Miscellaneous Hacks - Rotating Banner System

With the Rotating Banner System software, you may publish literally anywhere standard banners and advertising, with no restriction but your imagination. Unlike many other products, it allows to show an unlimited amount of banners and advertising, which are randomly shown at the places you choose, and you may refer generically to an Ad by using specific placeholders.

Also the management is straight-forward and simple to use. Forum administrators with maintenance rights may add, edit and delete records from the Administration Control Panel (ACP), one of each representing a banner. After saving the new banner settings, they are immediately visible at your board.

Compatibility: from vBulletin 3.6.5 onwards

By the way, I do also install the hack on your boards, but since I am very, very busy, it may take some time (weeks) until it gets done.


Tutorials:

• How-to create my first banner (Flash).

Updates:

• 2.0.1: Simple click tracker added, HTML help included.
• 2.0.3: Small bug fixes; additional banner list, navigation bar, E-Mail field for banner event notifications and automatic save on scroll setting; absolute URL to rbs_banner.php in order to allow click tracking on non-standard pages; supported languages: English, Italian; Help file clean-up.
• 2.0.5: Small bug fixes; additional details in banner list; email notification for epired banners.
• 2.0.6: vbCMS compatibility bug fix; additional banner lists.
• 2.0.7: Usergroups filter: now it is possible to define a list of usergroups which may show a banner; additional vbCMS compatibility bug fix.
• 2.0.8: Various fixes and most of all, inclusion of the right files: admin_rbs.php, cpnav_rbs.xml
• 2.0.9: Extra comma fix in new record creation.
• 2.1.0: Fix for an occasional banner type selection bug, when the sample banners have been deleted or disabled.
• 2.2.0 (Major upgrade): Up to 10 different banner locations. Requires changes to your existing placeholders in your templates, since a more generic format has been chosen. If you don't need more than 2 different locations, you don't need to upgrade. Changed files: rbs_banner.php, admin_rbs.php
• 2.2.1: Minor bug fix in files: admin_rbs_h_banner_list.php, admin_rbs_v_banner_list.php
• 2.2.1: Hotfix for Max Clicks saving bug.
• 2.2.2: More listings and less files. PDF Help. Separate Italian add-ons and help. Duplicate button.
• 2.2.3: Minor bug fixes. Changed files: product-rbs.xml
• 2.2.4: Flash Banner support (beta). Changed files: product-rbs.xml, rbs_wrapper.swf, admin_rbs.php, English Help.
• 2.2.5: Hotfix for vBulletin 4.0.2 compatibility bug.
• 2.2.6: Checking for installed Flash Wrapper rbs_wrapper.swf; A few English FAQ; Help files. Changed files: product-rbs.xml
• 2.3.0 (Major upgrade): New modules: Delete Expired Banners, Disable Expired Banners; Detail Banner Statistics with unique access key for your customers; Updated help; Changed files: all.
• 2.3.1: Hotfix for missing field in rbs_hist table. Changed files: none, just update product.
• 2.3.2: Added: Unsupported option for setting any number of available positions between 1 and big bang. Fixed: Small bug and speed issues. Removed: Italian translation. Italians may now request support at www.vbulletin.it. Changed files: admin_rbs.php.
• 2.3.3: Fix: Copy selected forum ID's during banner duplication. Changed: start and end hours for new banners are set to 0:00 and 23:59 respectively. Changed files: admin_rbs.php.
• 2.3.4: Option: Send Mail Before. This option allows to schedule expiring banners differently. New variables for emails: $rbs_enddate: This variable holds the formatted banner ending date and time based on the standard formats for date and time in vBulletin settings; $rbs_name: This variable holds the banner name. EMail Notifications option description: Added direct links to the email phrases for quick changes. Changed files: rbs_mail_cron.php.
• 2.4.0 (Major upgrade): Removed: Option to enable or disable mailing. Banners with email addresses to notify are handled. Setting to reset mailing in single banners. Now, if mailing should be repeated, you will have to edit the banner from phpMyAdmin. Added: Order links in lists. The initial state is ordered by ID, as before. By clicking the titles, the other voices can be ordered. Clicking twice inverts the order. This works in all lists. Options to prevent counting and reducing thus a tiny bit of load. A new bunch of demo banners for new installations. Demo banners are locked into database in order to avoid 30% of the questions because of the 'experts' deleting them before trying the product. They can be disabled and modified though. The true experts can delete them after all testing from the database by using phpMyAdmin without side effects. Changes: Phrase for emailing about expiring banners, now also with direct links to the phrases. Demo banners. Our old publisher ID is replaced with the new ones, and old demo banners are updated with the new ones, if found. The functions have been exported to includes/functions_rbs.php. This makes the product code smaller and easier to maintain, and runs faster on sites where caching/acceleration is enabled. Changed Files: all *.php
• 2.4.1: Option Likelihood. This new option adds a weight to banners and allows thus to show one banner more often than another. The default weight is 100%. We also make sure that the final date of the default banners falls into a valid range. Changed files: includes/functions_rbs.php and rbs_stats.php.
• 2.4.2: Workaround for update sequence problems.

Hacks and unsupported add-ons:

• Banner Rotator Widget To CMS
• Rotate banners in-place
• Italian Translation

[GarethBurrows]

I have just installed RBS and whilst I can set up banners, view them and link to the external site, I have a couple of issues which may be down to my lack of understanding of the configuration (Page screenshots are here (clip1, clip2, clip3):

1. The clicks counter does not seem to be working. Impressions appears to count correctly but clicks remain zero even though I have been clicking the ad to get to the link.

This is the code in the Text box "<a href="http://www.divingincidents.com" target="_blank"> <img src="https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2216291/TDF_Test_Images/disms-logo-60px-high_image2_number.png"></a>"

I would like to know how the mod chooses which ad to show as I have 3 ads in the test environment I have set up and they don't appear to cycle through, but appear to be random)

2. When I click on the Banner Stats link at the top of the banner config file, I get the following displayed

Warning: require(C:\xampp\htdocs\testdev7\rbs_stats.php): failed to open stream: Permission denied in C:\xampp\htdocs\vbseo.php on line 1398

Fatal error: require(): Failed opening required 'C:\xampp\htdocs\testdev7/rbs_stats.php' (include_path='.;C:\xampp\php\PEAR') in C:\xampp\htdocs\vbseo.php on line 1398

which isn't a good thing!

VBSEO is not installed in the test environment. Does it need to be?

Any help would be appreciated as I hope to have the system live at the end of the month for advertisers.

Many thanks

Gareth

[y2ksw]

Originally Posted by GarethBurrows

I have just installed RBS and whilst I can set up banners, view them and link to the external site, I have a couple of issues which may be down to my lack of understanding of the configuration (Page screenshots are here (clip1, clip2, clip3):

1. The clicks counter does not seem to be working. Impressions appears to count correctly but clicks remain zero even though I have been clicking the ad to get to the link.

This is the code in the Text box "<a href="http://www.divingincidents.com" target="_blank"> <img src="https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2216291/TDF_Test_Images/disms-logo-60px-high_image2_number.png"></a>"

I would like to know how the mod chooses which ad to show as I have 3 ads in the test environment I have set up and they don't appear to cycle through, but appear to be random)

2. When I click on the Banner Stats link at the top of the banner config file, I get the following displayed



which isn't a good thing!

VBSEO is not installed in the test environment. Does it need to be?

Any help would be appreciated as I hope to have the system live at the end of the month for advertisers.

Many thanks

Gareth

1.a. The click counter does work only with images, or specifically crafted scripts. How click tracking works, you may see best by setting up an image banner and view your HTML source code.
1.b. Banners are shown randomly, but if you have more than one banner for the same location, and more than one of the same location on a single page, the algorithm will never show two of the same banners on that page.

2.a. Please make sure you have your .htaccess file setup correctly, too. This message clearly shows you are attempting to route a script through vbseo.php instead of allowing direct calls. On the other hand, you may route this script through vbseo, but must then enable vbseo. It is not true you haven't vbseo installed; you have and it is disabled or not perfectly uninstalled

2.b. If you use vbseo, make sure you read the manual about vbseo, too

[y2ksw]

PS: In order to setup an image banner, don't use the Text box, but the Image and URL fields

[licensinglinks]

Originally Posted by y2ksw

There is no need to fix it. The Google AdSense counts are at most approximate, and will not consider some devices. Please make sure you understand what Google AdSense does and what not. It does not do quite a lot

RBS counts also half viewed pages where people are in too much hurry to wait and counts also all visits from spiders which eventually show banners. Google does exclude its own visits. So if your site is visited from more spiders than real visitors, the counts may seem exaggerated, but in fact, they are precise as a swiss clock.

Is there any way I can stop it counting spiders/bots? If I sell 10,000 impressions to a customer it's totally unfair if 9,000 are displayed to bots.

[Videx]

Originally Posted by licensinglinks

Is there any way I can stop it counting spiders/bots? If I sell 10,000 impressions to a customer it's totally unfair if 9,000 are displayed to bots.

If any of your advertisers are dumb enough to count impressions - or even clicks - then they deserve what they get. Seriously, that's no way to gauge the effectiveness of an ad campaign these days.

[licensinglinks]

Originally Posted by Videx

If any of your advertisers are dumb enough to count impressions - or even clicks - then they deserve what they get. Seriously, that's no way to gauge the effectiveness of an ad campaign these days.

In that case, how is anyone supposed to put a price on something that can't be measured accurately?

[licensinglinks]

Originally Posted by Videx

If any of your advertisers are dumb enough to count impressions - or even clicks - then they deserve what they get. Seriously, that's no way to gauge the effectiveness of an ad campaign these days.

What's your method of allowing customers to measure their ad campaigns?

[y2ksw]

Originally Posted by licensinglinks

Is there any way I can stop it counting spiders/bots? If I sell 10,000 impressions to a customer it's totally unfair if 9,000 are displayed to bots.

There is no way to tell which connection is a bot and who not, and in any way, it would not be in the scope of this product. If you need to inform your customers, you will have to filter your logs (not even forum visitors) and elaborate a prospect, which allows you then to tell about the real numbers.

Today, you would count more on clicks than impressions, and exclude direct accesses (which are counted in banner stats). This will give you a very reliable insight into the banner activity.

To make it even more efficient, you would pass an affiliate code to your customer, who would then count the number of visitors who have actually logged into or browsed their site, which is then the most precise information one can get, and the banner stats are then merely a check for you in order to get paid

[y2ksw]

Originally Posted by licensinglinks

In that case, how is anyone supposed to put a price on something that can't be measured accurately?

True clicks are a good measure. A better solution are affiliation codes, where the customer will pay you when a specific event happens at their site (login, contacts, site navigation etc).

[Videx]

Right, the sponsor would have to check their own logs to see how much traffic came from you. In our case the ads are local, so one person saying "I heard about you on the website" is worth a million clicks. I also encourage them to offer discounts for mentioning us. Or coupons.

Our main marketing tool is the Unique Visitor count. This may include a few bots, but it gives a figure representing the general activity of the site.

Banners are fairly useless these days (though still necessary) and modern sponsors know it . Even those without ad blockers tend to just ignore them. So we do our best to try to start discussions and write articles about sponsors. Not always easy to do on an open discussion board where people will not hesitate to tell everyone exactly what they thought about things.