AdCOM v1.0 FINAL in SDML

This repository contains an SDML representation of the Advertising Common Object Model or AdCOM v1.0 specification from IAB Tech Lab. AdCOM itself is used in the OpenRTB v3.0 specification as well as in the OpenRTB Ad Management API v1.1 specification.

Note that this is not an abstract domain model as-is, it is a lower-level representation for example purposes.

Repository Content

The sdml directory contains a number of files,

sdml
  ├─ adcom.sdml
  ├─ adcom_context.sdml
  ├─ adcom_media.sdml
  └─ adcom_placement.sdml

Data Types

Numeric boolean - YesNo

Some Object fields are typed as integer but the text makes it clear that there are only 2 permissible values, 0 and 1, usually representing No/Yes respectively. It would not be possible to use the builtin boolean type as SDML does not support type coercion and so the mapping from true/false to 1/0 is not possible.

The following enumeration is used instead. This does require editing of some descriptions that reference the numeric values directly.

module adcom is

  enum YesNo of
    @owl:equivalentClass = sdml:integer
    Yes is
      @rdf:value = 1
    end
    No is
      @rdf:value = 0
    end
  end

end

Subtype Object Pattern

In a number of places there are object definitions that contain /required/

Attribute	Type	Definition
=title=	object; required *	Asset Subtype Object that indicates this is a title asset and provides additional detail as such. * Required if no other asset subtype object is specified.
=image=	object; required *	Asset Subtype Object that indicates this is an image asset and provides additional detail as such. * Required if no other asset subtype object is specified.

The pattern then brings together all the types referenced in the table such as title object (named TitleAsset later in the text) and image object (ImageAsset) and includes them in a new union type. This new type is the type used in the parent Asset for a field named, by convention, sub_type.

module ascom_media is

  structure Asset is
    ;; ...
    sub_type -> AssetSubType
  end

  union AssetSubType of
    TitleAsset
    ImageAsset
    ;; ...
  end

end

Reference List Pattern

A lot of fields in the AdCOM specification are typed as integer but with a reference list of values. Where this list contains only /known/ values this translates into an SDML enumeration type with an OWL equivalentClass property and with an RDF value property on each variant. This enumeration replaces the integer type for the field.

However, for many of these reference lists additional vendor-specific values are explicitly allowed starting at 500. To address these a simple pattern is used where all known values in the specification are put into the enumeration as above, and a new data type is added for values over 500. Finally these two types are combined into a union that becomes the field type in the SDML structures. This pattern uses the prefix Known for the enumeration and Vendor for the data type for consistency.

module example is

  import rdf

  enum KnownThingType of
    @owl:equivalentClass = sdml:integer

    ThingOne is
      @rdf:value = 1
    end

    ThingTwo is
      @rdf:value = 2
    end

  end

  datatype VendorThingType <- Integer is
    @xsd:minValueInclusive = 500
  end

  union ThingType of
    KnownThingType as Known
    VendorThingType as VendorSpecific
  end

end

According to OpenRTB:

An optional attribute may have a default value to be assumed if omitted. If no default is indicated, then by convention its absence should be interpreted as unknown, unless otherwise specified.

This model does not introduce specific /Unknown/ values as the AdCOM proto buffer repository does.

• KnownThingType : The list of known enumeration values.
• VendorThingType : An integer value data type restricted to values greater than or equal to 500.
• ThingType : A union of the two types above.

License(s)

The contents of this repository are made available under the following licenses:

Apache-2.0

Copyright 2025 Simon Johnston <johnstonskj@gmail.com>

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.

See the enclosed file LICENSE-Apache.

MIT

Copyright 2025 Simon Johnston <johnstonskj@gmail.com>

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to
use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of
the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so,
subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT
HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION
OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE
SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

See the enclosed file LICENSE-MIT.

Contributions

Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the work by you, as defined in the Apache-2.0 license, shall be dual licensed as above, without any additional terms or conditions.