Question

This is my very first attempt at including ads in my app. I have read the online documentation and read it word for word. Now, the only part I don’t get is how to actually request ads and to add it into my app.

AdView adView = (AdView)findViewById(R.id.ad);

That seems to work so far so good.
Anything else I do will just force close.
For example adding this line:

adView.setAdListener(this);

I have implemented AdListener to the Activity.

By the way, when I hover over the imported classes:

import com.admob.android.ads.AdView;

or other similar classes, it says: Note: This element neither has attached source nor attached Javadoc and hence no Javadoc could be found.

Is that supposed to be correct?

Answer 1

It’s tough to say for sure without seeing your code and your layout, but here are some things you might want to check:

1) The AdMobActivity is declared in your AndroidManifest:

<activity android:name="com.admob.android.ads.AdMobActivity"
android:theme="@android:style/Theme.NoTitleBar.Fullscreen"
android:configChanges="orientation|keyboard|keyboardHidden" />

2) You request the INTERNET permission in your AndroidManifest:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />

3) Your attrs.xml file contains the necessary styles:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
    <declare-styleable name="com.admob.android.ads.AdView">
        <attr name="backgroundColor" format="color" />
        <attr name="primaryTextColor" format="color" />
        <attr name="secondaryTextColor" format="color" />
        <attr name="keywords" format="string" />
        <attr name="refreshInterval" format="integer" />
    </declare-styleable>
</resources>

4) Your AdView is included in your layout:

<com.admob.android.ads.AdView
  android:id="@+id/ad"
  android:layout_width="fill_parent"
  android:layout_height="wrap_content"
  myapp:backgroundColor="#000000"
  myapp:primaryTextColor="#FFFFFF"
  myapp:secondaryTextColor="#CCCCCC"
/>

5) Your AdView is being found properly:

AdView adView = (AdView)findViewById(R.id.ad);
if (adView == null) {
    Log.e(TAG, "AdView not found!");
}