vB.Sponsors - Forum and Category Sponsorship Ads (and AdSense) with Statistics

[Deviation]

vB.Sponsors
Forum and Category Sponsorship Ads with Statistics

Add sponsor's ads or Google AdSense to forums & categories

INTRO:
This extension will allow you to add sponsors to you forums and categories or use Google AdSense. You can also track the hits to each sponsor by date as well. See below for more features.

For vBulletin 3.7.x, please see https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?p=1557085.

For vBulletin 3.6.x, please see https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?p=1116730

For vBulletin 3.5.x, please see https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=103327

FEATURES:
-Enable sponsorship on forums and categories
-Ability to use Google AdSense code
-Use a banner or a text link
-Supports large banners for the top of the sponsored forum and small banners for the forum listing
-Tracks hits for each sponsor
-Statistics viewable inside Admin CP
-Ability to alter the "Forum sponsored by:" text
-Easy to use and install

INSTALLATION:
Documentation is located here (http://digitaldeviation.com/documentation/).

THANKS:
...to vBulletin.org and its members.
...to the people who have installed this mod, suggested improvements and found bugs.

FEEDBACK:
Feedback is always welcomed! Good or bad. Post all feedback and feature requests in this thread or in the forums above. Trust me, I'll be reading it even if I don't respond to every post. You can also reach me at DigitalDeviation.com (http://digitaldeviation.com) or on Twitter @JustinDoles (http://twitter.com/JustinDoles).

SUPPORT:
Please post as much detail as possible with any code or screenshots pertaining to the issue. MySQL, PHP and web server software versions are helpful. You can obtain these from the Admin CP in vBulletin.

DONATE:
If you like this product, feel free to buy me a cup of coffee. :)
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2010/07/4.gif (https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=NNFK9JVEN5DAJ)

VERSION HISTORY:
2.0.7 - Bugfix / Feature Add
-Added support for vBulletin 3.8.x.
-Added vbulletin-style.xml file to easily import template modifications for vBulletin 3.8.x.
-Previous versions must manually edit the templates.
-Added a verification for the forum path in link.php.

---KNOWN BUGS---
-Invalid Redirect
--You will need to add each sponsor URL (FULL URL) to the "Redirect Domain Whitelist" in the vBulletin Options -> Site Name / URL / Contact Details section. See screenshot below.
Don't forget to click the install link below if you use it.

[Kolektor]

woot first try! :)

Thank you so much

[gwerzal]

wow this looks awesome

Exactly what i need

Thank you

[LCN2007]

Any Chance fr 4.0?

[Deviation]

Any Chance fr 4.0?
Absolutely. I wanted to get a couple quick fixes in for 3.8 since there's still a good amount of people using it.

Status/progress will be posted on Twitter (@OneCoolMofo) and my web site.

On a side note, thank you for your service LCN. :)

[MagicThemeParks]

Deviation, are there instructions on how to upgrade from the 3.7 version?

[SouthEastSxS]

Hi, any news on getting this ported to v4.0.4u1. This is exactly what I am looking for unless you can tell me how to do it another way.

Many Thanks.

[DannyITR]

I have this on 3.8 and its a large part of my business income. I'm desperately waiting for a 4.0 version before I can upgrade.

[stemmy]

Yes really do need this for my forum - any way we can help speed up the progress ??

[sportsbuddys]

I can't wait for this release in 4.0 :D

[TAIFUN_T]

Good job, Deviation!
Thank you!

Installed and nomination

[Deviation]

Deviation, are there instructions on how to upgrade from the 3.7 version?
There aren't too many updates from that version. There are no database changes. You should be able to update your board to 3.8.x and then apply the updates for vB.Sponsors. The link.php has changed so be sure to replace that as well. As always, backup your data first. ;)
I have this on 3.8 and its a large part of my business income. I'm desperately waiting for a 4.0 version before I can upgrade.
Yes really do need this for my forum - any way we can help speed up the progress ??
Well if you can get me more hours in the day, perhaps. ;)

It is being worked on. I don't have an ETA as of yet though. As always, you can keep up with me on Twitter (@OneCoolMofo (http://twitter.com/OneCoolMofo)) or my website (http://digitaldeviation.com).

Good job, Deviation!
Thank you!

Installed and nomination
Glad you like it. And thanks. :)

[maxie]

Downlaod nice MOOD.. i will upload and give feedback

[stemmy]

C'mon !!!

I dont mine making a financial contribution to this - im sure others will say the same.

Email me and we can discuss - please !!!

martin@photography-forum.org

[fpattberg]

Hi. Looks like a great mod but I cant get it to work for me.

I am on 3.8.2 and I am also not sure how to install it.

What do you do with vbulletin style.xml. Just upload it as a product? And what about .txt files?

Can someone please help with this?

Thanks.

Fabian

[Mr Peabody]

thanks for the update :) Look forward to this on VB4

[Deviation]

C'mon !!!

I dont mine making a financial contribution to this - im sure others will say the same.

Email me and we can discuss - please !!!

martin@photography-forum.org
I'm glad to hear that. Drop me a line at http://digitaldeviation.com/contact.

I've been looking at offering two versions when I release it for 4.0. Haven't quite made up my mind on that though.

Hi. Looks like a great mod but I cant get it to work for me.

I am on 3.8.2 and I am also not sure how to install it.

What do you do with vbulletin style.xml. Just upload it as a product? And what about .txt files?

Can someone please help with this?

Thanks.

Fabian
Fabian,
Did you take a look at the instruction at http://digitaldeviation.com/documentation/vbsponsors-installation-guide/20x ?

The vbulletin-styles.xml is a simple way to make the template changes. You import that in your admincp. Look under Styles & Templates --> Download/Upload Styles.

There are no txt files required for this. Only the files contained in the upload folder need to be uploaded to your server.

[fpattberg]

Thanks for the clarification.

[DannyITR]

Any update on this?

[DannyITR]

Hi dude,

Just wondering if you've had a chance to port this over to VB4.

[DannyITR]

Anything?

[garyopa]

I recently installed this on my site.

I still using vb3.8.6 because we have a very customized skin, that is not very compatible with vb4.0

And I was able to get this plugin to work perfectly, by manually adding the info found on your website.

If I try importing the vbulletin-style.xml, even tho it is for vb3.8.6, it causes my forums to be all throw in together, no catergories, thank god for REVERT changes!

Anyhow, the only problem I am having is, when someone clicks on the link, it takes them of course to the link.php file, and it does redirect them after a few seconds.

But during the screen display, I get this error message:

Could not find phrase ''.

Any help in getting this right, would be most welcome!

[DannyITR]

Any update on the 4.0 version?

[Mr Peabody]

im pretty sure if there was an update it would have been posted.

[DannyITR]

Desperately waiting for the 4.0 version.

[socalsoccer]

Do Not import the style.xml file on 3.8 if your skin is custom. I did this and now lost my custom skin style. Rather do it manually.

[socalsoccer]

For those who accidentally upload the style xml, revert your forumhome_forumbit_level1_nopost . This is where those nice category dividers are.

[socalsoccer]

I cannot get this to work and have tried numerous edits to link.php . Most of us do not have lines listed in notepad, but I have found the area we are supposed to edit. Strange is I see no branding at the bottom of my forum, is this a possibility as to why it is not working?

Thanks

I even looked through every thread dating back to rev. 3.6 . It seems most people are having the same problem I am.

[FIM]

Thanks https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2012/01/12.gif

[skor]

I recently installed this on my site.

I still using vb3.8.6 because we have a very customized skin, that is not very compatible with vb4.0

But during the screen display, I get this error message:

Could not find phrase ''.

Any help in getting this right, would be most welcome!

I am getting the same message

When I click the banner, I am getting the following messge...

Redirecting...


Could not find phrase ' '.

Click here if your browser does not automatically redirect you.
But then it redirects ok...anyone know what could be causing the Could not find phrase message?

I got this with the previous version as well...

EDIT: I think it's related to this part of the link.php...I'm too much of a novice to know how to fix it but maybe one of the gurus here can help? It seems like a fairly simple thing..

$vbulletin->url = $arr['sponsor_url'];
eval(print_standard_redirect(''));
}
else {
eval(standard_error(fetch_error('sponsor_url_inval id')));

[skor]

Well I couldn't really figure out an elegant solution but I did this to get rid of the error message..

Replaced

eval(print_standard_redirect(''));

With..

eval(print_standard_redirect("Thank you for supporting our sponsor!",false,true));

Then instead of

Could not find phrase ' '.

it's...

Thank you for supporting our sponsor!

What is weird is that I have this installed on one site and I don't see the redirect page at ...but on the other site, I do....

[cyberchief]

I am new to vBulletin... and I have been searching and searching for something like this. Unfortunately, I am on 4.0.8. I NEED THIS! I am about ready to start selling advertising on my site... but not many options. Puhleeese! Please let me know this will be available soon!!!

[Jim Oaks]

For some odd reason I'm getting (2) sponsor banners showing up in the index with my default template;

http://www.therangerstation.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=103&styleid=2

But only (1) showing up with a new template I recently added:

http://www.therangerstation.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=103&styleid=10

The recent template is the way it's probably suppose to be displayed. I've compared the templates and they look to be coded the same, but I can't figure out why styleid=2 is showing the extra banners?? One's on the left and one's on the right. Any ideas which template mod could have caused that error?

I've thought about just copying/pasting the code from the template style that shows corectly to the ones that don't, but I don't understand the template enough to know if that would affect the look of the template. The new template that works correctly was purchased and added.

Suggestions?

[TheInsaneManiac]

4.0 when?

[Jim Oaks]

Well, I ended up fixing the problem by just copying/replacing the code from the new template files used in this mod to the older existing templates.

[speedracer68]

This would be great on 4+

Does anyone know of anything I can use in the mean time?

[Gadget_Guy]

Hi,

How do I center the banner on the sponsoring page?

Can anyone help?

See attached image... I want that sponsor banner centered.

D.

[Gadget_Guy]

Anyone?

I'd appreciate the help.

D.

[Jim Oaks]

Anyway to make it add up a monthly total in addition to the daily total?

[Deviation]

<a href="http://bit.ly/gH0bEO" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/gH0bEO</a>

[Gadget_Guy]

Will you also post here with the update?

D.

[Deviation]

Will you also post here with the update?

D.
Once its stable, yes.
In the mean time, Twitter is where the status will be posted.

[kronnos]

What do you mean stable? Isnt this version stable yet?

[Deviation]

What do you mean stable? Isnt this version stable yet?
I was referring to the next release for vBulletin 4.x.
http://bit.ly/gH0bEO

[Gadget_Guy]

Is there going to be an update for 3.X ?

Also.... can you possibly comment on my request above for how to center the banner?

D.

[SVTCobraLTD]

When clicking on the banners, I get this error:
Forum path invalid.

[Deviation]

When clicking on the banners, I get this error:
Check the path you specified in vB.Sponsors/link.php (line 32).

[Deviation]

Hi,

How do I center the banner on the sponsoring page?

Can anyone help?

See attached image... I want that sponsor banner centered.

D.
Can you post the contents of you FORUMDISPLAY template?

[Gadget_Guy]

Can you post the contents of you FORUMDISPLAY template?

It's not letting me. Says the text is too long.

D.

[Deviation]

It's not letting me. Says the text is too long.

D.

Post the section related to vB.Sponsors (should be between <!-- vB.Sponsors -->).

[SVTCobraLTD]

Check the path you specified in vB.Sponsors/link.php (line 32).
Must of missed that in the instructions. Working now. Thank you.

[Gadget_Guy]

<!-- vBSponsors --> <if condition="$foruminfo[sponsor_enabled] == 1 AND $vboptions[sponsor_global_enable_sponsorship] == 1"> <if condition="!empty($foruminfo[sponsor_adsense])"> $foruminfo[sponsor_adsense] <else /> $vboptions[sponsor_global_default_text] <a href="vB.Sponsors/link.php?f=$foruminfo[forumid]" title="$foruminfo[sponsor_name]" target="_blank"> <if condition="$foruminfo[sponsor_banner_enabled] == 1 AND $vboptions[sponsor_global_enable_banners] == 1"> <if condition="!empty($foruminfo[sponsor_banner_big])"> <if condition="$vboptions[sponsor_global_enable_big_banners] == 1"> <img src="$foruminfo[sponsor_banner_big]" alt="$foruminfo[sponsor_name]" border="0" /> <else /> <img src="$foruminfo[sponsor_banner]" alt="$foruminfo[sponsor_name]" border="0" /> </if> <else /> $foruminfo[sponsor_name] </if> </if></a> </if> </if> <!-- / vBSponsors -->

[Deviation]

Looks like you're missing the alignment piece. Give this a try:

<!-- vBSponsors -->
<if condition="$foruminfo[sponsor_enabled] == 1 AND $vboptions[sponsor_global_enable_sponsorship] == 1">
<div style="text-align:center">
<if condition="!empty($foruminfo[sponsor_adsense])">
$foruminfo[sponsor_adsense]
<else />
$vboptions[sponsor_global_default_text] <a href="vB.Sponsors/link.php?f=$foruminfo[forumid]" title="$foruminfo[sponsor_name]" target="_blank">
<if condition="$foruminfo[sponsor_banner_enabled] == 1 AND $vboptions[sponsor_global_enable_banners] == 1">
<if condition="$vboptions[sponsor_global_enable_big_banners] == 1 AND !empty($foruminfo[sponsor_banner_big])">
<img src="$foruminfo[sponsor_banner_big]" alt="$foruminfo[sponsor_name]" border="0" />
<else />
<if condition="!empty($foruminfo[sponsor_banner])">
<img src="$foruminfo[sponsor_banner]" alt="$foruminfo[sponsor_name]" border="0" />
</if>
</if>
<else />
$foruminfo[sponsor_name]
</if></a>
</if>
</div>
</if>
<!-- / vBSponsors -->

[Gadget_Guy]

YOU ROCK!

Thanks!

D.

[zepcom]

Looks like you're missing the alignment piece. Give this a try:


Awesome! This product worked fine for forum graphical ads, but I had been struggling with getting text-only ads to display on FORUMDISPLAY and had tried just about everything I was capable of. For text ads, it would only display "Sponsored by" and then no link, no text, no nothing.

Your fix posted two above this did the trick and resolved all issues. Thanks so much for posting this!! :D

[dgparent]

Anyway to get more spots for ads ? right now ads are only displayed up top and in the main forum listing ?

[Gadget_Guy]

Is there a way to remove the "Sponsored By:" text next to the banners?

D.

[MagicThemeParks]

Is there a way to remove the "Sponsored By:" text next to the banners?

D.

I don't have this version installed, but in the last version it used to be where you would go to vBulletin Options >> vB.Sponsor.settings and then remove the info from the "Sponsor Text" field.

[mp3u]

Check the path you specified in vB.Sponsors/link.php (line 32).

Any chance of a screen shot of what line 32 is supposed to be? Line 32 in my editor is totally blank... (32 lines down from the top of the page in wordpad)

[MagicThemeParks]

Any chance of a screen shot of what line 32 is supposed to be? Line 32 in my editor is totally blank... (32 lines down from the top of the page in wordpad)

It's step 3 here: http://digitaldeviation.com/documentation/vbsponsors-installation-guide/20x

[ESADCG]

I am getting this error with VB 3.8.7 pl2

Invalid Redirect URL

[GrantHorizons]

I am getting this error with VB 3.8.7 pl2

Invalid Redirect URL
I'm getting a similar error on 3.8.7 pl2 when clicking on the ad at the top of the forum threads listing.

"Could not find phrase 'invalid_redirect_url_x'."

thanks for help!

[MySaltyreef]

any idea when this will be available for 4 ?

[GrantHorizons]

I think this is now abandonware by the author - too bad, it was very good. :( Now I need a replacement - any ideas anyone?

[mlotziii]

Another person hoping this gets updated for 4.x.x

This is an awesome mod!

[Deviation]

Hey. I'm still around. :)

Between work & life, I haven't had much time to code (anything). The other thing is that for some reason I seldom get emails from this site when people reply to my threads or PMs.

Anyhow, I plan to revisit this after the first of the year when things calm down some. Grant, I'll send you an email shortly.

[GrantHorizons]

Thanks! I look froward to hearing - let's see if this gets through to you - it should - perhaps your spam filter is wound too tight? vB forum emails can be worded kinda spammy. We had to tweak many of ours.
Grant

[speedracer68]

I hope it gets updated.

Does anyone know of a way to tweak it for 4.1.8? I was running it on 4.0.7 and it worked great. Now it all works except the links. When you click on a banner you get the error below

Invalid Redirect URL

It just shows my forum and Invalid Redirect URL then the url it was supposed to go to.

[duketxboy]

I hope it gets updated.

Does anyone know of a way to tweak it for 4.1.8? I was running it on 4.0.7 and it worked great. Now it all works except the links. When you click on a banner you get the error below

Invalid Redirect URL

It just shows my forum and Invalid Redirect URL then the url it was supposed to go to.

yeah that's how mine is as well

[Deviation]

I've found the cause and I can reproduce the issue. I'll work on getting a patch out shortly.

[duketxboy]

TY deviation

[duketxboy]

any update?

[Deviation]

Invalid Redirect Issue
You will need to add each sponsor URL (FULL URL) to the "Redirect Domain Whitelist" in the vBulletin Options -> Site Name / URL / Contact Details section. See screenshot below.
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/attachment.php?attachmentid=135340&d=1325215423

I'll work on automating this in the next release, but this should at least get you guys up & going again.

[duketxboy]

Do we just set them up in order or how does this work?

[Deviation]

Do we just set them up in order or how does this work?
Doesn't matter the order. vBulletin checks that value anytime a redirect is requested that isn't local (on your site).

[mouth]

I love to see this mod support SWF files, or even better the ability to use iFrames. Any chance?

[bada_bing]

Hey Deviation

Just wanted to see if you still have plans to revamp this for the vb 4.x series. This is such an awesome mod I use it on my 3.8 version but would love to my 4.x site

[karabaja3]

Invalid Redirect Issue
You will need to add each sponsor URL (FULL URL) to the "Redirect Domain Whitelist" in the vBulletin Options -> Site Name / URL / Contact Details section. See screenshot below.
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/attachment.php?attachmentid=135340&d=1325215423

I'll work on automating this in the next release, but this should at least get you guys up & going again.

Hi there! I have the same issue in v3.8.7. but I do not have "Redirect Domain Whitelist" form inside AdminCP. What should I do?

[GrantHorizons]

I don't have that option either. Instead, I did the following:

I created a subdir called "redirects" and created redirect pages in there for each forum.

e.g.

Forum 1 advertisers url in the vBSponsors form field is to: /redirects/forum1.htm and THAT file has a redirect in the meta tag like so:


<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;URL=http://www.AdvertisersURL.com/">

The whole forum1.htm file looks like this if you're not sure what you're doing:


<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;URL=http://www.AdvertisersURL.com/">
<meta name="robots" content="noindex,follow">
<title>redirect</title>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>
That works fine - the negative is that the user sees an error message for a few seconds, then it redirects ok to the advertisers site and hopefully they forget about the error message, because it worked :)

Make a file for every forum. Just hope you don't have 80 forums like me!

[karabaja3]

I don't have that option either. Instead, I did the following:

I created a subdir called "redirects" and created redirect pages in there for each forum.

e.g.

Forum 1 advertisers url in the vBSponsors form field is to: /redirects/forum1.htm and THAT file has a redirect in the meta tag like so:


<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;URL=http://www.AdvertisersURL.com/">

The whole forum1.htm file looks like this if you're not sure what you're doing:


<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;URL=http://www.AdvertisersURL.com/">
<meta name="robots" content="noindex,follow">
<title>redirect</title>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>
That works fine - the negative is that the user sees an error message for a few seconds, then it redirects ok to the advertisers site and hopefully they forget about the error message, because it worked :)

Make a file for every forum. Just hope you don't have 80 forums like me!

Thank you so much for the advice.

I would only add that it might be better to use php for redirection:

<?php

header( 'Location: http://www.xxxxxxxxx.com/' ) ;

?>

[GrantHorizons]

Why "better"? :)

Both work, and not everyone knows php!

[Deafmute]

i like it

[F150Z]

Keep getting a 404 error when clicking on the banner.

What do i do?

[F150Z]

Keep getting a 404 error when clicking on the banner.

What do i do?

Never mind I got it. Forgot to put the link file in VB.sponsor file.

[dany_danay]

Something similar in vb4?

[M.C.]

join request for 4.2 please!

[dfe]

Please look at VB4 for this, I promise you I will buy you lots of cups of coffee!

[bada_bing]

Question for the deveoper of this plugin

Is this BUG ever going to be fixed

---KNOWN BUGS---
-Invalid Redirect
--You will need to add each sponsor URL (FULL URL) to the "Redirect Domain Whitelist" in the vBulletin Options -> Site Name / URL / Contact Details section. See screenshot below.