investigate auction end event not emitting without specifying timeout

[mkendall07]

Type of issue

If you requestBids without specifying a timeout and the default 3 second timeout is used, no auction end event is emitted.

[khatibda]

hi - publisher here (Granite Media). to follow up, we use:

pbjs.requestBids({
  adUnitCodes,
});

we assumed it would default to a timeout of 3000ms. most things behave normally on our page as a result of this. however we just discovered that auctionEnd never fires. this is now a new problem because UserID usersync callback seems to be based on this event firing.

if we explicitly call a timeout, then everything fires and works as expected.

pbjs.requestBids({
  adUnitCodes,
  timeout: 3000,
});

lemme know if you need additional info

[jsnellbaker]

Hi @khatibda,

Do you have a URL available with the setup (and issue) you mentioned above so I can review further? Thanks.

[khatibda]

@jsnellbaker. i don't have a live url at present because we resolved why including the timeout property explicitly. are you able to reproduce locally? if not, i can look into pushing a test page with the bug still present.

[jsnellbaker]

I was trying some ways to artificially induce the scenario, but I was seeing the auctionEnd event emit successfully during those attempts. If you can put something together that reliably reproduces the behavior, I would greatly appreciate it.

[khatibda]

@jsnellbaker here's your test page:
https://www.workandmoney.com/s/best-emerging-college-majors-394f2c2138404506?dbg_tests=pbjsTimeoutOff-enabled&pbjs_debug=true

notice how the auctionEnd doesn't get logged.

if you toggle into the control bucket (with the timeout property explicitly included in requestBids), you should see auctionEnd get logged.

https://www.workandmoney.com/s/best-emerging-college-majors-394f2c2138404506?dbg_tests=pbjsTimeoutOff-control&pbjs_debug=true

[jsnellbaker]

@khatibda Thanks for providing the test pages. I believe I found the cause for the auctionEnd event to not fire.

Basically, the event is hidden by a flag that's only active when you pass a function in the bidsBackHandler in the pbjs.requestBids function.

In the case of your first page, it's only passing the adUnitCodes property on the requestBids call. Whereas your second page, is passing adUnitCodes, timeout, and bidsBackHandler.

I tried to look through the code in your build file (story.bbfaf41df20c6a33695c.js) while attempting to debug the prebid code on your test page. Is there some extra logic you put together to not require the bidsBackHandler and still allow the prebid data pass to your ad server? Or is the missing property on the test page not expected?

[khatibda]

@jsnellbaker you are absolutely right, and we should have micro-tested this double difference. in my local environment, if we include bidsBackHandler and not the timeout property, it works (auctionEnd fires). if we include only the timeout and not the bidsBackHandler, it doesn't work. so this confirms your theory.

that said...does this mean any pub who doesn't include bidsBackHandler isn't firing auctionEnd? isn't that most pubs? seems like a more specific problem, but also a bigger one!

[jsnellbaker]

I'm not sure that it's most pubs. That said, I'll take a look at the logic and see if it can be handled better.

[stale]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[khatibda]

test page is coming down, this feels like it was reviewed/addressed.

[stale]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.