WebProNews

Updates to the AdWords API arriving on August 19 mean developers will want to make sure they don't impact the data in their reports.

Using the AdWords API's getReportDownloadUrl() or getGzipReportDownloadUrl() method? You'll want to catch up with the latest out of Google about those.

The AdWords API blog said changes to those methods start rolling out on August 19. Even though Google says they will only affect a small number of columns, it's important to determine now if those happen to be columns you use today.

"Please note that some of these columns are only available for reports scheduled via the AdWords web interface, not the AdWords API, but we're listing them here in case you use the AdWords API to retrieve and process such reports," said Google; here's the list:

• CustomerTimeZone: the time zone information will be returned as, e.g., the previous "America/New_York" will change to "(GMT-05:00) Eastern Time".
• Time aggregation columns: the columns representing the aggregation time period (e.g. weekStart) will represent date ranges in a different format. E.g. the previous "2008-06-01-2008-06-01" will now be returned as "6/1/08 - 6/1/08".
• Keyword: values for category-based website criteria will change from, e.g., "docvertical::3" to "Animals >> Endangered Species". Values returned for keyword or non-category-based website criteria should not change.
• Interactions: the name of reported interactions will change from, e.g., "VideoPlayTime25" to "Video Play Reached 25%."

Developers have the opportunity to test their applications against the changes now. Google said they can visit the AdWords web interface, select an existing report, view it, and export it as an XML file. "This XML should match the report XML that you will retrieve via the AdWords API after the changes are put in place," Google said.

If it doesn't, well, there's 18 days until the change arrives.