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

[acast]

Originally Posted by y2ksw

You may try to use the HTML code of the banner instead of using the wrapper, but I rather suggest to fix the banner code. Most first time banner designers make errors, one of which is keeping the banner in front of all contents, and the others are mainly related to all kind of redirection errors. All problems which are not fixed by the wrapper, are generally beginner errors. Personally, I send the banners back until they are fixed, and there was never ever one publisher who failed to make it right, sooner or later

This, is strange for me. Now the code is in my header like this:

<div id="pageWrapper"><div class="pageBottom"><div class="pageWrap">
<div class="above_body"> <!-- closing tag is in template navbar -->
<div id="header" class="floatcontainer doc_header"><div class="headerWrap"><vb:if condition="$stylevar['titleimage']"><div>


<a name="top" href="{vb:link forumhome}" id="logo">
<!--@vbbanners:0@-->


<!--
<a name="top" href="{vb:link forumhome}" id="logo"><img src="{vb:stylevar titleimage}" alt="{vb:rawphrase x_powered_by_vbulletin, {vb:raw vboptions.bbtitle}}" /></a>
-->


</div><vb:else /><div>&nbsp;</div></vb:if>

And it places the banner in the correct place, where is the logo of my style. The problem is what i told you, that if you click in the banner, it opens a new tab in firefox, and a new window in IE. (The flash are correcty designed with _self in the flash maker program. (I tried all the ways too)

I tried to replace the code for one i saw in this thread:

<a  target="_self" >
<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="262" height="124">
  <param name="movie" value="http://www.XXXX.com/YYYY.swf" />
  <param name="quality" value="high" />
  <param name="wmode" value="transparent" />
  <embed src="http://www.XXXX.com/YYYY.swf" quality="high" wmode="transparent" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="262" height="124" ></embed>
</object>
</a>

And that solutioned the problem of the new window/tab, but it is placed wrong in my style. And of course don't rotate.

You said about bringing the banner back or to the front. How?

[y2ksw]

Originally Posted by acast

This, is strange for me. Now the code is in my header like this:

<div id="pageWrapper"><div class="pageBottom"><div class="pageWrap">
<div class="above_body"> <!-- closing tag is in template navbar -->
<div id="header" class="floatcontainer doc_header"><div class="headerWrap"><vb:if condition="$stylevar['titleimage']"><div>


<a name="top" href="{vb:link forumhome}" id="logo">
<!--@vbbanners:0@-->


<!--
<a name="top" href="{vb:link forumhome}" id="logo"><img src="{vb:stylevar titleimage}" alt="{vb:rawphrase x_powered_by_vbulletin, {vb:raw vboptions.bbtitle}}" /></a>
-->


</div><vb:else /><div>&nbsp;</div></vb:if>

And it places the banner in the correct place, where is the logo of my style. The problem is what i told you, that if you click in the banner, it opens a new tab in firefox, and a new window in IE. (The flash are correcty designed with _self in the flash maker program. (I tried all the ways too)

I tried to replace the code for one i saw in this thread:

<a  target="_self" >
<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="262" height="124">
  <param name="movie" value="http://www.XXXX.com/YYYY.swf" />
  <param name="quality" value="high" />
  <param name="wmode" value="transparent" />
  <embed src="http://www.XXXX.com/YYYY.swf" quality="high" wmode="transparent" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="262" height="124" ></embed>
</object>
</a>

And that solutioned the problem of the new window/tab, but it is placed wrong in my style. And of course don't rotate.

You said about bringing the banner back or to the front. How?

Yuo can put the banner code into the "Text" field (and disable all other options) in order to make it rotate.

As far as I see, you haven't looked into the options yet, where you can decide where to open all banners. Just replace the "Target" _blank with _self, to get this done

[acast]

Originally Posted by y2ksw

Yuo can put the banner code into the "Text" field (and disable all other options) in order to make it rotate.

As far as I see, you haven't looked into the options yet, where you can decide where to open all banners. Just replace the "Target" _blank with _self, to get this done

I solved the problem! Thanks!!!

[Sheeko]

Using vb 4.2 have tried all the steps the mod DOES NOT show even the default banners

[Sheeko]

Tried all the steps the banner (even the default) does not show???????????

[y2ksw]

Originally Posted by Sheeko

Using vb 4.2 have tried all the steps the mod DOES NOT show even the default banners

Originally Posted by Sheeko

Tried all the steps the banner (even the default) does not show???????????

bumping doesn't help much, I get only one mail at a single time

You probably have vbSEO and the HTML cleaning option enabled ... or another similar tool. Thus, there are no comments left and then the banners won't show.

In this case, you will have to change the placeholder in the options and in your templates from comment to something else.

[Alecsmith]

Awesome mod

Installed on VB 4.2.0 working fine

[vlady2k]

RBS 2.4.0 in vb3.8 is conflicting with vBulletin API 1.4.3

[CLSSY56]

Any way to get the banners not to open a new tab, or at least for local links?

[y2ksw]

Originally Posted by CLSSY56

Any way to get the banners not to open a new tab, or at least for local links?

Please see the RBS options