Has any used DoubleClick’s Dart/In-Stream, etc. solutions with ActionScript 3?
They currently only support ActionScript 2, 1, and 0 (code on frames). They do not support going directly to their web services. We entertained reverse engineering their API, but the problem with that is being held accountable for the video metrics they handle via FLVPlayback/NetStream and having to emulate those perfectly. This is also why an AS2 / AS3 LocalConnection option won’t work out well because you have basically write a Facade NetStream, and pray you not only match every method, but also dispatch every event.
Naturally I’m not looking forward to using AS2 for a number of reasons. AS3 would of allowed us to use runtime skinning, thus reducing the amount of code we need maintain for a variety of clients; skin.swf’s vs. unique video players that increase weekly resulting in a large maintenance cost.
I’m still investigating 3rd parties that usually act as the middle men to DoubleClick, lowering the amount of bling you have to front to even get a return phone call. Apparently some of these firms have API’s of their own that abstract DoubleClick since they wrap their own reporting and billing data around it.
Anyone???
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Wish I could help but do let us know your findings… I’ve never been successful in getting a contact request answered by Doubleclick and for that reason they can stick their technology where the sun doesn’t shine. I’m sure this industry will wake up one day but for the time being it seems that smaller publishers are far better off to approach potential advertisers directly. Did I mention how much I hate dealing with ad networks?
Stefan Richter
October 24th, 2007
Hello from DoubleClick! First, Stefan — DoubleClick is not an ad network. We don’t sell ads, just offer technology.
With regard to AS3 support for our DARTShell, we are currently in internal testing and expect to be able to make it available before the new year. Sorry for the delay!
Ari
Ari Paparo
November 5th, 2007
Jesse,
Just today i was forwarded the AS3 dev kit. Have not tried it out ye, but I wanted to let you know I think it has been released.
Paul Abrelat
December 17th, 2007
Yeah, I made a sarcastic comment in one of my newer posts about it. It doesn’t allow you to test in the Flash IDE and it STILL uses it’s OWN NetStream making integration with existing players impossible. We’re using it on a project right now. The pro’s are, when uploaded to a web server, it does work, and requires like 3 lines of code. The downside is it’s this “thing” that you can’t really integrate with. For enterprise development it’s just “bleh”.
Monopolies blow.
JesterXL
December 17th, 2007
I’m still trying to find some kind of documentation on the In-Stream solution. Trying to surf Doubleclick’s site for it is a pain. If anyone can point me in the right direction, it’d be much appreciated.
I broke down and sent DC an email and hope they’ll get back to me. Basically all I want to do is plainly simple: Run ads in swfs. That’s it! For instance, if we are featuring a slide show, we need to be able to run an ad before the user can view it. So far, the easiest solution has been to just load a Brightcove player w/a pre-roll ad and drop the clip as soon as it fires the adComplete event. In my mind, that doesn’t seem to be the best way…which leads me to my current search for a solution. It seems like it should be a natural thing to do. Am I oblivious to something?
Thanks, anyone.
Matt Dodson
February 4th, 2008
You’re either not emailing sales, or you don’t sound in your email like you have enough bling. We’ve finally managed to wrangle an AS3 In-Stream SWC from DoubleClick. It only works in Flash, not FlexBuilder, and you can’t even test locally; you have to upload it to a webserver.
But dammit if it ain’t AS3… worth the pain to me.
Works well, too; just like the AS2 one; has like 2 methods; get the FLV and get the companion ad. Dart for Publishers is easier to integrate with mainly because you can get a direct link to the FLV and thus use your own video player, but DFP isn’t any good anymore because it has next to no tracking info compared to In-Stream.
If I ever get it working in FlexBuilder and/or offline, I’ll blog about it.
JesterXL
February 4th, 2008
Jesse,
Nice summary, thanks.
We’re in the same trouble - having to integrate dartshell into a flex RIA application.
No luck with Doubleclick yet, no official AS3 components available and I’m now trying to convince them to get some prerelease stuff.
Bye,
Patrick
Patrick
February 6th, 2008
Hello, anybody has finally integrated dartshell into a a flex RIA application??
Any example??
Any component??
David
February 19th, 2008