updateCriteria doesn't have to blush anymore

In v2 when calling updateCriteria with destinationUrl values of null or "", the result is actually those values respectively. In v3, null really means don't update destinationUrl, and "" means set the destinationUrl to null (i.e. clear the destinationUrl).

This oft requested change of semantics allows you to use updateCriteria in order to change maxCpc of a Keyword without needing to know the destinationUrl, which was the only issue that obliged developers to still use setKeywordListMaxCpc.

--Patrick Chanezon, AdWords API evangelist

Launching Versioning, Content Bidding & More!

We are happy to announce the re-release of API Versioning and the AdWords API Version 3 (V3).

And… since we had an extra two weeks of development time, we were able to include the AdWords Keyword Tool.

So to recap…

Version 3 includes support for our new Content Bidding functionality. For background information on the Content Bidding feature, please see our earlier post entitled “Exposing Content Bidding via the API in January”.

In addition, we have exposed the AdWords Keyword Tool via a new KeywordToolService.

Finally, the campaignNegativeKeywords field is deprecated. Please use setCampaignNegativeCriteria and getCampaignNegativeCriteria requests in CriterionService instead.

Per our earlier stated policy, V2 will be supported for one month from today, at which time it will be turned off. Therefore, please make sure that you upgrade your code to v3 before March 27, 2006.

For technical details about V3, please review the Release Notes section of the Developer’s Guide.

-- Rohit Dhawan, Product Manager

System Maintenance - February 24

We will be performing routine AdWords system maintenance from 8pm PDT to midnight on Friday, February 24, 2006. While all AdWords advertisements will continue to run as normal, you will not be able to perform any API operations during this maintenance period.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

--Patrick Chanezon, AdWords API evangelist

Namespace Issue

Two days ago we started redeploying our “versioned” services on a few servers. We will make an announcement when the deployment is complete. Only then can you start taking advantage of version 3.

This redeployment should not disturb your software (which still uses version 2), However… there is one issue…

We now enforce strict namespace checks. Because we introduced versioning, and because the schemas for the payloads are different in the two versions, the URLs used to qualify the AdWords API namespace now matter.

For version 2 use => https://adwords.google.com/api/adwords/v2
For version 3 use => https://adwords.google.com/api/adwords/v3.

This should be of no consequence to developers who use a SOAP toolkit to generate their language bindings, since the toolkit will pick up the correct namespace URL from the WSDL. However, this could cause issues for some developers who handcraft their XML: we have seen requests coming in with namespaces such as https://adwords.google.com/api/adwords/v2/KeywordService. This worked before versioning was introduced, but it won't work anymore now.

This is explained in the Release Notes.

If you start getting errors like "The request namespace is invalid for the service URL," you should check that your software generates the correct namespace for your request payloads.

--Patrick Chanezon, AdWords API evangelist

Update on our Recent Roll-Back

I wanted to follow-up on the Feb 2nd roll-back of Versioning and Content Bidding.

We are wrapping up the bug fix for these two releases and will test them over the weekend. Therefore, we are planning to re-release sometime next week.

We apologize again for any inconveniences this may have caused.

-- Rohit Dhawan, Product Manager

Yesterday’s release has been rolled-back

We have identified a bug in yesterday’s release and are working to correct the issue. In the meantime we have rolled-back the latest release so your future operations will not be affected. Once the bug is fixed we will notify you and re-release the code. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
Because of that the new versioning feature that we announced yesterday is not available until we push the release again.

--Patrick Chanezon, AdWords API evangelist

API Version 3: Support for Content Bidding

We are pleased to announce the release of the AdWords API Version 3.

Version 3 includes support for our new Content Bidding functionality. For background information on the Content Bidding feature, please see our earlier post entitled “Exposing Content Bidding via the API in January.”

In addition, the campaignNegativeKeywords field is deprecated. Please use setCampaignNegativeCriteria and getCampaignNegativeCriteria requests in CriterionService instead.

For technical details about v3 and Content Bidding, please review the Release Notes section of the Developer’s Guide.

Per our new versioning system, version 2 of the API will be supported until March 1, 2006, at which time it will be turned off. Therefore, please make sure that you upgrade your code to v3 before then.

And for more information about versioning, please see today’s post entitled “API Versioning is Live.”

-- Rohit Dhawan, Product Manager

API Versioning is Live

We are excited to announce that we have launched global support for API versioning.

This afternoon we released Version 3 of the AdWords API. The AdWords API v3 contains new support for Content Bidding.

So what is changing?

First and foremost, this should reduce the need for you, our developers, to conduct just-in-time upgrades based on our release schedule. When a new version of the AdWords API is released, we will continue to support the old version of the API for 4 weeks before deactivating it. This four week period provides you with a full month to familiarize yourselves with the new WSDL, test changes, and update your production code.

Therefore, the version that everyone is running today (Version 2), will be deactivated in four weeks on March 1, 2006. All developers running v2 should make sure that they upgrade to v3 by this date. As a precaution, a warning will be posted to the Blog, Forum and API Email list one week prior to deactivation of v2.

Secondly, we’ve added a 'release notes' section to the Developer’s Guide. This will help bring you up to speed on the latest changes and differences between the versions.

And finally, the Developer’s Guide has been updated to display full details for all supported versions, as well as the diffs between them. By default, the pages you view will display information for the latest version. However, you can now toggle your view between versions by clicking on the links that we’ve added to the upper right-hand corner of the Developer’s Guide.

So what version are we on now?

The version that you have all been using for the last several months is “Version 2”. The new version that we have released today is “Version 3”. If you ever have any doubt as to what version you are using, you can always determine the version number by examining the web services URL that you are currently using.

Today you are using:
-- https://adwords.google.com/api/adwords/v2/ServiceNameService?wsdl (note the “/v2/” in the middle of the URL).

When you re-code for the latest version, you will have to change this URL to:
-- https://adwords.google.com/api/adwords/v3/ServiceNameService?wsdl.

What should we do if we have questions?

We feel strongly that our new versioning system will make testing and upgrading easier and more stable for all. However, we do understand that this is also a big change. Therefore, Patrick, our API Evangelist, will be paying extra-close attention to your versioning posts on the AdWords API Forum for the next few weeks.

And, as always, please feel free to check our API Help Center for more information on Versioning.

We hope you find this new versioning system helpful and thank you again for your support of the AdWords API.

-- Rohit Dhawan, Product Manager