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

[imported_infitech]

This is ONE of the only 3 mods i have installed on my forums right now... Great job.

[picardtux]

this mod is great!

it work with 3.6.x

many thX coder

[TECK]

It's working good in 3.6.4.
I have a PhpAdsNew question.
If I use on the same page 2 tags:
<ad what="zone:1" /> and <ad what="zone:2" />
I want to display the same banner type in both areas.

Basically, the zone 1 is a 468x60 banner and zone 2 is a 120x600 banner.
So, when I refresh the page I would like to have both banners displayed from the same clientid.

Any tips on how to do this?
Is there a way to insert into the <ad what /> tag a specific variable?
Something like:

<ad what="zone:1|$clientid" />

Thanks for your help.

[ferreo]

For some reason, I can not get my Admin CP to save the phpadsnew location. When I am logged in and try to save the new location, the ACP repeatedly keeps on asking for me to log in - and the location doesn't get saved.

Any idea why this is happening?

Thanks!

[TECK]

I hardcoded the path into script, that's why I probably don't have this error.

[ferreo]

I resolved the problem. The newest phpadsnew lib files weren't present in the includes folder of the forum. After copying them over, it works like a charm.

[TECK]

I resolved my problem also, I uninstalled the hack and wrote my onw version.
Not the same solution, but works really good, plus less code to process.

[criscokid]

I'd like to use a conditional that excludes ads being shown based on one of the user' cutom profile field. More specifically ads that are targetted to men shouldn't be shown to women and vice versa.

The profile field is either: Male / Female
The ads that are for men contain this keyword: MenOnly
The ads that are for women contain this keyword: WomenOnly

The install instructions suggest using this invocation using template conditionals:
<if condition="$bbuserinfo['usergroupid']==1"><ad what="" /></if>

Based on that what would the conitional be that I'd need to use for:
don't show banners containing "MenOnly" if the profile field = Female
don't show banners containing "WomenOnly" if the profile field = Male

[criscokid]

It is recommended to set $phpAds_config['compatibility_mode'] = true; in phpAdsNew config file.

I need to change the setting to try get this this plugin to work - if it's set as 'false' then the forum stops with a mySQL error when I edit the templates.

I've already got PAN running ok without this plugin. The moment change the setting in the config file all of the banner ads stop displaying. What could be the cause of this?

[Rob D]

GREAT MOD!!! First mod I've installed on vBulletin and it couldn't be much simpler. Thanks for the great work! (Once I get my site up and running I plan to express my gratitude with a small portion of the ad revenue )