phpAdsNew Banner Ads integration (advertisements, classified ads, Adsense, etc.)

OpenAds / phpAdsNew Integration 1.0.4 for vBulletin 3.[56].x
2006-06-08 by mip

Integrates the OpenAds / phpAdsNew ads system by introducing a new template tag <ad ... />.
You can even deliver your Adsense stuff via phpAdsNew using HTML banners.

The features of phpAdsNew combined with the power of vBulletin's templating system gives you the possibility to place ads for specific user groups, forums, and keywords.

PREREQUISITES:
This plugin requires a working installation (local or remote) of a recent version ofOpenAds / phpAdsNew (free software released under the GPL).
When using OpenAds, replace phpAdsNew in this documentation with OpenAds (phpAdsNew is just the predecessor of OpenAds).

INSTALLATION:
When having a previous version of this product installed, see section UPGRADE instead.

Install product "phpadsnew-1.0.4.xml".
Set phpAdsNew path in Server Settings and Optimization Options to point to either your local phpAdsNew installation or a remote server (using XML-RPC).
It is strongly recommended to set $phpAds_config['compatibility_mode'] = true; in phpAdsNew config file, to prevent problems when phpAdsNew uses a database different from the one used by your vBulletin board.

When using XML-RPC, make sure to have lib-xmlrpc-class.inc.php and lib-xmlrpc.inc.php copied from phpAdsNew misc/samples/xmlrpc/php/ to your forum's includes/ directory (not necessary when using a local phpAdsNew installation).

Read the NOTES section below.

Click INSTALL in this thread to mark product as "installed" and receive notifications when a new version comes out.

UPGRADE:

• 1.0.3 --> 1.0.4
  1. Import product as usual, with "Allow Overwrite" set to Yes.
• 1.0.2 --> 1.0.3
  Upgrading is recommended, as this is a bugfix release.
  
  1. Import product as usual, with "Allow Overwrite" set to Yes.
     
  2. Recompile any templates where you experienced problems with the <ad .../> tag (notably those where this tag is used repeatedly on a line).
     
• 1.0.1 --> 1.0.2
  
  1. Import product as usual, with "Allow Overwrite" set to Yes.
     
  2. Set $phpAds_config['compatibility_mode'] = true; in phpAdsNew config file.
     
• 1.0 --> 1.0.1
  There's basically no need to upgrade, as the changes don't affect a working installation, but I recommend to do so, to ease possible upgrades in the future.
  1. Import product as usual, with "Allow Overwrite" set to Yes.
  2. Alter the path to phpAdsNew in vBulletin Server Settings and Optimization Options to point to your phpAdsNew installation.
     As opposed to version 1.0 of this product, a local path is not relative to the DOCUMENT_ROOT.

USAGE:
Use the newly introduced <ad ... /> tag in your templates.
The syntax is similar to phpAdsNew's view_raw() function call - the tag understands what, clientid, target, source, and withtext as arguments.

Please make yourself familiar with phpAdsNew prior to using this product. You can't expect this product to work, if you didn't check if your phpAdsNew is delivering your banners cleanly.

Examples:

• Get banner using keywords:
  <ad what="foo|bar" />
• Get banner for guest usergroup (in this case, "ug1" must be set as a keyword in phpADsNew, see 2nd screenshot):
  <ad what="ug$bbuserinfo['usergroupid']" />
  (same technique can be applied to deliver forum-specific ads)
• Similar invocation using template conditionals:
  <if condition="$bbuserinfo['usergroupid']==1"><ad what="" /></if>

NOTES:

1. Always use the latest stable version of phpAdsNew.
   Old versions had bugs and some even had severe security issues - I'll give no support for installations with an outdated phpAdsNew.
   At the time of writing, latest version is 2.0.8.
2. Templates which make use of the ad-tag might need to get recompiled after product change.
3. Recommendations for heavy-duty servers: Move the plugin code to files; try to avoid using xml-rpc or cache xml-rpc requests (e.g. with memcache).
4. Have an eye on current phpAdsNew security issues
5. This product comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by applicable law.
6. Support is provided at will.
   Don't expect help if you haven't read instructions or phpAdsNew manual, if you're using non-standard vBulletin software or if your problem descriptions are useless.

PS:
This plugin is donationware - it helps you to make some money, so please be fair and honor my work with an adequate pecuniary donation.
Donate via Paypal

[Xstreamist]

Originally Posted by The M.I.P.

@Xstreamist:
"Supported" means that I look after this thread, fix reported bugs (those with useful descriptions, not ones like "it doesn't work") and make sure it works as per description on clean installations of recent versions of vBulletin and phpAdsNew.
It does not mean that I'm giving free personal assistance for a user.

Gimme a break Mips. You know damn well I gave you a hell of a better description of the problem then that. Just go backl to my earlier posts.
You say you make sure it works as per description?? Well it's NOT working as per youor description. I've asked for help and given you very good details of the problem. Yet I have not gotten any support from you and the plugin still doesn't work properly.

Conq, go blow it out your ass. You have absolutely no clue what support is and all your interested in is covering your buddy's ass when he screws up.

At least now I'll know where NOT to go in the future for any plugins.

[tgmorris]

Originally Posted by The M.I.P.

Version 1.0.2 is out with a minor fix towards PHP 5.1.1 compatibility.
Please make sure to have set $phpAds_config['compatibility_mode'] = true; in phpAdsNew config file, as this resolves problems with a local phpAdsNew installation when phpAdsNew's tables are in a database different from the one used by your vBulletin board.

I've got this installed and working in local mode now w/separate db's. However I still had the problem whereby after the install no ads were being shown and then after some poking around, without changing any parameters or settings, ads began being shown and continue to do so. Very strange indeed.

No coder is required to give support, even if they have clicked the support tag. Please understand that coders are distributing and supporting modification on their own time, they are not obligated to do any of this. I understand that it could be frustrating during a debugging phase of a modification, but it's important that everyone remains as patient as possible.

Also, do not insult any members; it will not be tolerated on vb.org.

[fbastello]

Hi There and thanks for this great plugin!
I managed to get the whole thing working in no time thanks to the detailed installation guidelines and screenshots.
I have however a little question please, when you the generate invocation code button, you can beforehand choose a few options like:
Don't show a banner from the same campaign again on the same page
Don't show the banner again on the same page

In the screengrab, they are set to no, will the <ad tag display the same banner if invocated with several <ad what="zone:1" on the same page? It doesn't seem to respect the rule at them moment for me.
I think it's probably because there a lot of the invocation code that is missing in the <ad tag so I'm just checking that it is the case.

[fbastello]

OK, I think I cracked it
Basically, I added the following line just before return "<!-- BEGIN ad {$adcomment} -->{$ad['html']}<!-- END ad {$adid} -->";
in the view_ad function plugin:
$phpAds_context[] = array('!=' => 'bannerid:'.$ad['bannerid']);

This basically will allow you to have several <ad what="zone:1" /> anywhere in your templates and be sure that the same banner is not displayed twice.

I've just done it so it's not quite well tested yet, I'm sure that the whole thing could be improved via the ad tag (something like <ad what="zone:1" duplicate_banner_id="1" /> or <ad what="zone:1" duplicate_banner_id="0" /> to switch the option on or off).

Hope this help and thanks again for this great plugin!
F

[Jiggles]

I get a blank page. Also get mysql errors. I use vb in a different db. Could this be the reason. Where is the config option to set true in plugin for using a seperate db?

[tgmorris]

Originally Posted by Jiggles

I get a blank page. Also get mysql errors. I use vb in a different db. Could this be the reason. Where is the config option to set true in plugin for using a seperate db?

This is from an earlier post...

Please make sure to have set $phpAds_config['compatibility_mode'] = true; in phpAdsNew config file, as this resolves problems with a local phpAdsNew installation when phpAdsNew's tables are in a database different from the one used by your vBulletin board.

Doing this resolved the problem I had w/mysql errors when running in local mode while using a separate db.

[Jiggles]

Originally Posted by tgmorris

This is from an earlier post...

Please make sure to have set $phpAds_config['compatibility_mode'] = true; in phpAdsNew config file, as this resolves problems with a local phpAdsNew installation when phpAdsNew's tables are in a database different from the one used by your vBulletin board.

Doing this resolved the problem I had w/mysql errors when running in local mode while using a separate db.

Yeah I saw that but where do I set that option? I don't know where to find the $phpAds_config setting.

[fbastello]

Originally Posted by Jiggles

Yeah I saw that but where do I set that option? I don't know where to find the $phpAds_config setting.

You can find it in the config.inc.php file in phpadsnew

[tgmorris]

Originally Posted by Jiggles

Yeah I saw that but where do I set that option? I don't know where to find the $phpAds_config setting.

Look for config.inc.php in the folder where phpAdsNew is installed. In there you'll find all the settings including the one for compatibility_mode.

PHP Code:

.
// Database compatibility mode to insure phpAdsNew
// won't disturb an available database connection
$phpAds_config['compatibility_mode'] = true; 


Alternatively, you may use phpAdsNew to change the setting via the Admin interface.