Glossary
MRAID
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MRAID (Mobile Rich Media Ad Interface Definitions) is the IAB standard API that lets an HTML5 ad inside a mobile app talk to the app's ad SDK, for example to expand, resize or close.
Before MRAID, each rich media vendor and SDK had its own interface, so one creative had to be rebuilt for each app. The IAB set out to fix those interoperability problems between apps, ad servers and rich media platforms. Version 2.0 was released on 27 September 2012 and revised with clarifications on 16 April 2013 (IAB, MRAID v2.0).
An ad declares itself as MRAID by loading mraid.js, which the SDK supplies. The ad then waits for the ready event before calling methods such as expand or reading properties such as the expand size. MRAID 3.0 followed later. The AdCOM list of API frameworks, used by OpenRTB, gives MRAID 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 the values 3, 5 and 6, and Open Measurement (OMID 1.0) the value 7 (IAB Tech Lab, AdCOM 1.0).
Example: A game's banner request carries "api": [3, 5, 6, 7], so the DSP knows the SDK supports all three MRAID versions and OMID. The DSP returns an expandable creative that waits for ready, then calls mraid.expand() when the player taps it.
Related terms: HTML5 creative, OM SDK, VPAID, viewability, bundle ID, app-ads.txt.