Protected Audience API (PAAPI) Ad Auction Demo

Purpose

This project demonstrates a local implementation of the Protected Audience API (PAAPI) using Chrome. It simulates ad auctions where buyers bid for ad space. The key components include bidding logic, ad decision logic, and integration with the navigator APIs that manage ad auctions. This serves as a useful playground for experimenting with ad auctions and gaining a better understanding of the key players involved.

Key Players:

1. buyer-logic.js: Generates bids based on interest group signals. Adjusts bids based on ad performance and trusted signals.
2. decision-logic.js: Executes the seller's decision logic to score bids and select the highest-scoring ad.
3. navigator.joinAdInterestGroup(): Adds buyers to an interest group, allowing them to participate in future auctions.
4. navigator.runAdAuction(): This API runs the auction process, taking bids from multiple buyers and selecting a winner.

Setup Instructions

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/bwnodak/paapi-demo.git
cd paapi-demo

2. Install Dependencies

npm install

The repository will install a self-signed certificate to support HTTPS, which is required by the PAAPI. This will happen upon npm install, and will likely prompt you for your system password so it can add the cert to your System keychain as a trusted source (on MacOS). The new cert will appear in your keychain as devcert.

3. Chrome Configuration

You will need to configure Chrome to allow insecure localhost SSL certs and allow localhost to use Privacy Sandbox features without enrollment or attestation.

From chrome://flags

• Open Chrome and visit chrome://flags
• Enable #allow-insecure-localhost
• Enabled #privacy-sandbox-enrollment-overrides and add https://localhost:3000 to the list of allowed sites

From CLI

/Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome --allow-insecure-localhost --privacy-sandbox-enrollment-overrides=https://localhost:3000

2. From chrome://flags

• Open Chrome and navigate to chrome://flags
• Enable "Allow invalid certificates for resources loaded from localhost".

4. Start the Server

Run the following command to start the server:

node start

You can also use dev-mode, which will automatically restard the server when you make changes to it:

node run dev

Once the server is running, open Chrome and navigate to: https://localhost:3000.

Key Endpoints

• /logger: Logs GET and POST requests to the console.

Notes

• This demo is designed specifically for Chrome, with the Privacy Sandbox APIs enabled.
• The project uses HTTPS for compliance with PAAPI requirements.
• To modify auction behavior, adjust buyer-logic.js and decision-logic.js.