publish again after check the appropriate boxes!

pinkio75

Thank you @adent42 now it's work fine!

FireCroc

Awesome thanks Adent42. Mine is now enabled

adent42

In theory if you set Child Directed, Ad Content Rating shouldn't matter, BUT I'd set it to G just to be safe.

unbeatenpixel

''Prepare your apps for iOS 14 Apple announced the new AppTrackingTransparency framework, which requires changes to your iOS apps. Implement the GMA SDK 7.64.0 (or later) and set up consent messaging to help prevent a significant loss in ad revenue.''

Are you aware of the Admob alert? @adent42

pinkio75

Apple and/or AdMob change every month a lot of things.. honestly these thing are made to stress all developer and i think that they make this thing to continuously clean the store from obsolete apps.

adent42

@unbeatenpixel yup. That's in the queue for the next couple of weeks. The only bad thing is not all of the networks (i.e. Chartboost), have completed their migration yet.

For people who haven't been reading up:

Apple is putting more tracking control in the hands of users. So when an app want to enable an ad network that track installs across apps, it will need to ask permission of the user.

Apple will now be the central clearing house of install tracking, so while fewer people will participated due to the opt-in, the people who do will be much more accurate (up until now, all the ad networks did their own thing to figure out cross installs).

Based on information from IronSrc, we know of 3 networks that have completed support for this system, IronSrc Proper, Unity, and Admob.

Chartboost hasn't yet, but they're working on it.

If this isn't a hard requirement built into the OS, I'm hoping Apple will give everyone some leeway as the ad networks get their acts together.

adriangomez

And I just want to add to something that @adent42 said. Currently the framework required is not available in xCode 11 and xCode 12 is only in beta. I really hope Apple gives everybody some time especially since there isn't a release xCode at the moment that you can pull that framework. I use Ironsource on my native apps and I am in a holding pattern because I don't want to pull down betas of xCode.