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We are excited to announce that we have launched global support for API versioning.

This afternoon we released Version 3 of the AdWords API. The AdWords API v3 contains new support for Content Bidding.

So what is changing?

First and foremost, this should reduce the need for you, our developers, to conduct just-in-time upgrades based on our release schedule. When a new version of the AdWords API is released, we will continue to support the old version of the API for 4 weeks before deactivating it. This four week period provides you with a full month to familiarize yourselves with the new WSDL, test changes, and update your production code.

Therefore, the version that everyone is running today (Version 2), will be deactivated in four weeks on March 1, 2006. All developers running v2 should make sure that they upgrade to v3 by this date. As a precaution, a warning will be posted to the Blog, Forum and API Email list one week prior to deactivation of v2.

Secondly, we’ve added a 'release notes' section to the Developer’s Guide. This will help bring you up to speed on the latest changes and differences between the versions.

And finally, the Developer’s Guide has been updated to display full details for all supported versions, as well as the diffs between them. By default, the pages you view will display information for the latest version. However, you can now toggle your view between versions by clicking on the links that we’ve added to the upper right-hand corner of the Developer’s Guide.

So what version are we on now?

The version that you have all been using for the last several months is “Version 2”. The new version that we have released today is “Version 3”. If you ever have any doubt as to what version you are using, you can always determine the version number by examining the web services URL that you are currently using.

Today you are using:
-- https://adwords.google.com/api/adwords/v2/ServiceNameService?wsdl (note the “/v2/” in the middle of the URL).

When you re-code for the latest version, you will have to change this URL to:
-- https://adwords.google.com/api/adwords/v3/ServiceNameService?wsdl.

What should we do if we have questions?

We feel strongly that our new versioning system will make testing and upgrading easier and more stable for all. However, we do understand that this is also a big change. Therefore, Patrick, our API Evangelist, will be paying extra-close attention to your versioning posts on the AdWords API Forum for the next few weeks.

And, as always, please feel free to check our API Help Center for more information on Versioning.

We hope you find this new versioning system helpful and thank you again for your support of the AdWords API.

-- Rohit Dhawan, Product Manager