Admob native ads of UnifiedNativeAdView are not clickable in Kotlin - kotlin

Question

I faced a strange bug with admob native ads. Everything works fine except that I cannot find url value for an ads on callback and that UnifiedNativeAdView is not clickable, even button inside don't go anywhere as I use admob templates.
Here is the XML view code:
<com.google.android.gms.ads.formats.UnifiedNativeAdView
android:paddingTop="8dp"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:id="#+id/native_ad_view"
android:background="#000000"
android:elevation="20dp">
<LinearLayout
android:id="#+id/native_ad_layout"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:orientation="vertical">
<TextView
style="#style/AdAttribution"
android:id="#+id/native_ad_attribution"
android:visibility="gone"/>
<LinearLayout
android:id="#+id/native_ad_inside_layout"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:visibility="gone">
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/ad_app_icon"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:adjustViewBounds="true"
android:maxWidth="85dp"
android:scaleType="centerCrop" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/ad_headline"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:maxLines="3"
android:paddingLeft="5dp"
android:paddingRight="5dp"
android:textSize="16sp"
android:textStyle="bold" />
<Button
android:id="#+id/ad_call_to_action"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:gravity="center"
android:maxWidth="50dp"
android:maxLines="3"
android:textSize="12sp"
/>
</LinearLayout>
</LinearLayout>
</com.google.android.gms.ads.formats.UnifiedNativeAdView>
Code of Viewholder:
inner class TripViewHolder(val view: View) : RecyclerView.ViewHolder(view) {
val adView: UnifiedNativeAdView = view.native_ad_view as UnifiedNativeAdView
var layoutView: LinearLayout = view.native_ad_layout
var insideLayoutView: LinearLayout = view.native_ad_inside_layout
var attributionView: TextView = view.native_ad_attribution
var headlineView: TextView = view.ad_headline
var callToActionView: Button = view.ad_call_to_action
var iconView: ImageView = view.ad_app_icon
}
Code of onBindViewHolder:
override fun onBindViewHolder(holder: RecyclerView.ViewHolder, position: Int) {
val item = mValues[position]
if (item.nativeAd == null) {
return
}
if (item.nativeAd!!.headline == null) {
return
}
holder.attributionView.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
holder.insideLayoutView.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
holder.headlineView.text = item.nativeAd!!.headline
if (item.nativeAd!!.callToAction == null) {
holder.callToActionView.visibility = View.INVISIBLE
} else {
holder.callToActionView.visibility = View.VISIBLE
(holder.callToActionView as Button).text = item.nativeAd!!.callToAction
}
if (item.nativeAd!!.icon == null) {
holder.iconView.visibility = View.GONE
} else {
(holder.iconView as ImageView).setImageDrawable(item.nativeAd!!.icon.drawable)
holder.iconView.visibility = View.VISIBLE
}
// Assign native ad object to the native view.
holder.adView.setNativeAd(item.nativeAd!!)
}
And this is where I call adLoader. I call it in the background using BroadcastReceiver:
fun loadNativeAds(context: Context, listener: MyTripsContent.ContentEventsListener?) {
if (!adList.isEmpty()) {
return
}
try {
var unitId: String? = ""
lateinit var adLoader: AdLoader
//test key
unitId = "ca-app-pub-3940256099942544/2247696110"
adLoader = AdLoader.Builder(context, unitId)
.forUnifiedNativeAd { ad: UnifiedNativeAd ->
// Show the ad.
adList.add(ad)
if (adList.size == 5) {
listener?.onLoadedDocuments(0)
}
}
.withAdListener(object : AdListener() {
override fun onAdFailedToLoad(errorCode: Int) {
// Handle the failure by logging, altering the UI, and so on.
if (!adLoader.isLoading) {
}
}
override fun onAdClicked() {
super.onAdClicked()
}
})
.withNativeAdOptions(
NativeAdOptions.Builder()
// Methods in the NativeAdOptions.Builder class can be
// used here to specify individual options settings.
.build()
)
.build()
adLoader.loadAds(AdRequest.Builder().build(), 5)
} catch (exception: Exception) {
exception.printStackTrace()
}
}
So as I mentioned ads work well but they are not clickable. I'm not sure if this is a bug from admob, or my code or something I am missing. I think other developers will face the same issue in the future, so it would be good to solve it.
Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

So due to lack of detailed documentation and examples I found I was missing one line of code. Many other examples do not have this line also. I only added one line in onBindViewHolder
From this:
if (item.nativeAd!!.callToAction == null) {
holder.callToActionView.visibility = View.INVISIBLE
} else {
holder.callToActionView.visibility = View.VISIBLE
(holder.callToActionView as Button).text = item.nativeAd!!.callToAction
}
to this:
if (item.nativeAd!!.callToAction == null) {
holder.callToActionView.visibility = View.INVISIBLE
} else {
holder.callToActionView.visibility = View.VISIBLE
(holder.callToActionView as Button).text = item.nativeAd!!.callToAction
holder.adView.callToActionView = (holder.callToActionView as Button)
}
That means I needed to attach my button as callToActionView