Clarification on ORTB2, FPD and Content Categories v3

[nibuca]

In this document: https://docs.prebid.org/features/firstPartyData.html

We see cat, sectioncat and pagecat under the ortb2, site section. The format of the values in those keys is listed in this IAB document: https://www.iab.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/OpenRTB-API-Specification-Version-2-5-FINAL.pdf

In the linked OpenRTB2.5 spec cat/sectioncat/pagecat values are mentioned in section 3.2.13 and the table of values is in section 5 .1 "Enumerated Lists Specifications, Content Categories".

That IAB document is from 2016 and the categorizations in the code example appear to be from the now-deprecated Content Categories v1.0.

Can we use the content categories from the more-current Content Categories v3 (https://iabtechlab.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Content-Taxonomy-v3.0-FINAL.xlsx)? If so, what does that look like syntactically?

[muuki88]

Hi @nibuca

The contextual signals are a bit confusing. I try to summarize what I think is the current state of things 😅

• cat, sectioncat and pagecat are and always will contain the values from the OpenRTB 2.5 spec mentioned in section 3.2.13 as you pointed out. The example in the supplying global data section uses these values:

cat: ["IAB2"],
sectioncat: ["IAB2-2"],
pagecat: ["IAB2-2"],

• The new Content Categories v3 have a new place in the OpenRTB object under site.content.data. The containing object has a property ext.segtax, which contains the taxonomy version. See https://github.com/InteractiveAdvertisingBureau/openrtb/blob/master/extensions/community_extensions/segtax.md

Can we use the content categories from the more-current Content Categories v3

Not in the site.cat, etc. properties. Taking the example from the prebid page

pbjs.setConfig({
  ortb2: {
    site: {
      // this can only be OpenRTB 2.5 / Content Taxonomy
      cat: ["IAB2"],
      sectioncat: ["IAB2-2"],
      pagecat: ["IAB2-2"],

      // this is where the contextual data is placed
      content: {
        data: [
          {
            // I think this will help SSPs/DSPs to validate where the data is coming from
            name: "www.dataprovider1.com",
            ext: {
              // this is the new standard to define which taxonomy is used in the segments array
              segtax: 7,
            },
            // the bare minimum are the IDs. These IDs are the ones from the new IAB Content Taxonomy v3
            segment: [{ id: "687" }, { id: "123" }],
          },
          {
            /* ... more data ... */
          },
        ],
      },
    },
  },
});

[nibuca]

Thank you for the annotated response. This is very helpful.