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

[y2ksw]

Paste this in an empty file and call it as you like, e.g. rbs_html.php

PHP Code:

<?php
error_reporting(E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE);
define('SKIP_SESSIONCREATE', 1);
define('NOCOOKIES', 1);
define('THIS_SCRIPT', 'rbs_blank');
$phrasegroups = array();
$specialtemplates = array();
$globaltemplates = array();
$actiontemplates = array();
require_once('./global.php');
$html = '<html>
<head>
 <title>Rotating Banner System</title>
</head>
<body>
<!--@vbbanners:0@-->
</body>
</html>';
eval('print_output("' . $html . '");');
?>

Within the HTML, you call this script, for example:

<html>
<head>
 <title>Untitled</title>
</head>
<body>
    <iframe src="rbs_html.php" width="468" height="85" scrolling="no"></iframe>
</body>
</html>

rbs_html.php should stay in the forum home to work properly.

[leylandfor]

Hi

I have successfully got this mod displaying a banner in the header of my forum, but i would like it to display in the footer of each page too.

I have tried to edit footer, forumdisplay templates etc but it doesnt work, could someone give me step to step info on how to add a banner to footer of all pages please?

Thanks

[y2ksw]

Maybe you don't have enough banners in your database?

[pitzerwm]

I've added my banners and things are looking good. JFYI, the click counter didn't appear to be working as expected, I had the "limit" set at 0, when I make it 1M it appeared to count. I have only tested that a couple of times, while checking the links and getting the banners loaded. I'm thinking that it has to do with "refreshing" like seeing the menu correctly needed logging out and back in.

As I also remember reading some previous posts, there was a discussion whether the banners rotated without "refreshing" the forum page. In my case it does appears to need the page refreshed, to bring up a different banner, which BTW is fine with me.

[pitzerwm]

Originally Posted by y2ksw

If you insert the flash in the image field, it works half and half. The Flash needs to have the right link inside, else it won't work.

If you prefer to use the code, you also will need to cover the flash with a transparent gif, as shown here. Then you may use a different link, but still you will have to code each Flash banner manually.

<div>
    <div style="z-index: -1; position: absolute; height: 468px; width: 60px;">
        <object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,28,0" width="468" height="60">
            <param name="movie" value="images/banners/yourflash.swf" />
            <param name="quality" value="high" />
            <param name="wmode" value="transparent" />
            <embed src="images/banners/yourflash.swf" quality="high" wmode="transparent" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="468" height="60" ></embed>
        </object>
    </div>
    <div style="z-index: 10; position: absolute; width: 468px; height: 60px;">
        <a href="http://www.domain.tld/yourlink" target="_blank"><img alt="" border="0" height="60" src="img/transparent.gif" width="468" /></a>
    </div>
</div>

I have been messing with this trying to get it to work, and one thing, in the 2nd div line did you get the dimensions backwards? When I use this on my page, the banner is off to the right almost off the page, with about 10% showing. (my banner is on the right side of the pages.

I'm not understanding Reset Notifications, does this reset the counters, i.e. at the end of the month after a report has been sent?

If not have you thought about being able to reset the counters i.e. at the end of the month.

Thanks again for a great mod.

[y2ksw]

Originally Posted by pitzerwm

I've added my banners and things are looking good. JFYI, the click counter didn't appear to be working as expected, I had the "limit" set at 0, when I make it 1M it appeared to count. I have only tested that a couple of times, while checking the links and getting the banners loaded. I'm thinking that it has to do with "refreshing" like seeing the menu correctly needed logging out and back in.




As I also remember reading some previous posts, there was a discussion whether the banners rotated without "refreshing" the forum page. In my case it does appears to need the page refreshed, to bring up a different banner, which BTW is fine with me.

Clicks are counted only on "image" banners, and only if click tracking is enabled. If the Max Clicks limit is set to 0, any number of clicks are allowed, else, the banner hides when the number of clicks has reached that value. I have tried that also on 3.6.8.

To see the number of clicks (and other data) updated, you need to browse the banners in ACP, no AJAX or other magic there

As for your PM, the error page you show is probably coming from a "missing page". If your rbs_html.php file is in the /forum/ folder, the IFRAME source must read: src="/forum/rbs_html.php". In fact, it does not appear to exist in /

If you need cycling the banners at certain intervals, the above HTML can be changed with a REFRESH meta tag, so your banners would rotate at your refresh rate.

[y2ksw]

Originally Posted by pitzerwm

I'm not understanding Reset Notifications, does this reset the counters, i.e. at the end of the month after a report has been sent?

This option resets a flag which indicates the mail was sent to users. This is useful if the mail has not arrived or if you test your settings, in order to repeat the notification.

[pitzerwm]

Thanks again, I found that I had a "line" at the top of the rbs_html.php code. Its always something small. It is working, I just need to "adjust" it a little to fit in the iframe right.

As for "rotating" the banner, there appeared to be some confusion as to whether it rotated on its own, without refreshing the page or when the page was refreshed. On my site it rotates when the page is refreshed which is fine for me.

[pitzerwm]

Originally Posted by y2ksw

Paste this in an empty file and call it as you like, e.g. rbs_html.php

PHP Code:

<?php
error_reporting(E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE);
define('SKIP_SESSIONCREATE', 1);
define('NOCOOKIES', 1);
define('THIS_SCRIPT', 'rbs_blank');
$phrasegroups = array();
$specialtemplates = array();
$globaltemplates = array();
$actiontemplates = array();
require_once('./global.php');
$html = '<html>
<head>
 <title>Rotating Banner System</title>
</head>
<body>
<!--@vbbanners:0@-->
</body>
</html>';
eval('print_output("' . $html . '");');
?>

I was having a problem with the banner lining up in the iframe, and with some outside help found that if you add this in the above code will fix it.

PHP Code:

<head>
 <title>Rotating Banner System</title>
</head>
<style type=\"text/css">

<!--
body {
            margin-left: 0px;
            margin-top: 0px;
            margin-right: 0px;
            margin-bottom: 0px;
}
-->
</style>

<body> 


IMPORTANT: there is also a "\" at type=\"text/css\"> which appears to get killed in the above code.

I also added the margin controls in the html code.

<iframe src="/forum/rbs_html.php" width="600" height="80" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" ></iframe>

One or both of these fixed it tested in IE 5 and FireFox 3.5

[y2ksw]

I meant the refresh inside the small HTML snipplet ... of course you may also refresh the main page.

All double quotes must be escaped with \" in the PHP code I sent, else part or all of the HTML code disappears. Thus:

<style type="text/css"> => <style type=\"text/css\">