IP.Board 3.1.0 Dev Update: Ad Code Integration

texterted, on 27 January 2010 - 05:08 PM, said:

Use template logic... I think this is right, not 100% sure though.

if (in_array($test="$this->memberData['member_group_id']", array(1, 2, 3, 4))) {
<!--//Display Code Here//-->
}

PS: For those of you who cry over having to do this, who cares, add your own settings if you want to exclude such a simple task.

Regarding ad placement in topic view, it would be very easy to change the template to show the ad inside the first post in the topic.  The ad is actually passed into the template in the first post as it is, we've just set it up so that it shows after the post, it would be trivial to copy that and move it up a few lines so that it would show inside the first post.

Excellent idea!

.Ian said:

My mod does support group permissions (both for primary and secondary groups) for who can and cannot see the ads. It applies to every setting that has an ad placement. My mod is quite advanced at the moment... Google integration is actually the most integrated one in the mod because it allows individuality for the settings it uses. So thus far allowing you change the way the ad looks on the spot rather than re-visiting your Google Adsense manager to change the look. The only difference in it now is that the ads require that "google_ad_slot = '' number for proper revenue (as well as the main size of the ad now). And I'm pretty sure Yahoo! is the same way... but I have yet to get a Yahoo! account that will get "activated" by Yahoo!.

Bryan Summers said:

Google isn't meant to be the primary source of income for my ads mod. It's meant to support any ad platform available; such as Yahoo, Google, WidgetBucks, ect... I know theres more, but I can't think of em at the moment.

Matt said:

Not sure I follow what your saying?


Just about every feature in my mod has been requested by my current customers. My new version, v1.5.0, is now being developed as an actual application instead of a hook like it was before. So this is one reason why I posted in the blog entry about the default ad integration...

What I'm getting at is that I may loose some of my business from this default integration. And I know some people don't want to pay for an Ads Management mod, but they need to know it takes a lot more to accomplish to get a real good ad placement in the right spots to get good revenue out of your ad platform. It takes a good amount of coding, be it advanced or amateur(like mine) to get it to display in certain areas. Such as skin edits.

And I noticed one person in the comments asking about specific forums to show ads; that is a feature that HAS to be a skin edit to accomplish because the template functionality isn't readily available to hooks; it may be available in the 3.1 version of IP.Board but from what I've read, that part isn't available in hooks, just the templateVariables section. And if I'm not mistaken, it'll be impossible still to use the ['new_topic'] part in the hook if it's not available to hooks.

And so far, my ads mod now supports the three major IPS add-ons; IP.Blog 2.1, IP.Downloads 2.1 and IP.Gallery 3.1. I still plan on getting third party applications available for this mod, but it may take awhile as I only do this in my free time, not as a profession. On the other hand, if I could learn more about PHP, I could do so much more with this, but PHP has been the hardest for me to learn, I'm still trying to learn it. It's just so darn confusing to me that I can't understand what all this stuff does. And I've been trying to learn this for the past 2 1/2 years now...

Anyway... I've gone on long enough... And don't take this reply as a rant or anything... I just wanted to express my views on this; not be a total arse about it.

Regards,
Donald

@NG- It doesn't sound like they are adding Ad management, but rather an easy way to add your ad code in a handful of common spots so I wouldn't sweat it.

Saying that, you are always going to be coding yourself out of work if the feature is hot enough, I am sure you don't expect IPS to avoid adding features customers want just in case there is a mod out there that does it already

Well I know that, but it's just common sense... think about it... if this feature is readily available in future versions where these ad spots are located, then whats the point of someone purchasing a more advanced mod that does more, but still acts as the same as their mere settings? It'll all do the same thing when it comes to adding adverts; they all make money if they're viewed. And if they're getting viewed, why would someone need to buy a mod that pretty much does the same things as the very simple settings do?

Nuclear General, on 28 January 2010 - 02:07 PM, said:

The forum id variable is always avaliable in forum view(or else you can't see the forum) and in topic view, IPB sets $this->request['f'] itself based on the topic data.

Hooks can access the registry variable along with the request member, get the math yet?

About bloody time!   Seriously though - nice one chaps!

Nuclear General, on 28 January 2010 - 03:06 PM, said:

I used to be a modification author, so I understand where you are coming from, but at the end of the day we have to build features our customers are asking for and can't hold back because a modification exists to accomplish such a task. We'd not have half of the features we have in IPB today if we followed that model.

As Matt suggested, just look at ways to improve the mod and make it all the more special and important to have.

Any ideas of what features will be added to this later on, or is that still up in the air?
Even if you plan on keeping it simple, would love to see a type of random / rotating add system.

Nervosa, on 28 January 2010 - 08:34 PM, said:

We've just implemented and announced "v1" of this feature. We don't have info on what will be in v2 of a system when v1 isn't even out yet.

Awesome new feature!

InvisionHQ, on 27 January 2010 - 09:26 PM, said:

This would be an awesome feature.

Bloody brilliant!  

Really great guys! To vouch for others and give you guys VERY important suggestions, here goes: Like someone said, if we could choose which forums to display these mods in. So if we had the option of which forums to exclude with a textbox (that lets you highlight individual or multiple forums), it would really work out very well. Also as many others said, it is essential to have group permissions, BUT, I believe in the sense that it can be chosen per each ad. So lets say I want members to still see ads, but just a limited version, say 1 big ad and one smaller ad. BUT, if they are a subscriber they have no ads. And then as a guest there are even more ads than a member. So, basically, if we had some way of creating ad groups then allowing us to manage where each ad is, say with a checkbox "Include in board footer", "include in profile view", and so on for the other areas, this would be great. Just obviously with limitation of having like 5 of the same ads in the same place

In addition, it really doesn't matter, but if we had the option to input our own text besides just the code for the ad, it would be great (likely already included I think). I.E.
<Ad Code Here>
<br></br>
Tired of all the ads? Register <a href="RegisterLink">here</a> to remove this ad completely!

Most triumphant

Simple great, great feature.

Nuclear General, on 28 January 2010 - 07:39 AM, said:

Your Mod does not have all or most of the important sizes of banners to display for instance you do not have 336x280  and 300x250 ad placements.

Now from what I see in this post.
http://community.inv...ost__p__1916556
"- Advertising coming in 3.1 and we'd need our own rotation scripts. Hmm that is a concern as I'd not have an idea how to write such scripts.

IP.Board basically gives you a textarea to insert your ad code into. How do you insert your ads now? I assume it's some sort of javascript code you put into your templates, right? If so, you can do the same thing in the upcoming version of IP.Board. You don't need to write a rotation script - however IPB can't rotate ads for you, either, so what you insert is what is used."

I would think that having a rotating ad would be better for the people do have different ads up at different times and don't have to keep manual adding them all the time. What is IPS stances on this and would be included in the final run? Could users add more then just code but like a simple banner or something and point the clicker to a different website or location as well?

Kuro, heres a powerful rotation script i recommend to use along side IPB 3.1

clippersoft.net

i use it on all our networks. - no issues and works great.