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| Change log |
28.06.05
- Completely re-wrote from the ground up for the 17th time
06.07.05
- Fixed a couple of minor issues
- Created a debug info dump. If having problems, click Debug from the settings in your admincp as these can help identify the issue
- Though its still a bit of a way off, I started to devlop the stats viewer. Its crude, but works (this release caught me off guard so I didnt have time to unwire it!)
- Changed some terminology to make it a tad clearer about setup (i.e. the scripts nav link now says Ad Blocks which makes a bit more sense)
- Reworked some of the readme to try and make it clearer (also started a troubleshoot section)
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| Installation |
- Copy the files included with this package into their corresponding folders. overwrite existing files.
- Ensure the gish folder is chmod 0777
- Run the /admincp/gab_install.php file and follow it through. This will install phrases, settings, and the DB changes needed.
- IF YOU ARE MISSING PHRASES AFTER INSTALLATION - THIS IS A COMMON PROBLEM WITH PHRASE INSTALLATIONS - all you have to do is edit an existing geek phrase (do a search for GAB_ in your phrases variable names and edit it. Then save it without making any changes) and that will rebuild them all.
- If you are tracking impressions, you need to set up a VB cron job to unpack rolled up imression tracking.
The script is included with the install and should go in your includes/cron folder. I am not about to go into
setting up a VB cron job - Its easy stuff though (just look in your admincp->scheduled tasks area).
I would recommend that you run the cron job at least once a day however this is totally dependant on
How many links require tracking and your server load.
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| Ads |
You will need to edit your templates to specify where the ads should appear.
Depending on your settings, ads will spit appear where you stick the $GAB_ads[] array.
For instance, lets say you had GAB configured to produce 2 ads on a page (one at the top and one at the bottom)...
You could then place $GAB_ads[0] in your navbar template and $GAB_ads[1] in your footer template.
The more ads you have configured in your settings, the higher $GAB_ads will go. That means you could theoretically have 9,999+ ads on a single page
(you would just need to have $GAB_ads[9998] somewhere ;-)
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| Categories |
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All banners need to have a category. Categories are a way to...er, categorise banners that share common properties
and essentially make your banners much easier to manage.
- Title - What you want to call the category (duh)
- Track Impressions - If ticked, then all Banners in this category will be tracked whenever they appear (please read below about this!)
- Track Click-thru - If ticked, then all Banners in this category will be tracked whenever they get clicked on (there are limitations on Flash ads and adsense - read below)
- Template Name - This is the template that the banners in this category use. Read up on how the templates work below
- Ordinal - The order in which the cateogry appears in the display window (really just a convienece tool)
- Active - A quick way to turn off all ads in a category
- Scripts - The scripts that the categroy qualifies for. To add or remove scripts, read below.
- Forums - On applicible forums, these are the ads this category is eligible for
I strongly suggest keeping standard images and Flash images in their own category - otherwise you will have template problems.
note: If a category is inactive, it AND its ads will not appear in the Banners dispaly window!
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| Banners |
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Banners are any images or flash items potentially availible for appearing in your ads.
- Title - What you want to call the Banner. This value appears in mouseovers on the ad (when applicible)
- URL - The URL that clicking on the banner takes you too (there are limitations with Flash banners - read below)
- Category - The category for the banner
- Upload new banner - Allows you to upload direct from the admincp
- Height/width - The size of the banner (this can be left blank
- Type - An image or Flash banner are the only types. This is important so you dont screw up a rotating ad!
- Active - If not active, the ad wont appear.
- Frequency - The probability of the ad appearing (read below)
- Start/end date - The start and end date for the ad (leaving blank or less than 1971 will mean indefinate)
- Max impression/clicks - The amount of impressions or click thrus until the ad expires (leave 0 for n/a - read below on expiries)
- Userid - The owner of the banner (this is so that users can manage their own banners with the GUSH system) - you can leave it blank for none.
NOTE! You do not enter text/adsense/custom template ads in the banners section! There is no need to!
NOTE! Only ads where the category is active will be shown in the Banner section!
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| Frequency |
GAB allows you to use a weighted system for the probability of the ad coming up. The higher the frequency value, the more
likely it is to appear during selection.
For instance an ad with a low (1) frequency will appear 5 times less than an ad with a Mega Striesand frequency (5).
You can add or change your frequencies how you see fit by clicking Settings->Frequency from your GAB admin page.
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| Templates |
GAB allows you to customise your templates used for greatest flexability.
There are 3 kinds of templates:
- Item Template- Any template that starts GAB_item_ is designed to put an individual banner or ad in. Each ad
MUST have an individual item template unless otherwise mentioned.
- Wrapper template Any template that starts GAB_wrapper_ is designated as a wrapper template. A wrapper template takes the
item templates and 'wraps' iteself around it. The wrapper template is the frame that the banners sit in (the one
that says 'Please visit our sponsor'
- Custom template A custom template starts GAB_custom_ and is designed to be used with adsense, popups, or
whatever else your heart can dream up. Essentially they are templates that you put HTML or text into and it then gets wrapped up
in a wrapper template.
You can add or edit GAB templates by going to settings->templates in your GAB admin page.
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| Ad Blocks (Scripts) |
Each vb file has an associated script name (i.e. showthread or forumdisplay). GAB uses this script name to allow
you to customize which pages ads appear on. This also allows you to cusomtize what type of ads and how many ads come up
on a page by page level.
Each page you want to have a script on MUST have an entry in the scripts section and MUST be active!
You will also notice a special script entry called MASTER. The MASTER script allows all other entries to
simply 'inherit' the ads from the MASTER script which saves you butt loads of time setting up all the various pages
you want ads to appear on. If your page has the same ad layout as the MASTER script, just make sure the 'Uses Master'
box is ticked.
- ID - The actual script name as defined in the code. This needs to be the same case as well.
- Description - A user friendly version of ID
- Use Master - If ticked, then this script will use whatever ads configuration there is in the MASTER script.
- Active - Whether this page is active for processing or not.
Ads
Each script can have 0 or more ads assigned to it (unless the Uses Master option is ticked). You make an ad appear by clicking the Add New button when editing the script.
- Type - There are 3 options. Either the ad will be a static ad (image or flash), a rotating banner or a custom text ad.
- Number of banners - How many banners to pull for ad. If using a rotating banner, this is how many
ads will be in the rotatin. When using a static banner - its how many ads will appear side by side in an ad block. When
using a text/custom block - this value is ignored.
- Template to wrap results in - This is the template that the ad results will get wrapped in.
- Custom/Addsense Item Template - This value is ignored unless the tpye is a custom/text/adsense option. If it is - this is the template that will be contained in the ad 'wrapper'
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| Settings |
- Sever path to banners folder - The physical path to the folder that the banners are in (should end in a /)
- URL to banners folder - The URL to the banners folder (can be relative to forum directory AND MUST END IN A /)
- URL to direct users on how to learn more about advertising - If you have a page outlining your advertising policy, put the URL here. If there
is a value here, the 'Learn more about advertising' link is displayed on the ad wrapper
- URL to direct users on how to turn ads off - Same as above, but it directs users to a page
where they can learn about disabling ads (i.e. an article on becoming a premium subscriber)
- Redirect Page - The page to capture redirects
- Persist Throttle - This lets you throttle the amount of queries on a page. The number entered here is the number of maximum impression queries
that gab will perform before it decides to 'roll them up' and unpack them via a cron job.
Lets say you had 6 ads appearing on a page that you wanted to track impressions on. That means there are 6-12 additional
queries on that page as the system needs to record the fact that they appeared. If Persist Throttle is set to a lower number
than the number of queries needed, it will instead 'roll them up' into 1 query that is unpacked later.
Why not always do that? Because to pack up queries still takes 1 query. To unpack takes 1 query, and then 1-2 more per unpacked impression!
In a nutshell, keep this to a figure around 3 :-)
- Cycle Rate -The number of milliseconds between rotating banner change (i.e 4300=15 seconds)
- Usergroups that view ad - The suckers that are eligible to view the ad
- Usergroups that can toggle off ads - Those can can yurn ads on and off in their UserCP
- User field to toggle ads on/off - The custom Profile Field that signal whether or not ads are turned on
- Value of field to indicate no ads - The value of the above field that indicates that the user does not want to see ads!
NOTE! If using the ability to toggle ads off, you will most likely need to add a new user profile field.
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Upgrading from RC1.x |
Replace all your files with the new ones from this package.
Run the installer (admincp/gab_install)
Choose the install path
Install only Settings, phrases and templates
Scroll to the bottom of the page for the manual install listing
Click it and follow step 200 (the admincp change. Its minor)
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Upgrading from Beta 2 |
- Totally remove the old bag of crap from your server before replacing with this one.
- To be honest, all you need to do is revert your admincp/index.php file and your global.php file. The installer will upgrade the rest.
- If you dont have the old Beta 2 install package to find the fole changes, search through the files for GAB. THere are only a few entries.
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| Troubleshooting |
No ads are appearing though everything looks fine!
- Make sure that your Ad Blocks are set up correctly
- In your admincp, click Ad blocks
- Make sure all listed there are active
- For simplicity sake, make sure all are ticked to 'use master'
- Edit the Master script
- There should be at least 1 Defined ad block. If not, ad one.
- Make sure that the correct ad type is chosen and the other settings are correct
- Make sure that your category is set up correctly
- In your admincp, click Categories
- Make sure all listed there are active
- Edit each one at a time
- Make sure all scripts are ticked
- Make sure all forums are ticked
- Make sure that your Banners are set up correctly
- In your admincp, click Banners
- Make sure all listed there are active
- Make sure that have $GAB_ads[0] somewhere in your templates (i.e. your navbar)
- If you are still having problems, post me the details from clicking Settings->Debug
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