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

[Hostboard]

I wanted my banners to appear under the Navbar so I added

<ad what"zone:1" />

To the bottom of the template and when I went to save it I got the following error. Any idea?

Database error in vBulletin 3.5.2:
Invalid SQL:

  SELECT title, styleid
  FROM template
  WHERE templateid = 1020;

MySQL Error  : Table 'phpads.template' doesn't exist
Error Number : 1146
Date		 : Thursday, December 29th 2005 @ 05:26:00 PM
Script	   : [removed]
Referrer	 : [removed]
IP Address   : [removed]
Username	 : [removed]
Classname	: vb_database

[Masiello]

You have to set the correct path of phpAdsNew on the forum

[Hostboard]

I did that I even cut and pasted it in to the command line to change directories and it is perfect.

Maybe I need a slash at the end?

/usr/local/path/to/my/phpAdsNew

[beansbaxter]

I've been trying for two hours and I cannot get this to work running on 3.5.2!!!!!

This has to be the most difficult thing to get working (sigh)

I do everything, but no banner shows up at all uggggggggggg

[beansbaxter]

Originally Posted by 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

I got it to work finally, by doing this (sigh)...it's a good hack, just needs better instructions and support IMHO. I'm gonna click install now. Thanks.

[Hostboard]

Ok I added this line but now I get 2 errors when I try entering

<ad what"zone:1" />

into my NAVBAR template

Parse error: parse error, expecting `T_STRING' or `T_VARIABLE' or `T_NUM_STRING' in /usr/local/path/to/forums/includes/init.php(292) : eval()'d code on line 123

Fatal error: Call to undefined function: view_ad() in /usr/local/path/to/forums/includes/adminfunctions_template.php(3537) : eval()'d code on line 225

Snipit from view_ad function plugin to show where I put the statement

Remember bannerid to prevent showing banner multiple times on same page
	 $phpAds_context[] = array('!=' => 'bannerid:'.$ad['bannerid']);
	}
 
	return "
$phpAds_context[] = array('!=' => 'bannerid:'.$ad['bannerid']);
<!-- BEGIN ad {$adcomment} -->{$ad['html']}<!-- END ad {$adid} -->";
   }
  }
 }
}

[Hostboard]

Ok now I am not happy. I have been trying to figure this out so I chnaged the config file of phpAdsNew as noted, copied the 2 files over to the includes directory and blew VB completly out of the water. All I get now when trying to access the forums or ACP is:

Parse error: parse error, expecting `T_STRING' or `T_VARIABLE' or `T_NUM_STRING' in /usr/local/pwrhouse/htdocs/hostboard/forums/includes/init.php(292) : eval()'d code on line 122


Unable to add cookies, header already sent.
File: N/A
Line: 0

Sigh...

Can anyone tell me how to manualy modify whatever it is I need to get at least the system back up???

[Masiello]

Originally Posted by Hostboard

I did that I even cut and pasted it in to the command line to change directories and it is perfect.

Maybe I need a slash at the end?

/usr/local/path/to/my/phpAdsNew

Yes using a slash at the end

[Hostboard]

Ok, but I need to know how to edit this stuff manulally now seeing as I am completly dead in the water.

[Trickle]

Ok I lied. Added another banner and now the 2 banners do not rotate. Guess I'll wait till there is a dummies how to set of instructions hopefully in the near future.