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

[jokerz]

Edited:
Yay this is working after figured out how to display the banners for 2 hours! I thought this is the only problem but I'm wrong. Great hack!

For those people who are having problem with rotate banners or not showing the banners, this is not mod hack fault. It is your phpadsnew! You need to setup correct thru campaign, zones etc. I suggest you read the online PDF user guide document, yes it is 70 pages, just read which most important you need to learn.

[DudeSicko]

Originally Posted by hbalagh1

anyone?

I had the same problem, but once i copied the lib-xmlrpc-class.inc.php and lib-xmlrpc.inc.php to my forum, i could save, and my banner came on right away, so try that out.

[Eagle Creek]

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 I do this I have problems.. It doesn't matter if I go to dir/index.php or dir/admin/index.php, it keeps going to dir/admin/upgrade.php and it keeps saying that I already have upgraded and there's nothing to do.
When I click next I get back on that page.

AND when I disable the compability I get this error when editting a template:

MySQL Error : Table 'soccerquest_nl_-_phpadsnew.template' doesn't exist

And this error on my forums:

MySQL Error : Table 'soccerquest_nl_-_phpadsnew.session' doesn't exist

So:
When I ENABLE safe mode: I don't get an error on my forums, but I can't edit anything in my phpads admin panel.
When I DISABLE safe mode: I can't access my forum due to a MYSQL error, but I can edit the settings in the ads-panel.


I am currently using phpAdsNew 2.0.8 running on Apache 2.0.49, PHP 4.3.10 and MySQL 4.1.14-standard.

Can you tell me what I'm doing wrong?

[robert_2004]

compatibility_mode HAS to be set to true. the problem you are talking about, already being upgraded, is phpAds being broken.

if you disable compatibility_mode, then vB can't find the database for phpAds.

also, don't use Safe_mode - it's not actually fixing your situation, it's just supressing your errors.

SO: go to phpadsnew.com and do a search on how to fix your program not letting you log in. do a serch like 'already upgraded' or what ever the error is displayed.

I was having problems with this script, because i was going straight to Google adsense, and wondering why it wasn't displaying - when the whole time it's my adsense code that is broken (still waiting on google to fix my account).

[Eagle Creek]

Hi Robert,

at the moment I can't enable the comp. mode. But you say my phpadsnew installation isn't working as it should be.
I'll look for a solution for that problem.

Do you think, when It's said on enabled and my adsnew is working fine, I won't receive any errors on the forum anymore?

[TheDPQ]

For those of you having blank template saving issues, check that the two files are included and that you are pointing to the right dir (for phpadnews) in your VB options.

Doing both of those things cleaned up my problem.

[TomasDR]

First I want to say I am new to vBulletin and I apologize if this post is inappropriate but I wanted to share a modification I did to your Plugin. Actually it is a modification to it's use, I did nothing to the XML.

Objective: To have search sponsored ads on the search results page based on the person's search words relating to the keywords in phpAdsNew banner setup.

Step 1: Add new Plugin

Product: phpAdsNew Intergration
Hook Location: search_results_query_threads
Title: phpAdsNew Search Qualified Keywords
Plugin PHP Code:

$adswords = implode('|', $display['words']);

Step 2: In the template 'search_results'

Add after $navbar

<if condition="$displayWords"><table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="100%" align="center">
<tr>
<td class="thead" align="center" class="smallfont">Search Sponsored Ad
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td align="center" style="font-weight:normal">
<ad what="$adswords" />
    </td>
</tr>
</table>
</if>

I apologize if the template code isn't the prettiest but it does work. Attached two screenshots, all my banners are adult orientated so I made a fake banner and post to search on, if there are multiple pages the Page Navigator goes between the Sponsored Ad and the Search Results (see 2nd SS).

Also if anyone has any suggestions how to have a random banner appear if none of the search words match any phpAdsNew keywords I am all ears.

BTW Great product for easier banner handling: clicking INSTALL!

[mfizzel]

this is brilliant, thanks for this hack

[Fred.]

Thanks, it is working perfect!

Only in the archive it is not working?
is it possible to use the <ad what="zone:1" /> code in the archive header?

[SuperserverUK]

Am I missing something here... I have installed to the letter and now when i add

<ad what="zone:1" />

to the header template and click save.. it does not save at all just give blank page. If I edit the same template and add standard html it works fine.

Any help would be great