After last week’s post mentioning the tutorial articles on the OpenX Source API by Canadian web developers Blackriver, I thought it might be useful to also point out that a developer named Rade Popovic offers a RESTful API module for OpenX Source. This is in fact a wrapper around the original API that makes it a lot easier to use the available features if you’re more experienced in using a REST interface. There are functions for working with agencies, users and channels, for advertisers, campaigns and banners, and for websites and zones. This module is offered for just 55 euro, and comes with extensive documentation.
OpenX Source API tutorial
January 4, 2012 By
The team at Black River (a web development firm based in Toronto, Canada), are working on an article series about the API in OpenX Source v2.8. As they say in the first article:
Especially when it comes to OpenX API – there is almost nothing out there but a few blog posts and outdated code samples. We would really like to share our experiences (both positive and negative) with OpenX API as we strongly believe that the OpenX platform should remain easy accessible and open to the public.
I strongly agree with this and that’s why I wanted to draw some extra attention to these articles.
Here is a run down of the articles in the series:
- The first article is an introduction to the OpenX Source API, with some background information on why it was developed and how to connect with the API.
- In the second article, the examples are mostly about using the OpenX Source API to work with advertisers (creating, modifying, retrieving statistics).
- The third article explains how the eCPM can be calculated for campaigns with different pricing models (like CPM, CPC and CPA), as an introduction for a later article about managing campaigns via the OpenX Source API.
OpenX Source v2.8.8 released for download
November 5, 2011 By
Users of OpenX Source started receiving notifications about the release of a new version of the software earlier today, when they log in as a system administrator. It is the generic message that’s always used to announce new versions, but the message says specifically:
It is highly recommended to install this update as soon as possible, because it contains a number of security fixes.
There is no news about this new release on the OpenX community forums or blog, as of yet. The readme file that comes with the downloaded file does not contain any specific information as to the nature of the security issues that have been fixed. However, a quick comparison of the source code of version 2.8.7 and version 2.8.8 reveals that there are multiple changes in the API, which seems to match reports about the origins of many hacking incidents that occurred these past few months.
You can download OpenX Source version 2.8.8 from the OpenX website.
Update November 8, 2011: Since many people are asking me for tips on how to upgrade their OpenX Source software, I’d like to point to an blog post I published in November, 2010: How to upgrade OpenX Source Ad Server software.
Update December 2nd, 2011: Yesterday, a post has been added to the OpenX official company blog, officially announcing this security fix release. It also specifically mentions that the security fixes relate to issues found in OpenX Source version 2.8.7, which indicates that versions 2.8.6 and earlier are not affected. However, it is always a good idea to upgrade to the most recent version available. Read the post “Security matters” on the OpenX blog for more information.
What to do when you suspect your OpenX system has been hacked
October 4, 2011 By
In the last couple of days, many reports have emerged of people seeing their OpenX systems being hacked. I’ve had mails from former clients and many new support requests from people I didn’t know yet. I’m afraid it is impossible for me to reply to every single e-mail instantly, and that’s why I’ve decided to post this article. I will keep adding tips and cleanup instructions to this article when I have new information. [Read more...]
Advanced implementation of OpenX Single Page Call
June 22, 2011 By
In my previous article on this series, I wrote about the basic implementation of the OpenX Single Page Call technique, a method of integrating the ad server into your website that has a lot of benefits. This edition is about the more advanced way of implementing OpenX Single Page Call, which helps prevent unnecessary ad requests by calling only those zones that you actually need for a given page.
[Read more...]
Basic implementation of OpenX Single Page Call
May 25, 2011 By
In a recent blog post, I listed the benefits of using the powerful Single Page Call invocation code for integrating the ads into a website. In this article, I’m going to provide some instructions on the easiest but also least efficient way of implementing this technique.
I’m also going to discuss some of the disadvantages of this default implementation. This is not because I want to discourage you from using single page call, but because I want to encourage you to also read the next article in this series that explain how the masters do it. [Read more...]
Benefits of OpenX Single Page Call for maximum site speed
May 11, 2011 By
Open Ad Server software has had a powerful feature called “Single Page Call” for several years. Unfortunately, there has not been a lot of attention for it, which is a shame because there are many advantages for site owners, ad server administrators and most importantly site visitors.
In this article, I will explain the benefits of using the Single Page Call tags in your site, leading up to more articles that will have detailed instructions on how to switch from traditional invocation code to the advanced single page call technique.
[Read more...]
