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

[Mythotical]

Hi,

I am having problems seriously. I don't understand this whole setting up of a banner rotation. I have followed each image and still nothing, I have changed from relative to absolute path, I have followed all suggestions and still nothing. Help please.

http://www.vbrenegades.com/vbr.php it should be showing up aligned to the right.

Thanks
Myth

[Erox]

Beee-yoo-ti-ful!
I had my own makeshift banner ad server (that no longer works in 3.5), this is just what the doctor ordered. Thanks!

[dutchbb]

Thank you for this plugin.

Can you help me out with a error message? I get this error:

Warning: mysql_fetch_array(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /home/xch1295/domains/dutchbodybuilding.com/public_html/gallery/photopostpal.php on line 71

This is on line 71:
while ($line = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC)) {

photopostpal is a script that shows thumbnails from photopostgallery on my forumhome...

My board: http://forum.dutchbodybuilding.com/

[The M.I.P.]

Originally Posted by Mythotical

I am having problems seriously. I don't understand this whole setting up of a banner rotation. I have followed each image and still nothing, I have changed from relative to absolute path, I have followed all suggestions and still nothing. Help please.

http://www.vbrenegades.com/vbr.php it should be showing up aligned to the right.

Your script doesn't seem to call the view_ad function plugin, which resides on hook init_startup.
Make sure the plugin is enabled and the hook exists in you script.
As your script isn't part of original vBulletin, I can't give further free support.

Originally Posted by Triple_T

Can you help me out with a error message? I get this error:

Warning: mysql_fetch_array(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /home/xch1295/domains/dutchbodybuilding.com/public_html/gallery/photopostpal.php on line 71

This is on line 71:
while ($line = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC)) {

photopostpal.php isn't part of original vBulletin - contact the author of this script for support.
Check the SQL query some lines before ($result=...), the problem seems to start there.

@Third party developers:
If using this product in your scripts, make sure the init_startup hook exists (required for the calls to the view_ad function plugin).

[dutchbb]

Originally Posted by The M.I.P.

photopostpal.php isn't part of original vBulletin - contact the author of this script for support.
Check the SQL query some lines before ($result=...), the problem seems to start there.

@Third party developers:
If using this product in your scripts, make sure the init_startup hook exists (required for the calls to the view_ad function plugin).

I understand but photopost says the same "we can't help because you're using a hack"

Maybe you can help, this is before/after the problem lines in the file:

$resultb = mysql_query("SELECT id,ugnoview FROM {$pp_db_prefix}categories");
    $ViewPerm = array();
    while ( list( $catugid, $ugnoview ) = mysql_fetch_row($resultb) ) {
        $noview=0; $ViewPerm[$catugid] = 1;

$query = "SELECT p.id,p.user,p.userid,p.cat,p.bigimage,p.height,p.width,c.catname,c.photos,c.posts
                        FROM {$pp_db_prefix}photos p
                        LEFT JOIN {$pp_db_prefix}categories c ON c.id = p.cat
                        WHERE c.cattype = 'c' AND p.cat != 500 AND p.storecat = 0
                        ORDER BY RAND()";
}
$result = mysql_query($query);

$counted = 0; $countcol = 0; $featured = "";

while (list($pid,$puser,$puserid,$pcat,$photo,$height,$width,$catname,$cphotos,$cposts) = mysql_fetch_row($result)) {
   
    if ( $ViewPerm[$pcat] == 1 ) continue;

Any clue?

[The M.I.P.]

@Triple_T:
I can't see any interrelation of your problem with this phpAdsnew integration.
Nevertheless, your cited code above doesn't show the line where variable $result is assigned (there's only a similar $resultb variable), so the context of the problem is not clear. As Photopost is closed source and I don't have access to it, I can't look for it by myself.

I really doubt, that your problem has anything to do with this phpAdsNew plugin.
To be sure that this is no problem of this product, uninstall phpAdsNew integration completely and don't forget to remove the <ad .. /> tag from your templates.

[dutchbb]

When I remove the <ad /> tag , the problem is gone so it has something to do with it.
The phpadsnew javascript code I normally use doesn't cause the error to show.

Photopost says the hack conflicts with the PP script in some way

Attached is the complete PP script file, can you take a look please?
Thanks!

[Sleazy]

I got the <ad /> tag to display all the banners in my inventory, but using any sort of variable such like zones, client id, etc doesn't work so I can't specify certain ads to display.

The code I am using is:
<ad what="zone:1" />

Anyone else having this problem?

[Sidewindr]

I can only get the xml display working (which I don't want to use) and the absolute path for direct invocation to my phpAdsNew causes the site to fail.

I cannot use XML as the resulting CPU load kills the forums.

It also appears that only the first argument after <ad is noticed..

For instance

<ad what="zone:4" clientid="6" \> returns random banners from zone:4

however

<ad clientid="6" \> returns the banner for client 6 every time.

[kafi]

I would like to use left column on my forumhome in which I want to place small banners.

I am using phpadsnew for banners delivery with this integration hack (works good for me ). I am using tag system in templates:
<ad what="zone:8" />

Since currently I have 4 small banners next to each other vertically I am not worried about their place, because it's quite equal.
Once i will move them to column some of the advertiser might be upset about vertical position of his banner ...1st 2nd 3rd from the top.

Is there a trick that will randomly switch these banner's position at refresh?

Thank you!