Amazon DSP Banner Ad (2025) / runtime.js "references to external sources"

[Liquefy]

Hello everybody,

after troubleshooting a banner ad for amazon dsp since their adserver relaunch in Germany in 2025 we have troubles in uploading banner ads to the self service platform. Whenever we try to upload our banner the following error occurs which was not solvable for us:

Unable to use the following assets:
• amz2.zip
(index.js cannot contain references to external sources)

It seems as if amazon is not willing to let us upload the (renamed) hype runtime .js as there are "references to external sources" We checked even by using Chat GPT / Claude.ai to eliminate external calls / reference them back to a local path but still no success. It looks like we have to build banners with another software as amazon stated to us that they prefer us using the "create.js" library. Has anyone experienced a similar issue or has an idea how to fix this?

Thank you so much for your help
Best Sebastian

amz4.zip (106,9 KB)

[Daniel]

That's very odd -- there aren't any external network calls. Does amazon share any examples of acceptable ads + their source code? If there's some automated check for create.js you might be able to fool their automated check into thinking you're using create.js (even though you're using Hype).

[Liquefy]

Hey Daniel,

thank you so much for your response! Unfortunately we have no other information than that regarding the upload-issue. When we first reached out to them they send us the SDK-integration workflow which features the CreateJS library – that is why I flagged it in my post. I do not know how to deal with this. Maybe I will drop amazon another line that we got in touch with the creators of Hype and that you do not know either whats going wrong

This is their SDK workflow:

Integrating with SDK

The SDK can be imported by adding the following script tag to the head of the index.html file:

To use the SDK’s onReady function to trigger the ad’s animation, wrap the init() function (or any function to be called once the SDK is loaded) with SDK.onReady():

function startAd() {

SDK.onReady(function(){init()});

}

// Usage

...

To incorporate clickthrough functionality with the URL set in the DSP UI’s Click-through URL field, call the clickthrough function provided by the SDK:

// Add onClick handler to the animation container

If clickthrough functionality is already incorporated using adkit.clickthrough(), this method only needs to be replaced with SDK.clickThrough().

CreateJS Library

The SDK vends the CreateJS library which can be used to build HTML5 creatives. The library can be imported within the index.html file as follows:

[Daniel]

Can you try putting

<script>function startAd() {

SDK.onReady(function(){init()});

}</script>

Within the index.html file? Are you able to share the full documentation?

[Liquefy]

Hi Daniel,

thank you so much in trying to figure out how it can be fixed :pray
We tested adding your snippet above but now the console says "init" is not defined – or am I missing something?

Unfortunately amazon has no examples regarding their new workflow and detailed information is absolutely missing. I texted them if they can please look into the .zip and tell us where exactly the problem occurs but I am not sure if they are willing / capable of giving in-depth support...

[Liquefy]

Hey @Daniel – in fact this is what we got but is not helpful regarding our "references to external sources" issue...

https://advertising.amazon.co.uk/help/GKRGHAMF3RU99DP3

[jonathan (Jonathan Deutsch)]

Taking a glance at the original, there's a couple things that stand out to me:

• You seem to have pasted the document loader (*_hype_generated_script.js) and runtime (HYPE-NNN.thin.min.js) together into one file. However you did the runtime after the loader, so the loader is still going to try to load the runtime since it didn't yet find it. The solution is to past the runtime before the loader, and this will be one less call.

• You also maybe have manually edited the runtime? I see spots in this section that also have references to "index.js" that shouldn't be there and don't seem to make sense. I manually edited each to be distinct, and I even found one spot where the image loading was trying to load an "index.js" file.

I don't actually know if this is the source of the issue since I don't know how amazon is detecting "external sources," but there's definitely some extra dynamic loading of the index.js file that probably doesn't need to be there.

[Liquefy]

Hi Jonathan, thanks for taking the time!

I am pretty sure, that we did not mess up the .js files in terms of that we merged files together. I am sure this is the default Hype 4.1.19 Mac OS advanced export output... We send amazon a couple of other versions but always the same "error". Tried to eliminate everything that was flagged by Chat GPT but of course that was more of a last try than our approach in finding a solution here. I do not know but maybe this is some kind of useful for you guys but when we tried to implement these changes the whole banner was not able to load / play anymore.

---

The file contains several critical violations of Amazon DSP policies. Here are the most important findings from the line-by-line analysis:

1. Dynamic Script Path Detection
Line 2:
createElement("script") + d = c[a].src, b != null ? ...

The script dynamically scans the tags and extracts the src to determine its base path.
Amazon DSP interprets this as an external reference, even if the path is technically local.

2. Use of eval()
Line 21 & 106:
eval(d)

Dynamic code execution with eval() is strictly forbidden in Amazon DSP creatives.
Even if the evaluated content is locally generated, Amazon flags it immediately.

3. Use of new Image().src = "index.js"
Line 73:
var b = new Image(); b.src = "";

This technique is often used for tracking or cloaked script loading and is automatically rejected by Amazon DSP.

4. Dynamically Injecting Scripts
Line 101 & 106:
j.src = "..."; a.appendChild(j);

Dynamically creating and appending scripts to the DOM is not allowed.

5. Executing via textContent or innerHTML
Line 106:
z.eval.call(z, d.text || d.textContent)

This is considered an indirect eval() operation and is treated as unsafe script execution.

---

Allowed practices in Amazon DSP:

• All script references must be static.
• No dynamic creation.
• No use of eval, Function, new Image().src = *.js, or .src for script injection.

amz9.zip (106,8 KB)

[jonathan (Jonathan Deutsch)]

I'm a little uncertain about your use of ChatGPT for this. Your initial message seemed to indicate a single error that sounded like it was coming from amazon. The ChatGPT errors sound like it is not part of amazon's validation. It is unclear to me if they are real.

Nonetheless, ChatGPT does flag things the Hype runtime does, which is essential to how it works. So if the amazon validator has these as actual issues, then there will be no way for Hype to work.

If the only issue is in the dynamic loading, then I think this can be resolved.

Are you using a specific export script along with the advanced export?

It might be useful to get a zip of your .hype document along with instructions on everything you are doing to transform to the output file you had posted. Thanks!

[Liquefy]

Hi Jonathan, totally agree regarding Chat GPT...
That was our last attempt when we realized that we cannot resolve the "external sources" issue just by rewriting some parts of the .js

We do not have an export-script for the new amazon dsp ad server. Our banners were originally build last year using hype and the sizmek export-script from your site. Last year everything worked without any problems. Since february this year our client wanted to use the same banners for a second flight and we are not getting through. That's why we asked in this forum

We adjusted some parts of the exported hype files and structure to align with the amazon dsp file hierarchy – but in the end the only thing that is raised again and again is the "js cannot contain references to external sources" issue.

Thanks for trying to help

Amazon_Large-Rectangle_300x600_Funktioniert-V1.hype.zip (215,1 KB)

[jonathan (Jonathan Deutsch)]

Hi, can you try this file and see if it gets past the validator:

Amazon_Large-Rectangle_300x600.zip (113.1 KB)

What I did was use the OrganizedAssets export script in the Advanced export and changed a few options:

After the export, I took the contents of the js/HYPE-772.thin.min.js file and put it in the top of the first <script> tag in the index.html file, and then removed the js folder.

So now the index.html isn't calling any external sources.