Major Additions - vB Ad Management 4

vB Ad Management 4

Check the FAQ before requesting support!

What does it do?

Features include global settings, advertisements allowing template conditionals, ad sharing and ad revenue sharing, timed advertisements, preset popular ad locations and functions such as sponsors, additional custom ad locations, random and static advertisements and its all very easy to use. You can use it for ordinary ads like adsense, banner rotations, or any content at all as well as using it to manage ads outside your forum too.

You can read in more detail about these and other features in the manual, which also contains some helpful notes and instructions, as well as the installation and upgrade instructions



If you are using autoinsertion and were using vB Ad Management before version 4.00, you will need to remove your old template edits or advertisements will appear multiple times. Just reverse the old instructions below.

* Find <!-- post $post[postid] popup menu --> and paste $postbit_advertisement above it in your postbit & postbit_legacy templates.
* Paste $forumbit_advertisement at the bottom of your forumhome_forumbit_level1_post and forumhome_forumbit_level2_post templates.
* Paste $threadbit_advertisement at the bottom of your threadbit template.
* Paste $footer_advertisement at the top of your footer template.
* Find $spacer_close in your footer template and below it paste $rightcolumn_advertisement.
* Find &nbsp; in your header template and replace it with $header_advertisement.
* Find $spacer_open in your header template and below it paste $leftcolumn_advertisement.

[TrIn@dOr]

Updated from 2.01 to last one on vb 3.6.5

Thanks.

[RedTyger]

Originally Posted by perju

Sounds great. I'm sure we'll have some tools to control these pages? I was envisioning something that allowed me to control the frequency of the full-page ads, and which members would be forced to view them.

Maybe something like this?

20% Unregistered Users
5% Registered Users
2% Moderators

I doubt it would be a per Usergroup setting, just a single percentage for anyone set to see ads. Which is slightly naff I agree, but there comes a point at which it all gets terribly complicated. For the admin, not me.

[Skipsoutdoors]

Yes, I updated and it fixed it.

I'm not picking, but just making a suggestion.

The idea of this hack is excellent and very much needed. However, vBulletin itself has way too many whistles in it that few people ever use. The deal is it causes unneeded bandwidth transfer and server clock time issues that slow the sites down.

For me personally, I can see no reason that I would ever use the ad revenue sharing thing. Not that it's that many bites and processes, but a few here and there would save a lot if it were removed. We run a quarter million hits per day, and a small amount makes a big difference when you add it up.

If all of that code were stripped out of it it would cut down on a lot of unnecessary things.

The Forumbit, Treadbit, and Postbit routines pretty much need to be there like they are so you have control over where in those items they appear and how.

The right side, left side, header and footer ads are basically place anywhere you like so long as you take the right and left template and edit them like the header and footer templates to do away with the 2 leveled box, centering and columns.

If it were simplified down to where you could readily go in and add controls for say 15, 20 or whatever you need of these go anywhere you place them ads I feel like it would be more useful to a lot more people.

Skip Walden
Skip's Outdoors Publishing

[tekstylez]

after the upgrade, my ads are no longer showing....

[perju]

Originally Posted by RedTyger

I doubt it would be a per Usergroup setting, just a single percentage for anyone set to see ads. Which is slightly naff I agree, but there comes a point at which it all gets terribly complicated. For the admin, not me.

Having one % would defeat my purpose of "click to skip ad". I was hoping to have this as a registration *perk*.

Here's how i envisioned this working. Tell me whether any of this can cripple the server, or if it's not feasible. Keep in mind that I'm not a programmer, so some of these routes might seem a bit crazy. you have been warned.

* Two new fields would be created inside the usergroup table called "skipad" and "skipad_tmp" or something like that.

* The admin sets % variables for each usergroup and stored in each appropriate field. All skipad_tmp fields are set to 0 in the database.

* On every page load ( above the HTML tag) the value of "skipad" is grabbed. If the value of $skipad_tmp is less than (100/$usergroup_skipad), then add 1 to the value of $usergroup_skipad_tmp. If $usergourp_skipad_tmp == int( 100 / $usergroup_skipad_pct ), then redirect to skipad.php. The value of $skipad for that usergroup is reset to 0. The desired URL will be passed to this new page and placed inside a link allowing the user to "skip the ad".

Example:

$usergroup_skipad = 5%
$usergroup_skipad_tmp = 0

100 / $usergroup_skipad = 100 / 5 = 20
This means... when $usergroup_skipad_tmp reaches 20, the user is redirected to the skipad.php page. $usergroup_skipad_tmp is then reset back to 0, and the process starts over again.

If $usergroup_skipad_tmp doesn't = 20, then it increases by 1. And it will continue to do so until it hits 20. At which point, it gets reset to 0.

Over time, the law of averages will kick in. Is something like this feasible?

[RedTyger]

Originally Posted by tekstylez

after the upgrade, my ads are no longer showing....

If you are using a custom delimiter or anything other than | to separate items in your Adcode or settings, ensure they match up with your specified delimiter in Global Settings or the ads won't show.

Originally Posted by Skipsoutdoors

Yes, I updated and it fixed it.

I'm not picking, but just making a suggestion.

The idea of this hack is excellent and very much needed. However, vBulletin itself has way too many whistles in it that few people ever use. The deal is it causes unneeded bandwidth transfer and server clock time issues that slow the sites down.

For me personally, I can see no reason that I would ever use the ad revenue sharing thing. Not that it's that many bites and processes, but a few here and there would save a lot if it were removed. We run a quarter million hits per day, and a small amount makes a big difference when you add it up.

If all of that code were stripped out of it it would cut down on a lot of unnecessary things.

The Forumbit, Treadbit, and Postbit routines pretty much need to be there like they are so you have control over where in those items they appear and how.

The right side, left side, header and footer ads are basically place anywhere you like so long as you take the right and left template and edit them like the header and footer templates to do away with the 2 leveled box, centering and columns.

If it were simplified down to where you could readily go in and add controls for say 15, 20 or whatever you need of these go anywhere you place them ads I feel like it would be more useful to a lot more people.

Skip Walden
Skip's Outdoors Publishing

How so? All the new Ad-Sharing feature adds if turned off is a handful of extra IFs to process, nothing worth thinking about. Actually the 15/20/whatever extra generic placements would add just as many if not more IFs to deal with plus they'd have to use the global hook which would mean they're dealt with on every page load. Certainly it would be more of an issue than the Ad-sharing, although still not much of an issue I would think.

In short, don't worry about it. If anything is a concern to a large board it should be that they are using the plugin system which doesn't cache the code and keeps it in memory. If performance is an issue for you then I'd suggest taking the plugin code to a standard php file and not using the plugin system. All you'd need to do (I think, never done it myself) is transfer the plugin code to php files then alter the plugin to use include(yournewphpfile.php) and call the code externally.

I think you're right about the generic ads. While I don't want to add them as predefined for the reasons above, the code was deliberately written to be easy to extend and fiddle with. A short tutorial and a bit of cutting and pasting should have people adding more if they want very easily. I'll add it to the list...

Originally Posted by perju

Having one % would defeat my purpose of "click to skip ad". I was hoping to have this as a registration *perk*.

Here's how i envisioned this working. Tell me whether any of this can cripple the server, or if it's not feasible. Keep in mind that I'm not a programmer, so some of these routes might seem a bit crazy. you have been warned.

* Two new fields would be created inside the usergroup table called "skipad" and "skipad_tmp" or something like that.

* The admin sets % variables for each usergroup and stored in each appropriate field. All skipad_tmp fields are set to 0 in the database.

* On every page load ( above the HTML tag) the value of "skipad" is grabbed. If the value of $skipad_tmp is less than (100/$usergroup_skipad), then add 1 to the value of $usergroup_skipad_tmp. If $usergourp_skipad_tmp == int( 100 / $usergroup_skipad_pct ), then redirect to skipad.php. The value of $skipad for that usergroup is reset to 0. The desired URL will be passed to this new page and placed inside a link allowing the user to "skip the ad".

Example:

$usergroup_skipad = 5%
$usergroup_skipad_tmp = 0

100 / $usergroup_skipad = 100 / 5 = 20
This means... when $usergroup_skipad_tmp reaches 20, the user is redirected to the skipad.php page. $usergroup_skipad_tmp is then reset back to 0, and the process starts over again.

If $usergroup_skipad_tmp doesn't = 20, then it increases by 1. And it will continue to do so until it hits 20. At which point, it gets reset to 0.

Over time, the law of averages will kick in. Is something like this feasible?

Hmm. You really want those ads don't you? I'll have a look at per-usergroup and per-forum settings like this in the future, I've only just released one version with major changes I won't do another one for now.

[perju]

Originally Posted by RedTyger

Hmm. You really want those ads don't you? I'll have a look at per-usergroup and per-forum settings like this in the future, I've only just released one version with major changes I won't do another one for now.

It's not a vital tool, but it would be nice.

[milsirhc]

Many Thanks RedTyger for this absolutely well designed and support plugin! This plugin worked flawlessly on my site (my first one!)

Thanks for your patience and support. This is definitely should be voted as mod of the month! Good luck!

[RedTyger]

Originally Posted by perju

It's not a vital tool, but it would be nice.

Yes, custom usergroup and forum permissions are a logical next step. Keep your fingers crossed for the future.

Originally Posted by milsirhc

Many Thanks RedTyger for this absolutely well designed and support plugin! This plugin worked flawlessly on my site (my first one!)

Thanks for your patience and support. This is definitely should be voted as mod of the month! Good luck!

Great to hear, you're very welcome.

[bagfullofrice]

Hi guys,

I was using the vB Ad Management system, and I was wondering if I can insert PHP into the advertisement code. I've tried almost everything, but I just can't seem to get it working. Any suggestions?

I've tried:

PHP Code:

<? php

echo $thread[title]; 
echo "$thread[title]"; 
echo 'TEST'; 
print("Hello World");
?>

Regards,
LPX