Unnecessary Attribute Name Changes

[chompi]

Original author: jim.but...@nexage.com (July 22, 2011 21:12:31)

are several attribute and object names that have been altered from the OpenRTB Mobile specification for seemingly stylistic preferences. However, this creates needless points of backward incompatibility for exchanges and bidders that are presently operating. A couple instances of this have been referenced in other issues where it seemed more appropriate to mention them there. Here are the rest; please restore them:

• “site.sitecat” should be restored to “site.cat”.
• “app.appcat” should be restored to “app.cat”.
• “user.gen” should be restored to “user.gender”, and restore the “O” value option.
• “bidset” object should be restored to “seatbid”.
• “bid.id” should be restored to “bid.impid”.
• “bid.campaignid” should be restored to “bid.cid”.
• “bid.creativeid” should be restored to “bid.crid”.

On the app and site category, I know there are other levels of category usage proposed for site and app, but it is sufficiently clear that an unqualified “cat” pertains to the scope of its object (e.g., site or app as opposed to page, etc.). I noticed that object IDs have all been changed to a similar unqualified style from the previous spec, which I do support (even though it’s backward incompatible).

On the gender values, the allowed values were also changed in an unnecessary way. Aside from “M” and “F”, the OpenRTB Mobile specification had “O” for “other” which is a useful classification. The 2.0 spec dropped it and added “U” for “unknown” which is redundant with respect to not passing the attribute.

On the ID in the bid object, in all other objects that have an “id” attribute, this ID pertains to the object itself. In this case, however, the ID is referring to the ID of a different object; an “imp” object. It would not only improve backward compatibility to restore it to “impid”, but it would be a lot less confusing.

Original issue: http://code.google.com/p/openrtb/issues/detail?id=24