Inline-content ads are empty

Description

Inline-content ads are empty

Steps to reproduce

1. install 1.36.63
2. launch Brave
3. tap through onboarding
4. restart (to pick up Griffin Brave News seed)
5. open a new-tab page
6. tap to Show Brave News
7. swipe down
8. look for the BAT-icon-marked ads

Actual result

They are empty, without content.

example	example
	<video src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/387249/150859504-9420b29d-eadb-45fe-88f5-b77632a48593.mp4">

Expected result

Should have a heading/title, source attribution, and of course the larger content image.

Issue reproduces how often

100%

Device details

• Install type (ARM, x86): arm64
• Device type (Phone, Tablet, Phablet): Google Pixel XL phone
• Android version: 9.0

Brave version

1.36.63, Chromium 97.0.5692.99

cc @alexsafe @srirambv @btlechowski @mattmcalister

[petemill]

This seems like 2 separate issues

1. Getting a blank ad where the fields are blank but the ad itself isn’t null (the log of fields with empty entries are coming from an ads library, not brave news)

2. Crashing because a callback isn’t getting called. This looks like it’s occuring in the ads library here:

void AdsImpl::GetInlineContentAd(const std::string& dimensions,
                                 GetInlineContentAdCallback callback) {
  if (!IsInitialized()) {
    BLOG(0, "AdsImpl::GetInlineContentAd not connected");
    callback(/* success */ false, dimensions, {});
    return;
  }
  BLOG(0, "AdsImpl::GetInlineContentAd start async");
  inline_content_ad_serving_->MaybeServeAd(
      dimensions, [=](const bool success, const std::string& dimensions,
                      const InlineContentAdInfo& ad) {
                        BLOG(0, "AdsImpl::GetInlineContentAd end async");
        callback(success, dimensions, ad);
      });
}

I had to refresh a few times to get the crash but when I did get the crash I received the “start async” line but not the “end async” line:

[17143:259:0126/162021.666646:ERROR:ads_service_impl.cc(1139)] ads service impl start async
[17143:259:0126/162021.738178:FATAL:brave_news.mojom.cc(2244)] Check failed: !connected. BraveNewsController::GetDisplayAdCallback was destroyed without first either being run or its corresponding binding being closed. It is an error to drop response callbacks which still correspond to an open interface pipe.

[tmancey]

@stephendonner @kjozwiak griffin PR at https://github.com/brave/brave-variations/pull/214