An OpenRTB bid request handler must do more than parse JSON: it has to accept the exchange’s wire format, validate the selected OpenRTB revision and partner profile, make a bidding decision, then return a response that references the original request and impression correctly. Start with the integration’s profile, not an assumed universal set of fields or status codes.
Pin down the OpenRTB revision and partner profile
OpenRTB defines the real-time transaction between a supply source and a bidder: the request describes available impressions and related context, and the bidder returns a bid or no-bid response. The protocol does not eliminate partner-specific rules. For example, Google says its DV360 implementation has nuances, does not support every OpenRTB field, and may parse some fields without using them for bidding. Treat the standard as the shared foundation and the exchange’s integration documentation as the operational contract.
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Record the exact OpenRTB revision and profile before implementing the endpoint. The IAB Tech Lab standards page lists v2.6-202309 as a September 2023 release, with updates that include bid-floor guidance and deal and duration-based floor fields. Choose matching fields and enumerations rather than assuming every deployment uses the same revision.
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- Supported OpenRTB revision and any partner extensions.
- Accepted encodings, content types, required headers, endpoint expectations, and timeouts.
- Required and supported request fields, including supported inventory formats and site or app context.
- Allowed response statuses, response-body conventions, and no-bid behavior.
Keep partner extensions separate from core OpenRTB fields in your implementation. OpenRTB assigns exchanges responsibility for publishing their extensions to bidders. AdCOM supplies enumerated values referenced by OpenRTB 2.x, so enum validation should match the revision and partner profile you actually support.
Sources: IAB Tech Lab OpenRTB standards, Google DV360 OpenRTB profile, and IAB AdCOM.
Receive and decode the request
The OpenRTB 2.6 specification uses HTTP for the exchange-to-bidder interaction and requires HTTP POST for bid requests, which can carry larger payloads and binary representations. It suggests JSON for request and response data; an integration may specify another supported encoding. Check the actual content type and serialization requirements in the partner profile rather than assuming JSON is always accepted.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsAt the service boundary, decode only formats the endpoint is configured to accept. Apply practical payload-size limits and request deadlines, and define how the endpoint handles malformed or unsupported input according to the integration contract. These are production safeguards, not additional requirements stated by the OpenRTB specification.
Source: IAB OpenRTB 2.6 specification.
Validate the request’s shape and usable context
For the technical minimum, a BidRequest needs an id and at least one imp. Every impression must specify at least one applicable format, such as banner, video, audio, or native. Meeting that minimum does not mean the request contains enough information for a commercially useful bid.
After structural validation, check the fields your bidder and partner rely on. Depending on the profile and request, that can include site or app context, device and user information, currency, allowed seats, blocked categories, privacy or regulatory objects, and exchange-specific extensions. Optional fields may be absent, and a field present in the base specification may be unsupported by a particular partner.
Keep the distinction clear in code: reject structurally invalid requests according to the endpoint contract, while treating absent optional context according to explicit bidder policy. Do not silently invent defaults for decision-critical values such as currency, floor, format, or deal terms.
Source: IAB OpenRTB 2.6 specification; partner-support caveat: Google DV360 OpenRTB profile.
Translate validated requests into bidder decisions
Map the validated OpenRTB object into the bidder’s internal inputs while retaining the identifiers needed to construct the response. Make impression format, currency, floor, deal terms, and restrictions explicit inputs to the decision path. A handler that parses only the minimum protocol shape may be technically capable of receiving requests but unable to make a meaningful bid decision.
Separate common protocol handling from partner-specific policy. A version-aware parser can represent core OpenRTB fields, while profile configuration or validation handles partner-required fields, supported enums, extensions, and response conventions. This keeps one partner’s assumptions from becoming accidental rules for every integration.
Return a matching bid or the documented no-bid signal
A bid response must refer to the original request ID, and each bid must identify the impression it answers through impid. The bid includes a price expressed as CPM in the specification, even though the transaction concerns one impression. Use decimal-safe currency handling; the IAB specification recommends integer-style currency handling and gives BigDecimal in Java as an example of avoiding floating-point errors.
OpenRTB describes an empty HTTP response as a bandwidth-efficient no-bid signal. A partner can specify a concrete status-code convention instead. Google DV360 documents 204 with no body for no-bid and 200 with a bid response for a bid. Apply the selected integration’s behavior; do not treat those DV360 statuses as universal OpenRTB rules.
Sources: IAB OpenRTB 2.6 specification and Google DV360 OpenRTB profile.
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Test both protocol conformance and partner compatibility
Use canonical examples from the official OpenRTB repository to check request and response structure. The IAB Tech Lab programmatic resources also list the OpenRTB Bid Validator. These checks help assess structure and fields, but they do not replace tests against the actual partner contract.
Build partner-specific fixtures for the cases your handler must support:
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- Unsupported or absent fields, including partner extensions and enum values.
- Malformed payloads and unsupported content types.
- Currency and floor handling, including bids that do not meet applicable constraints.
- Bid responses that reference the correct request and impression, plus each documented no-bid response.
Re-run these checks when changing the supported revision, parser, profile configuration, or response logic. The protocol validator and examples establish a useful baseline; partner fixtures establish whether your endpoint follows the chosen integration.
Sources: IAB OpenRTB 2.6 specification and IAB Tech Lab programmatic resources.
Implementation checklist
- Pin the OpenRTB revision and partner profile.
- Accept only the documented HTTP method, content types, and encodings.
- Validate the request ID, impression array, and at least one format per impression.
- Apply partner-specific rules for supported fields, enums, extensions, and context.
- Preserve request and impression identifiers through bidder decisioning.
- Use decimal-safe price handling and return the partner’s documented bid or no-bid response.
- Test wire-level examples and partner-specific fixtures independently.
The OpenRTB specification itself cautions that its materials are not business or legal advice and do not warrant regulatory compliance. Treat privacy and regulatory fields as part of the technical integration, not as proof that an implementation satisfies legal obligations.
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